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By Sam Hurcom
It’s hardly new news, but Thor has recently had a rather drastic gender change. Henceforth, the Asgardian shall no longer bear any resemblance to Chris Hemsworth, instead representing (arguably) the first major Marvel character to be a woman (we’re talking top five characters here). It’s another substantial move by the comic giants to diversify their top flight of characters from the all-white, all male cast we have sadly grown a little too comfortable with. And in terms of their intentions, I highly commend Marvel for acting in this manner. Many of the world’s best loved comic super heroes, were, frankly, born in another age, several generations ago. When the first Thor issue was released in 1966, women had no legal rights against discrimination in the work place, were unable to get mortgages on their own (except in very rare circumstances), had no access to the contraceptive pill, had no legal right to earn equal pay to men… the list goes on. I’m not trying to suggest in 2014 that the goals of 20th Century feminists have all been realised (they most certainly have not). But, in many areas, women are far closer to achieving total equality with men than they have ever been before.
It’s hardly new news, but Thor has recently had a rather drastic gender change. Henceforth, the Asgardian shall no longer bear any resemblance to Chris Hemsworth, instead representing (arguably) the first major Marvel character to be a woman (we’re talking top five characters here). It’s another substantial move by the comic giants to diversify their top flight of characters from the all-white, all male cast we have sadly grown a little too comfortable with. And in terms of their intentions, I highly commend Marvel for acting in this manner. Many of the world’s best loved comic super heroes, were, frankly, born in another age, several generations ago. When the first Thor issue was released in 1966, women had no legal rights against discrimination in the work place, were unable to get mortgages on their own (except in very rare circumstances), had no access to the contraceptive pill, had no legal right to earn equal pay to men… the list goes on. I’m not trying to suggest in 2014 that the goals of 20th Century feminists have all been realised (they most certainly have not). But, in many areas, women are far closer to achieving total equality with men than they have ever been before.
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At this point, I’m actually going to elect not to delve too deeply into what I’ve seen so far. I haven’t read enough of Jason Aaron’s previous Thor: God of Thunder series to really get a grasp of his character’s personality traits and quirks. I found Odin’s (Thor’s father) portrayal as an aged, gender dinosaur a little too blatant and overzealous, though this was obviously intentional. Until now, I’d never known Asgard to be an overly sexist culture, which it most certainly seems to be, given its King’s attitudes towards women are so backward. Furthermore, with such a big character change taking place on such a massive character as Thor, the ultimate reasoning behind a female Thor emerging could have been far more substantial than simply Freyja (Thor’s mother) trying to prove that women are just as courageous, noble and virtuous as men. Okay, Marvel are trying demonstrate this fact, but they didn’t need to literally spell it out to readers in such a dumbed down manner.
The sad truth is that in reality, when I put issue one down, I wasn’t really that overwhelmed by it, for good or bad. Most reactions to the new Thor have been bipolar opposites of jubilation and celebration, or total disgust and outrage. I was left a little, well, bored. The fact is, I’m not a massive fan of Thor irrespective of the character’s gender. And if Marvel’s intention was to attract new (primarily female) readers to the character and franchise as a whole, I’m not sure how much they’re going to succeed. Unfortunately, the oversimplified and somewhat unimaginative scripting makes the whole thing come off as a little gimmicky. Furthermore, you just get the sense that twenty or so issues in, male Thor will come riding his goat back onto the scene, and the new female Thor character will be reduced to a tacky spin-off like Spider-Woman or She-Hulk.
Which begs the real question – whilst we applaud Marvel for their attempts to diversify, why can’t they take their time, energy and resources to create some whole new female characters we’ve never seen before? Why can’t it invest more in promoting female writers to create these new characters and story arcs? Why does it have to rely on the big splash headline ‘Thor is now a woman’ when it could plan long term commitments to making female heroes a more prominent part of the Marvel roster. It seems, in this instance at least, Marvel have taken the easy, more eye-catching option. Which in many ways, is a really big shame.
The sad truth is that in reality, when I put issue one down, I wasn’t really that overwhelmed by it, for good or bad. Most reactions to the new Thor have been bipolar opposites of jubilation and celebration, or total disgust and outrage. I was left a little, well, bored. The fact is, I’m not a massive fan of Thor irrespective of the character’s gender. And if Marvel’s intention was to attract new (primarily female) readers to the character and franchise as a whole, I’m not sure how much they’re going to succeed. Unfortunately, the oversimplified and somewhat unimaginative scripting makes the whole thing come off as a little gimmicky. Furthermore, you just get the sense that twenty or so issues in, male Thor will come riding his goat back onto the scene, and the new female Thor character will be reduced to a tacky spin-off like Spider-Woman or She-Hulk.
Which begs the real question – whilst we applaud Marvel for their attempts to diversify, why can’t they take their time, energy and resources to create some whole new female characters we’ve never seen before? Why can’t it invest more in promoting female writers to create these new characters and story arcs? Why does it have to rely on the big splash headline ‘Thor is now a woman’ when it could plan long term commitments to making female heroes a more prominent part of the Marvel roster. It seems, in this instance at least, Marvel have taken the easy, more eye-catching option. Which in many ways, is a really big shame.
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Unfortunately, this is where the comic world is somewhat lagging behind. As has often been discussed on comic forums and discussion boards, the representation of many leading and supporting women characters in comics is still fairly poor. Unrealistic body images and generic typecasting sees many female characters reduced to tacky sexual fantasies for a readership traditionally held to be male and adolescent. Even at a relatively unconscious level, more panels featuring women in comics will purposively be sketched in such a manner as to focus attention on their chest or ass.
Some people will disagree with me here, arguing that there are more female lead heroes in comics than ever before. Whilst the balance is still tipped towards male heroes things are steadily moving in the right direction. This may indeed be the case, but for me, the numbers don’t really matter. It’s a form of argument that many feminists would suggest focuses on the practical steps towards overcoming oppression, without taking much heed of the underlying, symbolic oppression that remains. Quantifying equality by calculating how many male characters there are in comparison to female ones is completely frivolous. It wouldn’t matter if the numbers were completely equal; if the symbolic representation of women in comics is still male orientated, over sexual and frankly oppressive, the numbers mean jack shit.
What’s important is not the quantity of leading female characters in main stream comics, but rather the quality and manner to which they represent women, including the struggles they face and the challenges they seek to overcome.
So what of Thor – does it perpetuate a realistic, fair and fully representative view of women in the Marvel universe? Honestly, I’m not so sure. Partly because we’re only on issue two so far, and partly because issue one sort of made me cringe most of the way through reading it.
Some people will disagree with me here, arguing that there are more female lead heroes in comics than ever before. Whilst the balance is still tipped towards male heroes things are steadily moving in the right direction. This may indeed be the case, but for me, the numbers don’t really matter. It’s a form of argument that many feminists would suggest focuses on the practical steps towards overcoming oppression, without taking much heed of the underlying, symbolic oppression that remains. Quantifying equality by calculating how many male characters there are in comparison to female ones is completely frivolous. It wouldn’t matter if the numbers were completely equal; if the symbolic representation of women in comics is still male orientated, over sexual and frankly oppressive, the numbers mean jack shit.
What’s important is not the quantity of leading female characters in main stream comics, but rather the quality and manner to which they represent women, including the struggles they face and the challenges they seek to overcome.
So what of Thor – does it perpetuate a realistic, fair and fully representative view of women in the Marvel universe? Honestly, I’m not so sure. Partly because we’re only on issue two so far, and partly because issue one sort of made me cringe most of the way through reading it.
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