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.
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