Physical features associated with masculinity and femininity are often exaggerated beyond human limits among comic book characters, according to new research published in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences. The study provides evidence that characters from the Marvel and DC Comics franchises are depicted in ways that correspond to male evolutionary preferences.
“I have collected comics for decades, so I have always wanted to study them in more depth,” said study author Rebecca Burch, a professor at the State University of New York at Oswego.
“The commentary on comic book characters in research literature has always discussed hypersexualized bodies but little to no research has actually measured them. This surprised me since the creators themselves assign heights and weights to these characters — there are literally thousands of data points — and you can study thousands of comic panels. We wanted to collect the data to actually measure the extent of the exaggeration in comic book bodies.”
The researchers collected information about the physical attributes of 1,258 male and 505 female characters from the DC Comics universe. They also calculated the shoulder-to-waist ratio for male characters and the waist-to-hip ratio for female characters. Research has demonstrated that men view male rivals with higher shoulder-to-waist ratios as more dominant, and view women with relatively low waist-to-hip ratios as more attractive.
Male DC characters had an average height of approximately 6 feet, 1 inches and had an average weight of 222.07 pounds. Female DC characters, on the other hand, had an average height of approximately 5 feet, 7 inches and had an average weight of 134.25 pounds. Male DC characters had an average shoulder-to-waist ratio of 1.90 and female DC characters had an average waist-to-hip ratio of 0.625.
Using data from a previous study, the researchers found that male DC characters weighed about 10% less than male characters from Marvel comics. Male Marvel characters also had larger shoulder-to-waist ratios than male DC characters on average.
“I was personally very surprised that Marvel men were so much bigger than DC men. We expected them to not differ significantly, but Marvel men weighed over 20 pounds more and had much greater upper body width,” Burch explained.
Female characters from DC and Marvel universe had approximately the same average height and weight. But female DC characters had lower waist-to-hip ratios compared to female Marvel characters.
“We also expected the women to not differ much, but what surprised us was that Marvel and DC women weren’t just similar, they were nearly identical in height and weight. DC women were curvier, though. They were the curviest women in the samples,” Burch said.
“Marvel and DC together make up over 60% of the comics sold in the country. Taken together, these measurements show us how the majority of comic book characters are drawn,” she noted.
The researchers also compared the comic book characters to real-life men and women with hypermasculine and hyperfeminine figures. In particular, they collected information about the physical attributes of the most searched women on Pornhub.com and winners from the Mr. Universe and the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding competitions.
Pornhub women had an average height of approximately 5 feet, 4 inches, an average weight of 118.10 pounds, and an average waist-to-hip ratio of 0.687 — making them smaller and less curvy than the comic book characters. Male bodybuilders had an average height of approximately 5 feet, 9 inches, an average weight of 220.55 pounds, and an average shoulder-to-waist ratio of 1.953 — making them similar in size and shape to male DC comic characters, but significantly smaller and less muscular than Marvel characters.
“These studies tell you a lot,” Burch told PsyPost. “Comic book creators know what they are doing, and they are creating characters that exaggerate the preferences of their readers, which in this market (superhero comics) are largely men under 55. This means that comic heroes have extremely wide shoulders and upper body muscularity, and women are both thin and extremely curvy. Men also have a lot more variation than women; they can be different shapes and sizes, while women are made in predominately one shape: bombshell.”
In comparison, a sample of 1,965 U.S. women from the National Center for Health Statistics had an average waist-to-hip ratio of 0.881. The smallest waist-to-hip ratio in this sample (0.660) was still greater than the average waist-to-hip ratio of the female DC characters. The largest waist-to-hip ratio observed among female DC characters was 0.798.
“I think a major take away is that these depictions are just not attainable, and shouldn’t be used as realistic inspiration or bodily goals,” Burch said. “Particularly for men in the Marvel comic books — they have bodies that are almost absurd in their dimensions. To emulate these bodies is impossible. Marvel men even surpass championship bodybuilders.”
The study, “Comic Book Bodies Are Supernormal Stimuli: Comparison of DC, Marvel, and Actual Humans“, was authored by Rebecca L. Burch and David R. Widman.
