Here I present my research essay, which I wrote based on the pressure that societal expectations or standards have on people. I talked about representation on comics, and the importance of it. And presented the basic failures that appear on comic books regarding cultural representation.

Societal Expectations and Self-Esteem 

A person’s self-esteem is the overall idea or opinion that they have on themselves. A big component in the forming of a person’s self-esteem is their physical appearance. Through the years, the “correct way of what to look like” has been an issue, with different controversial opinions from people coming into discussion. Society’s norms have been a way to determine what is right and wrong, and certain aspects that are expected from people and their lives, whether it is the way they look, how they act, what they do with their lives, and many others. Undoubtedly, there is a standardized way in which people, especially females, have been targeted to look physically. The set of norms that has dictated for such a long time the ideal way for women to look like has come from society. From magazines, to advertisement, even to comic books, exemplary models have been praised for decades in American society. For this stereotype the tall, blonde, blue-eyed girl has been set as a standard of beauty. The constant pressure that exists on women to fulfill the expectations that have been laid out for them has increasingly troubled their way of forming their identity. The expectations that society enforces on people complicates the shaping of their identity and is capable of having detrimental effects such as the views they have on themselves and their bodies. A negative view of their bodies, created by the constant need to fulfill the expectations that society has created, can seriously damage the perception a person has of themselves. A person’s sense of self and self-esteem are a combination of what they perceive themselves as, the way they think of themselves and the opinions they have on their physical appearance, which is solely based on the expectations and stereotypes that society has created for people to fulfill. People’s self-esteem and self-image are damaged by societal expectations causing negative social effects on them. 

Societal expectations have been strongly set out in comic books, given the focus for female superheroes to be an average white woman, described, as said before, as tall, blonde, and with a svelte figure. This is an important case because young girls typically look up to these heroines who might look different from them. The perfection of their appearance has an appeal for young girls, who based on the acts of their role models, want to be like them. Although, promptly they could come to the realization that they cannot fulfill the character or persona of their favorite heroines, based on their appearance. It is possible that a fan says, “I could never be Captain Marvel, because I don’t look like her.” Comic books often fail to represent realistic or attainable looks, taking away shine from the heroines’ positive characteristic traits, and centering the focus on their appearance. This is the case of 16-year-old, Kamala Khan, main character of the series of comic books Ms. Marvel. Kamala who is a hard-core fan of comics, Captain Marvel in specific, is seen writing fanfics about the superheroine and other superheroes. In an exchange with her mother, Kamala says “My Avengers fanfic has almost 1,000 upvotes on freakingcool.com”, to which her mother responds that she did not understand what her daughter was talking about. (Wilson et al., 2014) The praise that different entertaining media gets from teenagers only directs the importance that they represent to said young adults. Kamala’s identity as a fan forms a large part of her life, thus it is obvious to say that this praise to superheroes has become important to her and could affect her self-esteem by rising her expectations for her own appearance.  

Comic books have always portrayed feminine superheroes in a specific type of way. As previously mentioned, young girls might wish to maintain the positive traits that said superheroines present, such as their actions and attitudes, they want to follow in their footsteps. Although they might find themselves troubled by the idea that they could never embody what these characters present based on their physical appearance. Comic books should include different races and ethnic backgrounds of the superheroes they create so that young girls don’t feel pressured or discouraged to feel good about themselves and their physique because someone who looks like them is also praised by the masses, and not just a standard of person presented by the media. It has been proven that comic books and movies that include women and people of color or other races different from white, have had extremely high sells. “Some of Marvel’s best-selling comics are “The Mighty Thor” and “Black Panther,” which feature a female and a person of color, respectively.” (Umbarger, 2017) The numbers don’t lie, and the fact that people appreciate more icons that look like them or that they can easily find some correlation to them, shows the need that exists for representation to embark more and more different races. It is possible to believe that the self-esteem created by the typical superhero presented has played an important part in the shift of the stories created for the fans. It is redundant to say that superheroes that are varied in race and looks have an equally high or even higher probability of succeeding than the standard superhero. Furthermore, the representation in comic books and media in general, helps develop in number the fandoms of said comics. As seen earlier this year with the adaption of the comic Black Panther, the praise by the fans for the film showed how important representation is. Festival goer, Brandon Williams, talked about how the release of Black Panther made him feel “like a dream come true”, and how he decided to dress up for the event. (Hardin, 2018) Representation on comic books is important for people of every age and gender, because it boosts the self-esteem of people who are fans and rely on comic books as form of entertainment. 

Race also plays an important role in the identity of a person and it grows into the self-esteem theme. Kamala, a Muslim Pakistani-American, isn’t the only one that puts herself down for not embodying Captain Marvel physically or what the standard of American beauty is, but also one of her classmates who constantly makes fun of her cultural background. Zoe Zimmerman represents different physical aptitudes that have been mentioned before, her role of bully in Kamala’s story is presented through the usage of passive aggressive comments related to Kamala’s, and her friend Nakia’s, cultural background. Kamala and her friends call Zimerman the “concern troll”, because of the denigrating way in which her supposedly concerned commentaries about their cultural backgrounds. This further shows the importance that the opinion of others has in the self-esteem and self-image of a person. The rude commentaries would put Kamala down, to the point where she felt insecure about herself around this same type of people. Which showcases in the scene after Kamala obtained her superpowers, right after she heard Zoe’s voice she shrunk. Kamala articulates that as soon as Zoe shows up, she feels the need “to be someone else. Someone cool.” (Wilson, et al., issue 1) The pressure that Kamala feels correlates to the fact that Zoe embodies what Kamala considers cool, which can be compared to her admiration for comics and how the heroines that are presented often have a look that is similar to Zoe, being a white teenager. Kamala’s race plays an important role to her self-esteem both as a fan and as a superhero because she believes she does not fill the expectation.  

Furthermore, based on the expectations to be a certain way, many young people might feel more pressure on their looks rather than the way they are. In an article about self-image, the author says, “The tragedy of this is that often those who dislike the way they look also dislike the way they are.” (Zhang, 2013) The appearance of oneself has a large impact on the acceptance of oneself, because of the praise that is given to look a certain way. Acceptance from other people is an important factor to some, it comes to place when they do not feel like the excel at physical beauty standards and the ideologies, they have for themselves and their appearance. Not fulfilling the expectations society has put into place, lowers the self-esteem of the people trying to attain said standards, and troubles their identity, as said before, they cannot accept who they are. In Kamala Khan’s case, she is asked who she wants to be, to what she responds that she wants to be like Captain Marvel, “beautiful and awesome and butt-kicking and less complicated.” (Wilson et al., 2014) Kamala’s admiration for the superheroine turns into the desire of being just like her. The superheroes response to Kamala’s wishes comes with a turn because now she must also look the part. Kamala struggles through her outspoken wish to the superheroes by literally transforming into Captain Marvel. The embodiment and the powers that she obtained with the transformation set a large problem to Kamala which let her to realize more aspects about herself. 

Kamala struggles as she becomes a superhero because of her perception of what society is expecting of her. “Everybody’s expecting Ms. Marvel. A real superhero,” she says. “With perfect hair and big boots. Not Kamala Khan from Jersey City.” (Wilson et al., issue 3) Kamala well expresses that in her mind she is not enough as a superhero, because she does not look the part. Although, a superhero can look any way, but the standard that has been created through comic books is the opposite of what she is. This clearly shows how the perceived expectations that society has can trouble the mind of a young girl who feels pressure and discourage by the idea she has of what is expected of her.  It was Kamala’s own perception and low self-esteem that drove her to continue to believe that the appearance of the real Captain Marvel was the one expected. Her ideas and thoughts about herself always put her as less than what she was. The conceptions in which she grew up, being a brown girl in America, were the reason for her belief that she was less than others, or not enough. This is an aspect that is easily seen in different parts of American society, where a young girl lives trying to fill the expectations that exists for her, based on the appearances of famous females, campaigns of clothing, aspect of models, and heroines in comic books. 

The standardized forms that exist in the media are the causes that have the most detrimental effects on people, specifically young girls. Understanding that said societal stereotypes harm the image a person has on their body and destroys their self-esteem. Trying to follow certain expectations to feel praised as the role model that the media presents, can become an addiction, and can have serious damage on the perception a person has of himself or herself. The importance of representation in comics and other aspects of the media, relates to the praise that these characters obtain from people, and the admiration they feel toward the. Creating characters or portraying realistic appearances creates the feeling of inclusion for many different people, regardless of gender, age, race, or other factors. Representation is important because it creates realistic and achievable ideals for people who feel excluded from the comic book world, or any media world. The self-esteem and self-image of people is targeted through these forms of entertainment and should display different projections of people to give the idea that everyone is the same, and the physical appearance of the person does not determine their capability to do good. 

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