So in case it isn't clear enough, I like superheroes.
No, really. Go ahead. Look surprised. I'll wait.
Superheroes are the epic heroes of our time. Where stories Gilgamesh and Herakles and Perseus were once told, we instead get stories of Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-man... I could go on. I don't need to.
But, to be honest, traditional mythology and epic heroic tales have been lacking in female heroes. And modern-day comics are really not so different. Oh, we've gotten better. The fact that Black Widow featured heavily in the recent
Avengers film; the fact that so many devoted fans (male and female) of Wonder Woman flipped out over her mistreatment in recent storylines; the fact that Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) and Spider-woman are just as beloved as their male counterparts... yeah, girls have gotten better when it comes to heroism.
They also have gotten much worse.
 |
| Much, much worse. |
To be honest, as a modern woman myself... this? Isn't enough. It's not enough that we have
some girl superheroes that can play with the big boys. As cool as Natasha and Diana and Carol and Jessica are, they are also ultra... masculine-ified. Eeehhhnnnn, I'm not quite sure if I can put this the way I want to, so let me just try.