There is an excellent post by Colleen Mondor over on her blog Chasing Ray about Super Heroines. It’s a part of the ongoing “What a Girl Wants” series, which has provided a bunch of other thought-provoking discussions over the last few months that are worth checking out too.
Reading all the great responses in the WAGW post inspires me to gush about my own love of super heroines, especially because comics and superheros were one of the inspirations for my most recent writing project, CIRCUS GALACTICUS, and because Trix, the main character of CG, owes a whole lot to the glorious tradition of butt-kicking super-heroines
Like Colleen, I grew up reading comic books. I started with Archie but the Betty/Veronica/Archie triangle wore me out pretty quickly and I moved happily on to superheroes. My absolute favorites were always the Marvel mutant books, starting with the X-Men and the New Mutants. I loved the idea of a band of young people with strange and scary powers, feared by the rest of the world but pledged to defend it. I also found characters I could identify with (Kitty/Shadowcat, Rahne/Wolfsbane) and others I admired for the qualities they had that I felt I lacked, like toughness and self-confidence (Ororo/Storm, Rogue, Dani/Mirage). I started reading X-Men when Storm was the leader of the group and Mirage was the leader of the New Mutants, which I suspect had a lot to do with my instant and intense attraction to the books.
Eventually the ever-multiplying hydra-like heads of the X-books became too much for my budget and I stopped my monthly comic splurge, but I’ve continued to be a big fan of superheroes in general, and occasionally daydream of trying to catch back up on the lives of my childhood heroes. But I’ve found other venues, and other cool girl “superheroes” like Buffy and Xena and Sydney (Alias) and Max (Dark Angel). [I also recommend the animated X-Men: Evolution TV series. It takes some liberties with the comic book canon, but I found it to be marvelous and rich and entertaining in its own way. The goth Rogue from Evolution does a lot to balance out my disappointment with the wimpy Rogue from the otherwise enjoyable X-Men feature films].
I think we definitely need these type of strong, active “super heroines” out there in our media — and we particularly need characters that reflect the diversity of our real world, in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, class, etc. I do think that there are more of these heroines out there right now than we might think. But there are also plenty of frustratingly unempowered characters, and it can be a challenge to avoid them when so often they are dressed up in the same tights and cape, so to speak.
One issue that some of the panelists bring up on the WAGW post is that of what it takes to be a “super heroine” — how much of it is based on the sort of butt-kicking power and action that typifies the superhero genre?
I find it an interesting question because part of my motivation in my first two books was to create strong girl characters who accomplished significant and challenging deeds using their wits and guts rather than kung-fu prowess and KAPOW! knockout action. And that wasn’t a reaction to the many male superheroes out there– it was more directly a reaction the fact that most of the tough female role-models I was familiar with were warriors, confronting their challenges physically. Don’t get me wrong– I LOVED those tough girl fighters. I loved watching Buffy staking vampires and Xena trouncing warlords; I ate up books about sword-swinging gals like Robin McKinley’s Harry and Aerin and Tamora Pierce’s Alanna. But I wanted to experiment with characters who didn’t have as much raw physical power, and see how I could get them to kick butt too (even if it was metaphorical butt). Much as I enjoyed fantasizing about being a shield-maiden, I really didn’t feel like one. So I do think we need girl heroes who are strong in many different ways, in order for all of us to find a hero we can identify with.
On the other hand, while I’m glad to have had the chance to write about my not-quite-Warrior-Princesses, after I had finished their stories I decided that it was time to write about a girl who really was an action hero: someone whose first instinct was to fight back physically. Someone who maybe even was a little reckless letting her words (and fists) fly. Someone confident in her body and in her physicality. Someone who was not really like me at all, but who I could still find inspiring and fun because she had qualities I wished I had. That was, in part, where Trix came from, with her pink hair, her brashness, her acrobatics, her daring, and her courage.
So bring on the super heroines of all kinds: butt-kickers, scientists, and peace-makers. Buffy and Willow. Kitty and Ororo. Because I think we all need a super hero who can inspire us, both by reflecting the best of what we are, and by illuminating what we wish we could be.
And now I have to go try to get my hands on the Justice Society of America and find out more about Power Girl!
