AEJMC Conference Presentation

Entertainment Studies Interest Group

Superheroes and Gender Roles, 1961-2004

By Erik Palmer
University of Oregon

Introduction
Although many observers might categorize superhero comic books as a marginalized medium,
the recent success of such big-budget cinematic productions as The Hulk, Spider-Man, The
Daredevil and The X-Men signals a renewed interest in superheroic topics. These films have
given new life to characters that have evolved, reflected societal changes and influenced the
broader culture for decades. Superhero comic books are nearly unique among pop culture
genres for their endurance across generations of readers and their ability to adapt fluidly to
changing social, cultural and ideological norms.

The comic book market has traditionally been dominated by male readership and masculine
concerns, but female super characters such as Wonder Woman, Phoenix, and Elektra have
been relied on as sites of feminist inspiration and interrogation (witness Simone, 1999 and the
dialog on her critical project by Watson, Wheeler and Johnston, 2002, along with Robinson’s
2004 take on feminism and superheroism). In a feminist context, some analyses have praised
super heroic women for the emancipatory power of their representation (Vowell, 2000), while
others have decried the presumed sexual objectification and victimization of über-women in
skin-tight clothing.

And, like male superheroes, female superheroes have set standards for the mediation of heroic
characters in other contexts, particularly encompassing mainstream entertainment icons such
as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, secret agent Sidney Bristow (of the television program Alias) and
the recently updated Charlie’s Angels.

This study examines the portrayal of women on the covers of mainstream comic books. Relying
on a method of content analysis, it quantitatively analyzes variables in the representation of
women relative to men on comic book covers over a span of more than four decades.
 Superheroes & Gender Roles, 1964-2004

Literature Review
Reflecting intuitively on the cultural role of comic books, one can observe that past scholarly
research on comic book superheroes has focused most frequently on approaches rooted in
cultural or literary studies (including Reynolds, 1992; Klock, 2003; Moore, 2003; Mondello, 1976;
and Brown, 1999). Although there have been a limited number of tangential attempts to content
analyze comic books (such as Palmer, 1979 and Young, 1991), relatively few studies have
attempted to empirically measure cultural artifacts associated with superhero comic books, nor
have many scholars attempted to rigorously quantify and correlate the relationship between
cultural concepts and the narrative or representational norms of superheroes.

Methodologically, more fruitful content-based studies of gender roles have proliferated in other
media contexts, including work on television advertising by Zebrovitz-McArthur and Resko
(1975); on children’s picture books by McDonald (1989); on sports photography by Duncan
(1990); on Music Television by Sommers-Flanagan (1993); on digital clipart by Milburn, Carney
and Ramirez (2001); and on Olympic advertising by Goodman, Duke and Sutherland (2002).
Content studies of gender roles in comic-based media other than superhero comic books have
included examinations of televised cartoons by Levinson (1975), by Chu and McIntyre (1995)
and by Thompson and Zerbinos (1995); and of newspaper comic strips by Spiegelman,
Terwilliger and Fearing (1953) and Brabant (1976).

In particular, the question of the representation of evolution in gender roles in superhero comic
books has proven problematic. On one hand, comic books have demonstrated great capacity to
reflect and interrelate with larger social and ideological questions over their entire history,
starting with their role as patriotic propaganda instruments in World War II, evolving through the
atmosphere of moralistic repression as expressed by public outcry and Senate inquiries in the
1950s, and emerging with depictions of self actualization and individualism during the sweeping
social changes of the 1960s and beyond (Berger, 1971).

Yet female superheroes have relatively rarely assumed a central role in comic book publishing,
despite the emergence and evolution of feminism and a continued societal emphasis on the
quest for gender equality. Among mainstream female comic book superheroes, only Wonder
Women has sustained frequent publication reasonably continuously over the last 40+ years. But
in the last few years, the market for super heroic women in comic books appears to be moving
more strongly towards primary female characters than ever before, as women take the spotlight
in such diverse titles as Birds of Prey, The X-Men, Kabuki, Powers and Alias (not related to the
television series).

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Hypotheses
This study intends to set the stage for further analysis of heroic female figures by proposing a
methodology for measuring gender-based distinctions in cultural content. The study focuses on
a purposive sample of superhero comic books, one in which women are disproportionately
represented compared to the larger population of superhero comic books. However, this sample
also offers the benefit of providing an uninterrupted picture of how heroic women have been
represented in a coherent body of popular culture over a lifetime.

Regarding the evolution of design strategies for comic book covers, the study also strives to
measure the effect on gender representation motivated by portrait-driven narrative approaches
in common use today, compared to the story-driven approaches of the past. An informal
examination of recent covers suggests that the figurative representation of women in comic
books has evolved since the 1960s, and this study attempts to establish elements of that
evolution quantitatively. See Appendix A for several examples that illustrate the change in
narrative strategies on comic book covers over the years.

The study will test four hypotheses:

H1 Over time, women are pictured on comic book covers with increasing frequency relative to
other characters.

H2 Over time, women are depicted as passive (unconscious, as prisoners, or in the grasp of
other characters) with declining frequency relative to other characters.

H3 Over time, women are depicted on comic book covers with increasing prominence relative
to other characters.

H4 Women are pictured more prominently in portrait-style covers (informally called “pin-ups”
by many readers) compared to other characters.

Method
Because nearly all superhero comic books that have been published for as long as 40 years
emphasize a single male protagonist, this research relies on a sample of comic book titles that
depict super groups, or organizations of superheroes. These groups nearly always include at
least one woman. For this study, these include The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, and The
Avengers, each of which is published by Marvel Comics and each of which has been in
continuous publication since the early 1960s:

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 Superheroes & Gender Roles, 1964-2004

Title First Issue Most Recent Total

Avengers, Volume 1 September, 1963 September, 1996 402

Avengers, Volume 2 November, 1996 November, 1997 13

Avengers, Volume 3 February, 1998 August, 2004 84

New Avengers (v4) September, 2004 Present 3

Fantastic Four November, 1961 Present 525

X-Men September, 1963 Present 457

Total Population 1484

Numerous other titles were considered for this research, including The Justice League of
America, the Legion of Superheroes, the Justice Society of America and the Teen Titans (all
published by DC Comics), but none of the other potential candidates have been published
continuously since the 1960s. This study relied on the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide for
publishing information; the Price Guide strives to catalog all comic books ever published and
serves as a standard reference for comic book collectors.

The final sample for this study was chosen by building a indexed sequence that included every
issue in the population; randomly choosing a number between one and six to generate a
starting index; and sampling every fifth issue in the population. This method provides a
randomly selected sample that is also guaranteed to be evenly distributed over the time span of
the study. The five-issue interval was used to maximize the likelihood that at least one issue of
each title would be chosen from each calendar year, and to ensure that the sample would be
randomly distributed across all 12 months of the year, based on conventional publishing
schedules of either six issues or 12 issues annually.

For longitudinal analysis, the sample is also stratified into five time-based categories of
approximately eight years each. Because the publication frequencies of comic books can vary
from title to title and from year to year, the sample is stratified based on the number of issues in
the population, rather than the actual publication dates of the issues. This stratification strategy
results in the following groups within the population:

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 Superheroes & Gender Roles, 1964-2004

Years Titles Total

1961-1969 Avengers v1, 1-101 297

Fantastic Four, 1-105
X-Men, 1-91
1970-1978 Avengers v1, 102-202 297
Fantastic Four, 106-210
X-Men, 92-182
1979-1987 Avengers v1, 203-303 297
Fantastic Four, 211-315
X-Men, 183-273
1988-1996 Avengers v1, 304-402 297
Avengers v2, 1-2
Fantastic Four, 316-420
X-Men, 274-364
1997-2004 Avengers v2, 3-13 293
Avengers v3, 1-84
New Avengers, 1-3
Fantastic Four, 421-525
X-Men, 365-457

Although it might appear to make more sense to use a calendar-based stratification, the only
reliable way to positively confirm the publication date of each issue would be to examine the
actual comic book itself. Many of the issues in this sample are rare collectibles, and it would
likely prove difficult to gain access to every required issue. For coding purposes, the primary
source of covers is an online database that enables convenient access to scanned versions of
older covers (www.comics.org).

With the final sample in hand, each cover was coded according to these variables: Narrative
Strategy, Number of Women, Number of Men, Number of Ambiguous Figures, Number of
Restrained Women, Number of Restrained Men, Number of Restrained Ambiguous
Figures, Gender Priority and Comics Code Seal. Definitions and coding guidelines for each
of these variables follow.

Narrative Strategy
Some covers depict a scene from the story of the comic book, and could be conceived of as
documentary records of action. Others depict characters in the comic book in environmental or

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abstract settings, and could be conceived of as portraits. Coders therefore categorized each
cover into one of the following:

Category Description

Portrait The character or characters on the cover are depicted with a

blank or abstract background. Typically, such portraits are posed
as though in a studio, and a photographic equivalent of the
illustration could only be recorded with the knowing cooperation of
the subjects.

Environmental The character or characters are depicted with a background that

includes a setting or other details from which the observer can
discern the environment. These portraits typically would also
require posing or the collaboration of the subjects to create a
photographic record. When distinguishing Portrait from
Environmental, a background depiction of the sky counts as an
environment.

Action The character or characters depict a scene from the story. These
are nearly always action scenes. These covers could be
conceived of as photojournalistic in their approach. Although
some action-based covers have an abstract background, and
might be considered environmental, combat between characters
and covers that include dialog are always coded as Action.

Multi-Panel A design that is created from a composite of two or more separate

images in comic book-style panels. This is an older style of cover
design that appears infrequently in this population.

Other Any covers that do not fit the prior four categories should be
coded with this category.

Number of Women, Men & Ambiguous Figures

Coders counted the number of gendered figures on the cover, ignoring the following:

q Tight shots of body parts.

q Other figurative elements that have ambiguous gender.

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 Superheroes & Gender Roles, 1964-2004

q Logos, brand marks or advertising that include images of characters, but are not part of
the narrative content of the cover.

Coders also counted multiple representations of a single character on one cover as a single
instance.

Number of Passive Women, Men & Ambiguous Figures

Superhero covers frequently feature characters that have been rendered unconscious,
imprisoned, held hostage, or otherwise restrained by super villains. Coders counted the number
and gender of male restrainees, female restrainees and ambiguous restrainees.

Gender Priority
To operationalize gender priority, coders determined the most dominant male and female
characters on the cover and evaluated their visual prominence relative to each other. The most
prominent characters are most commonly those rendered largest. In cases where multiple male
or female characters appear to have comparable prominence, coders could choose which
character to use for this comparison.

After determining the most prominent man and woman, coders evaluated gender priority using
one of the following categories:

Category Description

1 = none No females on cover.

2 = secondary Characters of more than one gender are present, and the most
prominent female has secondary emphasis to most prominent
male.

3 = equal Most prominent female and most prominent male have equal
emphasis. Coders were instructed to use this category for any
cases in which the gender priority is ambiguous.

4 = only One or more females are the only figures present.

5 = dominant More than one character is present, and the most prominent
female has dominant emphasis compared to the most prominent
male. This code should also be selected in any cases where no

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 Superheroes & Gender Roles, 1964-2004

Category Description

male character is present, and one female is dominant over one

or more other females.

Locate Comics Code Authority Seal

Most titles in this sample have been reviewed by the Comics Code
Authority, and they display the appropriate seal of approval on their
cover.

Results
The sampling method yielded 297 covers, which were reviewed by two independent coders.
Single factor ANOVA tests where used to determine the significance of findings. The data
gathered for this study showed mixed support for H1 and H2, conclusive support for H3 and no
support for H4.

H1 Over time, women are pictured on comic book covers with increasing
relative frequency.
H1 is tentatively supported. The percentage of women on covers was less than 15 percent in
the 1960s and early 1970s, but it had risen to more than 24 percent by the late 1970s. However,
progress appears to have stalled there, dipping slightly, then rising only very gradually since
then. The ANOVA analysis yielded a P-value of .0025 establishing significance for the change
over the course of the entire sample, but stepwise analysis of each panel demonstrated that the
only significant change between panels occurred in the transition from Panel 2 to Panel 3 (mid-
1970s).

Panel Men Women Ambig Average

Percentage of
Women

Panel 1 389 68 3 .1478

Panel 2 291 62 6 .1727

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Panel Men Women Ambig Average

Percentage of
Women

Panel 3 247 84 14 .2434

Panel 4 225 72 3 .2400

Panel 5 170 61 2 .2618

Total 1322 347 28 .2044

H2 Over time, women are depicted as passive with declining relative

frequency.
H2 is tentatively supported, but with weak significance. In the course of the first four panels,
feminine passivity actually appeared to increase slightly, but not with significant variation. Only
in the fifth panel did feminine passivity show a sharp (and statistically significant) decline. The
significance of the overall sample was p=.08.

Panel Total Figures Passive Average

Percentage of
Women
Passive Women

Panel 1 460 14 .0304

Panel 2 359 14 .0389

Panel 3 345 14 .0405

Panel 4 300 14 .0466

Panel 5 233 4 .0171

Total 1697 60 .0353

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H3 Over time, women are depicted on comic book covers with increasing
prominence relative to men.
The data on the relative prominence of women followed a pattern similar to the findings of H1.
Female prominence increased gradually during the first two panels, climbed sharply during the
third panel, and then leveled off. However, the fifth panel showed a sharp (and surprising)
decline in female prominence. The p-Value for the entire sample was .0025, and stepwise
analysis of the panels revealed significant variation in the transition from Panel 2 to Panel 3, and
from Panel 4 to Panel 5.

Decade Average Gender Priority

Panel 1 2.05

Panel 2 2.14

Panel 3 2.47

Panel 4 2.34

Panel 5 1.84

Gender Priority is evaluated on a 1-5 scale, with 5 representing the most prominent
representation of women.

H4 Women are pictured more prominently in portrait-style covers compared

to men.
The data shows no significant support for H4 (p-Value=.17). The choice of narrative strategy
used by comic book artists appears to have very weak statistical influence on the prominence of
women on covers.

Narrative Style Average Gender Priority

Portrait 2.23

Environmental 2.15

Action 2.16

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Narrative Style Average Gender Priority

Multi-Panel 2.13

Other 1.00

Gender Priority is evaluated on a 1-5 scale, with 5 representing the most prominent
representation of women.

Intercoder Reliability
A preliminary test of intercoder reliability using Scott’s pi analysis resulted in high percentages
of matches between coders for most variables, but lower values for variables in which coders
were called to distinguish masculine and ambiguous figures. Additional coaching served to
reduce the number of ambiguous selections and achieve better intercoder reliability.

Variable/Category Scott’s pi

Narrative .6167

Men .5303

Women .8764

Ambiguous .3130

Men Passive .3272

Women Passive .8429

Ambiguous Passive .3074

Female Prominence .6771

Comics Code .8484

The biggest limitation on intercoder reliability was probably not the coding methodology itself,
but the availability of covers. As described before, most covers in the study were evaluated
using relatively low resolution scans downloaded from the Internet. In most cases, these scans

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are adequate for coding, but in some cases coders encountered difficulty distinguishing finer
details on the covers, and that ambiguity probably diminished intercoder reliability. The content
of the comic books themselves probably also contributed to low scores in ways that might be
difficult to mitigate. Many of these covers depict figures of alien beings, so coders are called not
just to deal with the ambiguities of the visual display of gender, but also to extrapolate those
markers of gender across fictional species.

Conclusions
In some ways, the findings of this study support an optimistic outlook for advocates of greater
equality of gender representation in culture. Although the data does not show a clean and
continuous advance to parity, a growing number of women appear on the covers of many comic
books than in the past, and passive depictions of women have declined sharply in recent years.

However, despite improving findings in support of a feminists, this study also leaves open the
question of whether increasingly prominent portrayals of women necessarily equal better
portrayals of women. For example, this study tentatively demonstrates that female super
characters are portrayed more prominently and actively in comic book narratives. However, the
coding methodology in this study currently sidesteps the issue of sexualized portrayals of
female super characters relative to men.

In its consideration of cover styles, this study does set the stage for future examination of
sexualized representations in comic books. Can the prominence of women on comic book
covers be attributed to greater acceptance of powerful representations of femininity? Or is this
prominence driven by a sexualized objectification of female characters? The interesting
temporal variations revealed by this analysis establish key moments that might support a
qualitative content analysis and a set of conclusions about factors shaping the culture of comic
books and gender.

The newer styles of covers categorized in this study appear to represent a reaction to cultural
changes external to the specific narrative requirements of comic books themselves. The
readership demographic of comic books is aging, for example, and portrait-style covers of
women could be interpreted as an attempt to hold the attention of an older, more sexually
motivated male audience. Many of these newer covers also appear to exhibit a graphic and
conceptual similarity to photographic representations of women in pornography, in fashion
magazines, and in the emerging category of male-targeted hybrid publications such as Maxim

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and Blender. In that context, a formal examination of the interrelationship between the graphic
representation of women in comic books and other media forms might prove fruitful.

In her Women in Refrigerators project, Gail Simone paints an oppressive picture of the negative
portrayals and violent outcomes suffered by female characters in superhero comic books. Her
catalog of murder and mayhem against women in comic books is almost certainly accurate, but
does it adequately validate gender oppression in comics? Female characters are certainly not
alone in having suffered during the 65-year history of superhero comic books. A strong
quantitative analysis in the style of this study that covers a greater variety of titles over a longer
period of time could provide valuable support or opposition for Simone’s position.

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Appendix A Cover Samples

Older Covers with Narrative Emphasis

This cover would be coded as Multi-Panel This cover would be coded as Action. Also note
the gender priority with four prominent males
and one imprisoned female

Recent Covers with Portrait Emphasis

This cover would be coded as Environmental This cover would be coded as Portrait

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