It all began with a simple tweet posted yesterday, from @JusttLit who wanted to know why there are more male superheroes than female superheroes.
Why are there more male superheroes than female superheroes? ?
— Lit! (@JusttLit) October 3, 2018
The question has since generated comments and a myriad of perspectives, with an opportunity to reignite the DC versus Marvel wars. But the most popular response was from feminist Ozzy Etomi, who opined that comics were written by men for a largely male audience.
Because comics were written by men for a largely male dominated audience. And men can’t imagine women saving the world, even though women have been saving the world since inception 🙂 https://t.co/siwChpwsGf
— Ozzy Etomi (@ozzyetomi) October 3, 2018
Traditionally, comic books catered to boys from a point of interest just as girls wanted Barbie dolls, so it made commercial sense for comic behemoths like Marvel to be wholly invested in this gendered marketing. Even with standalone comic series that centred female superheroes, they had to be sexualised with (unrealistic) bodily proportions so as not to alienate male readers.
since you guys want to pretend like there is no sexism in comics.
I remember a tweet about Scar Jo’s marvel character Black Widow and how we don’t need the back story of every character except “the important characters like Thor and co”
but carry on.
— Berv (@62six__) October 4, 2018
This female characters in comic books thing you ppl are talking about is similar to when they say why don’t female athletes get paid thesame as men and the answer is thesame is because Women don’t support, they will rather watch Keeping up with the Kardashians than Super Falcons
— ? (@AlaboNathus) October 4, 2018
In the era of Marvel/DC superhero movies overload, female superheroes are now getting their deserved screen time: Wonder Woman, with a sequel on the horizon and the Harley Quinn movie Birds of Prey, which will see Harley teaming up with DC heroines like Black Canary and The Huntress and due out in 2020.
Why are there more male superheroes to female superheroes is akin to asking why there are more cisgender, heterosexual characters in movies, albeit the rise of queer cinema in the last couple of years. Like the aforementioned reason for male superhero representation, the reception to queer movies is usually steeped in homophobia, so much so that studios tend to make queer characters appear “straight” or what I’ll just call hetero-washing, all the more digestible for straight viewers.
Still, though, one can argue that the reason for more male superhero movies is because these movies have to follow the chronology embedded in their comic book roots. Marvel had to make a Black Panther movie before Shuri is coronated as the new Black Panther, but whether she will get a standalone movie soon will be a matter of studio priorities. Nevertheless, writers like Nnedi Okorafor have been saturating the comic and literary landscapes with female superheroes and black heroines, who really don’t need capes.
