When you are born, you are biologically given a sex: male or female. Gender is different from sex because gender refers to the personal traits and social positions that members of a society attach to being female and male. After you’re born, the way people classify you as is your gender. People assume your gender among the things you wear, the things you do, and even by your emotions. A classic example of gender is when you were young your parents let other people know that you were either a boy or a girl by putting pink clothes on a girl or blue clothes on a boy. Another example is the idea that males are more superior to females. Often times when picturing a family driving down the road, which parent is typically driving? You normally would see the father driving. This kind of act is installed into us at a very early age. As I was looking through a Toys R Us ad, I turned to a section with Power Wheels. And every time I looked when there is a boy and a girl in a vehicle, the boy is always driving!
Gender – S.Baughman
Gender – O.Venesky
This magazine cover fits the topic of our discussion on gender and sex on Tuesday because of the proof it gives that we attach very specific gender roles to both sexes. Despite the large bold text on the page, it is likely that without the text, most people who were to look at the picture would have a suspicion that this man was gay. First, he has features that are defined as more feminine than masculine. His soft features and styled hair give the impression that he puts a lot of emphasis on his looks. Not to say that it is a strictly feminine practice to be conscious of appearance, but the appearance he has is quite feminine. Aside from the physical appearance of this man, the way he is holding the baby is like that of the way a mother holds her child. It is assumed and assigned that men are less comfortable and nurturing to infants. For a man to be comfortable and knowledgeable with caring for a baby is out of the ordinary and viewed as questionable.
The underlying ideas that come to mind when looking at this picture affirms that our society has placed such strong roles on male and female that if the lines are crossed in any case it is automatically assumed that something is queer about the person. In this case it is true, but there are many cases where it is not, and people are wrongly labeled.
Gender – Z.Jones
Western society does not like to see women behaving like men. From an early age boys are given toys and play games that teach them to compete with and try to dominate the world around them while girls are are instead socialized to relate to their surroundings. To see a woman in an aggressive and dominating role can be as unsettling to our concept of gender as seeing a boy playing with a barbie doll. And so, the traditional role of women in heroic stories, from Helen of Troy to Lois Lane, has been as idols to be rescued or fought over or as decoration on the sidelines. For women such as these, the only power they could wield in their stories was vicarious power in the form of emotional control over the male heroes such as Paris, Menalaus or Superman who are better oriented to direct action. Another form of this vicarious power are the female off-shots to male heroes such as Supergirl and Batwoman who are often little more than accessories to their male counterparts. Wonderwoman really is one of the only stand- alone female heroes in superhero lore. The Wonderwomen and Joan of Arcs of Western society are the rare and often celebrated exceptions from what is the expected norm, but like O’Reily said, these dramatic exceptions may only enforce our society’s cultural and historical trend of subordinating women. Joan of Arc was executed not as a military leader but as a witch, as this was the common was to dispose of out-spoken women at the time. Likewise, Wonderwoman descends from the Amazon tribe of Greek myth that was created arguably for the sole purpose of being dominated and defeated by male hero Hercules.
Gender – K.Jackal
Humans do not differ in terms of gender based on their biological aspects, but rather because of their culture. People can easily have a sex change and their appearance would be different, but there is no way to change their genetics. Therefore, they technically did not really change their gender.
Our society is a more male dominant than females. Men were always the ones to be known to go out and work while women stayed home to cook, clean, and take care of the kids. Now a days, both parents are pretty equal in going and working out of the house and both doing the same amount of help inside the home as well. Not only in our world are men more dominant, but also in the superhero world they are too. Yeah there are women superheroes; some being wonder woman, Jubilee, and Marvel. But there are a lot more male superheroes that are much more recognized such as; Batman, spiderman, superman, and iron man. When I think of a comic book with a superhero and villian, the first thought that comes to mind is a good guy and a bad guy, women are not in the picture at first.
Introducing the Black Panther
Race and Ethnicity are two similar terms, but with two different meanings. Race is a socially constructed category composed of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important. Ethnicity is a shared cultural heritage meaning that it is bigger than race because it people are typically have more than one ethnic backround. Race and ethnicity play a major role when comparing the comic book world with the real world in the early twentieth century. There are also many things that go into race and ethnicity, such as prejudice, racism, discrimination, and minorites. Here are two examples:
First, can anyone name the first comic to star an African-American character? My assumption would be, no. That’s because, honestly, there’s not that many. On that note, the first African-American superhero was Whitewash, who appeard in “Young Allies,” by Marvel in the 1940s. Whitewash plays the role of a helpless fool whose only job was to make people laugh at his stupid mistakes.This comic is full of the stereotypes you would expect to see at that time in American history.
Since “Young Allies,” the next comic book starring an African-American role, would be the 1966 comic “Fantastic Four,” with a guest appearance by Black Panther. The Black Panther then went on to make many more guest appearances. It wasn’t until eleven years later that the Black Panther gained its own title.
Social Stratification and Class – M.McMahan
What is it? It is a system in which categories of people are ranked in a hierarchy.
What does this have to do with superheroes? Well, Superman started out as a farm boy. Peter Parker, was an average kid in high school who wanted to be a photographer. Batman however was Bruce Wayne. The difference is they come from completely different social classes. Now other than just the story line, there is a reason for this. Imagine you are a kid who grew up in a rough neighborhood. All you ever wanted to do was to get away, and do something with your life. But if you were to get superpowers, you could overcome all of the baggage of social classes, and be whoever you want to be. That’s one of the reasons superheroes are so intriguing. They are above stratification. To a degree, isn’t that what we all want? To not have to worry about being frowned upon because we drive a 10 year old Chevy Cavalier, instead of a BMW? Or because you are a janitor instead of a CEO? Everybody wants to be somebody, and superpowers provide the outlet for that. We need superheroes because they live outside of the boundaries of social class.
Stratification and Class – C.Saxon
Comic books provide many excellent examples of social mobility within a caste system. Of course mutants and those born with super powers are immediately able to identify themselves as superheroes or supervillians. It is those that are in some way changed that exemplify this mobility.
In some cases this change comes from hard work and perserverance, but there are also some “flukes” that thrust these characters into this “super” group. When this is upward mobility, there are certainly benefits involved whether this happens accidentally or on purpose. In the case of Speedball in Civil War: Frontline, this process is reversed to show negative aspects of social mobility. As a result of his powers “dissappearing” he finds himself descending the social ladder very quickly. It is easy to see that at first this is a difficult transition for him to make. Although he considers himself a good guy, he begins to be lumped together with the bad guys. The changes in his lifestyle that ensue show how this descent can have control over most if not all aspects of his life. Essentially this mobility begins to change him as well as his circumstances. Presented with this new world in which to live, he must make necessary changes to ensure that he goes on living. This “super” circumstance translates well when concerning humanity.
Social mobility is normally perceived in a positive light in this country as a result of our idea of the American Dream. I really liked the example given in Frontline because it shows that this is not always the case.
Deviance and Conformity – C.Saxon
In most cases labeling is orchestrated by those in a high position of power. This include celebrities, journalists, and most importantly elected officials. These are the types of people that are most effectively able to influence a large part of society, if not society as a whole. Occasionally a person that lacks this level of formal power is able to have a vast impact on our society’s perception of what is deviant and what conforms to social morals. This is the case with the effect of Frederic Wertham’s influence over what was to become acceptable in the world of comic books. He was provided with enough credibility as a mental health professional to significantly change how comic books are written.
In 1954 a book was published by Frederic Wertham titled ” The Seduction of the Innocent”. The basic theme of this book was the corruption of adolescent morals by comic books. In this book much of the deviance in our society was blamed on the content of comics. His opinions were so influential that many retailers were afraid that they would be promoting bad moral by carrying these comics. This public outcry led to the creation of The Comics Code in that same year. This code was basically comprised of a list ofwhat material was and was not allowed to appear in the pages of comics. Over the years, this code has been updated, but still seeks to supress some realities that are a part of the fabric of our society. It is believed that by overlooking these deviances from social norms they will cease to exist. This concept as a whole is very unrealistic.
Although in recent years many comic publishers have been ignoring this code, it still holds sway with many large publishers. One such example of this is the marriage of Peter Parker(Spiderman) to his long-time love interest Mary Jane Watson in 1987. When Marvel decided that this marriage was no longer useful to the plots of their stories, something had to be done to end this marriage, but there was a problem. The original comics code states that “Divorce shall not be treated humorously or presented as desirable.” The idea of divorce between these two characters was unacceptable if they were to keep their CCA approval. In order to avoid this, Marvel had to come up with an elaborate story concerning the life of Peter Parker’s aunt in order to end the marriage. Because divorce is considered to deviate from the moral structure of our society, the obvious choice for ending a marriage was out of the question. Basically Peter Parker was put in a position where he either let his aunt die or change history so that his marriage to Mary Jane had never happened.
By adhering to this code, comics must ignore many basic situations that occur in our society which are considered immoral. It is many people’s belief that this ignorance has a positive effect on our society. They believe that ignorance is bliss. It is my belief that no good can come from this ignorance. In order to begin to solve these “problems”, they must be addressed and evaluated. It is impossible to come up with a solution when you are not familiar with the problem. Many mathematics majors would agree. ( 2 + 2 = ?). That problem is easy to solve. How about (? = ? Who can begin to give a definite answer to that? Instead of fixing these problems, some assume that if you ignore them that they no longer apply. It is obvious that this strategy has not met with much success in the realm of conformity. The Code has been in place for over 50 years and it is my opinion that it has had no positive effect other than a temporary piece of mind for those ignorant enough to rely upon it. Most deviant crimes contained have increased. By addressing this deviance, perhaps a solution is possible or at least a better understanding of why these deviances occur.
Deviance and Conformity – O. Venesky
Superheroes have abilities that set them apart physically and sometimes mentally from the general public. Despite the differences, much of the Superhero storylines stem from social characteristics that normal people display.
The conformity displayed by Superheroes is made possible by the deviant behavior of the villains they deal with. Without deviance there would be no need to have the idea of conformity. The villains in these comics are prompted to commit evil because of the social situations they are in. One of the reasons they commit crimes is that some never had the opportunity to take the legitimate path to attaining material goods that culture prompts us to desire. Without the chance to attain common social items or good paying jobs to get them rightfully, these villains are forced into a deviant lifestyle.
Without the deviance of villains there would be no need for the Superhero, and what a sad day that would be. The misfortune of others has led to the chance for superheroes to do right and uphold conformity for the public.
Although there is a clear line between the comic book universe and our own, we have everything to do with what defines conformity and deviance in their universe. In our culture it is the people with the most power who decide how something is labeled. Not only do they have the power to stamp lasting labels on things such as what kind of house represents wealth, or what clothes display authority in our world, but the labels regularly cross into the comic book universe. These labels are what allow deviance and conformity to exist in both universes.
Conformity – S. Manno
Deviance, the recognized breaking of cultural norms, only exists when society labels it as such. Almost every superhero breaks a multitude of cultural norms, but no one seems to care. Its not at all considered normal for someone to run around town in tights and a cape, for a “regular” citizen to take the law into their own hands. The reason these superheroes aren’t given negative labels for violating the structures of society is because they generally protect the community as a whole; no one cares that the norms are being broken as long as they feel a little safer walking through the streets at night.
Conformity, adhering to the cultural norms of society, sometimes has negative connotations that I disagree with for the most part. Everyone reading this blog most likely conforms to society in a general way. You all are attending school and obviously doing your homework, following the most basic path to success. Now I am sure that you all are deviant in your own small way, but usually follow the approved rules of society. There is nothing wrong with following the guidelines of a society, and yet the minute anyone hears the word conformity thoughts of the Soviet Union and Red China come to mind. Anything that is taken to such an extreme is bad, but normal levels of conformity serve to hold society together.
In Superman: Red Son, it is easy to see how perspective makes a huge difference when it comes to deviance and conformity. Superman is raised as a communist in the Soviet Union, and is merely conforming to the society he grows up in. From the American perspective, he is very deviant because capitalism and free trade is the norm. Even though he is the same archetype in Red Son as he is in every other Superman comic, we see him as an evil villain because he is a communist. He still saves people, and doesn’t even give in to violence until the very end of the novel, but it doesn’t matter. It is not culturally okay to be a communist from our American point of view; so Superman is deviant, and we label him as such.
