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Supergirl and powerful women's happiness
Dec. 11th, 2015 04:22 amSupergirl is adorable, and Melissa Benoist is knocking it out of the park. I’m hoping the writing will tighten up a bit, and also PLEASE QUEER ALEX PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE, but it brightens up my day every week and James Olsen is the hottest thing I've seen in a while. I find the casting of her parents unbearably cute, and so many relationships between women are emphasised and that gives me great joy.
But there’s one aspect which blows my mind constantly, and I don’t think it gets enough attention for how genuinely revolutionary it is.
Kara loves using her powers. She likes being a superhero, and she wants to be seen and appreciated and even loved by her city for the work she does, and her power is something she enjoys and loves and is natural to her.
That is ENORMOUSLY unusual for a female superhero.
Female superheroes so often have an origin story soaked in trauma. More than that, their power itself is often rooted in violation – whether in straight-up rape or other sexual abuse, or other forms of violation such as Black Widow’s brainwashing. And even if that’s not true, the very use of their power is often painful or isolating in itself (as opposed to ‘I am isolated by my need to keep secrets’, which I’d argue is a separate thing).
( minor spoilers for Jessica Jones, among other things, below )
But there’s one aspect which blows my mind constantly, and I don’t think it gets enough attention for how genuinely revolutionary it is.
Kara loves using her powers. She likes being a superhero, and she wants to be seen and appreciated and even loved by her city for the work she does, and her power is something she enjoys and loves and is natural to her.
That is ENORMOUSLY unusual for a female superhero.
Female superheroes so often have an origin story soaked in trauma. More than that, their power itself is often rooted in violation – whether in straight-up rape or other sexual abuse, or other forms of violation such as Black Widow’s brainwashing. And even if that’s not true, the very use of their power is often painful or isolating in itself (as opposed to ‘I am isolated by my need to keep secrets’, which I’d argue is a separate thing).
( minor spoilers for Jessica Jones, among other things, below )
