Abstract
The edited volume Superheroes and Masculinity: Unmasking the Gender Performance of Heroism analyzes media representations of superheroes to denaturalize heroes’ gendered performances and presents a discursive challenge to homonormative nationalist ideologies often plaguing the genre. Contributors provide varied accounts of the superhero genre, and chapters are divided into two sections: (a) critiques of the presentations of masculinities in different media or fandoms and (b) theorizing alternative gender performances or readings of specific representations of superheroic masculinities.
In the first section, authors critique heterosexist representations and media−fan relations in iterations of Daredevil and The Green Hornet, Thor: Goddess of Thunder, Marvel 1602, and The Dark Knight. The first chapter examines the superhero−sidekick relationship through a lens of gender and “bromance” in Daredevil’s Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson and The Green Hornet’s Britt Reid and Kato. Authors Anne Bialowas and Ryan Cheek identify ways that media commonly engage specific narrative devices to distance “bromance” narratives from any hint of gender or sexual nonnormativity and argue that the superhero genre “both adapts and adds to” these strategies (p. 16). Skillfully written, this chapter engages with and builds upon media, masculinities, and queer scholarship, and provides a framework for emergent analyses of this type.
Another essay addressing queerness and masculinity engages Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight, as Jacob Murel “seeks to reveal, and thereby champion, the Joker’s queerness against contemporary Western society’s heterosexist norms” (p. 64). Murel positions Ledger’s Joker as queer in a Halberstamian sense, in both his nonnormative gendered and sexual comportment and in his critique of normative value systems and terrorizing of state entities. While I am intrigued by a queer reading of the Joker, Murel’s analysis has gaps that are difficult to ignore. Murel marks the Joker’s chaotic behavior and tactics as feminine, without juxtaposing this with his violence as normatively masculine. Further, there are aspects of The Dark Knight’s Joker that challenge this reading and are not taken up; specifically, Murel fails to take up the Joker’s whiteness as providing an important context for his violence. Further, Murel delves into the Joker’s sexual nonnormativity, citing his transference of sexual energy into erotic violence, but avoids engagement with extensive feminist scholarship regarding the normalized, masculinized connection between sex, violence, and domination.
The second section of the volume provides queer and “alternative” readings centering on Steven Universe, a second interpretation of Thor: Goddess of Thunder, Everyone Loves Ivy, and The New Teen Titans. Julian Barr, David Roberts, and Edgar Sandoval write about the Cartoon Network series Steven Universe, arguing that Steven displays a “caring masculinity” that challenges traditional ideas of superheroes and masculinity more generally. While I agree with the latter aspect (with a caveat of there being no mention of critiques of racism in the show’s casting and content), I wish the authors would have explained how a caring masculinity is not different from femininity performed by a teen boy. The second section also contains J. Buttgereit, Emily Mendelson, and J. L. Schatz’s essay regarding queer love through trauma and the disruption of tropes of sexualization, objectification, and feminine vulnerability. Poison Ivy’s queer relationship with Harley Quinn in Everyone Loves Ivy “shows how feminine queer love can be articulated” in the masculine genre of superhero comics and is impactful for the comics community more broadly (p. 122). The authors provide strong, engaging evidence for these arguments, and as a reader, I am left intrigued and satisfied with the essay.
Superheroes and Masculinity is a timely volume that covers a wide array of superhero media and its connections to gender and sexuality, skillfully contributing to the rich well of scholarship, analyzing representations of masculinity in media. Where this volume falls short is in its lack of more extensive engagement with scholarly theories of masculinities and with the intellectual history of gender studies generally. For example, terms including hypermasculinity, toxic masculinity, and hegemonic masculinity are used interchangeably in the book’s introduction—although similar, these terms engage specific intellectual genealogies and hold specific cultural meanings, and those nuances are necessary for fully developed analysis. Engaging more expansively with major masculinities-focused scholarship would be a welcome addition, delving more into Raewyn Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity, considering Tristan Bridges and C.J. Pascoe’s “hybrid masculinities,” or building upon Ramzi Fawaz’s queer sociopolitical and textual analysis of superheroes and comics specifically, for instance. The volume contributes to fields of media, comics, and gender studies, and the book is a welcome addition to these fields, though it leaves many questions left unanswered, including those regarding effects of racialization, format, and cultural context on analyses of masculinity.