still haven’t seen season 2 – Question of Smoke

weirddyke:

itsmydrink:

weirddyke:

i can’t stop thinking about the way kara walks into lena’s office as supergirl before confronting edge. she’s in FULL power stance, the most iconic and recognisable pose for a superhero. this is what supergirl looks like when they put her on lunchboxes. why then, if kara spends the episode saving hundreds and thousands of people, do we only see her strike this pose in a corporate office in front of a man who poses minimal physical threat?

it’s because with lena, they position kara as the classic, romantic, superman-like hero. we see this with the bridal carry, another iconic superman image. the way we see supergirl through lena’s eyes is the way that we see clark through lois’s – as a romantic lead. with mon-el and james kara never acted this gallantly, never struck this pose to instil confidence/safety in them or carried them or put her arm around them like a quarterback comforting his pregnant cheerleader girlfriend lmao (which i’ve already talked about in this way a lot!!).

in her relationship with lena, kara is allowed to fulfil the narrative duties that a male hero would, in doing so creating a whole system of romantic lesbian coding by signalling the viewer through iconic superhero imagery that lena is her lois. good morning everyone supercorp rise

I feel like this post symbolises one of the biggest problems with Supergirl as a show. I would adore Kara and Lena to become a thing but we know it won’t happen. The problem here is that Kara is only allowed to fulfil that typical ‘superhero’ roll around another female, because she’s female. Because the show still doesn’t put her on the same level as the males.

with all due respect i don’t think kara not being able to fulfil this romantic role around men somehow makes her lesser than male heroes. this coding between kara and lena shifts the heterosexual paradigm found in lois and clark in lots of important ways. although we’re visually signalled to a damsel/hero dynamic kara and lena offer mutual support to each other and their dynamic is one of equals.

my point is that kara’s heroic in her own way throughout the entire show but this visual language is borrowed from the legacy of superman’s heroism to position kara as lena’s romantic lead. whether or not that eventuates in canon/beyond subtext is beside the point.