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Brendon Yoshino
English 115
Professor Beadle
8 October 2015
How Ms. Marvel Has Surpassed Female Limitations
When people think of a super hero, several ideas come to mind. When I think of it, the first
thing that comes to mind is strong, courageous, and an infallible will to do the right thing.
Kamala in the comic series Ms. Marvel, by Wilson and Alphona, is all of these things, but
fighting against an even greater enemy: gender limitations within society, her religion, and her
home. Kamala, like many other super heroes before her, goes from an average human to
extraordinary being overnight, and just like every other hero, she overcomes her enemy, society
itself. Within her home she is faced with unequal treatment between her brother, and herself.
This is a common reality of many girls growing up in the world today. Aaron Devor, in his
article Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meaning of Gender, discusses the divided
expectations that appear throughout Kamalas story. Many of the same limitations of freedom
that Kamala overcomes seen within her own home, religion, and social circles, are related to
many of the points which Patricia Hill Collins makes in her essay, Hegemonic Masculinity and
Black Gender Ideology. When Kamala takes on her new role, she gains many different things,
but the most prevalent is her new ability to shape shift. With this new ability, we see Kamala
taking on physical challenges that in most cases, are seen as better suited for men. Ruth
Hubbards essay, Rethinking Womans Biology, talks about these physical differences, and
how they are not the result of biology, but a result of society. Kamala is a representation of how
small these physical differences are, and by emerging as a superhero, she also surpasses gender
expectations.

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Following the supernatural event in which Kamala finds herself gaining super human
abilities overnight, we begin to see a new Kamala all together. When she first realizes her power,
she is pressed to look like her childhood hero, Ms. Marvel, an attractive blonde haired woman
with clothing tightly fit to emphasize her figure. In a scene of the story, Kamala confronts a thief
at the local drug store and ends up getting shot. Upon getting shot by the thief Bruno calls 911
stating, Ms. Marvel just got shot in my door, (Alphona and Wilson 4.2) Kamala responds in
her head with, They cantsee meIm not Ms. Marvel. (4.2) A combination of both Bruno
and the police identifying her as Ms. Marvel sparks something the realization that she is not
Ms. Marvel, but instead Kamala. Rather than accepting what she previously thought as glorious
and beautiful, Kamala chooses to be herself, and who she wants to be by making her own
costume. This costume is far from sexually appealing, featuring a fanny pack, and much baggier
clothing. By doing this she is not just accepting herself, but also rejecting the idea that her social
position is to be sexually appealing to men. As Aaron Devor states in his essay, Thus
femininity, as a role, is best suited to satisfying a masculine vision of heterosexual
attractiveness (Devor 41). Society has adopted the idea that the position of woman is to meet
the needs of men. Early on in the book, Kamala had idolized Ms. Marvel, but ever since she
gains super powers, we see that she realizes that her position in society is to be Kamala, rather
than a society prompted poster board model Kamala.
Superheroes are defined by their unique call to the greater good. They also put the greater
good in front of their own lives. Throughout Ms. Marvel, Kamala is faced with constant
restrictions to stay within the comforts of her home. Her parents have even gone as far as to
ground her only to school, the mosque, and home. Instead of remaining dependent, she continues
to sneak out in order to pursue Brunos brother who had been captured. Society has commonly

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believed that a womans place is that of strict dependency when it comes to maintenance or jobs
outside the home. In Kamalas case, being a superhero definitely falls under the common
characteristics of masculinity. Not only is she disobeying her family, but also she is saving a
man. Devor states in, Becoming Members of Society, that, Persons who perform the activities
considered appropriate for another gender will be expected to perform them poorly; if they
succeed adequately, or even well, at their endeavors, they may be rewarded with ridicule or scorn
for blurring the gender dividing line. (40) Kamala, by gaining her new-found power, has also
gained the realization that she too can actively change the world. Although she faces ridicule for
taking on endeavors better suited for men, she realizes she can succeed. In this we begin to see
a new Kamala who pushes gender lines.
Many would say that Kamala has failed to surpass gender expectations, because she is
continuously restricted within her home, social circle of friends, and religion, based completely
on her sex. One particular scene in issue five has Kamala getting caught after failing to save
Brunos brother from his captors. Kamalas mom in particular is weeping because she feels that
Kamala is ultimately a juvenile delinquent, while her dad remains emotionless and stable. The
mom proceeds to bed while the dad stays up, and has what seems to be a sentimental talk with
his daughter. What shifts the tables is when he finishes the talk, he promptly informs her that she
is still grounded, and Maybe spending more time at the mosque will give [her] some
perspective (Wilson and Alphona 5.9). Collins states in her essay, the spoils of warfare,
establishes this theme of needing to exert male authority over at least one woman, typically a
girlfriend, wife or daughter (Collins p.227). This shows that what is happening in Kamals home
is simply what happens in most homes within our social structure. What separates Kamala from
everyone else is we can also see a shift in which she is moving past it. First, being that instead of

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adhering to her fathers wishes, she sneaks out again. Collins makes a relevant point that in order
for hegemonic masculinity to work, men need constant validation that woman are indeed
inferior. For this version of masculinity to be plausible, men require female validation as
constant reminders of male superiority. Otherwise how would men know they are not like
women (p227). Kamala refuses to give her father this validation that masculine superiority is
factual. Not only does she disobey her father to attempt at freeing Brunos brother again, but
also she succeeds. Kamala is proving the absurdity of gender inequality one block at a time.
Previously Bruno was afraid for her to fight crime on her own, giving the illusion that he needed
to in some way protect her. Kamala has not only defied the boundaries within her home, but by
gaining her superpowers, has surpassed the expectation of physical female inferiority. She
returned to the place where she had failed, and ultimately gained redemption, using her own will,
power, and strength.
Towards the end of issue, five readers can see that the dynamic has clearly changed.
Kamalas new life becomes less new, and we can see that in her post superhero life she is no
longer a society viewed, weak little girl. Kamala is out fighting some giant intellectual truck
monster. She returns to the store where Bruno works because she needs to pick up a dress that
Bruno has voluntarily grabbed for her. This completely tears down the ideology that woman are
meant for the soul purpose of maternity, or caretakers. As Devor states in his article,
Femininity, according to this traditional formulation, would result in warm and continued
relationships with men, a sense of maternity, interests in caring for children, and the capacity to
work productively and continuously in female occupations (p.40). Kamala is playing the part of
what would traditionally be the male, or masculine role, and Bruno has inversely taken the role
that would traditionally be seen as feminine. This is seen in issue 5 page 25, when Kamala

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returns to the store that Bruno works at and Bruno has her dress waiting for her. This
demonstrates that Kamala is out fighting crime and Bruno has taken a back seat, where as in
most hero tales is the inverse. Although Kamala did not intend for it to be this way, by gaining
super powers, she has become the more capable individual. By doing so she has not only proven
that she is capable of succeeding physically, but has started to influence the world around her.
This is a very different outcome from what we would typically see in society, as Devor states,
Persons who perform the activities considered appropriate for another gender will be expected
to perform them poorly, if they succeed adequately, or even well, at their endeavors, they may be
rewarded with ridicule or scorn for blurring the gender dividing line (40). Kamala has therefore
broken through the barrier of occupation limitations, by not only joining the many woman who
are doing jobs socially believed to be masculine, but instead has pulled down the barrier of
discrimination which usually would have sought to tear for simply blurring the gender dividing
line (40).
Kamala has proven to be a truly remarkable character, because she gives an image of a
female, who is bound by gender expectations within society, but in a turn of events gains super
powers and surpasses them. What authors Wilson and Alphona have done by writing Ms.
Marvel, is not only wrote about a character who surpasses gender expectations, but given readers
a visual of what a world free of gender inequality might actually look like. Readers see a young
woman who is faced with the everyday limitations, of femininity to masculinity, physicality,
discrimination of gender within religion, all things which many girls grow up facing today.
Kamala like most girls, has a dream of becoming something greater than the limited occupations
provided to woman, who are held down within a social hierarchy. She uses her superpowers for
good, and not only proves that she can do the job that society deems masculine, well, but can

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truly surpass a world that seems so set on bringing her down. By the end of the story we see the
greater message is not just a person who becomes a superhero in some supernatural turn of
events, but that Kamalas true enemy was society itself, and by recognizing that she is capable of
doing things, which society would have limited otherwise, she overcomes.

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Works Cited

Groner, Rachel, and John F. O'Hara. Composing Gender: A Bedford Spotlight Reader. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. Print.

Wilson, G. Willow, and Adrian Alphona. Ms.Marvel. Vol. 1. New York: Marvel Worldwide,
2015. Print. No Normal.

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