Stephanie Shemansky
HUM3070
Directed Research Paper Assignment
Stereotyping in Comic Books First were going to talk about how stereotypical male roles dominated the early scene in comic books. In many comic books the male is the one who always turns out to be the hero. For example Superman who first appeared in the comic book scene in 1938 is one of the world’s leading super hero comics (Superman in the Comics / http://www.supermanhomepage.com/comics.php#). Like most comic book heroes Superman has a secret identity. He is your average guy working at the newspaper where he meets the girl he loves but can’t be with. He is your stereotypical super hero being a strong powerful man and saving the world. If you look into other super heroes
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While many men were going off to war woman looked up to Wonder Woman as not needing a man to get what she wants. Then Captain America fits in to society when he was written it was not your average comic book hero. Captain America was just meant to at the time be for the people to show the kids what America was fighting for. Even though there are many stereotypical views that can be argued about superheroes in comic books they all do have one purpose. They all want to fight for what’s right which is the message many of these comic book artist were originally trying to convey. I do not think that when they wrote them in the 30’s till now that many would see them as how they do in today’s society. Superheroes are meant to be drawn different than the average human. So I think it is hard to stereotype superheroes in comic books but it’s something that has been going on for many generations and will for many more. To me the perfect drawn superhero was never meant to be stereotyped. They were meant to be for the average person can still look up to those like Clark Kent and still be able to understand why the superhero in the comics do what they do in the time it was …show more content…
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Files, The ForbesWoman. "What Do Comic Books Teach Us About Gender Attitudes?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 23 Jan. 2013. Web. 09 May 2014
"Superman in the Comics." Superman Homepage http://www.supermanhomepage.com/comics.php# -. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2014.
"Today's Superheroes Send Wrong Image to Boys, Say Researchers. Http://www.apa.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2014.
"The Roles of Stereotypes in Comic Books - Media Criticism." The Roles of Stereotypes in Comic Books - Media Criticism. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2014.
"Wonder Woman Publication History." http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Wonder_Woman_Publication_History DC Database. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2014.
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In the article “Wonder Woman” Gloria Steinem expresses that the making of female super-heroes empowers females by reducing the fixed theme of a Caucasian male saving an inferior female. She displays this by showing how inferior women were before in male super-hero comic books, compares what it was like personally reading female super-hero comics to male super-hero comics as a child, the fight with other women to have the original Wonder Woman published in Ms. Magazine and how even males were changed by the making of Wonder Woman.
Men are looked at as brave, selfless people and are perceived as heroes all throughout society. Johnson addresses this point saying, “The idea of heroism, for example, has been appropriated almost entirely by patriarchal manhood. From movies and television to literature to the nightly news, our ideas of who and what is heroic focus almost entirely on men and what they do” (548). Since men have power in this world, they have generated a society that pleases them. Superhero movies are a huge money maker in today’s world. But, the most popular superheroes are exclusively men such as Batman, Superman, Captain America, The Flash and The Hulk. This media only feeds into the ideology that men are the heroes in the world and they are the ones making sacrifices for others. They see a world that appeals to them and do not see a reason to mess with the system. Kilbourne writes, “When power is unequal, when one group is oppressed and discriminated against as a group, when there is a context of systematic and historical oppression, stereotypes and prejudice have different weight and meaning” (499). Men now see patriarchy as natural and how life should be. They can look back at previous generations and see that they succeeded with patriarchy and feel they should do the same. Men see absolutely no reason as to why they should relinquish their position of
Women aren’t represented as incompetent, but rather as limited. In “The Woman Precedent Female (Super) Heroism on Trial”, Julie O’Reilly analyzes the distinctions between the ways male and female superheroes are “put to the test” in narratives. She also describes how male superheroes are the ones who are accepted into the world of fighting and protecting against evil; while the females have to go through much more than males in order to be recognized for their efforts. “What really is on trial, then, is a female superhero’s ability to be a fully recognized subject” (O’Reilly 452). The “heroine in her own right” should be acknowledged just like how male superheroes are recognized. Female superheroes deserve the right of being able to do just as much, and possibly even more, than a male superhero can and they should be given the appreciation as well as the acknowledgment that they rightfully deserve. For example, one book written by Stieg Larsson called “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” depicts the life of a very strong female protagonist. The literature illustrates two people who are trying to solve the mystery of the disappearance of a young girl in the 1940’s but the woman isn't getting much credit or motivation as the other characters.
Let’s discuss a little bit of comic book history for starters. The most iconic superhero in all of American comic book history has got to be Superman. He was created near the beginning of superhero comic books and debuted in Action Comics #1 in 1938[1]. He would remain as the blueprint for many superheroes for years to come as the atypical white American male. But as the years go by there were comic book heroes that came out that go against this archetype such as Wonder
Hughes, Jamie A. "Who Watches the Watchmen?: Ideology and 'Real World' Superheroes." Journal of Popular Culture39.4 (2006): 546-557. SPORTDiscus with Full Text. EBSCO. Web. 25 Feb. 2010
A. Wonder Woman #172. (Second Series) DC Comics: (August 2001) Kanigher, Robert. A. A. Sensation Comics #97 - "The Spectacular" DC Comics: May-June 1950. Kanigher, Robert. A. A. Wonder Woman #204 - "The Wonder Woman" DC Comics: January-February 1973.
According to Human Sexuality in a World of Diversity 's gender role is a “learned role by observing behaviors of their parents, peers and media” (Rathus, Nevid, & Fichner-Rathus, 2014, p. 25). Research shows how gender roles in America have evolved and have changed over the last centuries, although there could be many reasons for this change I will examine some causes for the change in gender stereotypes. The following topics were studied during my research: Increased technology and access to internet, violence and explicit content in video games, movies and television shows resulting in gender stereotypes. In addition, the media can have a large influence on societies perception on how women and men are should look like which are sometimes
Ouellette, Laurie. "Inventing the Cosmo Girl." Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Critical Reader. By Gail Dines and Jean McMahon Humez. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2011. 228-29. Print.
In this research report I aim to explore the way in which gender roles have been represented in films through time and to analyse if the representation of each gender role has changed. More specifically I would like this report to acknowledge, in particularly, if women’s representations have changed over the years, and if so why or why isn’t this. I want to explore how these representations can affect the viewers of these films by the stereotypes that they create.
Gender stereotypes and biasses exist in media. In most situations, women are associated with more negative stereotypes and their portrayals can “undermine their presence by being “hyper-attractive” or “hyper-sexual” and/or passive” (Smith, 2008). In The Wolf of Wall Street women are objectified. They are treated
It is also known that media impacts its viewers, modifying their judgments based on the information they receive. Substantial amounts of stereotypes broadcast through propaganda have similar effects. This essay will illustrate how stereotypes are generally portrayed and their function in propaganda. It will also further reveal how successful and well stereotypes can work when used in propaganda tactics. The media often uses and misrepresents stereotypes; however, they are significantly accepted by people throughout society.
When you think of a superhero one normally thinks of Spiderman, Batman, or Superman, but there were superheroes long before these characters were created. First one must understand that the basis of this name is hero. What is a hero? A hero is a person who does something special or out of the ordinary in order to help others. It could also be someone who is admired for a characteristic about them, be it physical or mental. They are individuals that normal everyday people can look up to. This being the case, a superhero is nothing more then someone who is a hero, but not just that once and for that one person, but someone who helps many people, or leads them. As time went by the number of people who were true heroes diminished and just doing something for someone was no longer big news. There had to be something more to make them stand out. The American culture needed someone or something to admire and that is where our common day superheroes come into play. It gave them a goal which could never be reached in hopes that people would never stop trying.
In American society, boys are the ones that are meant to do well, get the higher education and then pursue a good career. T-shirts play a big role in convincing and persuading children to believe that when they grow up, boys are going to finance the family while the girls are going to be at home, taking care of their children and doing house work. The printing across a girl’s shirt, “Training to be Batman’s Wife,” is clearly an example of setting the expectations for girls on what they are going to be when they grow up: “The expectation is not just that she will be a wife, but that she will be somebody important’s wife, and her identity will be defined by his importance” said Lisa Wade, associate professor of sociology (Samakow). This shirt also gives the understanding to boys that they should be the “Batmans,” meaning heroes, and that girls are nothing but wives, which the men will have all the power over. The woman in this case should be obedient to their
“The Golden Age of Comics” PBS. PBS, 2011 Web. Retrieved on February 11 2014 from http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/the-golden-age-of-comics/
According to Comichron, the comic book industry made an estimated amount of $1.03 billion last year from both print and digital sales. There are so many people involved in the comic book industry, but there is a problem major with gender discrimination. Today women outnumber men in global attendance and graduation rates, but still somehow get paid less for the same job. A woman is running for president, athletes like Serena Williams are household names, and pop culture is replete with feminist heroines our foremothers could only dream about. Yes, generally speaking, it's a pretty good time to be a woman. The comic book industry is one place that still has not evolved as rapidly as we would all like, but it is trying. In “In a 2015 study by