Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018 at 7 p.m., Bowers Writers House welcomed guest speaker and author of the novel “Superwomen and Supergirls: Gender, Power, and Representation in Comics, TV, and Film,” Carolyn Cocca, who is a scholarly expert on the appearance of females in modern superhero narratives in daily media. Today, the presence of women taking on superhero roles is increasing, but their representation must be considered.
Cocca talked about several key concepts in her presentation by defining Trinity Syndrome, which involves how a woman trains a male character to a point where the man surpasses the woman and becomes stronger and superior; this ultimately leads to the female’s downfall.
Cocca also described the Bechdel Test, which is named after cartoonist Alison Bechdel. The test measures the representation of women in fiction and determines whether the fiction work shows women talking to each other about something other than men.
Cocca’s presentation was image heavy to analyze different images and portrayals of female superheroes in comics, television shows and movies. Representation is important to understand, and so are its potential hazards of stereotyping.
The word “girl” is used in several female superhero names such as Batgirl, Supergirl and Invisible Girl. This makes the female seem young and naïve compared to the men that she fights alongside.
Current movies center around men as the primary focus to the storyline, which causes the women’s roles to be overlooked. There are few TV shows where the roles are switched, and the woman is the main hero.
Cocca focused a lot of her images around the representation of Wonder Woman and how her image has changed over the decades. In the 1940s, the way Wonder Woman was shown made her seem just as capable as men. Wonder Woman was given superiority over men, and her character was a symbol of the fact that women’s role in society during the time of the war effort shifted to a more active public role, rather than the traditional household role.
The 1950s and 1960s saw Wonder Woman in a different light. Her character changed, and she was a more emotional and weak character whose only concern was her appearance. This showed more stereotypes of women in society.
In the 1970s and 1990s, superhero teams formed such as The Avengers, The Justice League, and the XMen. The groups’ ratios of male to females were typically one female to numerous men.
In most images of the teams, the men always look fierce and muscular, taking up most of the frame with their attention towards the front to show they are ready for action. The female characters would be in the back turned away from the men, and their bodies would be more of an object for people to look at.
Also, in the 1970s through the early 2000s, comics were defying physics in the way girls would show curvier poses in images, so that it looked like they were breaking their backs. This brings us to the 2000s, where we see a lot of diversity in race, gender and ethnicity. Some characters are shown to have a type of disability and are portrayed just as strong and powerful as characters within different superhero stories.
Cocca commented on the effects of these changes.
“There is a slow change right now. It is because of whoever is behind the scenes because they have the power of the kind of representation that is shown,” she said. “If there is more diversity behind the scenes, then it could show more realistic and well-rounded people.”
“I liked [the talk]. I thought it was insightful to know just how important representation to how females are portrayed and how their part is often missed,” senior Julia Raup-Collado said.
“I think that the way women are portrayed is ridiculous because it creates a false image of how women should be seen,” senior Emily Wieder said. “Also, I find it interesting the way that young people will absorb these stereotypes of male and female roles.”
Cocca hopes that those who attended will take away that there is a lot of power in storytelling, that representation matters and everyone has the potential to be a hero.
