Emily: The Inequity of Number of Superheriones Compared to Superheroes

Emily: Responding and Reflecting

Text: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Lens: Feminist

From: craveonline.com
How many women can you count?

Women aren’t superheroes. Not often at least. It’s all about Superman and Iron Man and Batman and Spiderman. How often is Catwoman mentioned? Or Wonder Woman? According to my calculations, a little under 34% of superheroes are female. And it’s not like women are portrayed as villains either -- only 17% of villains are female (based on character lists from www.superherodb.com). It’s as if the 50% of the world’s population that is female only exists as tiny fraction of this other world.

From: wordpress.com

Likewise in The Scarlet Letter, 3 characters are female (Hester, Pearl, Mistress Hibbins) whereas 4 to 5 are male (Mr. Chillingworth, Mr. Dimmesdale, the Governor, Reverend Wilson, and the narrator, if you count him). The three women all are somehow all discredited by their society. Hester committed adultery and considered “the reality of sin” (Hawthorne 71), Pearl is just an illegitimate child, and Mistress Hibbins is a bit crazy. However, Mr. Chillingworth is considered to be a great doctor, a “man of skill” (Hawthorne 114) and Mr. Dimmesdale a “miracle of holiness” (129). The Governor obviously had power, and the Reverend Wilson a clergyman with sway over the minds of others.

Again there is a discrepancy in how many women are portrayed and what a woman can do. There are so few women superheroes, and even fewer women villains, it’s as if women cannot do anything. Hester found work sowing and mothering Pearl and Mistress Hibbins was just as lame with her witchcraft. That is not the woman I want to be.

This is a story written about the 1600s where women were more confined to their traditional roles, but now, even in superhero stories, males outnumber the females. Other popular books have more male characters than female characters (And I thought we were being more progressive.)

But then again, some parts of the book I do connect to Hester. Even though Hester Prynne is outcasted, she keeps her head high. She is not quite proud of the scarlet letter, but does not hide it either. It is somewhat of pride, but also love. She does not want to be seen as broken by the general populace so that she can protect her daughter, nor does she desperately denounce Mr. Dimmesdale so that only she suffers and does not have Mr. Dimmesdale hurt by Mr. Chillingworth. 

Even after that, so that she does not suffer as much as Mr. Dimmesdale and Mr. Chillingworth. Mr. Dimmesdale health falters under his sin. Mr. Chillingworth goes crazy in revenge and jealousy. Only Hester Prynne manages to survive the ordeal. Here, she is a strong woman who I can look up to. 

Some interesting information:

From: goodreads.com

I asked a few people about books with more females than males. I came up with this list.

More Females:

The Selection

Beauty Queens

Grave Mercy

Some Isabel Allende Books

Little House on the Prairie Series

All of a Kind of a Family

The Help

Fangirl

Howl's Moving Castle
The Book Thief

From: goodreads.com

However, it was much easier to name off books with more male characters than female characters.

More Males:

Harry Potter

Maze Runner (one female main character in the first book)

Percy Jackson

Twilight

Lord of the Flies (no female characters)

The Demon King (Male: 76, Female 42, approximate, all characters)

I Hunt Killers  (Male: 8, Female: 7, main characters)

Also TV Shows/Movies/Other with more females than male characters: Gilmore Girls, The 100, The Witches of Eastwood, The Parent Trap, Wicked, The Fosters, and Orange is the New Black

Please correct my numbers and guesswork. This is going off a personal recollections of the books. Notice how the books in the more male characters than female characters are big name books whereas I had to dig into the recesses of my (and others’) memory for the other books. Just because there are more females than males or vice versa, does not indicate the worth of the books, in fact some of books with more women characters portray women in a relatively negative light.

In a study about number of male vs. female characters in picture books the researchers found:

• Males are central characters in 57 percent of children's books published per year, while only 31 percent have female central characters.
• No more than 33 percent of children's books published in any given year contain central characters that are adult women or female animals, but adult men and male animals appear in up to 100 percent of books.
• Male animals are central characters in more than 23 percent of books per year, while female animals are in only 7.5 percent. (McCabe et al, Scientific Daily)

Honestly, I thought that by the 21st century we would see more gender equality in our literature. Unfortunately, I was wrong, but I hope that as feminism and gender equality is pushed to the forefront of our minds, more books will represent the true population of the world.