Rise of Feminism’s Effect on Depiction of Female Superheroes in American Comics The Wonder Woman movie came out as a blockbuster last year and made the investors realize the lucrative market potential behind female superheroes. Marvel studio also planned to bring out its first female superhero led movie “Captain Marvel” in 2019. People have seen powerful, independent female superheroes fighting side by side with male superheroes on screen, not being protected or being posed as a sexual object, yet contributing to the team as a significant role. Also in the comic book, female superheroes starts to take in control of the market by having their solo comic series. This article will discuss how rise of feminism influence the portrayal of female …show more content…
The first wave feminism started at the mid 19th century and ended in the early 20th century. It mainly focused on fighting for their legal right, such as the right to vote and the right to own property (Dorey-Stein “A Brief History: The Three Waves of Feminism”). The first wave feminists argued that they could give the same contribution as much as men did and they deserved political powers. Unlike their desperate predecessors, the second wavers have gained equal legal rights, yet they still still faced discrimination in workplace, and suffered from social issues such as domestic violence and rape due to their “vulnerable female identity” (Dorey-Stein “A Brief History: The Three Waves of Feminism”). The phase started from 1960s and ended around 1980s. The controversies about the second wave feminism is that they often presented as “victims” and their ideas would be often seen as “anti-male, anti-sex and anti- femininity” (Snyder 179). The racially restricted representatives of the second wavers is another problem. Just like the first wave, the second wavers were always white, middle class women who were well educated (Snyder 180). Despite all the controversial comments about the second wave, it eventually established the basis of the third wave feminism. The third wave feminism is clearly influenced by other civil rights movement …show more content…
The idea of girl power is emphasized by the third wavers who believes in female empowerment to encourage girls to redefine, recreate what means to be girls and to “accomplish in a circumstance that they previously were denied” (Kabeer, 24). The creation of A-Force redefined the composition of superpower teams with all female members attending the Secret War, 2015. It challenged the authority of patriarchy and broke the troupes of the female characters that used to be simply divided into “good girls” (Carol Danvers) and “bad girls” (Harley Quinn). A-Force contains all different female character with distinct personalities, such as Lady Loki (Loki in female form), Dazzler, America Chavez andNico Minoru (Bennett, Wilson and Molina A-Force vol. 2 #1). The team leader She-Hulk was created in previous comics plot in the 80s, “addressing and criticizing the second feminism”. The constant conflict between She-Hulk and other younger team members reflects the “generational issues” between the second and third wave feminists, demonstrating different interpretations of girl power (Snyder 177). As more female characters challenged patriarchy in the world of comics, female comic artists also earned their own place in the industry. According to Curtis and Cardo, there is “a significant increase in the number of women writing and drawing
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.
Feminism is categorized into 4 main stages, known as the first-wave feminism (early 20th c, second-wave feminism (the 1960s to mid-1980s), third-wave feminism (1990s), and post-feminism (21st c). The emergence of second-wave feminism is distinguished by
In the 1960’s, the civil rights movement was the act inspiring the second wave of feminism. The passing of the civil rights act protected women
The Third Wave may have occurred as a result of Black women’s criticisms of the Second Wave as a strictly white, middle class women’s movement.(Page 64) Canada supports the idea of meritocracy, where everyone has an equal chance of success. This belief undermines the fact that racism was still very evident in the women’s movements. Also an issue that arose from the Second Wave, was the exclusion of transgendered people from the movement.
For over 60 years, Wonder Woman has filled the pages of her magazine with adventures ranging from battling Nazis, to declawing human-like Cheetahs. Her exploits thrilled and inspired many young girls, including Gloria Steinem. Through all of this, she has had to pilot her invisible jet through territories that her male counterparts have never had to. She is constantly pulled in two directions; her stories must be entertaining and non threatening to the male status quo, while simultaneously furthering her as the original symbol of 'Girl Power.' She is praised for being an icon of strength to women everywhere, but chastised for wearing a skimpy costume and tying men up, as if she were no more than a male fantasy. No comic book character has had to endure as much scrutiny as Wonder Woman. That's because Wonder Woman represents an entire gender, at a time of important social flux. Although she was created by a man to influence a male audience, Wonder Woman has evolved into an important symbol of the feminist movement.
Throughout the waves of liberal feminism, there is a new characteristic to be associated with the feminist group. In the first waves, it’s white, married, wealthy women who fit the criteria to be a feminist. The first wave begins in 1900 and ends around 1920, during the times of the Suffragettes. This wave began to introduce the inequalities between men and women, especially relating to voting and education. The second wave began to rise in 1950 which introduced reproductive rights, entitlement to sex, marriage, jobs, social lives, and politics. This wave continued to the 1970’s. It’s not until the third wave, which hits in the 1990’s, when inequalities among women are introduced to the feminist movement (FYS Class Notes).
Tough women are always attractive, scantily dressed, with plunging necklines, and extremely tight leather and spandex. Such is shown in marvel’s Avengers, Black widow is among all male counterparts, she is a russian assassin with a troubled past. She wears a black skin-tight jumpsuit with a low neckline, her physical capabilities and prowess isn’t enough she has to appeal to the male view. Black Widows strength and performance as a strong fearless woman, cannot be seen as progress. Such performance portrays a deep doubt towards female struggle for equality. “The tough woman is testament to a still male-dominant society’s own contradictory responses to women’s demands for equal treatment, equal pay, and equal status. The tough girl is nearly always stripped down (often literally) to what lies at her core, her essential, biological womanliness, her essential subordinate position to man.” (Byerly, Carolyn, Ross
... setting up the basis for the second movement. After women began talking about the family economy during the first wave, the women were able to shift their focus to their personal careers and salaries during the second wave. Additionally, the first wave gave women the right to vote, but the second wave gave women more political power. Women distinguished themselves through their sexuality in the first wave, while the second wave helped women distinguish themselves through their strength. The achievements of the second feminist movement clearly had their roots in the first movement. Feminism is now entering its third wave. Regardless of whether the new feminists use an indirect approach, like the 1920s movement, or a direct approach, like the 1970s movement, American women will continue fighting for gender equality until the words “man” and “woman” both mean “human.”
Multiracial Feminism: Recasting the Chronology of Second Wave Feminism introduces ideas by Becky Thompson that contradict the “traditional” teachings of the Second Wave of feminism. She points out that the version of Second Wave feminism that gets told centers around white, middle class, US based women and the central problem being focused on and rallied against is sexism. This history of the Second Wave does not take into consideration feminist movements happening in other countries. Nor does it take into consideration the feminist activism that women of color were behind, that centered not only on sexism, but also racism, and classism as central problems as well. This is where the rise of multiracial feminism is put to the foreground and a different perspective of the Second Wave is shown.
Feminism is a movement that supports women equality within society. In relation to film, feminism is what pushes the equal representation of females in mainstream films. Laura Mulvey is a feminist theorist that is famous for touching on this particular issue of how men and women are represented in movies. Through her studies, she discovered that many films were portraying men and women very differently from reality. She came up with a theory that best described why there is such as huge misrepresentation of the social status quos of male and female characters. She believed that mainstream film is used to maintain the status quo and prevent the realization of gender equality. This is why films are continuously following the old tradition that males are dominant and females are submissive. This is the ideology that is always present when we watch a movie. This is evident in the films from the past but also currently. It is as if the film industry is still catering to the male viewers of each generation in the same way. Laura Mulvey points out that women are constantly being seen as sexual objects, whether it is the outfits they wear or do not wear or the way they behave, or secondary characters with no symbolic cause. She states that, “in traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote it-be-looked-at-ness.”(Mulvey pg. 715). Thus, women are nevertheless displayed as nothing more than passive objects for the viewing pleasure of the audience. Mulvey also points out through her research that in every mainstream movie, there is ...
Second wave feminists from the 1950’s to the 1980’s worked to bring women out of the housewife era and into the workplace. These women aimed for a workplace where females could thrive along side with men and to develop an environment where women are would be seen as equals and be respected, with no regard to gender. They imagined a world where women could find their passion, have a career and leave behind any reliance on men. So, they did just that. They paved the road for females searching for equal rights and raising awareness of inequality in the workplace.
The first wave of feminism is more commonly known as the women’s liberation or women’s suffrage movement. First wave feminist’s main concern was in political power especially in terms of the right to vote, having a voice. They believed that changes within society could be made gradually within society to achieve equality rather than having to demolish the way things were and reconstruct them.
The Second Wave of Feminism The right for women to vote gave way to a new wave of feminism. This wave, often characterized as the “second wave of feminism”, arose out of the anti-war movement of the 1960s (Four Waves of Feminism, Pacific University Oregon). The second wave of feminism addressed issues such as the ability to have access to legal abortions, “de-sexing” the english language, increasing awareness of importance of women’s education, equality legislation and in politics, rethinking women’s “roles”, depiction in popular culture, and overall expansion of the voice of women (Goals of the Feminist Movement, ThoughtCo).
Women have made progress in the film industry in terms of the type of role they play in action films, although they are still portrayed as sex objects. The beginning of “a new type of female character” (Hirschman, 1993, pg. 41-47) in the world of action films began in 1976 with Sigourney Weaver, who played the leading role in the blockbuster film ‘Aliens’ as Lt. Ellen Ripley. She was the captain of her own spaceship, plus she was the one who gave out all the orders. Until then, men had always been the ones giving the orders; to see a woman in that type of role was outlandish. This was an astonishing change for the American industry of film. Sometime later, in 1984, Linda Hamilton starred in ‘The Terminator’, a film where she was not the leading character, but a strong female character as Sarah Connor. She had a combination of masculine and feminine qualities as “an androgynous superwoman, resourceful, competent and courageous, while at the same time caring, sensitive and intuitive” (Hirschman, 1993, pg. 41-47). These changes made in action films for female’s roles stirred up a lot of excitement in the “Western society” (Starlet, 2007). The demand for strong female characters in action films grew to a new high when Angelina Jolie starred in ‘Tomb Raider’ in 2001 and then in the sequel, ‘Tomb Raider II: The Cradle of Life’ in 2003 as Lara Croft. Her strong female character was not only masculine, but was also portrayed as a sex object. Most often, strong women in these types of films tend to fight without even gaining a mark. At the end of each fight, her hair and makeup would always be perfect. The female characters in these action films, whether their role was as the lead character or a supporting character, had similar aspects. I...
The feminist movement helped earn women the right to vote, but even then, it wasn’t enough to get accepted into the workforce. They were given the strength to fight the journey for equality and social justice. There has been known to be three waves of feminism, each wave fighting for a different issue concerning women’s rights. Laws protecting sexual assault and alimony would be enacted, and women were now allowed custody of their children in divorce cases.