Why The Lack of Female Superhero Films? : Pop Culture Leftovers

Why The Lack of Female Superhero Films?

April 5, 2015 1:11 pm | Leave your thoughts

I’ve been a huge fan of Superhero movies for many years, and now that we’re in its golden age, I feel that it’s a perfect moment to talk about something that is wrong with all of them, that being the lack of female characters. So let’s get into the issue right ahead!

One of the key points about superhero movies is that the characters are strong and that a lot of them have a history that goes back to the 60’s and the 70’s. They have a lot of backstory and character development already, even before we see them in the movie theater. They have a lot of reasons to believe that the characters are an intellectual property worth portraying into a feature film. But those characters were created for different purposes and audiences and I think it’s time to bring them properly to the 21st century, and that’s more than changing their origin stories or updating their outfits into modern times.

I actually never thought about it until this past year, but the lack of female characters in all super hero movies is pretty overwhelming. I’m talking about supporting roles, villains, henchmen, extras, and of course the leads. There is no doubt that it’s a real shame, and that we’re running out of excuses since the last century.

Let’s check out the four most common excuses from the Movie Studios and even from comic book fans.

1: Female leads are a huge risk for movie studios

First of all, not having a female Lead is one thing, ignoring them for all the other roles except the love interest is another. What about the villains’ henchmen, or the supporting roles? What about the little parts or the extras? What about the Villains? Audiences have matured now, we’re ready for female lead superheroes, and that’s why we’ll see a Captain Marvel and a Wonder Woman movie “soon”, but that’s not good enough. If 90% of the actors in those movies are still male, the problem is still pretty much the same.

I know that there have been female superheroes and villains, don’t get me wrong. But let’s check the numbers… Catwoman in both Batman Returns and in The Dark Knight Rises is still the love interest for Batman; all of the female X‐Men are kept female because we already have a lot of male characters as well, and in fact the male characters are still the majority and usually they are more important to the story. I could go on, and I know there are still some female characters worth talking about, but you will all agree with me that they’re in the minority. Probably even lower than 1% of the characters of all the recent superhero movies in the past 15 years.

2: The Lack of strong female characters in comic books

I’m not going to talk much about why there is historically a lack of strong females in comic books because I think that’s for another article, and I know that If you are reading comic books nowadays you know that a lot has changed in the last 15 years, you just have to check out last year comic book sells studies where you cand find that over 45% of the consumers are female. However it’s obvious that comic books were made mostly for young males, and one of the problems you can find in a sexist society, like the one where we are all living in (still today) is that usually when you read a comic as a young kid you want a badass hero to identify to, a villain to hate but to love to punch, and a pretty girl falling in love with the hero. This has been the mentality of young kids for years. The society has made a huge change in the last 20 years and that’s wht it’s time to bring this comic book culture into a nowadays mindset and consider what that means for the film industry.Comic books have a huge history, a huge character catalog with plenty of very interesting characters, mostly males, because male superheroes were what would sell the comic books back then when all of the industry started until the last decade.

Now lets talk about the characters into the superhero movies, and checking out what we have… what do you see? A lack of strong female superheroes! Yes, good, what’s the solution? Let’s create new female characters! Then put them into movies! Yes, let’s compare lots of characters with thousands of fans around the world and with lots of years of comic book history on their back to a bunch of new characters created in the last 15 years! Anyone see a problem there? Yeah, I thought so. Being a comic book fan, I want a character I know on the screen, a character that I have loved for years and not a bunch of new faces that aren’t cool enough yet to take the place of another old and beloved character that might hasn’t been in the big screen so far! Or has been but not done properly! I can relate to all of this, because I would prefer to see the
Punisher again on a movie, or the Moon Knight, before Spider‐Gwen or the newest Ms.
Marvel. But that’s just because I’ve read about and I’ve felt in love with those characters before those girls began their adventures in the Marvel Comics, nothing else.

3: But wait, aren’t comic books and its movies mostly a male interest?

Well, in its first decades comic books were targeted for a young male audience, mostly because girls and women were treated with disrespect and like second class citizens, so they did not have access to read these kind of media, as it was deemed inappropriate. That’s why the only female superheroes after WWII were relegated to clean, to go shopping and to be the love interest for the male characters.

It’s 2015, even in comic books we can see a huge change about this issue. Every year the number of female readers around the globe is increasing. The number of female characters and its importance are higher than ever before. What about the movies? Just look at the box office. For example on the American Box Office for Marvel’s The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy it was reported through a lot of sites that there were more women viewers than ever before on these kind of movies. We can see that the interest exists already, maybe not as much for the punching and the mindless action, but for the characters, the adventures and the threats that these heroes face in every movie.

It’s an issue of equality. If you could see more female characters on screen, more women would be interested in seeing these movies, they would feel more identified. You should not turn your back as a Movie Studio to half the human kind just because you think they’re not interested. Get them interested, show them that anyone can become super, not just men while women are there just for eye candy.

4: Why do you care, aren’t the movies doing well enough?

I’m a man, and I’m not a feminist or anything like that. But I believe in equality, and that the main focus for the people shouldn’t be the differences with each other, but the things in common. These movies are blockbusters, not only in the USA, but around the globe. A lot of people from everywhere are seeing these movies. A lot of little boys and girls are seeing them and creating a part of their personalities and personal beliefs on the world thanks to these movies. It’s our job as comic book fans to demand that this media expands to the largest audience possible.

Why do we like superheroes? We don’t love the powers and the action as much as the characters who wield them. We fall in love with the fight for truth and freedom. We love them because they stand because they can, but most importantly because they care, they care enough to stand against evil, which may be in a comic book as a guy with a Red Skull or a
Clown face, but that’s just disguising reality. It’s the definition of the ART by Pablo Picasso “We all know that ART it’s not truth, ART is the lie that make us realize the Truth”. And you can think what you want about a painting, about a song about ants, or about a film. But there’s always a story there, a hidden truth, a message for all of us.

This is why we need women in our favorite movies, we have the chance to share this love to the people around the world, and to all of the girls and women that don’t know what they are missing by not loving these stories and these characters. With this small step that shouldn’t bother us, we would help them a lot. Religion, race, gender, nationalities, these are just walls between people that keep us away from each other when our love for a lot of things is in fact the same. I know that we’re talking superheroes here, and that this may sound silly to a lot of people, but if you consider that here there is more than just hopes to see more women in costumes, you know I’m right.

WELL THEN, ANY PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS?

We need to see more female characters in the movies in general, but in the SuperHero ones I think the issue is even worse right now, Movie Studios need to begin to put more female characters in supporting roles, as Henchmen, Villains, and yes, as leads. I’m not saying that they should go crazy and put half of the movies with female leads, I understand the risk. But who are you bothering when you put half of the soldiers in one scene as females? Or what about the friends of the lead? Friend, not every female has to be a potential love interest…
Let’s have the Villain be a strong villain, or the commander’s main Villain and not 1 or 10% or the characters, let’s make it 30 or 40% at least, let’s see what happens. Who are you going to upset with that?

As for the characters per se, well, If you have no confidence in a female character because she isn’t that interesting in the comic books to begin with, or because you need another character for the part that is male in the comic books, I’m sorry to say this but, Is the race or the gender that important to a character? Why do fans love the characters they love? Is the gender an important part? Or is it their story, their personality, the things he/she do with his/her powers? Will the world burn if I say just change some character genders in order to put more known and beloved characters in the movies, while at the same time putting more females on the screen? I’m not talking about a female version of a character like She‐hulk, Spider‐girl, Batgirl, or even the last female Thor, which is not Thor, is just a woman that has Mjolnir (for now).

I’m talking about taking a male character, and turning him into a woman for the movies.
Maintain the same character, the same force, personality, courage, evilness if she is a villain, I really don’t care.Just think about how many superhero movies are coming out in the next 5 years. Think how many of those have a female lead, how many of them will have a female villain, a female sidekick or a powered female friend. If you’re doing the math well, you’ll find that the problem is still a big problem.

I am not saying that this is the only solution, of course there is good female characters in the comics, and the writers and publishers are creating more every year, but they’re still too new to know if they have a strong fan base and a good movie appeal. Other solution could be create some female characters just for the movies.

That’s all I’ve got, my only hope with this article is to make some people think. I don’t ignore the problem with race either, but it’s perfectly compatible with all that I have said. When the regular movie audiences and the fans will be able to agree about seeing a black woman being Captain America, maybe then we’ll be a little freer of the sickness of sexism and racism, until then, we better keep fighting with our words and our love for each other. Thanks for reading.

Article written by Xavier, twitter account: @Shaverth

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Why The Lack of Female Superhero Films?

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