Why Do Female Superheroes Rarely Date Normal Human Males?

[Cicada 5]

There's plenty of cases of male superheroes dating normal women and plenty of cases of female superheroes dating male superheroes. But rarely do writers show female supers dating normal men. I'm aware of Wonder Woman dating Steve Trevor, Trevor Barnes and Tom Tressor who were human. And I know of She-Hulk's marriage to John Jameson. But that's it. Why do you think writers don't have female superheroes dating normal men a whole lot?

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Truthfully, I think the very first answer nailed it. And I'm not sure how to get into it without getting torn to ribbons, so I'm just going to say that I agree and leave it at that.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Are there plenty of cases of super heroes in regular relationships with non-normals? Seems like the vast majority of both men and women date in the super hero scene, and the minority are those dating out, with males outdating females simply because theres more of them.

I don't really know enough about super heroes to say for sure though.

 

[Eddie the head]

I imagine for the same reason a lot of tall women, or female CEOs, have trouble finding a date. One of the things that women typically find attractive is height, and statues. Well if your at the top of the pyramid it's slim pickings. The same applies here if you can juggle moons your not going to be dating the guy that has trouble lifting a flower bag. So the simplest reason is they're probably not attracted to normal men.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

I'm pretty sure the reason is simply that there's so many more male superhero than female, and you want all of those guys to have superdates. If a female superhero dates a normal human, you're robbing a male superhero of one of his few superprospects. Probably the main reason that male superheros date normal people is that there's only so many female superheros they've made for them to have love interests, so they have to branch out.

Although I also think that the whole power dynamic thing is a factor too. Also the fact that giving the superhero a normal girlfriend presents the opportunity for a bunch of damsel in distress plots, and we still seem to think it's weird to have male damsels in distress

 

[WolfThomas]

And I know of She-Hulk's marriage to John Jameson.

The funny thing about this is John Jameson was both Man-Wolf and Stargod (a werewolf and a cosmic being) before and after their relationship. He doesn't exactly count as a "Normal Human Male"

 

[Roboshi]

Because dating a normal man would mean that the woman was stronger than the man. And that's a no-no.

Or she would get accused of being reduced to being even more of a male fantasy by showing her willingness to date a normal person.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

It helps the super guy get more recognition for getting a dream girl. It's why wrestlers have female valets, and stuff. It sure as hell doesn't add much of anything to the woman's rep, that's for certain.
Ya know the douche saying, "One key opens many locks, it's a good key, many key open one lock it's a shitty lock"
Remember Black Widow getting shamed for sleeping around not too long ago, while people adore guys like Batman and Brice Wayne, Tony Stark, etc.
I doubt Wonder Woman is getting any good rep from being bounced between Batman, and Superman all the damn time.

And I can't think of any normal human guys in any comic book that need the boost in recognition.

 

[EyeReaper]

Off the top of my head, there's Black Canary. I mean, sure, she is with a hero technically, But the Green Arrow's superpowers are: Pretty good with a weapon that was outdated centuries ago" and "Really nice moustache"

Also I guess anyone who's gotten with any Robin. Also, Wonder Woman had her very own Lois Lane in the form of one Captain Steve Trevor. Though I think he was phased out around the time bondage stopped being her one weakness.

Or it was just Sexism. Yeah, probably that. The paytreearkey had to keep all dem fictional wimminz down.

 

[Winnosh]

And I know of She-Hulk's marriage to John Jameson.

The funny thing about this is John Jameson was both Man-Wolf and Stargod (a werewolf and a cosmic being) before and after their relationship. He doesn't exactly count as a "Normal Human Male"

She also didn't marry him of her own free will. Starfox used his powers to make them think they wanted to get married.

 

[Zontar]

Frank Miller back when he was still sane put it best when he stated he found it unbelievable that any superhero, male or female, would end up with a normal baseline human for a relationship.

I imagine for the same reason a lot of tall women, or female CEOs, have trouble finding a date. One of the things that women typically find attractive is height, and statues. Well if your at the top of the pyramid it's slim pickings. The same applies here if you can juggle moons your not going to be dating the guy that has trouble lifting a flower bag. So the simplest reason is they're probably not attracted to normal men.

There's also the fact that this applies to education level as well. Women for whatever reason are more likely to get into a relationship with someone of equal or greater education then themselves, while men are more likely to get in a relationship with someone of equal or lower education then themselves.

One has to ask what a person is looking for in a relationship when asking these sort of questions. Personally if I was a superhero I'd likely avoid any such romantic relationships with a baseline human. My occupation makes me and those around me targets, I'd try my best to avoid making connections with people who couldn't defend themselves against the type of people who would go after them if my identity got out.

 

[WolfThomas]

She also didn't marry him of her own free will. Starfox used his powers to make them think they wanted to get married.

Yup there's that too. But we don't speak about Starfox.

 

[JimB]

There's plenty of cases of male superheroes dating normal women and plenty of cases of female superheroes dating male superheroes. But rarely do writers show female supers dating normal men.

At the risk of sounding misanthropic, I believe this is because a disproportionate number of the writers and audience of comic books are men looking for escapist fantasies of power, and one of the powers they insist on having is power over women. They believe, consciously or not, that a woman who's more powerful than her boyfriend is an affront to the order of the world, and retreat into a world where they can feel safe knowing the woman they want to fuck may have superpowers, but her boyfriend can still totally beat her up.

And here's my usual disclaimer about how if you're reading this, you should note I didn't say your name, and that's because I have no idea if you're the kind of person I'm describing, so should you be feeling any defensive outrage at this point, please keep it to yourself. Thank you.

 

[Souplex]

The counter-example is Ms. Marvel (Kamala, not Carol) whose primary love interest is a baseline human New Jerseian guy.

 

[Asita]

There's plenty of cases of male superheroes dating normal women and plenty of cases of female superheroes dating male superheroes. But rarely do writers show female supers dating normal men.

At the risk of sounding misanthropic, I believe this is because a disproportionate number of the writers and audience of comic books are men looking for escapist fantasies of power, and one of the powers they insist on having is power over women. They believe, consciously or not, that a woman who's more powerful than her boyfriend is an affront to the order of the world, and retreat into a world where they can feel safe knowing the woman they want to fuck may have superpowers, but her boyfriend can still totally beat her up.

And here's my usual disclaimer about how if you're reading this, you should note I didn't say your name, and that's because I have no idea if you're the kind of person I'm describing, so should you be feeling any defensive outrage at this point, please keep it to yourself. Thank you.

If I may offer a slightly less misanthropic explanation? I think we can all agree that exceptional individuals dating other exceptional individuals is not uncommon in fiction. I think it's also pretty evident that most of those relationships are heterosexual, so account for a roughly equal number of male and female characters. However, there are significantly more male heroes than female ones, especially if we look primarily at characters with their own series. And by "many more", I mean 118 to 38 as of July last year, if Huffington Post was to be believed. Why is that important? Well to be direct about it, if we assumed that every single leading female hero was paired up with a leading male hero, we'd have only accounted for 32.2% of the male heroes. Point being that if we accept as true that female heroes in fiction are significantly less common than male heroes, and that there's even a moderate tendency for exceptional characters (ranging from Green Arrow to Superman) to pair up with other exceptional individuals, and that most of those relationships are heterosexual, then it naturally follows that that trend will account for a significantly greater proportion of relationships for female heroes than for male ones, even if the absolute figures are nearly identical.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

And here's my usual disclaimer about how if you're reading this, you should note I didn't say your name, and that's because I have no idea if you're the kind of person I'm describing, so should you be feeling any defensive outrage at this point, please keep it to yourself. Thank you.

Totally saving this as a "Get out of jail free" card for the future.

Anyway, are there really that many examples of Superhero guys dating normal women? The only ones I could think of were Mary Jane/Gwen Stacy, Lois Lane, and Silk Specter from Watchmen, and the whole point with her relationship with Dr. Manhattan was about how disconnected they become because of his powers. I guess Betsy Ross counts too, but Banner is technically only in 'superhero mode' a tiny percentage of the time.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

And I know of She-Hulk's marriage to John Jameson.

The funny thing about this is John Jameson was both Man-Wolf and Stargod (a werewolf and a cosmic being) before and after their relationship. He doesn't exactly count as a "Normal Human Male"

She also didn't marry him of her own free will. Starfox used his powers to make them think they wanted to get married.

He seems like a villain more than a hero. XD

 

[Batou667]

Why Do Female Superheroes Rarely Date Normal Human Males?

I know, right? I mean, I try my best to not develop a chip on my shoulder on this subject, but after a decade of taking out expertly-written singles ads and occasionally faking situations where I need to be rescued, not a single superhero has turned up. Let alone a female one. I'm beginning to suspect an average feller like me just doesn't stand a chance in this particular dating game.

 

[Thaluikhain]

There's also the fact that this applies to education level as well. Women for whatever reason are more likely to get into a relationship with someone of equal or greater education then themselves, while men are more likely to get in a relationship with someone of equal or lower education then themselves.

Er...would that not require most men being better educated than most women to work?