We all grew up watching cartoons of the common superheroes...Batman, Superman, Spiderman, were always a treat to watch. But never did I ever think to myself "hmm, all these superheroes are white". It was just at known fact. People don't think twice about it...until now. When I think of Superman, I think something along the lines of the comic "Superman and the Jumper" , with Superman saving the poor, distressed woman on top of a building ready to take her own life, and clearly the person she needs is Superman to save her. But what if these hunky superheroes were of a different race? Would we think differently of them? Some suggest yes. In the articles, Who Gets to be a Superhero and What if X-Men were black? touch on this subject. They both discuss how people have always imagined and pictured their favorite superheroes as white, wealthy, Christian, and able-bodied men. And who is to blame them because that is how they are ALWAYS portrayed. Marvel claims that X-Men is supposed to loosely represent Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X and it deals with many societal problems in the comic such as the genocide of 16 million mutants and the spread of the Legacy Virus that only targets those that are mutants such as the X-Men (a reference to the AIDS spread and people of the LGBT community). However, people claim that this reinforces inequality. With the X-Men fighting crime against a white government it seems more do-able than if a group of black teenagers were fighting the same government it would seem much more of a stretch (inferring that blacks are inferior to whites). The article Who Gets to be a Superhero also admitted that comics target young boys because apparently young boys buy more toys than girls. How much more selective can they be? Young boys, white males, wealthy, strong. Anything outside of these descriptions doesn't matter. The article Meet the New Muslim-American Green Lantern is taking a step out of these specific descriptions of the typical superhero. They are making the first ever Muslim big-name superhero. Interestingly enough, his first battle is to face a federal agent who thinks he is a terrorist. I admire that they are taking a step out of the norm, but aren't they kind of taking a step back as well? They are playing right into the Muslim-American stereotype - people thinking they are terrorists. I am not sure how this will go over, but I am interested to see how it is perceived.
And why are all the superheroes male? The only female superhero that I can think of is Wonder Woman. Female superheroes are very rare. Originally, the comic book companies wanted to undermine the role of women (as stated in Superheroines, Fighters, and Why isn't there a Wonder Woman movie?). Why is that? My guess is that people don't want to see a heroine, they would rather see a male being the protagonist. However, as time goes on we have been seeing many more female leads. Films such as Charlie's Angels, Bionic Woman, and The Hunger Games have all had female heroines. Times are changing and we need to steer clear of that typical Superhero identity.
The King Arthur material was an interesting aspect to think about as well. In the time of King Arthur, they didn't have Superman, Spiderman, or Batman to look up to. Their forms of superheroes were their kings and queens. I got the sense that in the story of King Arthur, it was presented as much more noble (because he pulled the sword out of stone. However, his conception wasn't all that noble. His father deceived his mother and got her pregnant. Is that something to look up to? Not in today's standards...or even their standards back then. I bet you anything that society back then didn't know of this, I think that if they did know of this it would not go over well. This shows that not all of our "superheroes" are perfect...they all have some flaws. In contrast to the way King Arthur was portrayed in the clips of Camelot and Monty Python, it seemed much more relaxed. Not as, noble, I guess one would say. Monty Python portrayed him as not well known - since the peasants refused to listen to his orders and were unfamiliar with his name.
All in all, despite the stereotypes of superheroes, everyone has one and they come in all shapes, sizes, gender, and social classes. We need to step away from the norm and not stereotype what a superhero should or should not look like.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Blog #4: Back to the Future
There are a couple themes that I noticed throughout these readings, podcasts, and videos. For one, they all in some way shape or form had to do with a bigger aspect of a controlling government or authority - something that many people fear will happen to our society we live in today. And this is not a new fear. There are traces of many books and movies in the past that have been relevant to the whole dystopian society concept. The web-image that displayed all the literature is a prime example that people have had this in their mind, and even feared it. Many of the books on the list were classics: 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, and V for Vendetta. These books are still read in today's literature classes in high school. Now kids are reading them for fun. The Hunger Games and The Divergent Series are some of the newest fads in Young Adult Literature today. Why is this? Is it because we are fascinated by this type of lifestyle (not living it just reading about it)? Or is it because we feel that it is so far fetched that maybe our society really isn't that far off from it?
These questions go hand in hand with our obsession with zombies. The Walking Dead is one of the most popular zombie productions ever made. Maybe we like them (just like the books) because they scare us a little bit - it is out of the norm to think this way. People are always trying to break out of their everyday lives - we need that escape. What I found interesting was the fact that the narrator in the PBS short film " Why Do We Love Zombies?" was that he brought up the fact that maybe the reason people like zombies is because we like to associate them with scary things in today's world. Like technology. Now whether or not that is true the deeper issue here is that these zombies overtaking society, in a sick way, represents issues such as terrorism, communism, and the economic collapse. Therefore, reverting back to an overruling government.
One thing that I wish people would understand is that even though we read about these controlling governments or things that could potentially symbolize them is the fact that this is a potential problem for us. And we are not in any way shape or form the first people to discover or think this. The proof is in the literature and the films that have been produced in the past. A new idea that I have never heard before was the story of Harrison Bergeron and how he was taken away from his parents because he showed too much potential of being smart and possibly out smarting the system. His poor father can't even get a thought strung together before a sharp noise goes off in his ear every 20 seconds because he was titled "handicap" (which is the exact opposite of our definition of a handicap). What if that is us in "x" amount of years? I fear that soon our newscasts will reflect that of the "Night of Vale". The whole podcast was basically warnings to the public - stay away from the dog park, don't talk to the hooded figures in the dog park, warnings about angel spottings, and even ghost cars on the freeway. I hope that we will not live in a society where all we have to report are warnings. What was interesting was the fact that everyone was skeptical of Carlos the scientist and he was the only one who was trying to solve the problem instead of being fearful 24/7.
We have seen controlling governments throughout history - they usually favor some particular group of people over the others. Hitler, for example, hated Jews. In the Hunger Games, the Capitol favored the rich people and pitied the poor. I think that the short clip from the classic horror film portrays just this. In the very last scene the officials are trying to overcome the zombies and they shoot without hesitation. Meaning that they shot an innocent black man (who was not yet turned into a zombie). I know this was during the time where segregation was still an issue - so does this mean that this was the filmmakers was of showing who needs to be killed off? Are they trying to portray the black man and the zombie as the same kind of "evil"? Just some things to think about and things that popped into my mind while thinking about these units.
These questions go hand in hand with our obsession with zombies. The Walking Dead is one of the most popular zombie productions ever made. Maybe we like them (just like the books) because they scare us a little bit - it is out of the norm to think this way. People are always trying to break out of their everyday lives - we need that escape. What I found interesting was the fact that the narrator in the PBS short film " Why Do We Love Zombies?" was that he brought up the fact that maybe the reason people like zombies is because we like to associate them with scary things in today's world. Like technology. Now whether or not that is true the deeper issue here is that these zombies overtaking society, in a sick way, represents issues such as terrorism, communism, and the economic collapse. Therefore, reverting back to an overruling government.
One thing that I wish people would understand is that even though we read about these controlling governments or things that could potentially symbolize them is the fact that this is a potential problem for us. And we are not in any way shape or form the first people to discover or think this. The proof is in the literature and the films that have been produced in the past. A new idea that I have never heard before was the story of Harrison Bergeron and how he was taken away from his parents because he showed too much potential of being smart and possibly out smarting the system. His poor father can't even get a thought strung together before a sharp noise goes off in his ear every 20 seconds because he was titled "handicap" (which is the exact opposite of our definition of a handicap). What if that is us in "x" amount of years? I fear that soon our newscasts will reflect that of the "Night of Vale". The whole podcast was basically warnings to the public - stay away from the dog park, don't talk to the hooded figures in the dog park, warnings about angel spottings, and even ghost cars on the freeway. I hope that we will not live in a society where all we have to report are warnings. What was interesting was the fact that everyone was skeptical of Carlos the scientist and he was the only one who was trying to solve the problem instead of being fearful 24/7.
We have seen controlling governments throughout history - they usually favor some particular group of people over the others. Hitler, for example, hated Jews. In the Hunger Games, the Capitol favored the rich people and pitied the poor. I think that the short clip from the classic horror film portrays just this. In the very last scene the officials are trying to overcome the zombies and they shoot without hesitation. Meaning that they shot an innocent black man (who was not yet turned into a zombie). I know this was during the time where segregation was still an issue - so does this mean that this was the filmmakers was of showing who needs to be killed off? Are they trying to portray the black man and the zombie as the same kind of "evil"? Just some things to think about and things that popped into my mind while thinking about these units.
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