As a cursory glance at my author page will reveal, I love superheroes. While at UChicago, I searched for a class about the genre every quarter. It wasn’t until my final quarter that I found one; unfortunately, it’s not a class I will be taking.
“‘She’ll never be human again!’: Superheroes and Bodily Transformation,” which is cross-listed in the English, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity departments, promises to examine superheroes under the lens of “disabilities studies, critical race theory, gender studies, and trans and queer studies.” It asks the question of how “ideologies around race, gender, sexuality, ability, and definitions of ‘human’ get reproduced or destabilized.”
The description, as taken from the course catalog, can be found above.
You can tell from the collage of progressive buzzwords that the class is nothing more than thinly veiled propaganda. The description goes on in a nonsensical fashion and invokes divisive identity politics, claiming that the class will discuss how superheroes can “be resources for envisioning new possibilities for queer and racialized living.” The class will also critique “bans on gender-affirming care,” a topic of recent controversy as states continue to implement them to protect children. Ultimately, the class is marketed much less as a study of superheroes than as an affirmation of progressive ideology.
Frankly, there appears to be no appreciation for superheroes at all. The class explicitly seeks to read “outside of traditional fantasies of white male power.” This quietly suggests that people outside of the typical audience cannot enjoy reading superhero stories for the same reason as other fans while simultaneously suggesting that the primarily white, male audience is a problem. The class is preoccupied with dragging superheroes and their fans through the mud to support progressive positions. Compare this to the Tolkien class I took with Professor Rachel Fulton Brown, where J.R.R. Tolkien was celebrated and studied for the incredible literature he wrote, and the difference is striking.
Fans read these stories for the heroic deeds and struggles of the characters, not just to dream of having superpowers. Superman isn’t popular because of his power set, but because of his eternal optimism and how he always strives to do the right thing. Spider-Man is popular because he has relatable struggles in his personal life and learns a timeless lesson from Uncle Ben: “With great power comes great responsibility.” Superheroes are about doing good with their superpowers, and it is blatantly reductive to divorce the powers from that idea.
“‘She’ll never be human again!’: Superheroes and Bodily Transformation” is a class that exists solely as agitprop. It is not interested in why fans love superheroes, but rather, seeks to wield postmodernist ideology to tear them down. It ignores the heart of the genre—heroism—to serve its own agenda. This is not the superhero class that UChicago needs, but it is a sobering sign of the progressive chokehold on education that it is the one that UChicago has.
* The views expressed in this article solely represent the views of the author, not the views of the Chicago Thinker.