The Poison Maiden & The Great Bitch: Female Stereotypes in Marvel Superhero Comics
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| Title: | The Poison Maiden & The Great Bitch: Female Stereotypes in Marvel Superhero Comics |
| Publisher: | T-K Graphics |
| Editor(s): | Susan Wood Glicksohn |
| Type: | |
| Date(s): | 1974 |
| Medium: | |
| Size: | digest-sized |
| Fandom: | Marvel Comics |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Poison Maiden & The Great Bitch: Female Stereotypes in Marvel Superhero Comics is a 40-page essay by Susan Wood Glicksohn.
The essay contains many illos by Terry Austin.
From the essay: "Due to copyright restrictions, the artwork in they publication has deliberately been drawn so as not to resemble specific Marvel Comic characters, and any such resemblance is purely accidental."
Excerpts from the Essay
Someone had better warn the Men's Lib people that women seem to be taking over yet another bastion of male life: superhero comics. Women like the revived Black Widow (now there's a threatening name!) battle the super-villains, and sometimes the superheros. On occasion, they even win! Women, or rather sweet girls, "cute chicks" like Gwen Stacy, grow increasingly important to the life of the superhero. Usually, their influence is as destructive as the Widow's bite. They mess up the hero's emotions, thus distracting him when he should be fighting, or resting up between fights; they leave him in his hour of triumph, thus emphasizing his loneliness, the price of alienation he must pay for his powers; they hysterically reject his violent alter-ego, or de mand attention for themselves, thus deprivlng him of the sympathy he needs after a hard day of saving the world; and worst of all, they expose him to danger on their fragile behalf, thus threatening him through their own vulnerability. Women are increasingly, negatively, important in the masculine comic world.
Girls are even reading these boy-oriented adventures! Only think of this possible confusion, as both Dick and Jane come to detest Gwen's "feminine" tears and emotional storms, and to admire Natasha's "masculine" independence, her skills and daring. Imagine them going even further, to ask why Gwen is portrayed as she is, distorted by Peter Parker's insecurities and distanced from his real, fun life of punching out other masked marauders and costumed crusaders; and to wonder why there aren't more superheroines on the news stands of the nation. Meanwhile, picture them now, absorbing the stereotypes of the comics, under all their self-conscious cries of reality and relevance, still present.
Not to worry, though. The stereotypes retain their power in superherodom. Natasha, lacking her own magazine, appears courtesy of DAREDEVIL, as long as she retains the hero's romantic interest. Like other heroines and vi1lainesses, she is a stereotyped media image of a 'liberated chick'. One reader observed in amazement that she doesn't (gasp!) wear a bra. (How many male characters are drawn undressing, or taking a shower?) Certainly, aside from a certain independence in the matter of undergarments, the lady is present ed as an emotional creature who'll gladly trade her karate lessons for rescue by, and a date with, the hero. Not to worry, either, about Gwen and her counterparts, decorative and expendable, their appearances minor and the emotion involved on a love-comics level, full of sobs and tears dripping from eyes.
As science fiction writer Vonda McIntyre pointed out in a letter to me, it would be tempting, but futile, to send another letter to the Marvel editor pointing out that THOR al ready contains significant departures from Norse myth—that perhaps mortal women did stay at home, but that:
- the Goddesses were very active...that Thor had red hair and a beard, that Odin had one eye and a couple of attendant ravens, that Sif had golden (literally) hair and that Balder was dead (and didn't fight when he was alive), and he'll cry poetic (sic) license, alternate universe, and the right of "mythmakers" (they have a very high opinion of themselves) to make new myths.
I sent Marvel a Toronto newspaper article which made passing reference to a commune named after supervillain Dr. Doom; almost by return post came a thank-you note from "gal Friday Holli Resnicoff". The first part of the original version of this study was handed to Smilin' Stan Lee at the 1972 Cosmicon at York University in Toronto; the second part was mailed to him at Marvel's New York offices. I have yet to receive even a form letter acknowledging receipt of the material.
Eve Pulli, however, received two answers, one indirect. Marvel, at the time, was featuring two Valkyries: in HULK #142. The Valkyrie, a castrating-bitch destroyer, who threatened the Hulk but existed primarily as a vehicle for scripter RoyThomas to continue the Marvel tradition of portraying the Women' s Liberation Movement as a sick joke; and in THOR #195 and on, Hildegarde, an ugly masculine butch out of warped male sex-fantasies if there ever was one, whose first act was to clobber the weeping Sif.
Germaine Greer in THE FEMALE EUNUCH calls such contemporary versions of the old sexual stereotypes the Poison Maiden and the Great Bitch. The former is the inaccessible princess in the enchanter's fortress or dragon's lair, the pure, the perfect, passive virgin whose love may be won only with physical and mental pain. She is woman as ideal—and as precious possession. The latter is "the deadly female, a worthy opponent for the hero to exercise his powers upon and through. She is desirous, greedy, clever, dishonest, and two jumps ahead all the time. The hero may either have her on his side, and like a lion-tamer sool her onto his enemies, or he may have to battle for his life at her hands."
While Marveldom doesn't eliminate sex from its adolescent fantasies by eliminating females, it does simplify complex human relationships down to "woman as exploit". The superhero rarely relax es at home (though exceptions include SPIDERMAN #99 in which Gwen cooks dinner for Peter; AVENGERS #92 in which the male characters, including the android Vision, combine to ignore or put down Wanda; and FANTASTIC FOUR #120, in which The Thing relaxes with a girlie mag). Instead, he's out risking his life to save the Poison Maiden from monsters, captors and deadly bondages; or calling on all his prowess to subdue the villainous (chivalrously, of course).
Women are associated wi th emotion, men with action in the comic's world. So what else is new? Mis directed emotion can turn a desirable Maiden in to a destructive Bitch. Even Peter Parker became so disgusted with Gwen's fickleness that he grumbled to the Torch about "girl trouble". More seriously, unthinking rhetoric of black revolutionary Lelia in CAPTAIN AMERICA leads to a ghetto fire, a near takeover by the Red Skull who is manipulating racial hatreds, and worst of all, the breakup of Cap and the Falcon.
Warped emotions create most of the Black Widow's problems. Like the superheroes, she is haunted by emotional problems created by her superpowers-- specifically, "a curse...making me truly what my namesake is accused to be...a killer -- of those she loves." In the DAREDEVIL episode described earlier, her emotional turmoil is aggravated by self-blame for the Scorpian's death, followed by public persecution and a murder charge. Thus in confusion and frenzy she lashes out at DD, who is trying to save her, much as Namor, the Hulk and even human heroes are provoked into violence by prejudice and attack. Fortunately, Ivan, her faithful friend/chauffeur/guardian always rescues her from enemies, including herself; and in this appearance, DD easily subdues her into a bewil dered girl ready to accept his attentions. Disturbingly sexy, potentially deadly, violent but vulnerable, the Widow embodies a whole culture's uneasy attitudes to dynamic women.
Does it matter? Well, yes, if you agree with Stan Lee that comics and their values affect their readers' minds. If you agree that these comics which, by touting their 'relevance', pretend to reflect reality, in fact shape a specific reality for children as they are becoming aware of adult social and sexual roles. If you are concerned that your boyfriend or son may have his vision of half of humanity shaped by the choice between the deadly Black Widow and the unreasonable Gwen Stacey. If you care that your daughter may learn her place in the world from Sue Richards — or from Conan. If you are tired of playing Aunt Tom, smiling and agreeing that you shouldn't "get so serious" about demeaning stereotypes that make him a hero, and you a "wench" or "chick".
If it matters—start the change by writing to:
Stan Lee c/o Marvel Comics Group Second Floor, 625 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10022
From One Footnote
Of course, ties between males are invariably depicted as high-minded comradeship. In a letter published in ENERGUMEN #13, Jerry Jacks commented on the comics' refusal to portray an other aspect of human emotional/sexual relationships:
- OK, women are downtrodden in comic books, granted; the stereotype role playing trip is exploited for all it's worth, granted; but how do you think GAY people think about comics—the usual trip is a continuation of the sexual stereotypes into children's media by ignoring what has been going on. Can you imagine Robin or Speedy (who was recently 'revealed' to be a junkie) coming across Gay Lib at their schools? I sure can, but that kind of story has not been done, nor will it likely be done.
interior illo, Terry Austin
interior illo, Terry Austin
interior illo, Terry Austin
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