Tag: superman

therearecertainshadesoflimelight:

unpretty:

it always seems to be dudes saying they hate superman and it always seems to be because they think he has too many powers and everything’s too easy for him. which is kind of sad? as far as stories go, superman is just about the most emotionally vulnerable and lonely character there is, and one who’s chosen to channel all that into kindness. it’s kinda telling when a dude thinks being able to lift a car would remove all conflict from his life.

Said this before but I still go back to how when Man of Steel hit theaters it had the highest female demo opening weekend that anyone had ever seen for a superhero movie at that point. And Twitter was filled with people who either ignored it or acted totally baffled by it. Meanwhile, those of us who identify as female who have been Superman fans for most of our lives and are, therefore, well aware that women have been keeping Superman relevant in media for the last 30 years were basically like, “Yeah, women tend to really like Superman. Where the hell have you been?”

Clark Kent’s biggest defenders in the Smallville fandom for a decade were WOMEN. The blogs devoted to Clark Kent were run by women. I’m not saying men didn’t like him too but the most passionate defense of Tom Welling’s Clark almost always came from women. They understood his actions and feelings in a way a lot of the male fans did not. They felt his try and his struggle. The kids standing around lockers in junior high on Monday morning talking about last night’s episode of “Lois and Clark” were GIRLS. The people buying magazines with Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher on the cover in the 90’s (because kids they were on soooo many magazines you have no idea) were GIRLS. The people writing the fanfic back when the Internet was a lot newer and newly accessible were women. When the original Richard Donner Superman movie first came out in 1977, Variety actually said in their review, “Women are going to love this.” In 1977!

That doesn’t even touch Lois on her own and how gender has been so distinctly tied to her entire role in the story over the years. The Lois/Clark/Superman blogs are almost exclusively run by women. Fyeahsupermanandloislane was founded by and is managed by a young woman. (FYI so is the Steve Trevor/Wonder Woman blog. You can put two and two together..). The Lois/Clark fandom is dominated and run by women. The hardcore fans and defenders of Lois Lane and her entire role in the mythos tend to be female. The fans who hate her and obsess over how she’s “not good enough” for him and call her “bitch” and want her dead/marginalized or replaced tend to be male. There are exceptions to the rules but these trends aren’t by accident. They are not flukes. You can trace this pattern but we never talk about it because we are so afraid of getting yelled at for daring to stake claim on something that men do not want us to have claim over.

Meanwhile here we are again. Round and round we go. The internet loves to hate the Henry Cavill Superman. But he also has a big defense squad who truly identify with his anxiety and struggle. They see that he’s trying. They felt excited that he would rather gently make love to the woman he loves rather than fuck around. They identify with his love for his mother and his devotion to Lois. And, once again, the female fanbase tend to get zero credit for this. They get talked over…..talked down to. People act like the only people who enjoyed Batman v Superman were shallow fanboys with no taste when, in reality, there is this whole group of female fans huge in number who truly do identify with this version of the myth and people just keep talking over them.

Bottom line is that women love Clark Kent and this has been going on for decades…long before Steve Rogers swept in to pop culture in movies by the way. “Holding out for a Hero” is LITERAL in its meaning with Superman. “Where have all the good men gone?” It’s literal in meaning here. It’s not about needing a man to save you. That has never been the damn idea but people have twisted it because no one understands anymore. Women love Clark Kent because in a world of a-holes and playboys and men abusing power, he’s the guy who doesn’t do that. He doesn’t need to do that. And he is OK getting on his knees in front of a woman. That’s OK with him. And he’s lonely and he struggles but he’s still kind. Gentleness is a part of him. And he will always be there. You can count on him to come when you are in trouble. Not because you ::can’t:: save yourself (not the freaking point) but because God damn sometimes life is hard and you need to count on someone to do the right thing and to be in the fight with you. To really be there. To show up. And the woman he loves is the center of his God damn world. Not the side piece. Not an occasional fling. She is the SUN that his world revolves around. If he says he loves you, you can trust it’s the truth.

Superman’s most passionate defenders are women. It was not at all a shock that so many of the people who showed up for Man of Steel opening weekend were female. It is not at all a shock that more women showed up at the theater for Clark Kent than they did for Bruce Wayne in the entire Nolan trilogy. And it will not be shock when Superman debuts next month on Supergirl and an entire fandom of women rallies around him again. Just wait. It will happen. If you were shocked by this, you have not been paying attention. God damn I love Clark Kent so much.