Genelle Dakin
Dr. Hatfield
English 495SH
April 29, 2015
As comic books were being created, many of the writers chose to depict their characters in accordance with the era. The lack of powerful female superheroes in comics has to do with society fearing powerful women. As society was unprepared for women becoming strong, smart, and independent, writers were restricted to originally describing them with the set stereotype of being weak, dependent and submissive. Gender plays a significant part in comic book history in which most females started out as being illustrated as “damsels in distress” but eventually developed into independent and strong female figures but with negative overtones of being too sexual, evil, and unable to control their powers. Society’s fear of giving females too much power lead to the lack of female superheroes within comics and the negative portrayals of women. Women were ridiculed for being smart, independent, sexy, or powerful because society was unwilling to let go of these preconceived notions of who women were. As time progressed, powerful female figures in comics became scarce and when powerful female superheroes emerged, they were forced to be illustrated as evil and sexy.
The audience’s reactions to superheroes determined what comic book writers wrote about. Most writers incorporated events happening around them within their comics as well as characteristics of men and women at the time. Fingeroth summarizes, “Our society’s ideals of fair play demanded there be superheroines. But our society’s ingrained, conflicted, and unconscious feelings toward powerful women made the creation of truly crowd-pleasing superhero women take decades—generations—longer to develop than their male counterparts” (Fingeroth 82). Society’s fear of having powerful female figures in comics significantly prevented women from living up to their potential. Not only were superheroines scarce within comics, if they appeared in comics, they were only members of a team. By creating female figures as part of a group, writers were able to assert the female role within comics to be significantly smaller than those of males. According to Darowski, “The Seduction of the Innocent, psychologist, Dr. Frederic Wertham, proposed Wonder Woman and other powerful women characters were terrifying to young boys and a bad influence on female readership” (Darowski 56). Seeing as most of the comic book readership were originally male, writers developed their works with a male audience in mind. By doing so, females played minor roles within comics because boys weren’t interested in reading about a powerful female figure. Robbins states, “Well, asserted my masculine authorities, if a woman hero were stronger than a man, she would be even less appealing. Boys wouldn’t stand for that; they’d resent the strong gal’s superiority” (Robbins 59-60). Even if females are illustrated with exceptional power, their physical appearance seems to smear what little respect they are given originally for being powerful. Madrid illuminates, “Any power these women may have is often overshadowed by their overly sexualized images. But at the same time, those very images that objectify these heroines can be seen as a source of power” (Madrid VI). The power of female figures in comics is defaced by their appearances. By creating sexy female superheroes, males felt less threatened which was what writers wanted. However by abiding to the needs of males, females struggled to branch out on their own and be taken seriously considering the lack of clothing and sexual attitude they radiated.
Fingeroth mocks comic books portrayal of women by saying, “Up until the 1990s, in pop culture, if a woman was powerful--really powerful—she was either evil, or made evil by the power. While women surgeons were performing organ transplants, while women lawyers were winning multimillion dollar cases, while women executives were leading at least a few Fortune 500 companies” (Fingeroth 80). Although women were making progress in society, female superheroes were not. Originally they were perceived in an unflattering light and eventually developed into powerful female figures with bad girl tendencies. In the 1970s, “The superheroine was placed on a pedestal of achievement, playing with the boys, and developing strength and identity in areas not traditionally available for women. But as females in a majority male universe, symbolically they had nowhere to go except into the roles of women that were recognizable and familiar” (D’Amore 1229). By restraining females to this preconceived notion of the female role in society, superheroines were unable to be taken seriously by the reader. The only superheroine that made a difference as a powerful female figure during the 60s was Wonder Woman. Madrid clearly describes the problem of powerful females by saying, “Power intoxicated these women and made them cruel, maniacal menaces who cast aside loyalties to friends and lovers. Even when possessed by an evil entity, the implication was that a suppressed part of the heroine’s soul was reveling in the rush of deviltry…These heroines-turned-villainesses represented the ultimate fear that men have about female power—the secret betrayer, the dormant evil waiting to awaken, the weak creature who can’t handle power. These stories suggested that there was something tragic, yet expected, about a woman’s inability to control her power. Despite the advances that women had made in comic books, there was still a message that they could not handle power as well as a man. They were powerful women giving in to their desires, regardless of the costs” (Madrid 231-32). Although these heroines are interpreted badly, females aren’t given the opportunity to be empowering within comics. Their inability to be in control directly correlates with how females are perceived to be evil by nature such as Eve in the bible is perceived. These heroines are given the opportunity to exhibit their power, yet writers impede their potential goodness to emphasize the detrimental qualities female possess. Prater emphasizes “…their own decisions and bodies are the source for this loss of control” (Prater 165). The point comic book writers are trying to get across to their readers is that females are their own worst enemies. In many instances, female superheroes lose control of their powers from their own accord not when they are battling someone. It’s an inherent trait within them that causes them to self-destruct or hurt the ones they love.
Most female superheroes are depicted in relation to their male counterpart such as Invisible Girl, Wasp and Marvel Girl. All three women are parts of the Avengers, Fantastic Four and the X-Men. Instead of being created as an individual superhero, each women is created to fight crime within a team. The Wasp is the only original female member of the Avengers yet she doesn’t help her team as much as she could. Madrid describes the Wasp as “the Tinkerbell of the team, buzzing around villain’s faces and shooting them with her irritating but essentially ineffective Wasp’s sting. This usually distracts the villain so that one of the male Avengers can finish off the baddie” (Madrid 114-115). She’s also perceived as overly sexual in the way she flirts with other Avengers and “is portrayed as a flighty female” (Madrid 115). Similarly, the Invisible Girl, Sue Storm, is depicted as being dependent, shallow and useless when it comes to her role as part of the Fantastic 4. As these two women are portrayed in relation to their male counterparts, comic book writers developed a new kind of female comic book hero. Through the Dark Phoenix and Elektra, we see them as independent, powerful, bad-ass super heroines. As they display their powerful nature, the writers are forced to deface the goodness of the superheroes by making them evil.
In 1963, the beautiful Elektra was introduced in “Daredevil #168.” Elektra was a new female superhero whose origin story tragedy, led her to live a life of evil. She becomes a hired assassin to avenge her father’s death. Fingeroth describes, “Elektra decides that the only way to make up for her own father’s senseless murder is…to make a career of committing senseless murders! Even in the wake of the most influential feminist wave in history, a superhumanly powerful woman could only be powerful in the service of evil” (Fingeroth 91). In another instance, Jean Grey transforms into the Dark Phoenix portraying that women who have power display their inability to be disciplined and grow to be good. Jean Grey’s alter ego, the Dark Phoenix, results from absorbing the Phoenix Force that takes control of her body to wreak havoc. Madrid demonstrates, “Lord Acton wrote, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This seemed to be the fate of Phoenix. The incredible power that she now wielded makes her hungry for more, and gives her a savage, destructive nature” (Madrid 173). Jean Grey’s biggest flaw as one of the most powerful female superheroes is her difficulty with learning to control her abilities and not give in to the devilish side. She’s “given the societal view of powerful women—the Phoenix power turned Jean evil” (Fingeroth 90). In the first Uncanny X-Men comic, Jean Grey exhibited independence, power and potential. She was able to take care of herself when faced with the other X-Men as well as be able to control her telekinesis powers more than the other X-Men were able to control their own powers. However, the Dark Phoenix was created and destroyed to allude to female power being destructive and has the potential to hurt others.
Society’s fear of powerful women stifled the progress of females in comics. Originally, if comics included women, they were interpreted as part of a team or being rescued by powerful male figures. Comic books evolved with time to include powerful female figures but only to insult women by characterizing them as being male counterparts, inherently evil or too sexy which made them less powerful.
*For anyone reading my draft, I'm currently in the process of taking Malek and Alejandra's suggestions and incorporating them into my final paper. I do admit that I struggled with finding what I wanted to discuss, but I would like to focus on female superheroes progress throughout comics by comparing how they are depicted by male comic creators and female comic creators as well as distinguish how female superheroes were portrayed when first introduced in comics to now, through comics like Ms. Marvel.
Works Cited
Darowski, Joseph J. The Ages of Wonder Woman: Essays on the Amazon Princess in Changing Times. Jefferson: McFarland, 2014. Print.
Fingeroth, Danny. "Amazon Grace: Wonder Woman, Xena and Buffy." Superman on the Couch:
What Superheroes Really Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society. New York: Continuum, 2004. N. pag. Print.
Madrid, Mike. The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book
Heroines. Ashland, Or: Exterminating Angel, 2009. Print.
Robbins, Trina. “The Great Women Superheroes.” The Superhero Reader. By Charles
Hatfield, Jeet Heer, and Kent Worcester. Jackson: U of Mississippi, 2013. N. pag. Print.
Prater, Lenise. "Gender and Power: The Phoenix/Jean Grey Across Time and Media." Colloquy: Text Theory Critique, 24 (2012): 159.
Knight, Gladys L. Female Action Heroes: A Guide to Women in Comics, Video Games, Film, and Television. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood, 2010.
D'Amore, Laura Mattoon. "The Accidental Supermom: Superheroines and Maternal Performativity, 1963-1980." Journal of Popular Culture, 45.6 (2012): 1226.
Dr. Hatfield
English 495SH
April 29, 2015
As comic books were being created, many of the writers chose to depict their characters in accordance with the era. The lack of powerful female superheroes in comics has to do with society fearing powerful women. As society was unprepared for women becoming strong, smart, and independent, writers were restricted to originally describing them with the set stereotype of being weak, dependent and submissive. Gender plays a significant part in comic book history in which most females started out as being illustrated as “damsels in distress” but eventually developed into independent and strong female figures but with negative overtones of being too sexual, evil, and unable to control their powers. Society’s fear of giving females too much power lead to the lack of female superheroes within comics and the negative portrayals of women. Women were ridiculed for being smart, independent, sexy, or powerful because society was unwilling to let go of these preconceived notions of who women were. As time progressed, powerful female figures in comics became scarce and when powerful female superheroes emerged, they were forced to be illustrated as evil and sexy.
The audience’s reactions to superheroes determined what comic book writers wrote about. Most writers incorporated events happening around them within their comics as well as characteristics of men and women at the time. Fingeroth summarizes, “Our society’s ideals of fair play demanded there be superheroines. But our society’s ingrained, conflicted, and unconscious feelings toward powerful women made the creation of truly crowd-pleasing superhero women take decades—generations—longer to develop than their male counterparts” (Fingeroth 82). Society’s fear of having powerful female figures in comics significantly prevented women from living up to their potential. Not only were superheroines scarce within comics, if they appeared in comics, they were only members of a team. By creating female figures as part of a group, writers were able to assert the female role within comics to be significantly smaller than those of males. According to Darowski, “The Seduction of the Innocent, psychologist, Dr. Frederic Wertham, proposed Wonder Woman and other powerful women characters were terrifying to young boys and a bad influence on female readership” (Darowski 56). Seeing as most of the comic book readership were originally male, writers developed their works with a male audience in mind. By doing so, females played minor roles within comics because boys weren’t interested in reading about a powerful female figure. Robbins states, “Well, asserted my masculine authorities, if a woman hero were stronger than a man, she would be even less appealing. Boys wouldn’t stand for that; they’d resent the strong gal’s superiority” (Robbins 59-60). Even if females are illustrated with exceptional power, their physical appearance seems to smear what little respect they are given originally for being powerful. Madrid illuminates, “Any power these women may have is often overshadowed by their overly sexualized images. But at the same time, those very images that objectify these heroines can be seen as a source of power” (Madrid VI). The power of female figures in comics is defaced by their appearances. By creating sexy female superheroes, males felt less threatened which was what writers wanted. However by abiding to the needs of males, females struggled to branch out on their own and be taken seriously considering the lack of clothing and sexual attitude they radiated.
Fingeroth mocks comic books portrayal of women by saying, “Up until the 1990s, in pop culture, if a woman was powerful--really powerful—she was either evil, or made evil by the power. While women surgeons were performing organ transplants, while women lawyers were winning multimillion dollar cases, while women executives were leading at least a few Fortune 500 companies” (Fingeroth 80). Although women were making progress in society, female superheroes were not. Originally they were perceived in an unflattering light and eventually developed into powerful female figures with bad girl tendencies. In the 1970s, “The superheroine was placed on a pedestal of achievement, playing with the boys, and developing strength and identity in areas not traditionally available for women. But as females in a majority male universe, symbolically they had nowhere to go except into the roles of women that were recognizable and familiar” (D’Amore 1229). By restraining females to this preconceived notion of the female role in society, superheroines were unable to be taken seriously by the reader. The only superheroine that made a difference as a powerful female figure during the 60s was Wonder Woman. Madrid clearly describes the problem of powerful females by saying, “Power intoxicated these women and made them cruel, maniacal menaces who cast aside loyalties to friends and lovers. Even when possessed by an evil entity, the implication was that a suppressed part of the heroine’s soul was reveling in the rush of deviltry…These heroines-turned-villainesses represented the ultimate fear that men have about female power—the secret betrayer, the dormant evil waiting to awaken, the weak creature who can’t handle power. These stories suggested that there was something tragic, yet expected, about a woman’s inability to control her power. Despite the advances that women had made in comic books, there was still a message that they could not handle power as well as a man. They were powerful women giving in to their desires, regardless of the costs” (Madrid 231-32). Although these heroines are interpreted badly, females aren’t given the opportunity to be empowering within comics. Their inability to be in control directly correlates with how females are perceived to be evil by nature such as Eve in the bible is perceived. These heroines are given the opportunity to exhibit their power, yet writers impede their potential goodness to emphasize the detrimental qualities female possess. Prater emphasizes “…their own decisions and bodies are the source for this loss of control” (Prater 165). The point comic book writers are trying to get across to their readers is that females are their own worst enemies. In many instances, female superheroes lose control of their powers from their own accord not when they are battling someone. It’s an inherent trait within them that causes them to self-destruct or hurt the ones they love.
Most female superheroes are depicted in relation to their male counterpart such as Invisible Girl, Wasp and Marvel Girl. All three women are parts of the Avengers, Fantastic Four and the X-Men. Instead of being created as an individual superhero, each women is created to fight crime within a team. The Wasp is the only original female member of the Avengers yet she doesn’t help her team as much as she could. Madrid describes the Wasp as “the Tinkerbell of the team, buzzing around villain’s faces and shooting them with her irritating but essentially ineffective Wasp’s sting. This usually distracts the villain so that one of the male Avengers can finish off the baddie” (Madrid 114-115). She’s also perceived as overly sexual in the way she flirts with other Avengers and “is portrayed as a flighty female” (Madrid 115). Similarly, the Invisible Girl, Sue Storm, is depicted as being dependent, shallow and useless when it comes to her role as part of the Fantastic 4. As these two women are portrayed in relation to their male counterparts, comic book writers developed a new kind of female comic book hero. Through the Dark Phoenix and Elektra, we see them as independent, powerful, bad-ass super heroines. As they display their powerful nature, the writers are forced to deface the goodness of the superheroes by making them evil.
In 1963, the beautiful Elektra was introduced in “Daredevil #168.” Elektra was a new female superhero whose origin story tragedy, led her to live a life of evil. She becomes a hired assassin to avenge her father’s death. Fingeroth describes, “Elektra decides that the only way to make up for her own father’s senseless murder is…to make a career of committing senseless murders! Even in the wake of the most influential feminist wave in history, a superhumanly powerful woman could only be powerful in the service of evil” (Fingeroth 91). In another instance, Jean Grey transforms into the Dark Phoenix portraying that women who have power display their inability to be disciplined and grow to be good. Jean Grey’s alter ego, the Dark Phoenix, results from absorbing the Phoenix Force that takes control of her body to wreak havoc. Madrid demonstrates, “Lord Acton wrote, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This seemed to be the fate of Phoenix. The incredible power that she now wielded makes her hungry for more, and gives her a savage, destructive nature” (Madrid 173). Jean Grey’s biggest flaw as one of the most powerful female superheroes is her difficulty with learning to control her abilities and not give in to the devilish side. She’s “given the societal view of powerful women—the Phoenix power turned Jean evil” (Fingeroth 90). In the first Uncanny X-Men comic, Jean Grey exhibited independence, power and potential. She was able to take care of herself when faced with the other X-Men as well as be able to control her telekinesis powers more than the other X-Men were able to control their own powers. However, the Dark Phoenix was created and destroyed to allude to female power being destructive and has the potential to hurt others.
Society’s fear of powerful women stifled the progress of females in comics. Originally, if comics included women, they were interpreted as part of a team or being rescued by powerful male figures. Comic books evolved with time to include powerful female figures but only to insult women by characterizing them as being male counterparts, inherently evil or too sexy which made them less powerful.
*For anyone reading my draft, I'm currently in the process of taking Malek and Alejandra's suggestions and incorporating them into my final paper. I do admit that I struggled with finding what I wanted to discuss, but I would like to focus on female superheroes progress throughout comics by comparing how they are depicted by male comic creators and female comic creators as well as distinguish how female superheroes were portrayed when first introduced in comics to now, through comics like Ms. Marvel.
Works Cited
Darowski, Joseph J. The Ages of Wonder Woman: Essays on the Amazon Princess in Changing Times. Jefferson: McFarland, 2014. Print.
Fingeroth, Danny. "Amazon Grace: Wonder Woman, Xena and Buffy." Superman on the Couch:
What Superheroes Really Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society. New York: Continuum, 2004. N. pag. Print.
Madrid, Mike. The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book
Heroines. Ashland, Or: Exterminating Angel, 2009. Print.
Robbins, Trina. “The Great Women Superheroes.” The Superhero Reader. By Charles
Hatfield, Jeet Heer, and Kent Worcester. Jackson: U of Mississippi, 2013. N. pag. Print.
Prater, Lenise. "Gender and Power: The Phoenix/Jean Grey Across Time and Media." Colloquy: Text Theory Critique, 24 (2012): 159.
Knight, Gladys L. Female Action Heroes: A Guide to Women in Comics, Video Games, Film, and Television. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood, 2010.
D'Amore, Laura Mattoon. "The Accidental Supermom: Superheroines and Maternal Performativity, 1963-1980." Journal of Popular Culture, 45.6 (2012): 1226.