Brianna Johnson

English 115
Jon Beadle
October 14, 2015
The Transgression
Ms. Marvel is about Kamala Khan, a 16 year old Pakistani Muslim girl who lives with
her strict family in Jersey City. Everything was normal for Kamala until gains the powers of her
favorite superhero Captain Marvel. She then has to learn how to juggle her social life, school
work and her duties at home all while fighting organized crime in her city. Kamala gaining
superpowers gave her the confidence to surpass gender roles because she realized she had the
power in her and it did not matter if she was a girl or boy proving that she could be anyone or
anything she wanted to be.
Kamala gets to the Circle Q in the middle of a stick up and she panics and tries to call the
police but her phone was dead. She calms down and utters I am 911! She remembered that she
just saved someone the day before that so she could do it. Kamala bursts through the door
disguised as Captain Marvel and fights off the robber (Wilson 59). According to Aaron Devors
article, Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender, being feminine means
to be warm, sensitive, emotional, weak and dependent while being masculine means to be tough,
confident, self-reliant, violent and daring. Kamala could not have found some random person to
solve her problems for her, she had to do things herself and she realized that. She had to be selfreliant and independent because she was doing most of the missions alone and she had to be
strong and confident to fight her enemies. She did not try to talk him out of its as most women
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expected to do, she uses brute force to immobilize him and makes him say that he would not
come back again.
Kamala first thought she needed to be blonde, skinny, and in knee high heels to be
popular and awesome and that it would help make things less complicated. When she starts
morphing into Captain Marvel she was upset because her hair was always in her face, her boots
pinch, her costume gave her a wedgie and she felt out of control. Instead of feeling strong and
confident she just felt comfortable. After she got shot trying to save Bruno in the Circle Q and
could not morph back into Ms. Marvel she accepted that she was going to need to rescue the city
as herself and all she needed was a comfortable costume (Wilson 33). In Night to His Day,
Lorber mentions that when women first recruited into the US Marine Corps they thought they
could be tomboyish but in actuality they still had to distinguish themselves by wearing makeup
(Lorber 23). This ties into the expectations Kamala put herself on regarding how a female
superhero should look. Rethinking Womens Biology by Ruth Hubbard also touches on the
subject because being, dressing, and behaving like a woman or superhero, in this case, is a
socially constructed one that little girls (or boys) try to fit as we grow up (Hubbard 46).
When Bruno and Kamala first figured out Vick was in trouble they were both set out to
save him. Kamala was not going to sit back and be the damsel just because Bruno thought it
would be too dangerous. When female characters were present, they were likely to be the
damsels in distress (Dill and Thill 1). When female characters did appear, they needed to be
rescued. Female characters appearing in continuing adventure series were stereotypical and
had a tendency to fall in love at first sight (Thompson 3). Not Kamala, she told him that she was
going anyway and that she was the one with the newfound powers and strength. She also
reversed their roles by her going in and doing the fight while he was left waiting at the gate
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concerned about her and making sure she was prepared, asking her questions like if she had her
cell phone and if she remembered the panic code (Wilson 97). It used to be that women could
not act out a certain way or would be called certain names or would be deemed to be single
forever because they were not acting like a lady but times have changed. Our society has always
given someone like Batman a pass as a superhero no matter how dark and brutal he deals with
things, no matter how off the wall his methods get we just let it be. It is no longer unacceptable
but almost a requirement for anyone to be just as independent as the next.
Some may argue that Kamala did not change and that she still tried to fulfill her duties at
home but even the tiniest actions convince me otherwise. She still continued to show up for
lecture at the mosque with her brother even insisting to be on time but she also spoke out about
the separation between men and women (Wilson 46-47). Even though she continuously snuck
out and disobeyed her parents and her punishments, her actions were justified. While her family
thinks she is out running the streets and partying with boys she is actually saving lives. To her
best friends Kamala should have shared her secret but she kept it to herself for as long as
possible and to her parents she should have been home at a certain time focused on her studies
but instead she has kept herself preoccupied with other things.
Kamala tries to stay the dutiful as a daughter and a friend by keeping up appearances.
When she starts to disappear at random times and do strange things without an explanation her
parents try to figure out what the cause of her weird behavior is so they can put an end to it so
things can get back to normal, even her brother would rather her stay inside to be protected by
him and his friends from the mosque. When children behave in ways that run counter to
traditional roles, their activities are often discouraged by parents, teachers and peers (Martin 2).
There is that time where Bruno tried to convince her to go home after she snuck out to go to her
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first party with Bruno, Josh and Zoe (Wilson 13) and every time she got caught after sneaking
out. During every talk they wanted to make sure that she did not succumb to the pressures of
being a teenage girl and that she was handling herself right and not putting herself into danger.
Kamala is the superhero amongst her friends which puts her at the top of the list, meaning
she is now more superior then all of them. In Hegemonic Masculinity and Black Gender
Ideology by Patricia Collins, she explains the social organization of ideology when it comes to
power, a concept that promotes the dominant social position of men and the lower ranking
positions of women. This list is sorted according to gender, age, class, sexuality and race. The
top of the list usually consists of rich white men and so on then the subordinates are at the very
bottom, the devalued other, all of the women (Collins 224-225). Kamala is far from being or
belonging on that subordinate list and by that being so it changes. She would appear to be on top
while her friend Bruno is now below her as inferior and the sidekick. Some of the male
superheroes will still be above Kamala because even though she has her powers and she has
saved people she will always be physically smaller than the rest because heroes like Superman
and Thor do not just dominate because of their authority, their deep voices or more violent
behavior but because their bodies physically tower over the rest.
Overall this whole comic about Kamala showed that there did not need for there to be any
gender role boundaries in order for anyone to be a superhero. She is the complete opposite of
what audiences are used to. More readers are able to connect with this character because Kamala,
her struggles and life were so realistic. We see her in her traditional clothing, the Shalwar
Kameez, at her mosque, her families prayers and they even use Urdu in the story. Kamala
reacted and adjusted as she went throughout her journey only reflecting after she had finished her
task that day and was home safe. At first she was scared and disappointed but soon got over it
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and decided she needed to use these powers for good and after every day, win or lose, she
learned from it and developed from it. Bruno adjusted after he figured out that she was also Ms.
Marvel, her parents are still wary of their daughters actions, her brother did not seemed all that
bothered by Kamalas sudden act of rebellion and Sheikh Abdullah was surprisingly very
empathetic and encouraged her to keep doing what she was doing so long as it was the right
thing to do. All of Kamalas actions after she received her superpowers reflect her nonconformity.
She refuses to conform to the prevailing customs and ideas in her life, most of the rules she had
to follow were thrown out of the window. Kamala surpassed each obstacle because she knew that
even though she was just a 16 year old, Pakistani girl, living in Jersey City could do anything she
wanted because her powers were the key to help push her past her old limits. She proved that she
did not have to be a tall, blonde with blue eyes to save the world but that she could be herself and
that she could do anything.

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Works Cited
Collins, Patricia Hill. "Hegemonic Masculinity and Black Gender Ideology." Composing
Gender: A Bedford Spotlight Reader. By Rachel Groner and John F. O'Hara. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martin's, 2014. 222-40. Print.
Devor, Aaron. "Becoming Members of Society." Composing Gender: A Bedford
Spotlight Reader. By Rachel Groner and John F. O'Hara. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. N.
pag. Print.
Dill, Karen E., and Kathryn P. Thill. "Video game characters and the socialization of
gender roles: Young peoples perceptions mirror sexist media depictions." Sex roles 57.11-12
(2007): 851-864.
Hubbard, Ruth. "Rethinking Women's Biology." Composing Gender: A Bedford
Spotlight Reader. By Rachel Groner and John F. O'Hara. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 46
52. Print.
Lorber, Judith. ""Night to His Day": The Social Construction of Gender." Composing
Gender: A Bedford Spotlight Reader. By Rachel Groner and John F. O'Hara. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martin's, 2014. 19-34. Print.
Martin, Carol Lynn. "Attitudes and expectations about children with nontraditional and
traditional gender roles." Sex roles 22.3-4 (1990): 151-166.
Thompson, Teresa L., and Eugenia Zerbinos. "Gender roles in animated cartoons: Has
the picture changed in 20 years?." Sex roles 32.9-10 (1995): 651-673.

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