Final Project: Blog 2--Female Characters' Roles Compared to Gender-typed Roles

In "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice," Wonder Woman is portrayed as a woman that stands there and shows off her pretty face. That is similar to society today, since there is so much emphasis from the media for women to look fabulous and young at all times. Also, Wonder Woman steals a zip drive from Batman, which she distracts him by her looks, and then she makes a quick, sly move and disappears with the drive. That reminds me of gender-typed roles in today society, since women are often portrayed and seen as sneaky. Oftentimes, women will be shown as a thief in movies, graphic novels, or in other forms of visual art, which send that message that women are untrustworthy, so men will remain the leader's in current society.


In "The Incredibles," Holly Hunter (elastic girl) goes into hiding with her husband, Mr. Incredible, so they are able to resume normal lives with their newly started family and with their children. When Holly is trying to live a normal, mundane life, she becomes a housewife and assumes all of the household responsibilities. This is similar to the gender-typed roles we have in society today. We tell women and girls that they are responsible for the wellbeing of the household, their husbands, and their children. When Holly is not only taking care of the house, she is often chasing after her children, since her husband is always at work. This seems to exhaust her throughout the animated, comedy film, but even when her husband does come home, he does not try to help her with those responsibilities and give her a break. He is shown in the movie as coming home and having his wife serve him his dinner, and then he retires to his office or bedroom. This is similar to society today with gendered roles, since women oftentimes are not giving breaks with their family responsibilities, and they are not shared with their husband. Because of this, women experience less satisfaction with their marriage after their first child, since they had expectations for how life would be, but all those that she thought would help her take care of the children, do not.

In "Wonder Woman," there are a lot of gendered roles that are so obvious, but unless you are consciously thinking of them, you likely would not notice them. Throughout the graphic novel, Wonder Woman is seen as emotional, which then drives her actions. Because she is so emotional, she can't control how she responds to these emotionally evoking situations. This is similar to gender-typed roles in society, since women are always described as being emotional beings, and because of this, women are not seen as leaders and typically do not hold powerful positions in life and in occupations. Another gendered role was when Wonder Woman met a powerful warrior, named War. War begins mentoring her and teaching her his craft, but he talks to her in a belittling fashion. War is seen throughout the graphic novel as calling Wonder Woman "little one," which derails her position and power that were establish within the comic. This is extremely similar to situations that occur in society, since men have "pet names" for women that seem endearing and sweet at first, but in reality, they are riddled with benevolent sexism. Wonder Woman eventually finds out that she has been tricked and fooled by War, which shows the mental incapability of women compared to men, which is often times thought about and believed in society. Especially if you look at history, there used to be falsified studies that said that women's brains differed from men's brains, which was an attempt to show that men were more superior to women in all aspects of life.


In "Catwoman," there is very prevalent gendered roles being depicted throughout the graphic novel. Selina Kyle (Catwoman) has a job as an office secretary, which directly related to gendered roles within society for women, since most, if not all of those positions are filled by women. Although these women may gain promotions or be promised the ability to move up within the company, these are jobs in which there is a glass ceiling effect, and it is utterly impossible to move up into a more powerful position. What would your title be called if you are promoted as secretary? Would you be called head secretary? Another gendered role in "Catwoman" is when she is lying in the alley, and a man comes up to her and tries to help her, but she says, "I like being invisible." This is the creators way of making Catwoman seem emotional and overdramatic, which is a role that women too often take on in everyday society, which also inhibits their ability to be described as the same characteristics as a male would be. Similar to Wonder Woman, Catwoman is tricked at the end of the graphic novel also. She is tricked by the man who tries to help her in the beginning of the novel, which was when she was very vulnerable in the book. This depicts more gendered roles, since battered women as seen as vulnerable and prey to those that are looking to take advantage of someone feeling desperate.


In "Supergirl," she is shown as being clueless and not understanding anything that is going on around her. She even claims that this may be a dream. This relates to gender-typed roles in society, since women are often times seen as less superior to men with mental abilities, especially math. Girls and young women are often graded more harshly on math exams than boys or young men, but not for ability...but for simply being a girl. Later in the graphic novel, Supergirl is being beat up by male robots, and when they start trying to kidnap her, they say, "calm down, okay honey?" This is the male mind showing that they think women over-exaggerate in many situations, and even in the most traumatic situations, we are depicted as being overly emotional or irrational.


Gender-typed roles are still extremely prevalent in society, and they can be seen in graphic novels, movies, and other media outlets. Although we have had some flexibility in these gendered roles, there is still a ridged structure that has specific guidelines that were established by society, which says how a man should be and act and how a woman should be and act.