Is She Enough, Or Will Marvel Continue to Market Diversity?
The mighty Thor, thunder-God, symbol of aggression, war, and
masculinity is
now a woman. To which I say: it’s about time!
As of October 1, 2014, Marvel has updated its iconic
character’s DNA to include two X chromosomes. All one has to do is take to
Twitter or Facebook to see varying degrees of encouragement
and backlash regarding this character change.
When I saw the image trending of the new female Thor, I was
instantly excited. She’s strong, striking, AND feminine.
But I felt a twinge of lingering skepticism.
Her image transported me back to my childhood when I would
sit with my older cousin and read comic books with him. I loved the intricate
story lines, characters’ inner turmoil, and stunning imagery.
But it wasn’t long before I noticed there were no faces like
mine in the pages of comics, and I began to drift toward books with a strong
central heroine.
I’ve since peeked my head into the super hero world—mostly,
I’ve watched a few blockbuster movies, studied mythology, and fell in love with
Michael Chabon’s The
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay,
which is a multi-generational epic that follows two cousins as they create
their own comic book empire.
The book is a fantastic literary achievement, but what irks
me is the only female character starts out as a strong, interesting creator of
comics, then gets tangled up in love, sells out, and scrapes by writing romance
books.
Ugh. But let’s be honest, the media doesn’t exactly tell us
we’re all perfect just the way we are.
This is something that I’ve seen communicated time and time
again in books, movies, and media: these painfully obvious, missed
opportunities for intellectual, diverse characters.
Don’t get me wrong; I commend Marvel for this seemingly huge
step toward changing how we as media consumers, readers, and humans think about
gender.
But I worry that Marvel will smile and wave, take a pretty
bow, and grow lazy in all this media-generated praise. “Look—We’ve diversified!
Yes, Thor is still blonde and white and able-bodied….but she’s a woman!”
And while Thor is the most recent, she’s definitely not the
only notable woman in comics. We can’t forget Elektra, Wonder Woman, and Storm.
While these characters have made huge advances for gender
inclusion in the genre, the comic universe—and the media— still has a long way
to go in communicating and marketing gender for what it is: a spectrum that is
both diverse AND equal.
I don’t know what roads Marvel will take this new Thor down.
I do find consolation in Marvel’s female employees speaking publicly about
character changes like Thor’s; these are voices we need to hear more of. I do
think social media is a great platform for Marvel to communicate with us as
readers and consumers. Social media can be a two-way street where Marvel can
ask questions and fans can offer feedback. I do know I want to see more changes
like this.
Changes where people, and super heroes, are marketed for
what they really are: powerful enough, despite gender or color, to change the
planet.
Written by Casey Nichols of Rebecca Adele PR & Events
