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Nicholas Curey
Professor Beadle
English 115
15 October 2015
The Modern Superhero
Modern women are being suppressed into a subordinate role, donning passiveness and
deep emotional understanding that are typically seen as inferior features in the patriarchal social
hierarchy. In an attempt to restructure the masculine hegemony, authors have taken the role of
educators to inform society about the hierarchal imbalance. G. Willow Wilsons Ms. Marvel,
specifically follows the adventures and mishaps of a female teenage Pakistani-American
superhero, Kamala Khan, and her male American teenage partner, Bruno, attempting to rise
above societies gendered stereotypes. However, despite the acquisition of super powers, Kamala
has only partially transgressed feminine gender roles in terms of her relationships with Bruno
and her parents and her image in society as a whole.
Growing up as a sheltered Pakistani girl, all of Kamalas relationships were carefully
watched by her parents and her brother. Kamala was not allowed to hang around the strange
boys that may try to take advantage of Kamalas longing to fit into the popular image (Wilson
8). However, Kamala was allowed to be friends with certain, parent-approved, guys. This is how
her relationship with Bruno developed. Bruno grew up with Kamala, quickly becoming her
closest childhood male friend due to the constant pressures from her parents. Ever since
childhood, Bruno fulfilled the dominating role in the Kamala-Bruno relationship (74). When
Kamalas super human abilities developed, she grew a sense of empowerment that left her in

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charge of Bruno, flipping the standard male hegemonic standard around, leaving Bruno feeling
emasculated and paranoid. The uneasy feeling that Bruno has is normal for a male being
dominated by a women. In modern culture, men who exhibit feminine traits or are even
dominated by a women, as in the case of Bruno, suffer a loss of manhood in the eyes of society
(Collins 227). This blatant reduction in masculinity can leave a male feeling out of place as they
feel their loss of power in the social hierarchy.
For Kamala however, the ability to dominate a male, specifically a white heterosexual
male, and have it be accepted by society shows that traditional gender roles are changing. By
herself, Kamala is proving to society that women can have the same traits and roles as men and
thrive. All due to her superpowers, Kamala has transgressed past the idea that women are
subordinate to males by reversing the roles in her relationship with her partner. However, not all
of Kamalas relationships have changed due to her superpowers. She still plays the sheltered
Pakistani teenage girl role in the eyes of her parents and family.
Gaining super powers will give anybody a boost in confidence, regardless of their
background. Kamala is not an exception. After using her superpowers on multiple occasions,
Kamala begins to gain a sense of power which she focuses into individuality and rebelling
against her parents. Once she received her super powers, every time her parents set a curfew,
Kamala deliberately disobeyed it in order to protect the streets as Ms. Marvel. This
empowerment leads to Kamala getting into trouble on numerous occasions, with her mother
going as far as saying that Kamala is both destroying her own life and tearing their family apart
with her wretchedness (Wilson 92). Generally, a child learns how to be an adult by letting
themselves be dominated by an older, more influential, member of society, mainly their parents
(Collins 229). In this case, Kamalas struggle with her newfound power leaves her feeling as the

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dominant authority in all of her relationships. Naturally, her parents are angered by her blatant
disobedience to their rule, feeling that without proper authority in her development, Kamala will
grow up unstructured and reckless, losing all power in the hierarchy. What her parents do not
understand, is that through her disobedience, Kamala is learning how to be a responsible adult
from her superpowers.
Kamalas parents are not to blame for being angry, however, as Kamala has not told them
about her superpowers. From the parents perspective, their 16 year old daughter is suddenly,
disobeying their every order and sneaking out past curfew; behavior that would lead most parents
to believe their child is making poor life decisions. The only way that Kamala could possibly
transgress past this relationship is if she explains her superpowers to them and how she is helping
society by using them. Although they may be scared for her safety and try and restrict the usage
of her powers once they know, at least they will understand why she is disobeying them and will
eventually give her the lenience she needs. Without telling her parents, they have no chance of
understanding what Kamala is doing or give her the necessary freedom to use her powers. Until
that conversation takes place, regardless of her superpowers, Kamala will be the sheltered,
Pakistani, teenager that her parents raised; not the dominant female superhuman image that
Kamala has given herself in society.
As a byproduct of superpowers, and as previously mentioned, Kamala gains an increase
in physical and societal power. By using her superpowers to thwart criminals of all types,
Kamala begins to change her perspective about many aspects of her life, primarily her
appearance. With the help of Bruno, Kamala begins to feel comfortable with both of her
personalities and realizes that as Ms. Marvel, she does not have to impress anybody and can take
on any image she desires as opposed to the politically recognized image (Wilson 70). This ability

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to freely express her views on gender and blend femininity with masculine aspects relates to the
progression of modern society, towards an essentially genderless future. This idea is seen in
Barbara Kantrowitz and Pat Wingerts work Are We Facing a Genderless Future? in which
they state that the new era is one in which a persons gender could be expressed of experienced
as male, female, or in between, as Kamala exemplifies with her gender-blended costume and
ideology (69). This change only exists due to her superpowers, as before she received them, she
was limited by her beliefs that the only way she will be attractive is if she had beautiful blonde
hair and a curvaceous figure. Even after she received her powers, the image she chose to take
embodied her hegemonic beliefs, in which she soon realized that her image does not make her
strong and that living the ideal image is not what it seems as the typical blonde hair covers her
face, showing that all things come with a price. (Wilson 34).
Using her superpowers showed her that being a superhero allows her to choose whatever
image she wants, and that she is not forced to become a stereotypical hero. In this way, she
transgressed society as she eventually chose to disregard the typical feminine image of wearing
restrictive and revealing clothing and donning a subordinate personality, for a more masculine
costume and outspoken, dominant personality (Devor 41). However, just because she chose,
thinks, and feels through a dominant personality, does not mean that she receives respect as such.
Modern culture is in the process of changing to equally accept blended genders. Kamalas
transgression occurs too quickly for her to earn proper acknowledgment from society, especially
her enemies. Doyle and the Inventor simply refer to Kamala as nothing more than a girl,
putting her under the typical passive and submissive label and refusing to acknowledge her
chosen blended personality (Wilson 104). Although she is helping keep him safe, even a
homeless man refuses to respect her chosen lifestyle, complementing Kamala on her appearance,

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specifically her knees, and joking about the lack of pants in her outfit and how revealing it is in
general (Wilson 35). This relates to modern culture as although society is becoming more
accepting, the purpose of gender as a modern social institution is to construct women as a group
to be the subordinates of men as a group and the notion of total equality is still too
groundbreaking to be fully accepted by society. (Lorber 30).
Although Kamalas superpower has allowed her to only partially transgressed society in
terms of her gender, a completely opposing view is that her superpowers played no part in her
transformation. Some readers believe that Kamala would have eventually underwent the same
transformation without receiving her powers. This is untrue as the reason she changed is because
her powers gave her a second personality, one in which she can choose whether or not to follow
the gender stereotypes she developed in accordance with. The tension between the personal
image of Kamala and the societal image of Ms. Marvel, allowed Kamala to realize that she is not
pressured to fulfill a specific image. Being Ms. Marvel gave her the option to display herself in
any way she wants and the notion that her superpowers, essentially the whole character of Ms.
Marvel, played no role in her development is a flawed argument as it is missing the main piece of
supporting evidence for her development. Taking on the role of a superhero, and being
undermined by her foes as nothing more than a girl is the primary reason that Kamala broke free
from her gendered development. The lack of respect for her dominant superpower image, gave
Kamala a reason and the will to change. In the words of Andy Warhol, when people are ready to
change, they do. They never do it before then and Kamalas superpowers were what gave her
the reason to change (Andy Warhol Quotes 1).
Overall, Kamalas superpowers allowed her to transgress many aspects of her gendered
development. However, because her change occurred almost overnight, society has yet to accept

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her new personality, causing her to be undermined and ultimately treated as if she did not change
in the first place. This proves that although society is in the process of accepting gender blended
and gender neutral personalities, the change is not complete. The masculine hegemony still exists
and society still treats women and gender neutral individuals as subordinates. Many authors are
creating works, such as Ms. Marvel, that are advancing the progression by showing that women
can take on masculine roles and traits and thrive with them. With the continuation of this
ideology, one day society will deconstruct the hegemony, granting persons of all identifications
equality in culture and form a truly genderless society.

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Works Cited
Andy Warhol Quotes. Goodreads. Goodreads Inc. 2015. Web. 14 October 2015.
Collins, Patricia Hill. Hegemonic Masculinity and Black Gender Ideology. Composing
Gender. 1st. John E. Sullivan III. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. 222-240. Print.
Devor, Aaron. Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender. Composing
Gender. 1st. John E. Sullivan III. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. 35-45. Print.
Kantrowitz, Barbara, and Pat Wingert. Are We Facing a Genderless Future?. Composing
Gender. 1st. John E. Sullivan III. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. 68-71. Print.
Lorber, Judith. Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender. Composing Gender.
1st. John E. Sullivan III. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. 19-34. Print.
Wilson, G. Willow. Writer. Ms. Marvel. Illustrated by Adrian Alphona, Jacob Wyatt. Colorist Ian
Herring. Lettering by VCs Joe Caramagna. New York: Marvel Worldwide, 2015. Print.