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"There is a big difference in the movie superhero of today and the comic book superhero of yesterday," she said.
"Today's superhero is too much like an action hero who participates in non-stop violence; he's aggressive, sarcastic, and rarely speaks to the virtue of doing good for humanity," she said.
"These men, like Iron Man, exploit women, flaunt bling and convey their manhood with high-powered guns."
In contrast, Lamb said the boys could look up to the old-style heroes such as Superman, "because outside of their costumes they were real people with real problems and many vulnerabilities".Lamb told the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in San Diego, California that adolescent boys were being sold a "narrow version of masculinity" just when they were most vulnerable and trying to forge an identity for themselves.'
I've muttered before about the appalling treatment of women in Iron Man, and how Gotham City is so male that it shouldn't be a surprise that Bruce Wayne is dating the same woman as Harvey Dent (bleeding two-faced women...), and that the arms trade is fine, as long as you don't deal with towel heads (gee thanks). Apparently you can have a radical reboot of a franchise and not be aware of the last forty or fifty years of identity politics.
Where I disagree with Lamb is the sense that it was any better in the old days. When Frederic Wertham was fantasising about what Batman got up to with Robin (half a decade before Adam West's version, as well). I don't suppose the treatment of women was much better then, nor of race.
"Today's superhero is too much like an action hero who participates in non-stop violence; he's aggressive, sarcastic, and rarely speaks to the virtue of doing good for humanity," she said.
"These men, like Iron Man, exploit women, flaunt bling and convey their manhood with high-powered guns."
In contrast, Lamb said the boys could look up to the old-style heroes such as Superman, "because outside of their costumes they were real people with real problems and many vulnerabilities".Lamb told the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in San Diego, California that adolescent boys were being sold a "narrow version of masculinity" just when they were most vulnerable and trying to forge an identity for themselves.'
I've muttered before about the appalling treatment of women in Iron Man, and how Gotham City is so male that it shouldn't be a surprise that Bruce Wayne is dating the same woman as Harvey Dent (bleeding two-faced women...), and that the arms trade is fine, as long as you don't deal with towel heads (gee thanks). Apparently you can have a radical reboot of a franchise and not be aware of the last forty or fifty years of identity politics.
Where I disagree with Lamb is the sense that it was any better in the old days. When Frederic Wertham was fantasising about what Batman got up to with Robin (half a decade before Adam West's version, as well). I don't suppose the treatment of women was much better then, nor of race.
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