A new study has revealed how strong female superheroes are gaining ground on the guys.
Female characters portrayed in two popular TV shows not only are competing for powerful ratings (and advertising dollars) among the networks, but also are exemplifying how women are gaining equality in superhero fiction.
University of Cincinnati's Rebecca Borah said that in a post-'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' television world, females are finally becoming major characters to their male counterparts.
It's hard to get away from the comic book images of female superheroes, the World War II pinup-style, curvaceous characters, and how often they were more the seductive, romantic interest of the powerful male superhero, says Borah.
Borah added that rather than just being the voluptuous, vulnerable love interests of the main characters in these newer TV shows, there are independent, intelligent and intuitive female characters who can kick some antagonist butt on the same level as their male counterparts.
Borah noted that 'Grimm's' Juliette and the 'Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s' Agent May are two leading examples of how women are gaining ground on the leading men in the areas of smarts and strength, as well as an appropriate dress code for work.
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They're still not padding around in flats, but just looking at the footwear alone, they're wearing something much more practical than the teetering high heels of the females portrayed in comic books, said Borah. Furthermore, Agent May is one of the few people, male or female, who can reportedly best the Black Widow in hand-to-hand combat.
May is the warrior, Skye is the newbie with the mysterious past - now with superpowers and Agent Jemma Simmons is their biology tech specialist. All of them have specialized areas that complement the leading male, Director Phil Coulson, and the other male agents.
Borah says this emerging trend of strong female characters is a long time coming in recognizing that there has always been a large and loyal female comic book fan base, yet the genre was previously a very masculine world. There's a real hunger among these fans to see female characters treated as equals, to show that women can be heroic too. Buffy kind of blazed the trail in the TV culture.
Borah adds that outside the superhero genre, there have long been strong heroines in fiction who have embraced both passion and integrity, such as writer Charlotte Bronte's 'Jane Eyre' or Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' character, Elizabeth Bennett.