page_title: Gender in speculative fiction
section_title: Comics
hierarchical_section_title: Gender in speculative fiction / Comics
caption_attribution_description: Cover scan of Planet Comics, No. 53, Fiction House, March 1948. Cover art by Joe Doolin
context_page_description: Gender has been an important theme explored in speculative fiction. The genres that make up speculative fiction, science fiction, fantasy, supernatural fiction horror, superhero fiction, science fantasy and related genres, have always offered the opportunity for writers to explore social conventions, including gender, gender roles, and beliefs about gender. Like all literary forms, the science fiction genre reflects the popular perceptions of the eras in which individual creators were writing; and those creators' responses to gender stereotypes and gender roles.
  Many writers have chosen to write with little or no questioning of gender roles, instead effectively reflecting their own cultural gender roles onto their fictional world. However, many other writers have chosen to use science fiction and non-realistic formats in order to explore cultural conventions, particularly gender roles.
context_section_description: There was a time when more girls read comics than boys, but these comics were generally realist, with a focus on romance and crime stories. However, for most of their existence, comic books audiences have been assumed to be mostly male. The female characters and superheroes were targeted towards this male demographic, rather than towards women readers. Although many female superheroes were created, very few starred in their own series or achieved stand-alone success. It has been debated whether the lack of female readership was due to male writers being uncomfortable with writing about or for women, or whether the comic book industry is male dominated due to the lack of intrinsic interest of women in comics.
  The first known female superhero is writer-artist Fletcher Hanks's minor character Fantomah, an ageless, ancient Egyptian woman in the modern day who could transform into a skull-faced creature with superpowers to fight evil; she debuted in 1940 in Fiction Houses Jungle Comics.
  In the early 1940s the DC line was dominated by superpowered male characters such as the Green Lantern, Batman, and its flagship character, Superman. The first widely recognizable female superhero is Wonder Woman, created by William Moulton Marston for All-American Publications, one of three companies that would merge to form DC Comics. Marston intended the character to be a strong female role-model for girls,  with "all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman."
caption: Cover of Planet comics #53
exif: {}