Supermoc dziewczęcej przyjaźni. Wokół wybranych komiksowych wizerunków girl power

Authors:

• Tomasz Żaglewski

Abstract

The main aim of the article is to confront the idea of “girl power” — as a popular culture variation of a feministic agenda — with selected comic book superheroines. For the general audi-ence mainstream superhero comics serve strictly as a graphic variation of a “male gaze” through over-sexualised depictions of super-women’s bodies and poses. However by analysing some cru-cial examples in the history of super-women-orientated titles, like “Wonder Woman”, “Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane” or “She-Hulk”, the author is trying to reconstruct the process of a slow ‘em-powering’ of women characters by making them more self-aware and consolidated within female groups. By reaching for the teenage-dedicated “DC Super Hero Girls” series the article is heading towards the conclusion about an overall modern re-shaping process of comic book superheroines according to the “girl power” directives and new tastes of an expanding female audience. “DC Super Hero Girls” can serve as a great example of a modern trend in superhero comics to change a “stan-dard” perception of super-women into a much more “female gaze-aware” phenomenon.