Superheroines Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I guess I was early to the party when I bemoaned the lack of superheroine movies and Thera Pitts was fashionably on time. Her editorial on Rope of Silicon has set the blogosphere on fire, prompting hundreds of comments on Jezebel alone ... and an incredibly short-sighted rant by Josh Tyler of Cinema Blend.

Guess what ladies? If you went to see Spider-Man or The Dark Knight, it was merely because there wasn't a romantic comedy for you to go see. Girls only like Julia Roberts movies and not "boy things" like superheroes. Tyler writes, "Wishing for more female superhero movies is kind of like longing for more Sex and the City knockoffs with all-male casts. It'll never work and it's not because of sexism or Hollywood bias or whatever rabble rousing labels you want to throw on it. It'll never work simply because men and women have different interests. There's a reason Wonder Woman is the only noteworthy solo female superhero anyone can name. It's because men like superheroes, men wish they could be superheroes, and it's men who see superhero movies and read superhero comic books." So, back to the kitchen and make those comic-book reading boys some pie, ladies. You like girl things, and Wolverine isn't a girl thing at all.

Continued after the jump...

In the glorious aftermath of Iron Man, Marvel announced the dates for who was to follow in his titanium alloyed footsteps, and not surprisingly there's nary a superheroine among them.

I'm a little late to this conversation – even Defamer was calling for a superchick movie last week, but we all know you're stylish if you arrive late to the party. And frankly, as a geek girl, I'm given a pass and can talk about this stuff whenever the mood strikes me. Plus, if I had done it last week, we wouldn't have gotten to talk about all those cool comic books.

It's a surprising fact, but the comic book world is a lot more accepting of tough women than mainstream Hollywood. There are no doubt loads of men and women who disagree with me, pointing to Frank Miller or the unrealistic body expectations. No doubt there are a lot of damning storylines and panels ("Quiet, or Papa spank!"), but I find much of it easy to shrug off. I'm as staunch a feminist as you can find, but I've never been able to completely shake my fist at the industry because, dammit, there was Wonder Woman and Jean Grey. From the start, comic book heroines were strong individuals, capable of action. A glance through Marvel or DC titles show plenty of women who kick ass as heroes, villains, and all the ambiguity in between.

And they've been doing it for years! Wonder Woman was battling villains when women were still being run out of the workplace – and sporting a mini-skirt while women were still unusual in pants. Of course, they show leg, of course they are extremely pretty and curvaceous, but so what? The men are all cleft-jawed and ripped like gods, so we're hardly seeing a fair shake for either gender there.