Endless phrases have been written on the unrealistic, damaging physique requirements promoted by superhero comics, particularly in relation to the sexualized form, proportions, and posing of girls’s our bodies. But a couple of extra can’t harm, can they?
In December 2022, the journal Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences printed an article referred to as “She’s Got Legs: Longer Legs in Female Comic Book Characters Correspond to Global Preferences” by Rebecca L. Burch and David Widman. The key factors are as follows:
- In actual life, ladies, by and enormous, don’t have longer legs than males.
- Men usually discover ladies with longer-than-average legs extra enticing, presumably as a result of longer legs are correlated with higher well being and “reproductive capabilities.”
- Since Marvel and DC superhero comics cater to the pursuits of males, their heroes are designed in ways in which males favor, that means big bulging muscle tissues for males and lengthy legs and hourglass figures for ladies.
- The feminine characters with the longest legs are usually heroes. The shorter a girl’s legs, the extra seemingly it’s that she is a villain and due to this fact depicted as “unattractive” on goal.
- Female characters, like ladies in actual life, typically put on heels to make their legs seem longer and, due to this fact, extra enticing. In comics, this interprets into not solely carrying heels but additionally standing on tiptoe for completely no purpose.
- Both DC and Marvel have been responsible of exaggerating feminine leg size to curiosity male readers, however in several methods: DC’s ladies put on heels extra typically than Marvel’s, whereas Marvel’s ladies, on common, had an extended leg size than DC’s.
I do know this sounds rather a lot like a “water is wet” research, the place researchers put numerous effort and time into proving one thing that’s supposedly apparent to everybody, however these research actually are vital. They give folks a scientific foundation from which to debate the unrealistic, doubtlessly dangerous magnificence requirements perpetuated by superhero comics, and to determine areas the place the business nonetheless embraces gender stereotypes whereas demonizing life like bodily options that readers usually tend to have.
Exaggerating leg size is hardly the one instance of how superhero comics proceed to prioritize males and their preferences whereas kicking everybody else to the curb. As Jess Plummer has written, DC has stunningly few ladies engaged on their comics, whereas Marvel’s motion pictures are nonetheless a boys’ membership.
To be clear, Burch and Widman’s work doesn’t converse in any respect concerning the in-house machinations that will result in such depictions of girls, nor do they discuss superhero movies. But all of those points — unrealistic portrayals of the human physique, the dearth of girls working behind the scenes, and the dearth of feminine protagonists in comics-based movies — have the identical trigger: the deeply rooted conviction that male {dollars} are extra vital than feminine {dollars}, and that it’s okay to do completely something — together with depict ladies in the identical outdated, unhealthy ridiculous methods — to maintain these male {dollars} flowing.
Another discovering the research discusses is that ladies are depicted in a really uniform approach. Even greater than male characters, there’s little selection: all of them share an especially related physique kind. While this will likely make it simple for them to share garments, it additionally makes any legs that fall exterior the “norm” stand out all of the extra.
So let’s wrap up on a foolish word and take a look at a number of the weirder pairs of legs in comicdom. It’d take a couple of research to investigate the reasoning behind these beauties…
Enchantress
My very first thought upon studying about this research was that one panel that Rob Liefeld drew of the Enchantress. You know what I’m speaking about. And in the event you don’t, I apologize prematurely.
Clearly, it’s potential to have an excessive amount of of an excellent factor. Anyone not being spaghettified by the gravitational pull of a black gap doesn’t want legs that lengthy.
M.O.D.A.M.
On the alternative finish of the spectrum, we now have Olinka Barankova, who traded her womanly girl legs for an enormous super-brain. Must be a villain. And behold!
I don’t know if any photos of M.O.D.A.M. made it into the research, however I doubt it. Think how this could have thrown off their calculations!
Lois Lane
On a traditional day, Lois has completely common legs for a comic book e book character. Too dangerous that Lois has so few regular days and so many days the place stunts like this occur.
This is the results of an alien trying to take over Lois’s physique and botching the switch. I assume that Lois was instantly inundated by fanmail from admiring furries.
The Flash
Finally, lest we overlook, males have legs too. In Barry Allen’s case, they’re the quickest legs alive, which explains (effectively, form of) why the Mirror Master as soon as invented a mirror that allowed him to swap his personal regular legs for the Flash’s super-speedy ones.
That’s a cute trick, however I, for one, need to see him do this on Liefeld’s Enchantress. I defy anybody to run in these legs.
Discussion about this post