Comic book bodies are supernormal stimuli: Comparison of DC, Marvel, and actual humans.

Abstract

This study expanded upon Burch and Johnsen’s (2020) work on exaggerated bodies in Marvel comic book characters by also examining DC characters and actual humans. Compared to Marvel, DC men were not significantly taller but were significantly thinner and had significantly smaller shoulder to waist ratios. DC women were almost identical to Marvel women in height and weight, but DC women had smaller waist to hip ratios, making them curvier. Comic book bodies were then compared to actual humans; champion male bodybuilders, most frequently searched women on 1 of the most popular pornography websites, and a nationally representative U.S. sample. DC men had shoulder to waist ratios on par with champion bodybuilders while Marvel exceeded them. Both DC and Marvel women had lower waist to hip ratios than the Internet pornography sample. The average U.S. woman’s WHR was similar to the maximum WHR for the comic book and pornography sample, and the minimum U.S. woman’s WHR was similar to the average WHR for those samples. These findings support Burch and Johnsen (2020) and provide a better picture of how comic book depictions are hypersexualized supernormal stimuli.

She's got legs: Longer legs in female comic book characters correspond to global preferences.

“…Just as with SWR, we found that the DC men were less masculine by being more likely to be either wearing high heels or on tiptoe than the Marvel men. DC and Marvel men, however, do not differ significantly in height as reported by their respective creators (Burch & Widman, 2021). We also observe that the DC women were more feminized with greater depiction in heels, consistent with the previously reported WHR.…”

“…By giving consumers what they want to see in terms of heroes and heroines, comics are also creating negative views of actual human bodies. As Burch and Widman (2021) showed, actual humans do not measure up to these fictional bodies. The current study widens this disparity as comic book women have longer legs, a feature that no amount of diet or exercise can attain.…”

“…Animals (or half animals), children, apparitions, robots, and other entities were also removed. For bodily measurements, internet image searches were conducted for comic book panels depicting characters listed in the DC and Marvel Comics rosters (see Burch & Widman, 2021). Only images from DC and Marvel Comics (comic panels, licensed advertisements or merchandise, trading cards, posters, etc.)…”

“…Recent research studied popular culture products, particularly depictions of human bodies, and mapped those physical features onto the mate preferences of the target audience (Burch & Johnsen, 2020; Burch & Widman, 2021; Lassek & Gaulin, 2016, 2019). Burch and colleagues measured shoulder-to-waist (SWR) and waist-to-hip ratios (WHR), as well as height, weight, and body mass index in comic book characters, while Lassek and Gaulin examined WHR in imaginary women in several pop culture products including video games, comics, and cartoons.…”

“…Women, while being very thin, were simultaneously curvy with WHRs far below the typical human average. To expand on this study, Burch and Widman (2021) examined Marvel Comics, DC Comics, actual champion male bodybuilders, the most searched for women in online pornography, and a nationally representative sample of Americans. They found male characters had more variation in size, but Marvel men were bigger (in weight and SWR) than DC men.…”