The gendering of Americanness and citizenship narratives in Spider-Man comic books: The case of Mary Jane Watson

Abstract

This study is premised on the concept of citizenship theory, primarily what is often called cultural citizenship and how this kind of approach can provide insight on narrative development of superhero comic book characters Spider-Man (Peter Parker) and Mary Jane Watson. By positioning the analysis within discourse theory (enforced by representational theory) it relies on the idea of the private and public sphere, the starting point of Lauren Berlant’s notion of citizenship, and how gender roles framed Mary Jane Watson and superhero Spider-Man in the process of gendering national identity. This article draws on two main sets of analyses – the wedding ceremony of Peter and Mary Jane that happened outside comic book panels, at the Shea Stadium in New York in 1987, and Tom DeFalco’s story Maximum Carnage from 1992. These cases are tackled from the position of gender representation with the focus on elaborating how the discourses about gender and citizenship positioned the character of Mary Jane and Spider-Man into the realm of gendered Americanness. The embeddedness of these findings places Mary Jane as a vital part of Spider-Man stories while pointing out specific discursive forms of gendered nationality in American popular superhero narratives: domesticated female identity and active male identity.