Dressed to Kill: Mister America

Continuing my cross-dressing sexualized superheroes series by request, I attempt to dispel the idea than pants = not sexualized. This is Marvel’s new Miss America, and I’ve talked about her design before. I’m both disappointed and thrilled with how Mister America turned out. On the one hand, that ‘stache! On the other hand, he has more room in his pants than his female counterpart has (compare the distance between the top of the legs and the bottom of the belt), which is partially because he had more to, uh, fit in there.

Over the months since I first debuted Dressed to Kill (the original essay), I’ve had lots of folks saying “Oh, I love the male heroes! I would read them! Therefor there’s nothing wrong with the ladies dressing that way.” And I’m sure there are a number of people who would honestly read this Mister America. But would you still read them if all of them dressed that way? And would you take them just as seriously as the rest of the male superheroes? (Mad props if you do, by the way.) Heck, I’d love to see a male hero dressed like this in a comic. But I demand variety in my media, something that we don’t see much of in the reality of the comics world. It’s not just the costumes, it’s not just the poses, it’s not just that only women are dressing this way, it’s also how often the women dress this way, and how little it makes sense for them to do so.

This costume looks ridiculous on Mister America, not because he’s a man in women’s clothes, but because these clothes are ridiculous for a superhero to wear. I said it before, but it’s worth repeating, high heels and thongs are no more natural to women than they are to men. Sure, women may have been conditioned to wear them, but we are not born with some gene that dictates we wear bangle earrings or 6-inch stiletto platforms.

I’m planning to do a bunch more of these. Any heroines in particular you’d love to see man-style?