Scully the Superheroine
Peacenik
an interesting website about female superheroes and the "Kryptonite
Ceiling" that keeps them from having fulfilling lives.
In the comics, as in the X-Files, the list of "life-derailing
tragedies" that women have to face is daunting -- and it's interesting
how much the superheroines tragedies parallels the misfortunes and
heartbreaks that we've seen Scully (and her sister and colleagues)
deal with on a weekly basis, with such grace and wonder.
Like the superheroines, Scully is a strong woman, but she's still a
woman, and we've seen her victimized in almost all the ways it's
possible to victimize a woman. I'm not really sure what it all means.
I don't want to go into a whole anti-male rant, but I just found the
superheroines list interesting, and it immediately reminded me of
Scully -- losing children, having lives and bodies threatened, being
menaced with sterilization, contracting diseases, and so on...
(Well, the URL and list are below)
Any comments?
=================================================
From:
WOMEN IN REFRIGERATORS, by Gail Simone, comic-book author:
http://www.the-pantheon.net/wir/women.html
Not every woman in comics has been killed, raped, depowered, crippled,
turned evil, maimed, tortured, contracted a disease or had other
life-derailing tragedies befall her, but given the following list
(originally compiled by Gail, with later additions and changes), it's
hard to think up exceptions:
All of Savage Dragon's girlfriends (dead)
Alysande Stuart (dead)
Amethyst (blinded, merged with Gemworld, destroyed in LSH; became a
power-hungry witch in Book of Fate)
Apparition (one of her three bodies dead, soul bound to boyfriend)
Aquagirl (dead)
Arisia (dead)
Aurora (Multiple Personality Disorder, depowered)
Batgirl I (paralyzed)
Batwoman (dead)
Betty Banner (abused, changed into a harpy, multiple miscarriages,
dead)
Mrs. Brian Banner, Bruce's mother (murdered by her abusive husband)
Black Canary I (dead)
Black Canary II (tortured, made infertile, depowered)
Blink (dead)
Bluebird (dead)
Buf from X-Man (crippled)
Candy Southern (dead)
Captain Marvel II/Photon (depowered, ceded code name to a male hero)
Carol Ferris/Star Sapphire (turned into a villain by the Zamarons,
possessed by the Predator)
Celsius (insane, dead, called delusional liar)
Christine Helvin of Troublemakers (victim of date rape, discovered she
could never have children because she was no longer human)
Courtney Ross (dead)
Crimson Fox (both sisters dead)
Dart (crippled)
Dawn Allen (dead)
Dawnstar (wings cut off, possessed by another persona)
Diamond Lil (kidnapped, experimented on by own government, developed
benign breast tumor)
Domino (kidnapped, tortured)
Dove II (dead)
Dr. Midnight of Infinity, Inc. (dead)
Elasti-Girl (only original Doom Patroller to stay dead)
Electrocute (dead)
Elektra (the real one... dead)
Element Girl (dead)
Enchantress of Suicide Squad - originally a heroine (turned evil,
insane, depowered?)
Firebelle (dead)
Firestar (powers were sterilizing her)
Frances Kane/Magenta (stalker complex)
Fury II (child kidnapped, husband killed twice, insane)
Gwen Stacy (dead)
Hawkwoman (depowered)
Hellcat (dead)
Huntress I (dead)
Huntress II (sexually abused)
Ice (dead)
Illyana Rasputin (kidnapped and raised by demons, aged, de-aged, dead)
Invisible Woman (miscarriage of second child)
Jade (lost natural powers)
Jarella (dead)
Jean DeWolff (dead)
Jean Loring Palmer ("nervous breakdown")
Jet of New Guardians (died in battle after contracting HIV)
Jocasta (deactivated - more than once)
Karen Page (addicted to drugs, made porn films, infected with HIV,
dead)
Katma Tui (dead)
Kinetix (depowered twice, catatonic)
Kole (dead)
Lady Flash (evil, dead)
Lady Quark (dead)
Laurel Gand (dead)
Laurel Kent (revealed to be an evil robot, dead)
Linda Park (kidnapped, removed from history)
Looker (now a vampire)
Madelyn Pryor (clone, brood mare, demon queen, dead, brought back)
Mantis (child taken away, dead)
Marlo Chandler -- Rick Jones' wife (former prostitute, killed and
brought back mindless; got better)
Marrina (insane, dead)
Mentalla of LSH (dead)
Mera (insane, child murdered)
Mirage of Team Titans (impregnated by rape)
Mockingbird (abducted and mind-manipulated into a relationship, dead)
Moira MacTaggert (diseased)
Ms. Marvel I/Warbird (mind-controlled, impregnated by rape, powers and
memories stolen, cosmic-powered then depowered, alcoholic - SHEESH!)
Ms. Marvel II (became a monster in Fantastic Four, de-monstered but
enslaved by Dr. Doom, depowered)
Mystek of JLTF (dead)
Namorita (revealed to be a clone, reverted to a more primal Atlantean
form)
Negative Woman (depowered)
Nightshade (depowered)
Nightwind (dead)
Nova II/Frankie Raye (dead)
Phoenix I (evil-dead-who knows)
Power Girl (depowered, magically impregnated, made vulnerable to
unprocessed natural materials... like sharp sticks)
Psylocke (eyes removed, eviscerated, depowered, mind-swapped)
Rachel Summers/Phoenix II (lobotomized)
Raven (sometimes evil, sometimes dead)
Red Guardian II (kidnapped and brainwashed into the love-slave of a
super-villain)
Redwing of Team Titans (dead)
Revanche (dead)
Rogue (just plain messed up)
Roulette (dead)
Scarlet Witch (children 'die'/vanish/are lost because they are
figments of her imagination)
Serpentine
Shrinking Violet (lost a leg in Giffen's Legion)
Shvaughn Erin (turned into a man)
Silver Sorceress (dead)
Snowbird (child and husband murdered, insane, dead)
Spider-Woman I (dead for a while, depowered)
Starfire (raped, tortured, enslaved; forced into marriage... twice)
Storm (depowered, repowered, periodically crazy to one degree or
another)
Supergirl, pre-Crisis (dead)
Supergirl, PAD version (lost her invisibility and most of her
shapeshifting)
SW6 Projectra (dead)
Tarot (dead, brought back w/life bound to an evil man)
Threnody (dead)
Tigra (devolved into cat-thing)
Triplicate Girl (one body killed, one presumed dead but revealed to be
Glorith's pawn)
Wildcat II (dead)
Wolfsbane (locked in werewolf form for awhile, needs major therapy)
Wonder Girl I/Troia/Darkstar (identity and powers stripped from her
multiple times)
Wonder Woman (killed, revived, but lost goddess powers)
Zatanna (powers severely limited)
================================
TomBli
of, well, bias.
For example-> <<Marlo Chandler -- Rick Jones' wife (former prostitute, killed
and brought back mindless; got better)>>>
Yes, seems she got better. Poor old Rick? Well, he died of cancer.
<<Batgirl I (paralyzed)>>
And as I understand it she's still fighting crime. I think this is a positive
message, don't you? Also, the character of Nighthawk was also paralyzed and
he's male. Daredevil is blind and so on. Plenty of superhero folks with
disabilities. Need I mention that Iron-Man is a falling down drunk? The guy had
to give up his career to someone else because he couldn't crawl out of the
bottle. The comic fave Yellowjacket was thrown out of some superhero group
because he had a mental breakdown. Stuff happens to people kooky enough to
fight crime in costumes that look like insects.
<<Captain Marvel II/Photon (depowered, ceded code name to a male hero)>>
What happened to Captian Marvel, you know, the one *she* took her name from?
Oh, he died of cancer.
<<Dawn Allen (dead)>>
Is this the woman who married The Flash? Because see, Barry Allen, The Flash?
He died too.
<<Dawnstar (wings cut off, possessed by another persona)>>
This also happened to Marvel's character of The Angel. And you know, he's a
guy.
<<Diamond Lil (kidnapped, experimented on by own government, developed benign
breast tumor)>>
So I guess she's doing better than poor old Rick Jones and Captian Marvel,
right?
<<Domino (kidnapped, tortured)>>
Gimmee a break! EVERY SINGLE SUPERHERO has been kidnapped and tortured! Even
the males.
<<Hellcat (dead)>>
Hellcat DIED???? Man. I liked her.
<<Huntress I (dead)>>
Oh, she was a skank anyway!
<<Invisible Woman (miscarriage of second child)>>
Gee, like that wouldn't be expected to happen when a woman is fighting in
mortal combat every single day!
<<Jocasta (deactivated - more than once)>>
The same is true of The Vision as well. And?
<<Mirage of Team Titans (impregnated by rape)>>
You could hardly expect this to happen to a GUY, right?
<<Mockingbird (abducted and mind-manipulated into a relationship, dead)>>
I seem to recall she *murdered* the guy who did this to her and that must have
been pretty liberating seeing as how he begged her for his life and all. She
wasn't feeling too charitable.
<<Ms. Marvel II (became a monster in Fantastic Four, de-monstered but enslaved
by Dr. Doom, depowered)>>
All of these same things happened to Ben Grim of the Fantastic Four as well,
and many more times!
<<Rachel Summers/Phoenix II (lobotomized)>>
Same thing happened to Franklin Richards, sone of The Invisible Woman.
<<Red Guardian II (kidnapped and brainwashed into the love-slave of a
super-villain)>>
Oh, *everybody says they must have been brainwashed after they get out of a
bad relationship!
<<Supergirl, pre-Crisis (dead)>>
Um, I seem to recall that even Superman died?
<<Rogue (just plain messed up)>>
And her sidekick Wolverine isn't? I mean, he's kinda sorta a mental case,
isn't he? I mean, he's a psycho who had all kis flesh pulled from his body and
metal bones put into him, right?
<<Scarlet Witch (children 'die'/vanish/are lost because they are
figments of her imagination)>>
No, they were magical creations of some demon overlord or something just as
lame.
<<Snowbird (child and husband murdered, insane, dead)>>
Why did she go insane? Oh, because she killed her long time superhero partner.
A man by the way.
<<Storm (depowered, repowered, periodically crazy to one degree or
another)>>
Her X-Men teammate Banshee was *also* depowered. Only *he* stayed that way and
she didn't. And you know, Banshee is a man. His *daughter* carries on the
family tradition as I understand.
<<Tigra (devolved into cat-thing)>>
And superhero Hank McCoy, called The Beast went from wearinga "beast" suit to
becoming a real beast! He's a hairy wookie like creature!
<<Triplicate Girl (one body killed, one presumed dead but revealed to be
Glorith's pawn)>>
And Marvel's Multiple Man actually died.
<<Zatanna (powers severely limited)>>
This happened to The Hulk, Superman and more than a few others.
I must say that the amount of sexually related abuse or dysfunction and so on
is pretty disturbing here. But we *also* must take into consideration that
these comic books have been published going back to the early 30's! That's
*plenty* of time for hundreds and hundreds of superhero characters and baddies
(not everybody on this list is a goodie you know) to have all kinds of bad
things happen to them. There are far more *male* superheros than female, and
there are far more male characters who have died than females because of that.
I could probab;y have come up with a list like this one if I could remember all
the details of all the comics I read as I was growing up. I really loved them
and a few of the stories have really stayed with me. Yes, comics exploit women,
this is true of every medium. But what's more disturbing to me is that the
*content* in this case is directed towards material intended to be read by
*children*, not adults.
The real issue here isn't that comic scribes seem to have some problems with
women, but that distorted representations of women's lives, of sexuality and an
attitude *towards* women that leaves a great deal to be desired are being fed
to *children*. And for a buck. We could list all these weird stories about
women being killed, or depowered, or whatnot in comics and find they have
*male* comparisons as well. But the sex content in particular is the real
problem. And it doesn't have a counterpart
ToM
W. Blaine Dowler
> <<Rogue (just plain messed up)>>
>
> And her sidekick Wolverine isn't? I mean, he's kinda sorta a mental
> case,
> isn't he? I mean, he's a psycho who had all kis flesh pulled from his
> body and metal bones put into him, right?
Don't forget, he's also had his memories robbed and replaced with false
ones that could be used to control his behaviour, he was blamed for his
parents' deaths at age ten and had to go on the run with his teenage
nanny, etc. He's so messed up, he doesn't even realize that Logan isn't
his name, it's the name of the man that shot his father.
--
- Blaine
http://www.bureau42.com
XFW # 299792458, WM, SW, WNS, NRMTPB, FPSSG
SVS# 0.00729735308002..., CoC #36, SSUCS
TomBli
Oh yeah, that stuff too. Baiscically what you find is that most of these
characters, the Marvel ones in particular have some really messed up thing that
happens to them to make them sort of victims. Singling out the *women* for this
and then talking about discrimination is a little absurd then. Few male heros,
like few males in general, are ever sexually abused as *adults*. I *do* recall
an issue of Miracle Man that my cousin had where his boy side kick is raped by
a group of older boys. That was pretty sick. *None* of this stuff should be
seen nby kids.
I think the reason we see a lot of this stuff is because it isn't what we'd
*expect* to find in comics, or what have been traditionally a *part* of comics.
It makes them *seem* more sophisticated than they really are. And that's the
point to it. Let's face it, a character worrying about infertility as a draw
back to their superpower brings many more elements to the character than simply
worrying about Kryptonite. But this hand seems to have been overplayed to a
disturbing level here and there. And it really isn't stuff for kids to be
looking at IMO.
ToM