supergirl

Annabel loves My Little Pony and princesses, but she’s also crazy about superheroes. She often watches those Amazing Annabel movies we made with her when she was little, and pretends that she’s the Amazing Annabel around the house. When it comes to superheroes, though, her favorites are the old standbys from the D.C. and Marvel comic books.

Annabel is especially crazy about Spiderman, which is only partially because of the encouragement of Mike who is a huge Spiderman fan — he’s such a fan, in fact, that he even took us to see that ill-fated Spiderman musical years ago in New York! Annabel has taught herself to “climb walls like Spiderman” (by shimmying up the door frames), and loves to play-act getting bit by a radioactive spider and then realizing she has spider powers. She even has a Spiderman dress. This is all super cute, but there was a moment when she asked why there isn’t a Spidergirl. Mike told her there is a Spiderwoman, but when Annabel asked if she could watch that movie he had to tell her they hadn’t made one about her.

It’s the year 2015 and while there have been some past efforts to make cool female heroes, it’s clear Annabel doesn’t see it that way. She asked why there are no girl Avengers, and when we told her there was one (just one), she made a face. I always feel like I have to make excuses for why girls aren’t included in the superhero world as much. It’s hard to explain why there aren’t any Spiderwoman movies, when there are a bunch about Spiderman.

I’m hopeful about this new Supergirl TV show coming out. Yesterday Annabel saw a commercial for it and she just about lost her mind with excitement. I have no idea if it’s going to be any good, and Common Sense Media has an age guideline of 11+ (so I’m definitely going to have to watch it by myself first), but the fact there’s a primetime show about a superhero who is a girl (as opposed to a show where there’s a token female superhero among the sea of male superheroes) is exciting news in our house.

Things are getting better for girls, image-wise. It’s pretty cool, for example, to be able to show our kids there are two women running for President (even if they are still the minority among the candidates), and there’s a woman calling playoff baseball games on TV. Hopefully Supergirl proves to be an awesome superhero role model (and also a good TV show…most of the cast looks promising). If not, I’m already counting the days until I can introduce her to Buffy.