The last ten years have been the age of superheroes and their magnificence on screen. Audiences witnessed their lives, the hard times they have been through, the villains they have fought against and their achievements. Gladys L. Knight says; …examples of female toughness epitomize the current trend wherein women are depicted as tough as nails and able to stand front and center in the action, but it is important to understand that this portrayal has been materializing over a long period of time in film, television, comic books and video games. The modern depiction is significant because it illustrates that toughness and action are not exclusive to men and that women who punch, kick and drive fast cars can be just as cool as men who do those things.
The popularity of female action heroes in the new millennium is undeniable: soaring box office receipts, fast selling merchandise, and increasing numbers of films starring strong women speak loudly that they are accepted and in demand. (Female Action Heroes: A Guide to Women in Comics, Video Games, Film and Television, 8) Yet, from the aspect of superhero movies despite the popularity and increase of strong female characters in the new millennium the audience barely had the chance to get a good example of female superheroes along with their stories and also, young girls and women in general hardly had any heroines to look up to. Thus, instead of almost always making women damsels in distresses or just lovers of the lead male character, more heroines and stronger female figures should be represented in the superhero film industry. In the superhero movie industry, heroines and other women characters are hyper-sexualized, stereotyped and portrayed as characters who are in need of help of a male. Hyper-sexualization is basically girls being depicted or treated as sexual objects( “Hyper-sexualisation of Young Girls: Why Should We Care?”, n.p) .
For example, Black Widow of Marvel Cinematic Universe is portrayed as a lascivious heroine who can easily seduce men most of the time. The audience hardly gets to see her strong personality and her background story. Instead, her being attractive is the focused side of her, not her strong self or her inner conflicts or the things she had lost during her journey, they are in fact barely mentioned. Lois Lane in Batman V Superman is another example of stereotyped women characters in superhero films. She’s the lover of the male protagonist, she’s the one who mediates Superman, she’s almost always the one who needs to be saved by her lover since she’s depicted as incapable of defeating the villain or the danger on her own. Thus, it would be correct to conclude that they’re usually flat characters with potential. However, we hardly ever see the male protagonists in the same situation. Another striking aspect of the place of female heroes on screen is that they’re sometimes not even considered worthy enough to be on movie posters. For instance, the DVD or Blu-ray covers of Avengers Age of Ultron, although there are actually two female heroes in the movie, not even one of them can be seen on the cover(“Avengers: Age Of Ultron’ Blu-ray And DVD Covers Ignore Female Characters”, Sachin Trivedi).
Furthermore, heroines are also rare. Only 26.7 percent of all DC and Marvel characters are female, and only 12 percent of mainstream superhero comics have female protagonists (“Analysing the Gender Representation of 34,476 Comic Book Characters”, Amanda Shendruk,n.p). These numbers decrease even more when these comics are adapted into the screen. The lack of female heroines and strong woman figure can be clearly seen through these statistics. Naomi McDougall-Jones, who is a is an award-winning writer, actress, producer, and women in film activist, says that: The year that jaws came out, Americans suddenly started listing sharks among their top ten major fears. In 1995, BMV paid the James Bond franchise three million dollars to have James Bond switch from driving an Aston Martin to a BMW Z3. That one move caused so many people to go out and buy that car, that BMW made 240 million dollars in pre-sales alone. The year that Hunger Games and Brave came out, female participation in archery went up 105%. In fact, studies show that the movies you watch don’t just affect your hobbies. They affect your career choices, your emotions, your sense of identity, your relationships, your mental health, even your marital status.” (“The Women in Film Revolution Begins With You”) When this statement and statistics are taken into consideration, the bad influence of the weakly characterized heroines and female characters on the audience is undeniable. Good examples’ effects on women, however, are notable and it is for that reason the audience needs more strong female figures who inspire women to become more active in things they’re passionate about and make women believe that they can be and that they are more than society’s expectations. For instance, teen girls are significantly less likely than teen boys to describe themselves as confident, brave or heard according to a survey BBC America and Women’s Media Centre conducted. (Superpowering Girls: Female Representation in the Sci-fi/Superhero genre) And again, according to the same study, outside of the family, parents of 5- to 9-year-olds say their children are most likely to look up to superheroes as role models. Mirroring the gender preference for role models overall, both children and teens demonstrate a clear preference for sci-fi/superheroes who are the same gender as themselves. Furthermore, 2 in 3 girls agree there are not enough of the following in film & TV: Female role models, strong female characters and relatable female characters. In addition to these statistics, the study also shows that male sci-fi/superheroes serve as role models for more than one-third of boys between 5-9 and 12% of boys between 10-19. However, female sci-fi/superheroes only appear as role models for 18% of girls between 5-9 and just 3% of girls 10-19.
So, the lack of role models for young girls and women can be clearly seen. Moreover, despite the underrepresentation of female sci-fi/superheroes, 9 in 10 girls say that sci-fi/superheroes are positive role models for them and that they say their favourite female sci-fi/superheroes make them feel strong, brave, confident, inspired, positive and motivated, helping to bridge the confidence gap for young women as reported by the study. Although the industry doesn’t show enough of these figures, there are nevertheless good examples such as Agent Carter, Wanda Maximoff and Wonder Woman. Agent Carter is a female soldier in an army full of men in the 1940s. Moreover, she is defined as a strong independent woman and her relationship with Captain America is not a predominant feature that defines her in Captain America: The First Avenger. She’s depicted as a capable young woman along with the relationship she has with the male protagonist. With respect to Wanda Maximoff, she is a powerful female character who is depicted as a stubborn character when it comes to making her own decisions and going after what she believes in and her love interest does not stop her or make her change her mind in Captain America: Civil War. As for Wonder Woman, also known as Diana Prince, she’s described as a young woman who loves adventure and exploring new things, she’s strong, curious, brave and is not afraid to take risks(Wonder Woman).
She definitely is not a damsel in distress but rather a good example of an inspiring role model who is capable of protecting herself and others. For example, the scene in which she was told it was impossible for her to cross the land because no “man” was capable of crossing it, she refused it and took the risk no matter what in order to save others. She fought against all the bullets that were being shot at her and she encouraged other soldiers with her bravery and determination and she did cross the land and won the battle. Since none of these characters are hyper-sexualized, stereotyped or are not portrayed as women who need someone but on the contrary, they’re women who are their own strength, they make up good role models. Further, there’s a common belief in the film industry that a female lead superhero movie will not be successful. “The reason we’ve had so few movies about female superheroes is the same reason we get so few movies about women at all,” says film critic MaryAnn Johanson. She also ads “Hollywood has decided that it is going to cater to the tastes of adolescent boys and young men, and it doesn’t believe that that audience wants to see a movie about a female superhero or any female protagonist”( “Why Won’t Cinema Embrace Female Superheroes?”,Moloney, n.p). And journalist Al Moloney states in his article on BBC Culture “The prevailing thought, at least amongst those behind the films, seems to be that young men are the audience. However, statistics released by the Motion Picture Association of America show women actually made up 52% of the cinema-going audience(n.p).” So, wouldn’t it disprove their idea that female lead superhero movies won’t be successful because most of the audience is men? And would making movies by targeting a certain gender be right in the first place? In addition to these examples, “Hollywood likes to point to the failures of Supergirl, Elektra and Catwoman as proof that superhero films with a female lead can’t be successful.” says Tamblyn. “The problem is not that these films had a female or male lead, it’s that they were just plain bad movies (n.p).” Up until now, there is only one superhero movie, Wonder Woman, with a female protagonist and it turned out to be successful although critics thought it would fail. “…Patty Jenkins’ critically acclaimed blockbuster saw updated international receipts that finally pushed the box office totals to $821.74 million, topping the cume of 2002’s Spider-Man and giving Gal Godot’s Amazon warrior-princess the crown as the highest-grossing superhero origin film of all time(‘Wonder Woman’ Is Officially The Highest-Grossing Superhero Origin Film”,n.p).”, says film critic Mark Hughes.
Furthermore, Kevin Feige, the producer of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, stated that Wonder Woman paved the way with its success for Marvel’s upcoming female lead superhero movie, “Captain Marvel”. Consequently, it can be said that the preconception that the audience doesn’t want to see a woman as the main character of a superhero film and for that reason such movies won’t be successful is absurd. Conversely, first female lead superhero origin movie became a huge success and an inspiration for women. To sum up, an era like this in which people are highly affected by media, on contrary to misconception that a female lead superhero movie will not be successful, seeing women as independent and tough characters such as Agent Carter, Wonder Woman and Wanda Maximoff certainly inspires women, gives them confidence and makes them believe that they can be successful according to the studies mentioned above. Thus, the display of women as a significant other of the male hero, someone that needs to be rescued or just a pretty woman in superhero movies should change and women should be presented as capable characters who can be their own heroes like in the example of Wonder Woman, it can be clearly seen how successful a female lead superhero movie can be and why the prejudice that such movies are bound to fail should end. Accordingly, all these statistics should be taken into consideration and more projects to meet the needed demands should be launched.
