Handing out candy to Trick-or-Treaters, I saw mostly superhero costumes for little boys, but when I saw the selection for little girls, I was crushed.

As a mom of boy/girl twins, I find myself noticing differences in gender that most moms don’t get to examine so closely under the microscope. It’s bad enough that when I pick out clothes for my twins, all the boys outfits have cutsie animals or planes, meanwhile, all the little girls clothes say some derivative of “princess” or elude to their future dating status, and their father’s authority over that dating status. I am constantly reminding friends, grandparents and even doctors not to call my baby girl “princess,” and I am constantly trying to counter-balance that early life brainwashing with terms like; “Smart Girl,” or “Brave girl.”

But as I was walking through the costume aisles, I realized something far more detrimental to baby girl’s futures, in that the reason there are no little girl superhero costumes, may go far deeper than availability: there are in fact, no decent female superheroes for them to look up to.

So of course, being a woman of science, I wanted to take a deeper look into how we ended up here. I offer you: a mini case study on the effects of female superheroes in pop culture on little girls. To keep this as objective as possible, I examined 3 different superhero fandoms; one at each end of the spectrum, and one in the middle.

Marvel Comics

Let’s start with “The Big M,” that’s right, the biggest franchise of the last two decades. It all began on 9/11, the superhero genre blew up when America needed to rise up from the ashes and feel safe again. The big M is the highest grossing franchise, pulling in $28.56 Billion over the last two decades and leaving a cultural fingerprint on the world that will continue on for generations. But as the comic machine has churned out countless brilliant characters, I ask you; where were all the female superheroes?

Tony Stark is a brilliant scientist, whose cheeky remarks make him endearing, and conflicts revolve around the problems of men. (ie. his feud with other superheroes, his need to constantly play the hero despite his significant other’s concerns) We made it over 10 years without a female-centered superhero movie and when we finally got it, it bombed in the box office and that’s to say nothing of the less-than-flattering reviews about how she didn’t “smile” enough. So, what did women end up with? The table scraps that was that cringe-worthy scene from the final film where all the females in the entire franchise get together for a 30-second blip. gag

So what are we telling little girls? Leave the men to their science and their strategizing, and after 15 years, you will eventually get the payout of a 30-second scene with cool outfits. When the only long-running female character finally got her own movie, “The D word” screwed the actress out of her contract and she had to take the cartoon giant to court to get what she was owed. The actress sued for $50 mil, a drop in the bucket compared to what her male costars were raking in for their films, and ended up quietly settling, with the details being hush-hush.

"So not only are the fictional characters getting shafted from the Sci-Fi genre, but we’re also showing young women that the real-life superheroes are not earning what men do. "

X-Men

So let’s pivot to the other end of the Marvel spectrum, to a franchise that has not only supported strong female characters, but marginalized characters as well; X-men.

"While the films may not have as much of what I am looking for as the comics, when it comes to female superheroes, X-men is the best we’ve got."

Beginning in the year 2000, X-men has somehow managed to stay relevant for the last 20 years. And while Hugh Jackman will always hold a special place in our hearts, let’s turn our attention to how the females are portrayed. In the first trilogy, plots are made and destroyed by women. Rouge costumes won Halloween that year, with her chic gloves and her easy-to-replicate hairstyle. Then there was Jean Grey who brought a tumultuous and complex member to the X-men, and who could forget Halle Barry’s iconic role as the all-powerful Storm? (Great! So, what happened since then?)

When the fandom was given new life in 2011, it was turned into a prequel, and we were given even more female superheroes, only this time shown the characters at a younger age. All the female superheroes were given complex feelings and struggles, (Their rendition of Kitty Pryde was a bit disappointing) but other than that, a well-rounded female cast with room for expansion. So what happened? A female origin movie was slated for Jean Grey, starring what was at the time a big named star, (Thanks to GOT) oddly enough, it came out only a few months after Captain Marvel.

So why did the female superhero origin movies all flop in 2019? It’s not like Stan Lee didn’t come up with enough kick-ass women characters. I want to take this as a case-by-case basis and say that Marvel didn’t make enough of an effort to get us to care about the character’s backstory. They slowly introduced each character in the movie before it and gave us time to wade the water, while Captain Marvel felt rushed and that’s why it bombed. As for Dark Pheonix, I want to speculate that they committed the cardinal sin of origin movies: nobody wants to watch a story where they know it ends with the death of the protagonist. If the X-men franchise had instead gone for a Mystique movie, back when Jennifer Lawrence was in her prime, and shown the steady downfall of an otherwise likeable character, or even a Kitty Pryde origin story with Ellen-now Elliot Page, (Can you tell I love Kitty Pryde?) then things might have been different.

Stranger Things

DC comics in my opinion, is having a hard enough time trying to run itself without Christopher Nolan, so let’s leave them alone until they can get their shit together. Instead, for our last case, we look at a modern popular Sci-Fi show which has had mixed reviews depicting women, my personal favorite, Stranger Things. I am going to try not to color the conversation given my preferences. But many may not remember that Stranger Things had a rough start from feminist critics, saying that there weren’t enough females in the cast. The death of Barb in season 1 was problematic, in that with two characters side-by-side; the boy was rescued, and the girl died. Despite the scrutiny, I believe that Barb’s death was necessary to further Nancy’s character, in that she needed the death of her friend to mature and take the plights of her geeky younger brother seriously. Either way, the Duffer Brothers quickly pivoted, and continued to add more girls to the cast as the show went on.

But despite it’s early scrutiny, I maintain that Stranger Things has always been a pioneer in positive female role models for one main reason; El.

"She is the female superhero, protecting the Gentlemen in distress, portraying the female gaze -and not only that, she is a little girl."

Between Joyce, the character who forges on despite being perpetually gaslit, or the fact that every female character on the show has a unique personality, their presence in the plot is not contingent on a man. There was a moment in season 2 when it looked like the Duffer brothers would make the fatal mistake of having the female characters in imaginary feud, but again, it was quickly remedied by season 3. (Look for my epic rant on faux female feuds in a later blog)

So as for Stranger Things, I objectively give the show an A+ for most improved when depicting female superheroes. After all, isn’t it a good sign that in this day and age, when females are underrepresented in the Sci-Fi genre, it is called out by the public instead of fans remaining silent?

So where do we end up? Where are all the female superheroes? Was it a pre-pandemic mentality about female superheroes? Has Hollywood missed the train when it comes to superhero flicks? Or is it just the fact that no one wants to watch movies anymore? I personally believe the genre has gone everywhere it could for now, and I like to think that eventually the comic book franchise will find new life in 20 or so years when another major world life event befalls us. And that is when the female superheroes will finally make their mark on the world.

Sincerely,

                                                                    Patiently waiting for a decent female superhero movie

Works Cited:

1.      CBR: 2023

2.      Vanity Fair: 2021

3.      ScreenRant: 2021

4.      PBS.org: 2014

5.      ScreenRant: 2022