Excellent piece! I’m curious - what would you think of James Bond as a counter-example? While 007 is certainly fit (as many a bathing suit scene has shown), the most massive and visibly muscular characters in the series tend to be the bad guys - Oddjob, Jaws, Red Grant, and so on. Compared to them, James is practically lithe - is there an element of demonstrating his manliness by overcoming these walking mountains? (Naturally, James has a whole host of other toxic masculinity tropes associated with him, but that’s another story …)
One could go even farther, of course with the original Star Wars series, where the only seriously buff good guy is Chewbacca … Han and Luke are definitely on the light side while Vader looms over everything, physically and metaphorically. Even Luke’s physical workout in Dagobah to become a Jedi seems to be more cardio than muscle building.
It seems to me that the bad guys in Bond are either queer-coded, or fat. Or both. And I'd call the Daniel Craig Bond big and muscular for sure, though the older ones do tend to the lithe side.
But yes, you're correct: Bond is his very own PTMT: he's #3.
I would argue that this has always been the issue with superhero stories in any media. As an inherently visual media, it emphasizes substantial physical appearance and achievement above the cerebral abilities both the heroes and villains often possess. Granted, there are men in the world who use physical power to get what they want, but they are in the minority, and other men are left wanting by this ideal.
I think that's one of the reasons why I sympathize more with the female superheroes. Women are far less encouraged and expected to be muscular creatures who throw their weight around, and thus female superheroes and villains generally are not like that. They can get down and dirty if required, but that aspect doesn't define them nearly as much as it does the men. They more commonly ask questions first and shoot later.
Looking at my superheroes, I notice I have bucked the "go big" trend often. They generally are short (though with concentrated muscular power); the one I would consider to be tall is gifted (?) with the autistic trades I have and is therefore less of an imposing figure.
Excellent piece! I’m curious - what would you think of James Bond as a counter-example? While 007 is certainly fit (as many a bathing suit scene has shown), the most massive and visibly muscular characters in the series tend to be the bad guys - Oddjob, Jaws, Red Grant, and so on. Compared to them, James is practically lithe - is there an element of demonstrating his manliness by overcoming these walking mountains? (Naturally, James has a whole host of other toxic masculinity tropes associated with him, but that’s another story …)
One could go even farther, of course with the original Star Wars series, where the only seriously buff good guy is Chewbacca … Han and Luke are definitely on the light side while Vader looms over everything, physically and metaphorically. Even Luke’s physical workout in Dagobah to become a Jedi seems to be more cardio than muscle building.
It seems to me that the bad guys in Bond are either queer-coded, or fat. Or both. And I'd call the Daniel Craig Bond big and muscular for sure, though the older ones do tend to the lithe side.
But yes, you're correct: Bond is his very own PTMT: he's #3.
I would argue that this has always been the issue with superhero stories in any media. As an inherently visual media, it emphasizes substantial physical appearance and achievement above the cerebral abilities both the heroes and villains often possess. Granted, there are men in the world who use physical power to get what they want, but they are in the minority, and other men are left wanting by this ideal.
I think that's one of the reasons why I sympathize more with the female superheroes. Women are far less encouraged and expected to be muscular creatures who throw their weight around, and thus female superheroes and villains generally are not like that. They can get down and dirty if required, but that aspect doesn't define them nearly as much as it does the men. They more commonly ask questions first and shoot later.
Looking at my superheroes, I notice I have bucked the "go big" trend often. They generally are short (though with concentrated muscular power); the one I would consider to be tall is gifted (?) with the autistic trades I have and is therefore less of an imposing figure.
Yep, agreed. And it’s so cool that you’re looking at your own characters after reading these.