Q & A: Gender differences in super powers

An excellent follow-up question came after the nutshot one, so I thought I'd go ahead and answer that one here and now.

Q: You mentioned that it is men who are the strongest of those with super strength in your stories. Are there any powers that women have in greater numbers than the men?

A: Yes, there is, and in fact, it might be interesting to you all if I go ahead and tell you how the more common powers divide up along gender lines.

Men dominate in those with super, super strength. Women, however, dominate when it comes to super speed. The fastest speedsters are all women. In fact, it isn't until #19 that a man breaks the top 20, and he is like a snail compared to the fastest woman. Superhuman scientists theorize that this is because women's muscles don't bulk up like men's muscles do, so their super strength can be dedicated to speed.

Women also dominate in telepathic powers related to reading minds. However, men dominate in telepathic powers dedicated to "pushing". It didn't take long to notice the pattern of men having "aggressive" telepathic powers while women had "communication" telepathic powers. So far, there are no telepaths that can both read minds and "push" people to do things that they want them to do. Neither gender seems to dominate in telekinetic powers, as there are too few purely TK wielders to make any accurate assessment of how this power divides among the genders.

Women dominate in super senses related to smell and hearing, while men dominate in super sight. The other two senses are harder to evaluate, so there are no official test results yet on super taste and touch.

Men overwhelmingly dominate in powers related to energy discharge. Superhuman scientists theorize that this is related to the fact that the presence of testosterone has something to do with the quick and massive energy production that is necessary for such energy discharges - and of course, men have testosterone in greater quantities than women. Women who are able to discharge energy are only able to emit a glow of light rather than energy with any strong concussive force.

Female teleporters generally create portals to step through, while men generally teleport by popping out of sight to re-emerge somewhere else. Female teleporters are able to teleport others so long as they are able to keep their portal open, while men can only teleport themselves.

Male flyers are the fastest flyers while female flyers are able to maneuver far better than the men. Most superhuman scientists make the analogy that male flyers are jets while female flyers are helicopters. Most men can't hover in one spot, but nearly all the women can.

When it comes to "sonic screams", women far outnumber the men. The best "sonic screamers" have a pitch so high that it can't be heard, but it can cause your eardrums to rupture and could cause cerebral hemorrhages. Men who can do the very low bass pitch "sonic screams" sound very much like a foghorn and have an eerie effect of rattling you down to your bones.

Men far outnumber women when it comes to "thunder clapping" - that is, slamming their hands together with such force as to create a shock wave. This is easy to explain: Men's hands are bigger and the men are generally stronger. Women can only make "baby booms" when compared to the men's shock waves.

After these basic powers, it breaks down to gender ratios that are not complete yet. That is, there's not enough of each gender of a given power to make the determination of whether it is a male or female dominated ability. For some powers, only one person seems to possess it.

For instance, the super known as Alloy is the only known super who has the ability to merge otherwise unlike substances into one combined substance, such as combining steel and a bolt of cotton into an substance that has the softness of cotton but the durability of steel (and which my costume is made of).

And I am the only known super with multiple powers. I have flight, strength, super senses, speed healing, and super speed. Note that I have these abilities in a lesser degree to those who have the same powers (that is, there are stronger women than me, there are faster women than me, etc.), but none of them have the combination of abilities that I do. There are, so far, no men who have multiple abilities like I do. so it's unknown whether it is men or women who will be more likely to have multiple powers.

As more research is made available, I'll let you all know what they are.

My first Facebook group!

Now for my news! On Facebook, I have created my first group! It's called Superhero Tig o' Bitties! LOL

I intend this to be a humorous homage for the buxom super ladies of the comics, and yet I am fully aware of how quickly it can devolve into a gallery of porno art, so for now I am maintaining a tightfisted control over what gets published there. I want to trust group members to behave themselves and to keep to the intent of the group page, but I also know how some people are - that they can't control themselves in the face of such circumstances. Later on if some members demonstrate that they possess the maturity to stick with my theme, then I'll open up who gets to publish straight to my facebook page without me approving it. But one step at a time. :-)

Geez, I hate to start this out on a negative, but I'm also painfully aware of how quickly that just a couple of weak-willed sleazeballs can ruin something like this. I really, really want this to be a homage to the super ladies, and as far as I can help it, it will stay that way. Your next question is no doubt going to be "what is the line between what is acceptable and not acceptable?" Well, it's basically this: I'll know it when I see it. If I feel that it is lacking in some way or the other, then it will not be published on my Facebook page. Simple as that.

With the negativity out of the way, I will finish by saying that while it might not be fair that the super ladies have to have such - er, "abundance" - to get noticed, at least they got noticed - and some have managed to do well despite this objectification; and others still are able to be recognized for more than their DD's. My hope is that our actions will one day speak louder than our bra size. A lot of us super ladies expose ourselves to the same dangers that the super men do, and we deserve respect for the work we do instead of being famous for being busty.

While some may question the wisdom of saying what I just said while creating a facebook group that seems to glorify that objectification, what I'm attempting to do here instead is to help the super busty super ladies to get over the fact that there will always be those who objectify us no matter what we do, and to just accept the fact that being busty is a part of who we are. We are loud, we are proud, and we have tig o' bitties. We ain't got nothing to be ashamed of. :-)

I can so relate to Mika and DiDi!

I can so totally relate to Mika and DiDi on the difficulties of finding the right sized bra! U go, girl!

http://comicstripclub.com/comics/2008-09-10-my%20LHC%20goes.jpeg

Q & A: Response to a comment about my abilities

Let’s go ahead and take care of a little business by answering one of the comments that was sent to me. I thought that it’d be better to answer here in case others of you had the same questions/observations about what I’ve said about myself so far. Here’s the original comment in its entirety:

“So far from what I've read you are extremely powerful. You have super strength, heightened senses; you can fly fast. You have super healing. Your costume is tear resistant, so that so horny guys won’t drool after battling you. In your previous posts, you stated because of your athletic build you are probably flexible as well. And finally you perfect hand-eye coordination and reflexes allows to you evade any attack in all directions. In light on a better word you are perfect. But when developing your stories (which you are working on now) its important to add the human element as well. Sure its fun beating the crap out of bad guys and gals (yes I said GALS, 'cause it would be boring if your battles were one sided), but on the other hand you have a real life to deal with. Getting good grades in school, dealing with bullies without revealing your secret identity, and trying to show your true feeling to the one you really care about. Now I'm not saying to make the comic series super serious (please don't hurt me because I used a pun), but remember to keep it real and believable. Take care.”

First, thanks for a long, thoughtful response. You bring up some very good questions worth a good response, and I hope to give it here. Let’s go ahead and take them in order.

I do have super strength, heightened senses, and super healing. But I do not have Superman level powers, or even Wonder Woman. Not even She Hulk. Probably the closest I get to is Donna Troy level powers. The super healing is necessary for someone of super strength because of all the stresses that we put our bodies under by lifting the great weights that we do. In fact, in my “universe”, the stronger the superhuman, the greater his or her speed healing is. Thus, it’s no accident that, in my universe, the strongest folks also have the fastest healing powers, and that’s what makes them so difficult to take down.

My heightened senses are largely due to having a physique that is several steps up from the normal human physique of a woman my height and build. That also explains the faster eye/hand coordination and my flexibility. Those of us with such physiques also have these heightened senses/coordination/flexibility. The odd thing in my universe is that it is the super women who have this faster eye/hand coordination much more so than the men. My guess is that it’s because women’s muscles don’t get bulky like men’s muscles do. There are other super women who can move as fast as I can, and some are even faster.

For the super men, because they have all that bulky mass, it’s much harder for them to move fast like super women do. Of course, the advantage the men have is that they are much stronger. The strongest super woman in my universe (and it’s not me) is nowhere near as strong as the strongest super man. So even though I can dodge the slow, plodding punches thrown by super men, they can take the numerous punches that I throw at them because they are that much stronger (not to mention that they also heal faster). It’s a challenge that I’m still working on.

As for my costume, finding a tear resistant costume became necessary because of what I discovered from my very first super battle. And for us super ladies, we need these tear resistant costumes, because in this day and age of camera phones and YouTube, we are a short step away from being splashed all over the Internet showing off what we didn’t want to show off. And even though they are tear resistant, it’s not impossible to tear. Whether that happens in the stories – you will just have to wait and see. ;-) Anyway, the experience I went through in my first battle told me right away what us super ladies are going to need if we are going to do the hero thing, and I hope to make it a line of fashion later. In summary, we super ladies are going to need a durable costume if we are going to do the hero thing without becoming exhibitionists every time we do battle.

And last, I am not perfect. Far from it. I only need to get slapped around by one of my most annoying opponents to bring me back to earth (and you’ll meet her later). Even though I have super powers, I am still very human. I have feelings, and I have hopes and dreams, and I deal with adversity like any human does. Granted, the temptations of a super person are different and greater than normal folks, but it’s still temptation nonetheless, and we are just as prone to mistakes in judgment in the face of those temptations just like anyone else. It’s this part of my life that I hope makes my stories “real and believable”.

Thanks for your commentary. You really made me think about how I should respond. I hope I answered your observations to your satisfaction.

From my e-mail: Wapsi Square comic strip

A female friend of mine e-mailed a link to the cartoon above, asking if that's ever happened to me. (What a friend, eh?) It's from a webcomic called Wapsi Square. To answer her question, I did once "bust" (pun sort of intended) out of my top, but not because of a sneeze. It's because your standard, off-the-rack (no pun intended) bra is not designed for a woman with super strength. On my very first super battle, I swung so hard at this guy that I sent him flying into a brick wall, kayo-ing him "Street Fighter" style. I even heard the words "Super Combo did it! Kayo!" playing in my head! :-D

What enjoyment I could get out of it was robbed by the fact that the sheer force of my swing caused my boobs to jerk so violently that my department-store-purchased bra broke, and my tank top along with it, very much like the woman in the cartoon above. That never happens in the comics, so I never expected something like that to occur. That's a lesson for us super ladies on the difference on what happens in the comics vs. what happens in real life.

A good thing did come out of this experience. I made my own bra with materials created by a friend of mine, and this bra (as well as the hotpants that I wear under my skirt) is virtually impossible to tear. I can't tell you what material that is, because it's still in the process of being patented. However, no matter how fierce the battle, my bathing suit body parts are always going to be covered, even if my costume gets torn to shreds. The downside of this is that the material is damned expensive, which is why I haven't made my whole costume out of this material.

Anyway, once the patent goes through, my friend is going to work on making a less expensive version of the material so that we can market it to the super ladies. I want to start a line of fashion for super women, because we're proportioned differently than the average woman, so we can't exactly get our clothes at the local Target's. We may be able to punch men through brick walls, but it doesn't mean that we don't want to look like ladies doing it! I really believe that there's a market for such a line of fashion. It might be how I'll have to make my income, since the hero thing is generally done for free.

Wonder Woman's muscles again

The boss tweaked the image below in Photoshop to reduce the amount of lines in Wonder Woman's muscles, to see if it made them less "scary". What do you think?

Super women and their super musculature

Check out this pic of Wonder Woman from Trinity #5:














Is it me, or are those muscles - especially those biceps - just a tad big, even for Wonder Woman? Granted, she's supposed to be strong, but she looks like she munches on steriod cereal for breakfast! If the question is "How musclebound can a woman look before it starts looking TOO musclebound?", then I think that this is the start of it.