Metropolitan Museum of Art: Superheroes Exhibit

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2008-05-30 13:40

The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art is exhibiting "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy"

They have an interesting take on female superheroes:

"Superhero comics have tended to promote an ideology that is both masculinist and driven to mastery. Nowhere are these biases more blatant than in the representation of female superheroes. With unabashed and unapologetic obviousness, women are portrayed as objects of male desire and fantasy with absurdly exaggerated sexual characteristics."

Surely, muscle-bound Superman is a caricature of masculinity just as Catwoman is a caricature of femininity. Why do they think that the exaggerated characteristics of male superheroes don't make them objects of female desire and fantasy? Why is the ideology "masculinist" and "chauvinistic"? Male superheroes, more often than not, use their powers to protect women and seek a woman's approval. Female superheroes are liberated from that, and have no such constraints put upon them and aren't held to the same moral standards.

A male superhero's physique is equally unattainable by a man as a female superhero's is to a woman.

Without a doubt, there are far more important issues that men need to fight for interpretations of fictional characters in a museum. We simply don't have the luxury that feminists have to even bother engaging in this kind of discourse: there are real legal and social issues that need to be resolved first. But they're interesting questions, nonetheless, and point to how mainstream society still feels that only women can be sexualized (and thus victimized by sex) and that men are naturally hyper-sexual.

Interestingly, the museum chose to use female figure for all of its thumbnails, rather than the male superhero figures contained in the articles themselves.

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Comments

"Why do they think that the exaggerated characteristics of male superheroes don't make them objects of female desire and fantasy?"

I work out pretty hard with weights 2-3x week. Every time I am there I "catch" one or more girls in the weight room checking me out via one of the wall mirrors, or sometimes I turn my glance and she will be staring right at me with "that look" on her face. [The looks on their faces make it clear it isn't just idle curiosity.]

Not to be flattering myself as such-- they do it to other guys there too. As for men in the weight room? Well, we have to be careful to keep their eyes to ourselves, or else risk getting in trouble if one of the female lifters complains!

If women can charge men to check them out in their feminine glory in such places as strip joints and in XXX movies, why shouldn't we charge them to watch us lift weights and otherwise do something macho-like that gets them going? Answer: Our society, including men, seem largely oblivious to male sexuality as it appeals to women, at least in this regard. Collectively we refuse to see men as sexually attractive in a general, all-society sense, but instead, only as "useful" for such things as life-risking occupations, heroics roles, and as monetary suppliers to women and children. That, we will readily call "attractive" in a man.

Oh yeah, re the thumbnails-- there are actually 2 men in there. One is "The Mutant Body", no further comment needed there, and the second one Superman-- a heroic figure who sacrifices life and happiness at every turn for the affections and safekeeping of who? Lois Lane.

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Submitted by mcc99 on Fri, 2008-05-30 17:57

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

To any and all of these women, feminists and black-leather-boot-licking W.P.s (Wussie-poopies);

"You go to HELL! You go to hell and you DIE!"

Mr. Garrison. "SOUTH PARK"

Don't sweat it, Cats.
Just more irrational feminists with too much time on their hands.
Maybe they're having trouble finding underage boys to molest, I dunno.

See ya.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

(the new and improved)
Thundercloud.

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Submitted by Thundercloud. on Fri, 2008-05-30 18:51