Women Superheroes Will Forever Ride Shotgun

I'm sure many people can relate to wishing they were as superhero as a kid. You'd watch Superman, Batman or Flash and fantasize how great it'd be to live their lives: saving the world, kicking butt and having awesome powers (or in batman's case a large disposable income). But to what extent are these superhero narratives cultivating stereotypical gender roles of dominance and submission  in children? Should we really be concerned if wanting to be a superhero is "just a phase" and we eventually learn that being a superhero is unrealistic?

Meet the superheros of today. HBO's summer series Superheroes looks into the lives of RLSH  (Real Life Super Heroes), hundreds of men and women with the goal of deterring violent crime and, if necessary, taking the law into their own hands. 

Question is, WHERE ARE ALL THE WOMEN?

 When watching this trailer, I took notice of the lack of women RLSH (Real Life Super Heroes). One woman RLSH is featured, but how she is shown makes it pretty hard to tell if she’s a woman or a slim built man with muscle-boobs. My guess is that when watching or reading superhero narratives as an adolescent, few female superheroes appeared. Or, when they did appear, they came in the form of “damsels in distress”, sidekicks or insignificant superheros who could do little to help. It could be that there are not many female RLSH to feature in the show; however, that is not the case.

Within most superhero narratives, male superheroes typically appear as dominant. They are assertive, forceful, firm, aggressive, and decision makers.  This complies with the notion that dominant acts tend to be related to the male gender role (Ivory, Gibson & Ivory, 2009). The submissive trait is described as being self-doubting, meek, unaggressive, forceless, unbold and timid. Just take a look at this clip below. Which of the pair seems to be dominant?

Although  Batgirl may not appear completely submissive, she certainly takes a backseat to Batman in the clip. Moreover, the clip goes so far to suggest that she is not as intelligent or as skillful a superhero as Batman; he often points out her shortcomings.Could it be that there lack female Real Life Super Heroes in the HBO series because women are not thought to not posses the typical qualities of a superhero (strong, aggressive, dominating, decision making, quick thinking etc.)?