Why We Need more Women Superheroes in Movies

Women are strong, beautiful, funny, intelligent and they’re pretty super spectacular. And I swear I’m not just saying that because I am a woman and I’m a bit biased toward women. Trust me; at the end of the day, I’m all for making men a little bit more of these things (I love you guys, but you get away with murder and no one bats an eye). When it comes to movies, I’m not your girl. I’m neither an actress or even particularly interested in movies since Harry Potter ended – and even then, I preferred the books a million percent to the movies. But with that said, let’s talk about Hermione Granger. She’s an uptight, stuffy know-it-all, and she’s the girl on whom I have a girl crush and would love to be. She reminds me so much of my childhood self. Someone who was not interested in breaking rules and who just knew that school was the end all, be all of the world. The difference between myself and Hermione, however, is that she’s a full on super hero.

But she absolutely does not get credit for being one. No, Harry gets all the credit. But if it were not for Hermione, he’d accomplish nothing. And you know what? Hermione – and I, really – don’t care who gets the credit, as long as the job gets done, you know? That’s how women are; I’ll do it, you do it, someone do it; because we’re going to be upset if it doesn’t get done. While we’d prefer not to have to do everything ourselves, we’ll do it because we are superheroes.

So how come we don’t have more superheroes of feminine background in the movies? We have Batman and Superman and Iron Man; but where are all the females? Sure, there’s Black Widow and Cat Woman, but they’re dressed a bit more like strippers than super heroes and they’re nowhere near as popular as the men. It’s fine, really, but I think women should get a little bit more credit for being as awesome as we are. That said, I have a few valid points and reasons as to why the movies need more female superheroes.

To Show Girls that Women are Strong Too

We have a serious lack of female lead characters that are strong and hardcore. Sure, we have ones that are total you-know-what’s (and I firmly believe that a man would never be called a you-know-what, he’d just be called a man) that get things done, but at the sake of their reputation. Additionally, we have a lot of strong female characters that are doing their thing, but where are the super heroes that are just kicking behind and ruling the world?

To Rid Ourselves of Damsels in Distress

Too many movies portray women and girls as damsels in need of a man to save them, and that’s not cool. I mean, it’s fine if you understand that it’s not always reality and that women can be anything they want, but no one wants their little girls growing up thinking that all women need a man to come save them and care for them.

To Open up the World of Fairytales

Fairytales are nice, but it makes me really happy to see movies like Brave and Frozen in which the women are the ones who do the saving and the fighting and the ruling. I love that my kids like to be strong like Anna and Merida as well as wait for Prince Charming to come give them a kiss. I have no problem with that as long as they know that they are strong, too. But the world of fairytales is so girl-oriented and the world of superheroes is so boy-oriented. Why don’t we make them both people-oriented and not just one or the other? It would be so much simpler and so much more fun to do that, and we think that all kids should love all movies, and not just “girl” movies or “boy” movies, as my 4-year-old calls them.

To Prove Women are Cool

Women are cool, but how often do our girls get to see that? They see women cleaning and cooking and doing things that others are forcing them to do without standing up for themselves. And they see women that have no friends, no family and no time for a life because they are so busy working to make a name for themselves that there is no balance. Men, on the other hand, seem to have a lot more balance than women, and we need to prove that women are cool and totally balanced (sometimes) too.

Women are cool, but we don’t always end up portrayed that way. A woman in the corporate world is considered a ball-buster (or a lesbian…because seriously? Where did that even come from?) and a you-know-what rather than just a cool woman with great business sense. A man is considered awesome.

To be Role Models

We all need good role models in life, and why not have a female super hero to look up to? They’re not just for girls to look up to, either. They’re for boys, men and women. We all need someone totally awesome and hilarious and smart and intelligent and powerful to admire. It helps us all remember that we’re cooler than we think and far more amazing than we’re given credit. Little girls and little boys need a bit more in the female superhero business so that we all learn that women are just as cool superheroes as men.

Even if our superheroes look different and do different things; they’re still our super heroes. We don’t have to fight crime, necessarily, but it wouldn’t hurt to see a little of that. And while we are at it, can we get a prince charming that needs a princess to come to his rescue, too? Why not make all characters relatable to all kinds of kids? That would be a lot more educational and fun for all involved.

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