Disrupting the Rainbow Bridge: Dysfunctional Heterosexuality and Reinforcing Gender Difference in Marvel Adaptations

Abstract

Taking as its subject wider issues of sexuality and Marvel women, this chapter thoroughly interrogates the role of heterosexuality in the presentation of women in Marvel films. A critique of gender representation necessarily incorporates a consideration of dominant structures of heterosexuality that are ultimately linked to gender in complex ways. This chapter questions how women in Marvel films are overwhelmingly represented as heterosexual, the role of heterosexuality within the film narratives, and how female characters are drawn into the narrative through their statuses as heterosexual women. This reliance on the heterosexual gender binary is then linked to the projection of a universal heterosexuality intertwined with the superheroic narrative. Taking the theoretical position of gender as a social construct, the chapter begins with an examination of how Marvel films take for granted the binaristic nature of gender. The reassertion of gender difference likewise ties to postfeminist culture.