ABSTRACT
The current wave of live action superhero movies and television programs, like the comic books they are based on, present ideals of masculinity and femininity in very basic terms. The focus on fantasies of heroic men of action and beautiful women (usually in peril) were tailor made for the original target of young male comic book readers. The preoccupation with gender ideals has remained an important part of the superhero formula in lm and on television. Even the names of many of the characters that have been adapted recently to live action formats reveals the basic importance of gender: Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, The X-Men, Ant-Man, Birdman, Supergirl, Hit-Girl, Wonder Woman and Catwoman. The superheroes that currently dominate movie theatres and television screens model extreme versions of our culture’s strict ideas about gender. For the male characters the genre is a very rudimentary fantasy of masculine empowerment. Time and again, superhero lms revolve around the symbolic transition of the main male character from 98-pound weakling to he-man, from mild mannered Clark Kent to Superman, from timid teenager Peter Parker to the amazing Spider-Man. Female super characters often enjoy a sense of empowerment as well, but they are also typically subjected to an accompanying degree of sexual fetishization that male characters are exempt from. Whatever their powers, female super characters are expected to remain beautiful and reveal some skin during their adventures. Modern superheroes reveal and reinforce gender norms about how we assume men and women are supposed to look and act. Given the popularity of superheroes and how widely the genre is being disseminated to young and old viewers alike, these characters have become exemplars of very restrictive rules about gender. This chapter outlines what exactly the genre reveals about masculine and feminine ideals under the guise of purely escapist fantasy adventures.
