Halloween is
around the corner, and seeing as how graduate school devours the majority of my
time, I revel in the times of year where scholarly articles take a backseat to
special events. I visited a Halloween store over the weekend, skimming the
inventory for popular costume ideas. It was rapidly apparent that there were
numerous character costumes for boys, particularly superheroes and well-known
male characters from which boys could choose, while the scarcity for girls was
noticeable. As I searched through the girl’s section, the majority of costumes,
particularly in the teen girl section, consisted of generic “hippies,” animals, dolls, “flappers,” decade
costumes, and Disney princesses. I was
astonished at how few dress-up options there were for girls. According to
various search engines and online articles (Syracuse.com; Yahoo.com), the most
popular costume searched by women/teens this year was the infamous Miley Cyrus
VMA onesie. Who can girls imagine themselves as, while they play imaginary
games? Who do they aspire to be, as they imagine themselves in the future? Boys
have superheroes and action stars, what have we given girls?
I thought back
to the latest installment of superhero movies, particularly as the battle
between DC and Marvel characters take over the latest blockbusters, and was not
surprised to find that the majority of the feminine characters are noticeably
absent, have morphed into hyper-sexualized versions of their original comic
persona, or have strongly been rejected as movie “failures.” With new versions
of Superman, the Ironman trilogy, the Spiderman trilogy, Avengers, Green
Lantern, Captain America, and the recently re-vamped Batman series, very few
have created strong feminine characters that are recognizable out-of-context from
a male counterpart. Aside from The Black
Widow in Avengers, who clearly demonstrates agency, strength, and intelligence,
the movie itself failed the Bechdel test and produced only one leading woman
superhero. Superman introduced us to Lois Lane, who besides doing strong
investigative work in the first part of the movie, was later shown doing little
beyond helping Superman discover his identity. Spiderman gave us Mary Jane, who
was mostly villain bait, Captain America gave us Peggy Carter, whose general
mission was to advocate for Captain American even at the risk of damaging her
own career in the military, and Green Lantern gave us Carol Ferris, who was a
businesswoman with a weak spot for the fearless Hal Jordan. Batman gave us
Catwoman, who sported the well-known black leather outfit, and struggled with
her loyalty to Batman. Even the new Thor, which has been lauded for passing the
Bechdel test within the first few minutes, has not lended itself to creating a feminine
character that is well-known and recognizable as a stand-alone costume.
Overall,
Elektra and Catwoman (both of whom were costumed in tight-fitting leather),
were rejected at the box office and downgraded as comical heroes. Wonderwoman
continues to exist in limbo, as producers tip-toe around her character and
postpone her debut as a leading superlady. As kids imagine, daydream, and play,
they look to relevant characters in the media to embody. Halloween stores
provide us an annual mirror, reflecting what our culture glorifies, mocks, and
overlooks. What messages are we sending
to girls, other than the message that we do not exist or deserve to be named,
to have strong adult women missing from their media? So now I can ask, give us prolific
characters for girls to imagine themselves as and for which to strive, give us characters
so badass, that boys will be wearing girls’ costumes-not because it’s funny,
but because it’s so cool.
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