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This chart compares the body mass index (BMI) of superheroes in Marvel comics with those of typical American women and men. Researchers Karen Healey and Terry Johnson used physical stats from Marvel's Web site to show that the vast majority of female superheroes are underweight, though the males are mostly normal. Just to remind you, in the BMI scale, below 18.5 is underweight, 18.5-24.9 is normal, and over 25 is overweight. Healey's analysis of what this means is hilarious and thought-provoking.
Healey writes:
The BMI range of Marvel women is much less varied than that of all other groups and tends to the low end of the "normal" BMI range. This result is surprising, considering that many of the women sampled are martial artists or extremely capable physically and should, if anything, have a BMI that indicates a higher body fat level than is actually present.Of course, this is no different from what we see in depictions of women in the so-called real world, where magazines airbrush women's arms to half their size or Photoshop their faces to look slimmer. Here is my favorite part of Healey's paper, where she explains how they picked heroes of the appropriate age:The BMI range of Marvel men is more varied and tends to just over the upper limit of the "normal" BMI range. However, it is still less varied than that of the "real world" male and female groups.
We stress that given the physical and biological vagaries of the Marvel Universe and the relatively small sample sizes involved, these results are not conclusive. Data comparing male and female athletes from both world might provide more accurate comparative results, and we suggest this as a point for further research.
However, advance data indicates that Marvel women are portrayed as having a disturbingly low BMI compared to the healthy BMI range of their male counterparts. Furthermore, the range of body types expressed by Marvel women is surprisingly small. The distribution of BMIs in Figure 1 is by far the sharpest, with little variation from the mean compared to Marvel men, and far less variation than we see in actual men and women. This is true to a lesser extent for males in the Marvel universe as well.
The Marvel male is predisposed to be on the heavy side of healthy, which can be explained by the increased muscle mass of intense physical acitvity. The average Marvel female is approaching underweight despite a presumably active lifestyle. This may corroborate sociological and literary observations that in the Marvel Universe, women must fulfil criteria for being attractive by Western standards before fulfilling the criteria of biological realism.
The "real" age of Marvel Universe persons is frequently altered by the powers or mutations of individuals, non-Euclidean time, cryogenics, magic, biochemical solutions, alternative dimensions, radiation, cloning and resurrection. The 20-29 year old age range was chosen as the most appropriate range comparison for the apparent physical age of most adult Marvel characters.
Comparative Sex-Specific Body Mass Index in the Marvel Universe and the Real World [paper]
Comments
Aww they should have included the BMI curve of the Marvel fans...
Just to counter count that skewed BMI of female marvel super heroes..
@DocGratis: Exactly. Their devoted fanbase is carrying that extra weight for them!
And the BMI curve of the writers and artists at Marvel.
My BMI is that of a women marvel super hero! Suck on that!
or the race / gender of the writers and artists at Marvel. White. Men. Projecting their idealized female form into the graphic novel. That's why I love Fantagraphics. Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez's Love and Rockets is a nice alternative to Marvel pap.
@Neon.Wonder: I have the BMI of a space robot.
I'm quite surprised by these foundings. I figured their enormous breasts were easily 15 lbs apiece.
It all goes back to what my cousin always says about romantic comedies and how 99% of them involve really good looking people.
"Nobody wants to watch ugly people fall in love."
And in a similar vein, nobody wants to watch fat people fight crime.
/yes, there are always exceptions
may be, but they are off the scale in sheer cuteness. ;)
@foofer: Jim Blatent.. I mean, Balent, anyone?
@SunZhiQian:
"And in a similar vein, nobody wants to watch fat people fight crime."
Or make legislation against it. This is why "AMAZING STORIES OF CONGRESSIONAL HEROES!" will never be seen at your local comic book store.
Upon finishing said article, my contribution to the thread is "So what?"
I knew it! Kitty Pryde is anorexic!
@Plague:
frosted butts.
(goddamn it, it's like i have tourettes today.)
Males are not "normal". They're idealized and by and large hugely muscular and supremely athletic. Women are the same way. It just so happens that the idealized versions are not representative of MOST people, men or women.
OMG! Comic book superheroes often represent physical ideals! The patriarchy is making me hate myself!
Remember kids: Hell hath no fury like a woman compared.
@SunZhiQian: or NORMAL people, in both cases, apparently. No one wants to see normal people fall in love. Or fight crime. Or apparently do anything else.
@gybryant: "physical ideals?" whose ideal is that? Every guy wants to be a veiney monstrosity, and every woman wants a waist that'll snap like a twig? No thanks, I'll leave that ideal for someone else.
That being said, they're comic books. I think they're the last place anyone should expect reality, especially given the fan base.
@SunZhiQian: But we love fat people committing Crimes. Case in point, The Blob.
@omerhi: But according to the article, active women who parallel the marvel women have a different bmi scale. A one-on-one comparison of a Marvel male to a similar looking real male (Say the none super powered black guy from the Avengers, or the punisher, or DEADPOOL <3) will result in a similar bmi. Take a similar looking marvel female to her real life counterpart (Say none (psychically) super powered women like Silver Sable, Jean Grey, or Storm, and their BMI will not be the same.
Is it just me or is the BMI curve for Marvel women a little phallic?
@Strangeite: Compared to the boob shape for both marvel men and real life people?
Ok, putting aside issues of how to calculate age, sample size, and variance due to artistic inconsistencies..
This is impossible to take seriously. These researchers don't seem to know what they're talking about:
"considering that many of the women sampled are martial artists or extremely capable physically and should, if anything, have a BMI that indicates a higher body fat level than is actually present."
HIGHER BMI DOES NOT INDICATE HIGHER BODY FAT!!!
"BMI is not a direct measure of body fatness and that BMI is calculated from an individual's weight which includes both muscle and fat. As a result, some individuals may have a high BMI but not have a high percentage of body fat. For example, highly trained athletes may have a high BMI because of increased muscularity rather than increased body fatness."
[www.cdc.gov]
Oh, and PS. I suspect the reason a high percentage of Marvel women fall into the "very fit" category might have something to do with their primary target audience being teenage boys and young men... maybe someone should fund a study on that.
what about the BMI of the average Barbie. Their primary target audience is young girls, children. their design is very similar to the average Marvel Superhero. Western society teaches girls and young men that an idealized women should have a tiny waist, and large breast. Hello implants.
to play devil's advocate, BMI's a crappy way to judge health anyway.
@geekgrrl: Seriously. If you're a tiny Canadian with an adamantium skeleton, the BMI is a one-way trip to an eating disorder.
@phoenix: Yep, physical ideals. We has them. Your nonconformity to mainstream conceptions of beauty does not make them go away. If there were no physical ideals, then there would be no beautiful people as you couldn't find two people that could agree on what beautiful meant. But there are individuals that millions upon millions of people agree are beautiful, thus suggesting that there is a beautiful ideal to which these exceptional individuals conform. Thinness is an aspect of that ideal. For now. I think.
You put ironic quotes around the word normal too, don't you?
Unfortunatly, Buffy and River fit into that underweight ideal, despite the feminist storylines.
Kind of funny when I came to this after just getting done hearing a scathing criticism of BMI (gist is: It's a really, really STUPID weigh to judge a person's health).
"20-29 year old age range was chosen as the most appropriate range comparison for the apparent mental age of most adult Marvel readers."
@Evdor: Yeah, I think it's mostly a way for insurance companies to charge you more for being slightly more than skeletal. Seriously, people I know who are supposedly "obese" by BMI are generally not even slightly chubby. WTF?
@ideaman2020: Try reading their statement again "considering that many of the women sampled are martial artists or extremely capable physically and should, if anything, have a BMI that indicates a higher body fat level than is actually present."
Poorly worded but it says Supers should (given their strenght etc) have a higher BMI, which would "Inidicate a higher level of body fat" then the supers actually have.
They should have higher than average BMIs despite not being fat.
So not only should supers have an at least average BMI, they really should have an above average BMI, thus making the curve demonstrated by Marvel women even more absurd...
@ideaman2020: Further to what DocGratis explained, the researchers also go on to say
"The Marvel male is predisposed to be on the heavy side of healthy, which can be explained by the increased muscle mass of intense physical acitvity",
which indicates that they are aware that a higher BMI is expected in extremely physically fit individuals.
I love this post. I wish someone would apply this gauge to women models and actresses too. Then I could hand that to the mom of every tween girl I know. :)
@ProgGrrl: Just to remind them that they will never be a model or an actress?
I'd rather show it to every model and actress to remind them that they were once a tween girl.
@92BuickLeSabre: That comment sounded mean; it wasn't meant to be at all. Sorry if it did.
@DocGratis: @twreckx: And yet, they always seem to have enough body mass to maintain ample boobies...
yeh you do relise the BMI is a pile of crap invented by the diet industry - I was talking the otehr week with an insurance broker about how elite sports people have problems with insurance as their BMI doesnt fit the models that insurers have.
I grew up reading and still read mainly Marvel comics... And yes my wife understands that's were my love for her small ankles comes from.
@gybryant: The point I see in this study is that yes, we have ideals embodied in the physical characteristics of these characters (sexual fantasy in the case of female characters and power self-insert fantasy in the case of male characters and never the twain shall meet), but
a) the depicted male physical ideal is more realistic than the female one.
b) if anyone breaks out of that ideal it is almost certainly going to be a male character.
@gybryant: Hah! Okay - hold on to those ideala. Let us know when you find someone who meets your ideals, and please, definitely follow up with us when you've hit those "ideals" for yourself. Something tells me that they might apply to some, but not to yourself. Treating the semantics with a high handed philosophical hammer doesn't press out the fact that the idea is completemy manufactured in and of itself. Although I suppose it's always nice to have goals, isn't it?
Ironic quotes? I don't "know" what you're "talking" about!
well i dont know about you but i just cant imagine a 390 pound wonder woman
I wonder how they took the BMI of a fictional character.
then watch "Project Runway" and take a look at Chris March's portfolio. He isn't 390 though, but he is overweight.
Annalee,
My compliments to you for a great post highlighting the same narrow range of looks for female superheroes that then serve to shape the perspectives, ideas, and ideals, of their fans.
Of course, another female superhero who exerts equal or even great impact lives in another genre of female superheroes with similar disproportionate portions is Barbie the doll. But before her time and the time of the female superheroes who you cite, are the powerful chracters of the seemingly well-meaning and seemingly harmless fairy tales and stories that generations of children hear as very young children.
Such stories as Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel and Snow White are filled with messages about beauty and evil, whereby the most beautiful physical structures embody good and meritorious. Accordingly, parents and policy makers (including candidates seeking elected political office) need to be aware and proactive concerning the female superheroes portrayed in all types of reading material and broadcasts on screens ranging in size from big to small.
Dr. Gordon Patzer
author of "Looks: Why They Matter More Than You Ever Imagined"
[www.GordonPatzer.com]
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