Calling All Female Superheroes

By Christine Westwood

Scarlett Johansson is magnificent. As cyber-cop Major in Ghost in the Shell she has super strength, x-ray vision and a formidable way with weapons, following up nicely after her title role in Lucy from a few years ago. In interviews Johansson says she trained ‘a lot!’ to achieve a believable tactical efficiency and cyborg physique.

Or, as one male colleague commented, “Scarlett Johansson in a nude body suit – what’s not to watch?”

The suit is actually a technological device that can render her invisible, so it is plot pertinent, but it also brings up an issue that has always dogged female superheroes – their super powers are often outweighed by emphasis on their sexualised bodies. Created from comic book conventions of the mid-20th century, female superheroes were stereotyped by the often misogynist values and tastes of the time, relegated to the role of eye candy and love interest or designed as female counterparts to existing male superheroes.

That said, this article is more inclined to be a feminist celebration than a feminist polemic because, in spite of the ridiculous pressures against them, the girls have fought back and in some cases won, like – well, superheroes.

For a start, the last few years have seen better writing and more character development. Ghost in the Shell is a good example of how the basic ‘fight for justice’ theme is underpinned by a classic hero’s journey. A deeper, universal layer is the search for identity and personal empowerment, core issues that inform the best in the young adults fantasy genre.

Winding the clock back over 40 years ago, Lynda Carter made a huge impact as the first Wonder Woman, her definitive character finally being reprised this year by Gal Gadot. Carter’s red satin tights and bustier, lasso throwing, confidence and ‘fight for right’ stance are iconic in the superhero hall of fame. There is an interesting backstory to Wonder Woman’s comic book origins, lending a clue to why she managed to hold her own in the misogyny of 1940s and 1950s America.

In Annals of Entertainment, Jill Lepore reports on a contemporary press release on Wonder Woman’s comic book appearance in 1941. Wonder Woman was created by William Moulton Marston, a psychologist with a Ph.D. from Harvard…” to set up a standard among children and young people of strong, free, courageous womanhood; to combat the idea that women are inferior to men, and to inspire girls to self-confidence and achievement in athletics, occupations and professions monopolized by men” because “the only hope for civilization is the greater freedom, development and equality of women in all fields of human activity.” Marston put it this way: “Frankly, Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world.”

With that encouraging brief, Wonder Woman survived and thrived. Gadot’s style and story lines will hopefully bring current cinema and writing savvy to the character, because she is the only 2017 classic superhero movie being headlined by a female, and the only female superhero in the latest Superman and Justice League DC movies.

The original Wonder Woman screened from 1975-1979 and was closely followed by Lindsay Wagner as Bionic Woman Jaime Sommers 1976-1978. The Bionic Woman was created in the early era of women’s lib rather than from the pages of an existing comic book. She was a normal young woman, a tennis pro, who acquired super strength. This made her relatable to young female viewers, as did her attributes of intelligence, athleticism, ethics and beauty.

On the flip side, Bionic Woman was derived from the hugely successful Six Million Dollar Man, following Supergirl and Batgirl as secondary counterparts to iconic male superheroes. Batgirl turned up onscreen in the late 1960s Batman series and in the rather dreadful 1997 Batman and Robin movie by Joel Schumacher. Alicia Silverstone played the movie version as a motorcycle-riding computer geek who gets to fight a female super anti-hero in the shape of Uma Thurman’s Poison Ivy.

Poison Ivy’s human alter ego was an environmental scientist until a freak accident rendered her half plant, half human. Crafty and deadly, she issued the ultimate dark female revenge threat. “I am Mother Nature and it’s time for plants to take back the world.” Ivy attempts this coup by using her superpower pheromones (yes, hormones) to seduce her opponents, a plot item on par with the costume bought from a sex shop for Halle Berry’s Catwoman.

Talking of Catwoman, there have been several incarnations, beginning with Eartha Kitt’s defining purring, hissing performance (Batman 1967-1968). Trading on her singing fame, Kitt managed to nab the iconic role when substantial female characters were a rarity and African-American actresses even more so. She lacked real super powers, as did Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns (1992), but Halle Berry took on extra speed and agility as well as the black leather for the headline role in the 2004 movie. Unfortunately, dull performances and uninspiring plot lines didn’t help the super heroine cause in this case. Contrast Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, whose superhuman strength and layered, relatable character earned top ratings for six years from when it hit the TV network in 1997.

Prototype male Superman has had a couple of notable Supergirl spin-offs. The headline movie in 1984, starring Helen Slater, justifiably bombed because of poor scripting that made her weak, one-dimensional and plain dull. Even a badly written superhero needs to be fun. Smallville (2007-2011) managed to give Superman’s cousin, played by Laura Vandervoort, some zest and a worthwhile job to do in encouraging Clark Kent to embrace his superpowers. CBS series Supergirl starring Melissa Benoist, averaged 10 million viewers on its first season and is slated to move to CW for a second series run. Supergirl is basically a straightforward crime-fighting hero show with a competent heroine, while Jessica Jones who began life in the 2001 Marvel comic Alias #1, is darker fare. Krysten Ritter plays Jessica with extreme strength and jumping abilities, and a traumatic past that drives her to become an investigator of adulterous marriages.

Meanwhile the X-Men movie franchise (2000-2016) has showcased a number of females with superpowers. The range of powers, costumes and more nuanced performances has served female superheroes rather better than the all too often stereotyped fare, but lead male protagonists like Xavier and Wolverine are always front and centre. Halle Berry (again) pulled on the lycra for her role as weather witch Storm, while Anna Paquin played the conflicted Rogue, making as much as she could from her plot lines that most often have her being rescued by Wolverine. Dr Jean Grey, played by Famke Janssen, has super powerful telekinesis ability but is reined in by Xavier until The Last Stand when she achieves her full powers and turns villain.

Arguably the most striking female X-Men superheroine is the formidable Mystique. The character has her own (blue) version of the naked body suit so beloved by comic book illustrators, super strength and speed and the power to morph into anyone at will. Who wouldn’t want those powers? Rebecca Romijn played her in the first movies but it was Jennifer Lawrence’s more nuanced and interesting performances in the prequels that are the standout.

Like Johansson, Lawrence has the physical naturalness and ability to own her sexuality (even when dressed as naked) that keeps her female character from being disempowered. She can also act and is eminently relatable, as proven by the runaway success of The Hunger Games (2012-2015) in which she plays a female character with superior though human abilities and a strong moral code. Beatrice Prior, played by Shailene Woodley in the Divergent series (2014-2017) is along the same lines. The popularity of these more recent kick-ass lead roles for young women has made studios question their previous myopia that audiences are predominantly teenage boys. Kristen Stewart in a reworking of Snow White has the heroine growing into a leadership warrior role, and even Alice in Wonderland’s Mia Wasikowska picks up a sword to fight for right in the Tim Burton adaptation (2010).

These updated story lines feed back into the mainstream, generating more powerful perspectives on our female heroes. The drawback is that girls are still being judged in traditional male terms of combat and physical action. But this is the language of action film, and certainly superhero action, where the usual destiny of said hero is to save others from physical peril from a dark and evil force.

The inroads in the superhero world are statistically small but significant. Females count for less than one quarter of comic book characters, women comic book artists and writers number around 10-12 per cent at DC and Marvel. The vote is still out as to whether violent female action heroes, super or otherwise, represent any real gain for female parity. In Ghost in the Shell, the battle-scarred Major chooses the vigilante life, encountering one or two positive female characters in a sea of male grunt. Most of the other females are prostitutes, or dead. Plot conventions like the car chase, the guys eating bad food in the stake-out car, the obligatory club scene with naked girls on poles – the movie may be set in a dystopian future but some tropes are still James Bond cliches from the 1960s.

In some ways it is still an uphill fight to produce nuanced, non-sexist female hero characters. You have to hand it to actresses like Lawrence and Johansson for their fortitude in staying in the game and doing their best to level the playing field. The girls need all their superpowers to keep taking on the comic book genre’s entrenched conventions and turn them around.