Superhero movies are enjoying the popularities in our society so I decided to write something about gender discrimination in superheros movies as this initiative blog. The Marvel Universe is the shared universe where the stories in most American comic book titles and other media published by Marvel Entertainment take place. Marvel superheroes such as the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men are from this universe. In my opinion, i beileve that the characters appearance could reveal gender discrimination in superhero films or comic books.

Take the character Jean in X2 as the example, the first noticeable thing is about her appearance. Her long hair and her elegant skirts are gone and she is now wearing her hair shorter while she is always dressed in pants. These seemingly like superficial changes, however, these are more interesting signs. Her medium length hairstyle and pants create an androgynous look which combined with Famke Janssen’s features and height, she is six feet tall and creates a strong cinematic image, which can attract both the male and female audience. Moreover, this masculinized image could also be interpreted as an attempt to show that, by looking more like a man, Jean can achieve the status of the ultimate superhero at the end of the story. This reflects that the designers are trying to masculinize females’ look, making them look like more stronger and powerful as males.

Besides, many of the leading female comic book characters were nothing more than vivacious creations of the male imagination. As these vivacious super hotties have used from comic books to films, they have also become increasingly more significant characters. For example, even a powerful figure such as Wonder Woman carried whips, bracelets and chains, which motivates male sexual desires. Since that, most of images of women superheroes with large bust sizes, slim figures, bare legs, and half-naked appearances became very popular after the success of Wonder Woman in the early 1940s. Those designers create these women who embody the intellectual and sexual power of their generations. This shows that female superheroes are becoming increasingly more sexualized, and finally became the stuff of male sexual fantasy. 

To conclude, Females are more likely than males to be portrayed in a sexualized fashion or as engaging in sexually suggestive behavior. In doing so, women typically wear less and more provocative clothing than men. Generally, females are portrayed as attractive, sexy, and feminine, while males are portrayed as rugged, tough, masculine, and muscular. Females are more often defined as helpless or as victims than males. Male superheroes and female superheroes are portrayed very differently in terms of appearance.