On Thursday, March 15, Watkins Auditorium boasted a packed house to welcome Carolyn Cocca as she presented “Underrepresented and Underdressed: Female Superheroes and Popular Culture.”
Cocca is an associate professor in the Department of Politics, Economics and Law at the State University of New York at Old Westbury and spoke to UTM as part of the Academic Speaker Series hosted by the Honors Department in cooperation with the Women’s History Month activities.
Cocca is the author of “Jailbait: The Politics of Statutory Rape Laws in the United States” as well as various articles and book chapters about gender and superheroes. She recently published “Superwomen: Gender, Power, and Representation,” which won the 2017 Eisner Award in the “Best Academic/Scholarly Work” category, and a 2017 Prose Awards Honorable Mention for Media and Cultural Studies.
Cocca stated that, “Over the last 75 years, superheroes have been portrayed most often as male, heterosexual, white and able-bodied.” She compared prominent female superheroes from their creation to the present such as Wonder Woman, Batgirl and Oracle, and Ms. Marvel to name a few. She stated how most female superheroes are stereotyped to be nothing but the sexy, scantily clad, arm candy of the storyline; female characters are rarely even present, let alone the star of the story. Also, they are often sexualized, drawn with their breasts, buttocks and hips exaggerated, rarely women of color and seem dependent on the male character to “rescue” them.
According to an online article featured on the Old Westbury website, “Getting to know: Dr. Carolyn Cocca, Superhero Enthusiast and Expert,” Cocca said, “As I got older, I realized that female characters were much less numerous than male counterparts, and usually have weaker powers and less interesting stories.”
“So in my current work, applying my political science and gender studies training to this issue, I found that what I felt growing up is true not only about superheroes but also about the way women are portrayed across fiction-they are portrayed much less often, with much less nuance, and with much less power.”
She also brought up the recent #MeToo and Times Up movements during her seminar, which are anti-sexual assault and women’s empowerment movements, that have sparked the public conversation about women’s issues around the world, but especially in Hollywood. Cocca explained that it will take both men and women to bring about change and promote gender equality and the positive portrayal of female superheroes. She stated the inequality is not natural, and in order to bring about change, writers, illustrators, directors, etc., must be the champions.
Women and girls deserve to be portrayed as strong, smart, valuable members of society, and unfortunately in the superhero world, females are vastly underrepresented.
Also, Cocca touched on the lack of positive representation of characters and superheroes who are LGBTQ+ or who are not able-bodied. Superheroes are an important concept, especially for young people, and they want to feel empowered by a hero who looks, acts, and thinks like they do.
Cocca closed her presentation by fielding questions from the audience. Students asked her opinion about popular figures such as “Lois Lane” from Superman, and her thoughts concerning the popular television show, “Jessica Jones.”
Though there is still work to be done, Cocca gave the 2018 box-office hit “Black Panther” two thumbs up for its positive portrayal of women.
For a complete list of other speakers in the Academic Speaker Series, visit http://www.utm.edu/departments/honors/events.php
Cocca presents “Underrepresented and Underdressed: Female Superheroes and Popular Culture” to a full Watkins Auditorium Thursday, March 15. (Photo Credit: Madison Vaughn)
