Introduction
For a long time, an image of a “superhero” was associated with a male character who saves the world from a total disaster. A typical powerful man is always accompanied by a pretty girl who needs help from him. Due to such common aspects, almost all of these individuals have costumes that show their masculinity and strength over others. Their outfits reinforce masculinity and the image of an ideal male body. With regards to females, they are often sexualized and made in a way of appealing to the male audience. Yet, superheroes, despite their sex and gender, are almost all fit and suit the general standards of beauty.
Reinforcing Gender and Sexuality
The concept of gender in superheroes is either a male or a female. In rare cases, a superhero has contemporary binary gender conceptions or other sexual orientations. There are cisgender characters who demonstrate this characteristic in its ideal form. Men in the movies are well-built, for example, Superman, Batman, and Spiderman, whose costumes illustrate their body shapes. Many superhero outfits are tight, revealing their body and sexualizing them. No one would argue that Batman or Catwoman are not appealing to the female and male gaze, respectively. The clothes are also made in accepted colors of their genders. For instance, there is no male superhero with pink clothes. Interestingly, female heroes do not have such color restrictions in their costumes. However, these superheroes are often dressed for revealing their upper body and legs more than their male counterparts, as in the case of Wonder Woman and Psylocke.
Superheroes Challenging These Notions
In terms of superheroes that challenged the contemporary gender and secularity notions, there is a Marvel comic character Deadpool. He is portrayed as pansexual in the books but heterosexual in movies. Deadpool feels similar emotions towards people regardless of their sex. One more character that goes against the established norms of superheroes is Yelena Belova, who appears in “Black Widow” movie. She demonstrates both masculine and feminine characteristics while being dressed comfortably. Yelena is asexual, meaning that she does not have a particular attraction to people of a specific gender. Viv Vision is another hero that challenges the modern conceptions of gender and sexuality. Her dress is not revealing and does not sexualize her compared to other typical female characters in the movies. Moreover, her sexuality was addressed several times in comics, and clearly, she is a lesbian superhero. It seems that these contemporary films are trying to be more diverse and avoid cliche images of characters by including more women and LGBTQ+ people in the plot.
My Approach to Designing a Superhero Costume
If I were to design a superhero costume that challenges contemporary binary gender and sexuality conceptions, I would do a gender-neutral outfit. In this way, only a character’s special abilities will be emphasized in contrast to transmitting the message of their power through careful selection of clothes. This method will allow me to focus on shifting from the perceptions of gender or sexualized image of men or women, which is typical for comics and movies. As a result, their portrayal will be more objective while remaining credible from the perspective of the genre. My decision to make a change in this respect will not evoke any significant concerns in the viewers since others have already started to introduce similar innovations to the process of depicting female and male superheroes.
In addition to the described solution, I would not attach a certain gender and sexuality to these characters. I would dress and make up the heroes by adopting an appropriate mix of gender standards. This idea is conditional upon my belief in the fact that the image of a superhero should be inclusive in the first place. For example, I would paint nails for a male character or suggest extravagant make-up for him. From this point of view, the use of blue eyeshadows or pink eyeliner would correspond to the initial idea to make corrections by modifying contemporary binary gender and sexuality perceptions.
Moreover, superhero costumes developed by me also would be styled with a similar mix of genders. For instance, I may dress female characters by suggesting more comfortable clothes, such as T-shirts and trousers, instead of the traditional outfits described above. I will not just reverse the styles of male and female superheroes but make them correspond to their personalities. In other words, the selection of attire will depend on the special abilities of a character rather than the accepted standard practices implemented in this area.
Conclusion
To summarize, the traditional superhero costumes reinforce gender and sexuality by emphasizing the need for men to be visibly well-built and the requirement for women to reveal their upper body and legs. Another difference in gender portrayal in these movies is the neglect of colors for males, whereas females are subject to stereotypes in this respect. However, several characters challenge these ideas, such as Deadpool with his sexual orientation and Yelena Belova possessing both feminine and masculine characteristics. Therefore, considering this possibility, I would design their outfits gender-neutral and focus on personalities rather than stereotypes when choosing make-up or other details.