Female Heroes

To be honest, it is difficult to think of very many contemporary, or historical, female heroes. Society at large does not support them nearly as much as male heroes, and even when women rise above the general populace, they still tend to take a backseat to a male hero. In example, batgirl and supergirl are little more than sidekicks to their respective superhero men. However, there are a few examples of female heroes in modern culture. One heroine, less popular now, is wonder woman. An independent hero, Wonder woman uses strength and skill to defeat enemies. She is not disguised as a man in the slightest, and in fact her feminine features are exaggerated. This could be viewed as positive because she does not have to hide that she is a woman, or negative because she is highly sexualized; the feminine features that are exaggerated could appear to make wonder woman nothing more than a sex object. Another heroine in modern culture is Samus Aran, a fixture in many video games. Samus takes the opposite approach, hiding all feminine qualities behind an all-encompassing suit of armor. She does not appear to be female, and she is not nearly as sexualized as wonder woman is. Again, this appearance could be interpreted multiple ways. Samus Aran is purely powerful; with no sex characteristics she rises above typical feminine stereotypes to be much more like a traditional hero. However, one could also argue that Samus achieves this because she is disguising herself as a man, or at least losing all gender characteristics. It could easily be argued that she is becoming a hero only by failing to remain a woman.