It's a bird, it's a plane, oh no it's just another white male

When you think of classic action movie superheroes, which characters stand out to you the most? Superman? Batman? Spiderman? Well thankfully they all have one painfully obvious common quality. They are all white.

Now would you be able to think of an equally prominent hero as Superman that has been portrayed by a person of colour in film? I think you’ll find it’s not quite as easy to think of one...

Suzanne made a very interesting point early within our first lecture, when establishing ideas of race as a constructed boundary, discussing how “our sense of identity and who we are is based heavily on who we are not”. We are saturated with recurring positive images of white male protagonists as indicators of good character, upholding values of justice, freedom and social responsibility within these hero roles. This constant representation is showing at a very basic level that society idolizes the white male as a relatable figure to audiences and that diversity is almost non-existent.

Far too often we see these Hollywood ‘blockbuster’ style films promote the cliché white savior trope with repetitive type casting, implicitly reinforcing to audiences that heroism is synonymous with being white.

Let’s take Superman for example, as arguably the most recognizable character of this genre. Hailing from the dying alien planet Krypton Superman (Kal-El) travels to Earth and raised to eventually become an American hero. I find it incredibly concerning that despite unrestricted creative freedom in the construction of otherworldly being; Superman is depicted as a handsome white male. It appears that white is the only appropriate representation in order for Kal to ‘fit in’ with the normality of our human race. Regardless of the incredibly limited knowledge we have on alien life forms within our universe, this white male figure stands to be the dominant portrayal of the people that make up our society. 

People of colour are not completely absent from superhero action films, however they exist almost exclusively as background supporting roles within major action films.

Perhaps a valid counter argument to the points I have made would be to focus on Hancock as a black protagonist within this superhero genre. While it is true that he is the ‘hero’ of the film, he is a problematic character with questionable actions, ultimately positioning him as the ‘anti-hero’ figure. Throughout the film Hancock is highlighted in a heavily negative frame, expressing his aversion to almost everyone he encounters and reliance on alcohol and vulgar language in order to survive each day on earth. In this regard Hancock is far from the traditional heroic characterisation I have previously mentioned.

 

It then opens up points for discussion on how such heroic figures may be represented in future. How long do you think it will take before we are seeing prominent non-white characters on the big screen?