mostly what livia said, but also--the young sidekick is a wish-fulfillment, self-insertion figure, even more than the superhero himself. Boys want to be Robin, so Robin has to be a boy.
There's also the issue of a sidekick having to be, well, beside *somebody.* As a superhero character, the complexity of your backstory and supporting cast is determined by how high up the tier you are, and if you are a woman, you're probably not high enough for anyone to even bother *giving* you a sidekick.
I have thoughts, as well, about how the purpose of the sidekick, as people talked about in Te's post, is to be a foil--dramatically, emotionally, etc.--for the hero, and if it were a girl, the only function she could serve would be as erotic-tension foil. (Obviously *I* don't think this, but.) The male writers mentally categorize all relationships into either romantic/sexual, which is male/female, or anything else, which is male/male, because male is the default, and the only reason to make the character female is so the male can sleep with her. So that eliminates female sidekicks to male heroes.
But, uh, those thoughts require more thought, and a whole complicated synthesis with *other* thoughts, and I'm just going to leave that part as an exercise for the reader.
I'm not sure which paragraph above I should attach this part to, so: Men write male characters as people, and woman characters as women. This can work out, although it gets irritating, for a main-character superhero, but the sidekick's main identity is already Sidekick of X. And when making a character female means focusing that character's identity on her womanhood, you can't also focus it on her sidekickiness. (Since why else would you write a female character if not to constantly talk about and think about her gender? If she were just going to go around living life and kicking ass and angsting and being a regular person, you could just make her a man. See above re: default.)
I'm rambling and overly cranky and not making much sense, but I'm clicking Post anyway. I'm pretty sure my *main* point is in the first paragraph, and the rest is a small thought that got magnified beyond all reason. But, yes. Male self-insert fantasy, tailored to their needs, which do not include the having of breasts. At least not that they will admit.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2004-08-05 09:30 pm (UTC)There's also the issue of a sidekick having to be, well, beside *somebody.* As a superhero character, the complexity of your backstory and supporting cast is determined by how high up the tier you are, and if you are a woman, you're probably not high enough for anyone to even bother *giving* you a sidekick.
I have thoughts, as well, about how the purpose of the sidekick, as people talked about in Te's post, is to be a foil--dramatically, emotionally, etc.--for the hero, and if it were a girl, the only function she could serve would be as erotic-tension foil. (Obviously *I* don't think this, but.) The male writers mentally categorize all relationships into either romantic/sexual, which is male/female, or anything else, which is male/male, because male is the default, and the only reason to make the character female is so the male can sleep with her. So that eliminates female sidekicks to male heroes.
But, uh, those thoughts require more thought, and a whole complicated synthesis with *other* thoughts, and I'm just going to leave that part as an exercise for the reader.
I'm not sure which paragraph above I should attach this part to, so: Men write male characters as people, and woman characters as women. This can work out, although it gets irritating, for a main-character superhero, but the sidekick's main identity is already Sidekick of X. And when making a character female means focusing that character's identity on her womanhood, you can't also focus it on her sidekickiness. (Since why else would you write a female character if not to constantly talk about and think about her gender? If she were just going to go around living life and kicking ass and angsting and being a regular person, you could just make her a man. See above re: default.)
I'm rambling and overly cranky and not making much sense, but I'm clicking Post anyway. I'm pretty sure my *main* point is in the first paragraph, and the rest is a small thought that got magnified beyond all reason. But, yes. Male self-insert fantasy, tailored to their needs, which do not include the having of breasts. At least not that they will admit.