Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy
by mannyWe’ve already blogged about the celebrities and paparazzi who attended the Celebrity Gala, so now let’s take a closer look at the Superhero exhibit itself.
The Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy exhibit runs until September 1, 2008 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
“Through the years, the superhero has been used to embody—through metaphor—our social and political realities. At the same time, it has been used to represent concepts reflective of sexuality and corporeality through idealized, objectified, and hyperbolic visualizations of the human body.”
The Graphic Body
The “S” emblem inscribed on Superman’s chest and cape functions as a simplified statement of his identity. Almost every superhero carries a similarly expressive bodily marking.
The Patriotic Body
Superhero comics both reflect and respond to real-world social and political conflicts…which usually involves upholding American utopianism as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
The Virile Body
While phallic symbolism is implicit in the representation of most superheroes, it is made explicit in the case of the Hulk. With his thick neck, bulging tendons, and throbbing veins, he suggests the turgidity of male arousal.
The Paradoxical Body
Nowhere are these biases more blatant than in the representation of female superheroes. With unabashed and unapologetic obviousness, women are portrayed as objects of male desire and fantasy with absurdly exaggerated sexual characteristics.
The Armored Body
Like Batman, Iron Man serves as an effective metaphor for paranoia, but also as a metaphor for the quickly disappearing distance between the body and technology.
Wow, these are some deep, psychological analyses!
Check out their website for the entire online presentation!
