Superheroes and Masculinity: Unmasking the Gender Performance of Heroism

Superheroes and Masculinity: Unmasking the Gender Performance of Heroism explores how heteropatriarchal representations of gender are portrayed within superhero comics, film, and television. The contributors examine how hegemonic masculinity has been continually perpetuated and reinforced within the superhero genre and unpack concise critiques of specific superhero representations, the industry, and the fan base at large. However, Superheroes and Masculinity also argues that possibilities of resistance and change are embedded within these problematic portrayals. To this end, several chapters explore alternative portrayals of queerness within superhero representations and read the hegemonic masculinity of various characters against the grain to produce queer possibilities. Ultimately, this collection argues that the quest to unmask how gender operates within superheroes is a crucial one.

Table of Contents:
Chapter One: Deconstructing the Hero-Sidekick Bromance: Foggy, Kato, and the Masculine Performance of Friendship Ryan Cheek and Anne Bialowas Chapter Two: If She Be Worthy: Performance of Female Masculinity and Toxic Geek Masculinity in Jason Aaron’s Thor: The Goddess of Thunder Hailey J. Austin Chapter Three: Witches and Witchbreed in Marvel 1602 Kevin Cummings Chapter Four: The Joker’s Dionysian Philosophy of Gender and Sexuality in The Dark Knight Jacob Murel Chapter Five: There are Different Ways of Being Strong: Steven Universe and Developing a Caring Superhero Masculinity Edgar Sandoval, Julian Barr, and David J. Roberts Chapter Six: There Must Always be a Thor: Marvel’s Thor the Goddess of Thunder and the Disruption of Heroic Masculinities Kiera M Gaswint and Jeff Brown Chapter Seven: Poisoning Masculinity: Poison Ivy as a Counter-Narrative of Villainy and Trauma through Representations of Queer Love in DC’s Everyone Loves Ivy TJ Buttgereit, Emily Mendelson, and JL Schatz Chapter Eight: The New Teen Titans for Queer Boys: Emergent Masculinities and Sentimental Superhero Melodrama in the 1980s Brian Johnson

About the Author :
Sean Parson is assistant professor of politics and international affairs at Northern Arizona University. JL Schatz is director of speech and debate at Binghamton University.

Review :
The superhero genre has undoubtedly dominated global popular culture in the past decade. Streaming shows, traditional television, film, graphic novels, and comic books have all featured the figure of the superhero, traditionally in all of his masculine glory. This collection, edited by Parson (Northern Arizona Univ.) and Schatz (Binghamton Univ.), shines when focusing on larger societal issues that problematize manhood, such as toxic masculinity, geek culture, the concept of bromance, and "homonationalism.". . The most successful essays include those on homosocial bonding between male superheroes and their sidekicks, by Anna Bialowas and Ryan Cheek; geek masculinity in Thor: The Goddess of Thunder, by Hailey J. Austin; and The New Teen Titans and its relationship to queer boys and adolescents, by Brian Johnson. . . the editors clearly demonstrate the multiple directions that such a topic can encompass. Summing Up: Recommended. With reservations. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. With the influx of superhero multimedia saturating our culture, the time has come for a serious analysis of masculinity that underscores both the harmful and empowering aspects of heroism. This text explains what is missing in our popular conceptions of the superheroes genre and tells us how to fix it—an essential read for anyone interested in social justice, media, and gender studies. In this current era of superhero trends in media literacies—of film, television series, toys, and comics—there are generations that are (re)connecting with new takes on hero identities and representations that go further and further into a much-needed critical understanding of justice and equity. This timely and pertinent book brings a deeper level of analysis to superheroes and offers fresh takes on the real and symbolic impact of the superhero genre on our understandings of the complex relationships in our everyday lives. Parson and Schatz edit this collection of pivotal chapters from authors in ways that direct our attention to the powerful potentials of both how superheroes aid and undermine how we understand masculinities at a time where toxic forms of identifying as male have for too long dominated politics of heroism, personhood, species, and the planet. As the culture of comic books increasingly becomes 'culture,' this important text explores the issue of gender construction in comics. While comic characters are frequently only perceived in terms of traditional masculinity, this manuscript helps to uncover the complicated, and often conflicting, gender dynamics at play. It is hard to imagine a more timely or significant text.