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Raina Mark
Professor Jon Beadle
English 115
8 December 2015
Race in Society
In Ms. Marvel Normal: Volume 1 by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona, Kamala
Khan is not able to transgress prescribed gender expectations as a result of gaining superpowers
due to her family traditions of a Pakistani American and a Muslim. Typically, Pakistani American
women are expected to fulfill traditional female roles such as taking care of the home and family
as opposed to pursuing demanding careers. However, second-generation Pakistani Americans
such as Kamala herself tend to be more resistant to traditional roles, but the pressures she has of
conformity within the Pakistani community is still very affective on her. Therefore, Kamala
struggles with identity issues when shes both in and out of her superhero costume. The fact that
Kamala has polymorph superpowers which allow her to change shape, size, and form, is a
metaphor to her inner battle of pressure she is surrounded with. Kamala struggles with both
identity and her religions expectations, as well as the power she has and the pressure from her
strict parents who still genuinely care about her. Because of her being a Pakistani American and a
Muslim, her identity crisis does not end there even though she has gained new superpowers. In
the articles, Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender by Judith Lorber, and
Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender by Aaron Devor, we can see
the typical expectations of gender roles in our society and gender construction. While the first
article focus on the difference between sex and gender and the meaning of social

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construction of gender, the second article focuses on the conventions of gender behavior and
display in society.
Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender by Judith Lorber talks about
various areas among gender construction. From the everyday routine ground of gender to the
assumptions of gender being constructed into our genes, gender construction is a huge part of our
society. As stated in the article, yet gender, like culture, is a human production that depends on
everyone constantly doing gender, without thinking about it (Lorber 19). We all have
expectations of how we think women and men should act, until we are put in that same
uncomfortable position of how one expects us to act like, and we fail to do so. In Ms. Marvel,
Kamala is expected to behave and act a certain way being a Pakistani American and a Muslim.
She is supposed to dress modest and not go out late at night. This factor conflicts with her
superpower. She has to be extra careful in the way she acts because as a polymorph she cannot
be all things to everyone. A lot of times, people get gender confused with sex. In the
construction of ascribed social statuses, physiological differences such as sex, stage of
development, color of skin, and size are crude markers. They are not the source of the social
statuses of gender, age grade, and race. Social statuses are carefully constructed through
prescribed processes of teaching, learning, emulation, and enforcement (Lorber 22). Due to
Kamalas race she faces a lot of criticism of why she cannot be Ms. Marvel. Regardless of her
superpowers, Kamala still has to put up a fight towards the transgression of her parents, her
religions, and the society she lives ins gender expectations.
In Ms. Marvel, when Kamala dresses up in her superhero outfit, she is seen as a different
person. When Kamala discovers her superpowers, she feels as if she has a disease. When her best
friend finds out about Kamalas superpowers, he has a hard time processing it, but Kamala also

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felt the same way as she says, Imagine how I feel. Ive been obsessively searching the internet
all weekend, trying to figure out if I have some kind of disease (Wilson & Alphona 92). When
her friend asks her why she does not let people know that it was her saving all these people, she
says, After that thing on the news, everybodys expecting Ms. Marvel. A real superhero. With
perfect hair and big boots. Not Kamala Khan from Jersey City (Wilson & Alphona 93). Even
here, we can see that the reason she feels not to reveal herself and take the credit she deserves for
all the good deeds she has been doing lately is societys judgment and expectation of a typical
super hero.
In Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender by Aaron Devor,
the main idea centers on gender identity and the gender behavior expectations in society. As it
states in the article, as we move through our lives, society demands different performances from
us and rewards, tolerates, or punishes us differently for conformity to, or digression from , social
norms (Devor, 35). We can see this in our everyday life, as we progress from one duty to
another, society has different expectations for different people. If we do something that is
considered not normal or wrong, we will be rewarded or punished respectively. When Kamala
discusses with her best friend about her issue of not being the typical super hero that society
expects, her friend tells her [w]ho cares what people expect? Maybe they expect some perfect
blonde, what I needI mean, what we needis you. Youre the coolest girl Ive ever met. You
say what you mean and you kick butt at video games and youre smart and funny (Wilson &
Alphona 94). This shows us more about their friendship and how he encourages Kamala to be
who she really is because she should not care what people expect her to be. As time is evolving,
women are encouraged to be who they want to be.

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Kamala feels just as any girl her age would have at this situation because society puts the
expectations in our head at a very young age. [C]hildren initially acquire the values of the
society around them almost indiscriminately. To the degree that children absorb the generalized
standards of society into their personal concept of what is correct behavior, they can be said to
hold within themselves the attitude of the generalized other (Devor 36). When Kamala finally
goes on to revealing herself when the police catches her, he asks her who she is and she tells him
shes Ms, Marvel, but the police officer does not believe her and tells her she does not look like
Ms. Marvel. And when Kamala asks him what Ms. Marvel is supposed to look like the officer
says, You know. Tall, blonde, with the big powers (Wilson & Alphona, 95). This shows us
more of the set expectation of what society has for a particular character to be. Hence, Kamala
had to show her big powers to make him believe that she really is Ms. Marvel. She had to prove
the police man that she has these powers of Ms. Marvel in order for him to truly believe she is
Ms. Marvel. If she were a girl who was not of color, then this police man would have believed
her right then just because of her skin color. This shows how ignorant our society still can be.
In the article Hegemonic Masculinity and Black Gender Ideology by Patricia Hill
Collins, Collins talks about the White masculinity in American society and how the White
population dominates positions of power and authority. We can relate this back to Ms. Marvel on
how she is not the typical or expected Ms. Marvel just because of her race and physical
features. Like the article states about the femininity hierarchy, within these crosscutting
relationships, Latina, Asian, and Black women routinely inherit social scripts of marginalized
and /or subordinated femininities (Collins 225). This shows how there are discriminations and
hierarchy within women because of their race. Thus, within hierarchies of femininity, social

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categories of hegemonic, marginalized, and subordinated femininities (Collins 225). The fact
that this still exists among our societies today show how close minded and discriminative we are.
When Kamala tries to escape to go do one of her superhero things, her mother catches her
and asks her where she is going. Kamala has to give excuses which her mother does not fall for.
She warns Kamala that if she does try to escape and go to a party her mother will involve her
Sheikh in this, whom Kamala feels that he hates her. Although her parents do not know what she
is really up to, she is doing this because of the standards and morals her parents raised her in as
she says to her friend on the phone, ammi and abhu taught me to always think about the greater
good. To defend people who cant defend themselves, even if it means putting yourself at risk
(Wilson & Alphona 100). This shows us the type of person Kamala is: caring, selfless, and
genuine.
Kamalas role as a daughter, sister, friend, Pakistani American, Muslim, superhero, and
student all play in together to develop her character throughout the text. She is seen as not the
typical girl for all these expectations, as she goes out of her way to be unique and saves people
even if it means putting herself at risk, and not taking credit for all the good she has done in the
past. When her parents notice Kamala changing they get terrified, but are still cooperative and
caring with her. Her dad even tells her she does not have to be someone else and that she is
perfect the way she is. Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender by Judith
Lorber, and Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender by Aaron Devor,
discuss many of the social expectations Kamala herself faced throughout the text of being a
shape-shifting superhero as well as being the Pakistani American Muslim girl her family and
society expects her to be.

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Works Cited
Collins, Patricia Hill. Hegemonic Masculinity and Black Gender Ideology.
Composing Gender: A Bedford Spotlight Reader. Groner, Rachel, and John F. OHara.
Eds. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. Print.
Devor, Aaron. Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender.
Composing Gender: A Bedford Spotlight Reader. Groner, Rachel, and John F. OHara.
Eds. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. Print.
Lorber, Judith. Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender. Composing Gender:
A Bedford Spotlight Reader. Groner, Rachel, and John F. OHara. Eds. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. Print.
Wilson, G. Willow, and Adrian Alphona. Ms. Marvel: No Normal. New York, NY:
Marvel Worldwide, 2014. Print.