From Superman, created in 1938, to the transmedia DC and Marvel universes of today, superheroes have always been sexy. And their sexiness has always been controversial, inspiring censorship and moral panic. Yet though it has inspired jokes and innuendos, accusations of moral depravity, and sporadic academic discourse, the topic of superhero sexuality is like superhero sexuality itself—seemingly obvious yet conspicuously absent.
is the first scholarly book specifically devoted to unpacking the superhero genre’s complicated relationship with sexuality.
Exploring sexual themes and imagery within mainstream comic books, television shows, and films as well as independent and explicitly pornographic productions catering to various orientations and kinks, Supersex offers a fresh—and lascivious—perspective on the superhero genre’s historical and contemporary popularity. Across fourteen essays touching on Superman, Batman, the X-Men, and many others, Anna F. Peppard and her contributors present superhero sexuality as both dangerously exciting and excitingly dangerous, encapsulating the superhero genre’s worst impulses and its most productively rebellious ones. Supersex argues that sex is at the heart of our fascination with superheroes, even—and sometimes especially—when the capes and tights stay on.
Reynolds, R. (2022). 1. Tarpé Mills’s Miss Fury: Costume, Sexuality, and Power. En
Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero (pp. 31-56). University of Texas Press.
https://doi.org/10.7560/321607-002
Yockey, M. (2022). 2. Superman Family Values: Supersex in the Silver Age. En
Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero (pp. 57-78). University of Texas Press.
https://doi.org/10.7560/321607-003
Deman, J. A. (2022). 3. A Storm of Passion: Sexual Agency and Symbolic Capital in the X-Men’s Storm. En
Supersex Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero (pp. 79-102). University of Texas Press.
https://doi.org/10.7560/321607-004
Johnson, B. (2022). 4. Dazzler, Melodrama, and Shame: Mutant Allegory, Closeted Readers. En
Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero (pp. 103-128). University of Texas Press.
https://doi.org/10.7560/321607-005
Panuska, S. M. (2022). 5. “Super-Gay” Gay Comix: Tracing the Underground Origins and Cultural Resonances of LGBTQ Superheroes. En
Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero (pp. 129-150). University of Texas Press.
https://doi.org/10.7560/321607-006
Friedlander, K. (2022). 6. Parents, Counterpublics, and Sexual Identity in Young Avengers. En
Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero (pp. 151-172). University of Texas Press.
https://doi.org/10.7560/321607-007
Zeichmann, C. B. (2022). 7. X-Men Films and the Domestication of Dissent: Sexuality, Race, and Respectability. En
Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero (pp. 175-198). University of Texas Press.
https://doi.org/10.7560/321607-008
Langsdale, S. (2022). 8. Over the Rainbow Bridge: Female/Queer Sexuality in Marvel’s Thor Film Trilogy. En
Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero (pp. 199-220). University of Texas Press.
https://doi.org/10.7560/321607-009
Peppard, A. F. (2022). 9. “No One’s Going to Be Looking at Your Face”: The Female Gaze and the New (Super)Man in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. En
Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero (pp. 221-244). University of Texas Press.
https://doi.org/10.7560/321607-010
Brown, J. A. (2022). 10. The Visible and the Invisible: Superheroes, Pornography, and Phallic Masculinity. En
Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero (pp. 245-264). University of Texas Press.
https://doi.org/10.7560/321607-011
Brennan, J. (2022). 11. “I Think That’s My Favorite Weapon in the Whole Batcave”: Interrogating the Subversions of Men.com’s Gay Superhero Porn Parodies. En
Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero (pp. 265-290). University of Texas Press.
https://doi.org/10.7560/321607-012
Hicks, O. (2022). 12. “That’s Pussy Babe!”: Queering Supergirl’s Confessions of Power. En
Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero (pp. 291-316). University of Texas Press.
https://doi.org/10.7560/321607-013
Kustritz, A. (2022). 13. Meet Stephanie Rogers, Captain America: Genderbending the Body Politic in Fan Art, Fiction, and Cosplay. En
Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero (pp. 317-340). University of Texas Press.
https://doi.org/10.7560/321607-014
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