Final Project: Blog 5- "The Accidental Supermom: Superheroines and Maternal Performativity"

In "The Accidental Supermom: Superheroines and Maternal Performativity," it discusses how feminists were adopting modern superheroines to use as a symbol for a woman's ability to have it all, which led to the adoption of Wonder woman. These icons eventually became symbols for women's maternity, and D'amore explains, "The Wonder Woman glorified on the pages on Ms. in 1972 fostered identification with struggle, independence, and strength. Even for women who never read a comic book...the symbol of the superheroine was influential to their lives, by its feminist association as a symbol of personal empowerment" (1227). Women icons started to develop in a different direction, where they would depict what they thought a women should be and remaining characterized as nurturing and maternal. During this time, comics remained depicting women in traditional roles, even though the feminist movement was breaking ground in changing gendered roles, so that they could transmit information to their young, mass audience.

The first female superheroine discussed is Invisible Girl, which she first appears in the Fantastic Four. During Invisible Girl's comic life, she was the first superhero to get married, and then the first superhero to have a child and become a mother. Because of this, Invisible Girl "took on multiple personalities of the composite American woman--both feminist and domestic, equal and dependent, worker and mother" (1231). Invisible Girl becoming a mother and wife, mirrored modern day society and women in the 1960s. Invisible Girl was the modern day icon for how women should balance work and maternity, and there was no competition. When Invisible was faced with the decision to run away from a battle to keep her baby out of harms way or fight with the other fantastic 3, she was forced to leave. She was devalued as a worker by her teammates solely because she is a mother.

The next superheroine discussed was Storm, and Storm emerged during the 1970s feminist movement. During this time, the feminist movement hit a wall when people became angered over the fact that they only regarded issues that non-white, working class, and poor women faced. Black women felt extremely left out because not only did white women ignore their problems, but so did their black men. Because of this, there was ultimately no representations of black women in the media, but eventually Storm made her debut in the X Men. Storm was depicted as an animal like woman, who needed to be civilized. D'amore further explains, "She did not wear clothes, her hair was unkempt, and she spoke in deliberate (albeit grammatical) sentences, implicating her as primitive and exotic...immense power endowed her with the potential to be savage and brutal" (1241). Looking at the meaning of the name "Storm," the term literally means darkness, since a storm is powerful and absent of light, but their had a deeper meaning, since whites saw black people as darkness, which meant tainted. Thus, that was the personality that storm took on and embodied. Storm was also largely sexualized, since she was depicted wearing little to no clothes, where her hair covered her breasts and she had leaves over her genitals.

In D'amore's article, she discusses the large influences that society had on comics and ultimately, the subliminal messages being sent to the mass public. Social issues led comics to develop by discussing stereotypes and views about women, which is much like today. In "Wonder Woman," Wonder Woman's job was to serve War and follow his every command while she was training with him. The entire time Wonder Woman is being taught by War, she is entirely submissive and barely speaks. Finally, Wonder Woman stands up to War and defies his command, so he snaps and physically assaults her. This is much like society today, since many young women are silenced and taken advantage of by older men.

This is very similar to "Catwoman," because the comic begins with Catwoman being thrown out of a building into an alley after she was beaten by a past employer. Catwoman is a homeless orphan who needed that job to support herself, so the older man is asserting his power over Catwoman, knowing that there is nothing that she could do that would taint his name. Later, Catwoman is helped by a different man, who offers her a second chance as a secretary. He promises her that she can move up quickly, and I think this directly relates to society today. All secretaries are women, and there is really no promotion for a secretary. Sure you can get pay raises, but your title always stays the same, thus your position is the same.

Similarly in Supergirl, I think the huge societal influence was that women are trying to be the sole breadwinners of the house, if they choose to, but some men are threatened by this idea. They believe that it will damage our children, and ultimately, disrupt society. In "Supergirl," Supergirl is alone fighting off robots that are trying to kidnap her. When she can no longer fight them off any longer, Superman comes and saves the day. This shows the modern sexist ideals where women can work outside of the home and come close to saving the day, but it will always be the man that is able to put the pieces together and supply a happy life.

In "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice," Wonder Woman is undercover during most of the movie, but she is seen as only a pretty face the entire time. She is seen with very skimpy dresses on and always flirtatiously smirking towards Batman. Wonder Woman's personality resembles the expected personalities of women today. We are taught to look beautiful at all costs, since that is what will be our leading attribute. I mean, women that are beautiful, get paid on average, more than women who are deemed less attractive. Pretty insane ideology, since beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

In "The Incredibles," Holly (known as Elastic Girl) is going to fight their biggest foe at the end of the movie, but Mr. Incredible commands her to stay at home with his family. She pleads to come with and that he needs her, but ultimately, he finds her requests inappropriate. Holly was never left behind before, but since there was a conflict between family and work, she is always forced to make the ultimately sacrifice, which is to choose family before work. That is the constant battle for women today, and when this movie was made, which was once a woman starts a family and has children, she is to leave behind her career and resume a domestic life.