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Oct. 17th, 2012 01:28 pmWith Elementary on the air, I was thinking last night about genderbending well-known characters with established stories and attributes. Because, when you genderbend such a character, the other things you change about their story end up being a reflection upon what role their gender plays in their life. (Which is way it annoys me that female Watson isn't a soldier.)
As a thought experiment, though, I was running through what would have to change if you genderbent superheroes. (For the purposes of this, I was assuming all modern settings and modern gender norms--as you go back in time, the differences would necessarily get more pronounced.)
- Clark Kent I don't think would have to change at all. There's nothing about either the origin story or the intrepid reporter cover that wouldn't work just as well for a Clare Kent.
- Tony Stark would be 100% different. Stark's brand of playboy CEO just would not fly for a woman. It would be hard enough for a woman to gain control of a weapons manufacturer, regardless of legacy or genius as an inventor. If she also had Tony's penchant for parties and orgies, I don't think she'd be able to maintain control of the board AT ALL. The only way I could see a female Stark remaining CEO of Stark Industries is if she were as unassailably professional as Pepper Potts. There are a lot of different ways you could take the story, but it would bear very little resemblance to the original.
- Bruce Wayne is interesting. On the one hand, he's also got that very male playboy thing going, except that Bruce's playboy persona is meant to be an ineffective ditz. He doesn't run the company. That persona is meant not to be taken seriously. So it's pretty easy to see a female version of that working just as well--kind of like a Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian. As for the formative parts of his childhood and training, those could stay pretty much the same. The one big difference, though, is that if playboy Bryce Wayne were a woman, papparazzi would be all over that shit. They'd be staking out Wayne Manor with telephoto lenses in case Bryce sunbathed topless. Which would make the secret identity very much more difficult.
- Steve Rogers is another interesting one. Cause first of all, that's World War II, so the attitudes towards women, especially in the military, would be very different. But say that they decide to make a woman the supersoldier. Here's the thing--Captain America has always married military effectiveness with propaganda. But if you made a super soldier a woman--a tall, muscular, incredibly athletic woman--that's not the general idea of beauty for women at the time. She wouldn't be a pin-up girl. Not to say she wouldn't be hot--I'm picturing Gina Carrano, honestly--but she wouldn't be the all-American ideal. I can't see an Eve Rogers going on USO tours. Maybe she'd be a Rosie the Riveter type figure, but that's about the home front, not about soldiering. And then when she got into the theater of war, I'd think it would be a lot more difficult for her to gain respect, no matter the heroics.
So now I want someone to write two of these stories: Bryce Wayne either being unmasked by relentlessly hounding papparazzi, or brilliantly manipulating them to her own ends. And Eve Rogers fighting and gaining respect in this man's army, as a leader of men in a time where women just didn't do that. (Yes, I know there's Peggy, but even if you allow for powerful women within the military structure, putting a woman on the front lines as a leader is still a very different thing.)
As a thought experiment, though, I was running through what would have to change if you genderbent superheroes. (For the purposes of this, I was assuming all modern settings and modern gender norms--as you go back in time, the differences would necessarily get more pronounced.)
- Clark Kent I don't think would have to change at all. There's nothing about either the origin story or the intrepid reporter cover that wouldn't work just as well for a Clare Kent.
- Tony Stark would be 100% different. Stark's brand of playboy CEO just would not fly for a woman. It would be hard enough for a woman to gain control of a weapons manufacturer, regardless of legacy or genius as an inventor. If she also had Tony's penchant for parties and orgies, I don't think she'd be able to maintain control of the board AT ALL. The only way I could see a female Stark remaining CEO of Stark Industries is if she were as unassailably professional as Pepper Potts. There are a lot of different ways you could take the story, but it would bear very little resemblance to the original.
- Bruce Wayne is interesting. On the one hand, he's also got that very male playboy thing going, except that Bruce's playboy persona is meant to be an ineffective ditz. He doesn't run the company. That persona is meant not to be taken seriously. So it's pretty easy to see a female version of that working just as well--kind of like a Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian. As for the formative parts of his childhood and training, those could stay pretty much the same. The one big difference, though, is that if playboy Bryce Wayne were a woman, papparazzi would be all over that shit. They'd be staking out Wayne Manor with telephoto lenses in case Bryce sunbathed topless. Which would make the secret identity very much more difficult.
- Steve Rogers is another interesting one. Cause first of all, that's World War II, so the attitudes towards women, especially in the military, would be very different. But say that they decide to make a woman the supersoldier. Here's the thing--Captain America has always married military effectiveness with propaganda. But if you made a super soldier a woman--a tall, muscular, incredibly athletic woman--that's not the general idea of beauty for women at the time. She wouldn't be a pin-up girl. Not to say she wouldn't be hot--I'm picturing Gina Carrano, honestly--but she wouldn't be the all-American ideal. I can't see an Eve Rogers going on USO tours. Maybe she'd be a Rosie the Riveter type figure, but that's about the home front, not about soldiering. And then when she got into the theater of war, I'd think it would be a lot more difficult for her to gain respect, no matter the heroics.
So now I want someone to write two of these stories: Bryce Wayne either being unmasked by relentlessly hounding papparazzi, or brilliantly manipulating them to her own ends. And Eve Rogers fighting and gaining respect in this man's army, as a leader of men in a time where women just didn't do that. (Yes, I know there's Peggy, but even if you allow for powerful women within the military structure, putting a woman on the front lines as a leader is still a very different thing.)