Emma Frost, the White Queen

Initially a ruthless and hypersexualized operative for the Hellfire Club, Emma Frost has transformed into a core member and leader of the X-Men. Frost engages with the world on her own terms, bypassing many of the stereotypes attached to superheroines. Her challenging personality functions as a dark mirror for other characters in the saga, inscribing emotions and attitudes that implicitly question the values of the X-Men and of the genre to which they belong. Focusing chiefly on her membership of the X-Men and her part in key developments of the Marvel Universe in the 21st Century, this chapter examines Emma Frost as exemplifying Butler’s concept of gender performativity as an explicit aspect of her superpowers. It explores whether the limitations of hegemonic masculinity can offer a way out and asks whether it is possible to consciously exploit hegemonic narratives in order to affect change.

Albus Dumbledore and the Curse of Toxic Masculinity

In both the worlds of sociology and psychotherapy, a crisis of masculinity can be seen in a number of very concerning trends in violence, mental health, education, media, and in wider social domains. Having explored the traditional representations of ‘superhero’ masculinity through the discussion of superheroes and villains in the previous sections, this chapter analyzes how Albus Dumbledore represents the old superhero masculine archetype by contrasting it with Harry Potter’s, who provides a newer and more hopeful model of masculine behavior based on friendship, connection, teamwork, and love. This chapter delves into how characters can model alternative masculinities as an effective strategy to combat the pervasiveness of toxic masculinity, and its effects on children and adults alike.

Introduction

Introducing concepts such as hypermasculinity, hegemonic masculinity, and toxic masculinity, this section clarifies the methodological framework the book uses to perform analysis. It discusses how masculinity remains framed as both the norm and the cultural ideal, while femininity, race, and queerness are used to bar Others from masculine social, cultural, and political power. It unpicks the discourse around power hierarchies in American capitalist society, and it explains how these power hierarchies relate to each other in a consumerist system, and to the superhero and what we mean by ‘superhero.’