SoProBroChaCho

I've seen a few people say this, and even my mom said this a couple times, that her role in the movie isn't gendered. They don't think it's exclusively a girl's role, and that's what makes Kara so good. And I take so much issue with this because if you put a man in Kara's place, the context for EVERYTHING she says and does changes. She would inherently behave differently.

Before I start: I get it, someone's going to say, "but not all men!" I'm going to make generalizations because 1. It's like Russian roulette for women, and 2. It'll get old real quick making disclaimers every fricken time. Also, I'm exclusively talking about media. Yes, all this applies to real life, but since my point is about how Supergirl is inherently a gendered role...... everything below is in the context of storytelling and portrayals.

Let's look at the very beginning of the movie, before she meets Rutheye. Whenever men are depicted drinking to cover their pain, almost everything they do is an act. They're covering up their hurt and putting on almost a fake persona. Sometimes that can be gruff and stoic, or silly and unserious. Maybe something else. But Kara isn't doing that. She's authentically herself throughout the whole movie. She finds joy in life. She desires community. She wants to feel her emotions. She wants to experience normal physical sensations under a red sun. Nothing she does is an act, or a false persona she puts on. Kara wears all of her emotions and hurt on her sleeve. She drinks, sure, but I don't think she's doing it to forget as much as feel. Because when Rutheye asks Kara when she stopped feeling angry, and Kara tells her, "any day now," she's still deeply connected to her emotions. Shes still letting herself feel that anger instead of shutting herself off from it. I don't think her drinking is to cover it up as much as she just doesn't know how to work through it. That's not the same as suppressing it. Men... just aren't ever portrayed like that when they're in a similar position of drinking alcohol frequently. They typically suppress whatever internal struggle is dragging them down.

When Kara meets Rutheye at the dive bar, her reluctance never comes from not wanting to protect Rutheye, but instead not waning to lead her on a mission of murder. When men have been placed in this same role, they tend to keep their distance either because they genuinely don't care about the kid who will become their ward, or they fear it will hurt themselves. Examples that comes to my mind are Joel Miller from The Last of Us (video game), or Logan from the Logan movie. But Kara never hesitates to let Rutheye in. She's open and honest about her emotions and opinions at every given opportunity. She flat out tells Rutheye she will not take her into the mountains to kill Krem. She tells Rutheye that if she pursues revenge, it will destroy her. She doesn't come up with some bullshit to cover up her vulnerability. She speaks from the heart and genuine empathy.

We even see Kara willingly apologize to Rutheye after causing a scene at the bar on Bilquis, and not only did she acknowledge she handled the situation poorly, Kara directly pinpoints exactly why she lost her temper. Again, how many male characters can you think of who ever apologize, and when they do, point out their failings of their own volition? Barbie is what I'm thinking of as an example. Ken literally almost destroyed Barbie Land all because of his insecurities and inability to actually create a meaningful life on his own.... and he never once had to take accountability. I mean, I get he's supposed to be a criticism of toxic masculinity, but my point still stands. Since I've used it in the past in comparisons with Supergirl, Hidalgo is another movie where the male lead suppresses a lot of his hurt, and he never has to take accountability for the harm he caused, even though it was very much indirect and unintentional.

There's also the moment when Kara decides to tell Rutheye she's from Krypton. She initially lies to Rutheye about where she's from, and Rutheye takes it at face value. When Rutheye expresses curiosity about it later on, Kara makes the deliberate decision to be vulnerable about it. Kara doesn't have an external force pushing her to open herself up to the hurt and immense sense of loss. She does it so she can show empathy to Rutheye. They barely knew each other for a day by then. Men rarely open up like that in movies, and if they do, they're often badgered into it.

I really want to talk about the silent scream - this is honestly the part that made me want to write up an analysis to begin with. I've seen people say that how women let out their anger and frustration is significantly different than how men do it in movies and shows. Women, generally, try to limit as much harm as possible, which is why Kara screams into the vacuum of space. It's only recently we've seen women actually display rage and not shrink themselves to accommodate male characters. Men, on the other hand, tend to never consider what's around them, where they'll yell in someone's face, or they just bottle it all up and maybe destroy/hit something. I fully agree with all of that, but something I haven't seen anyone talk about is how this scene, fundamentally, proves that Kara Zor-El is a role only for women. Kara screams into the void. She purges her system of all the pent up anger and hurt... and then she locks the fuck in and gets to work to save her dog. Think of how many men in movies experience hardships, and then they need someone, usually a woman, to rally them into action? Obviously there are exceptions, like Clark in Superman 2025, but even though he had that moment with Pa Kent, I still don't consider that part of the trope, because if Clark had known Metropolis is in danger, he would've dropped his baggage for the sake of everyone else. But regardless, I feel like women have a much easier time regulating their system by putting themselves in a position where they can release emotions, and then they're able to get the job done. Men typically are forced to disconnect from vulnerable emotions, or anything that toxic masculinity thinks is too "feminine." It truly bleeds into tons of male roles, from how they're written and/or portrayed.

I can keep going on how Kara navigates the world, but I really want to touch on the sexism aspect. Think of men at a bar in movies when they're drinking. A woman might hit on him, but usually how they do it is by talking. Sometimes it gets physical, but more often it's simply talking, with flirting involved maybe. When Kara is at the dive bar right before Rutheye walks in, that alien guy stops Kara on the way to the dance floor, and it's heavily implied he asks to dance with her. Yes, he accepts her saying no, even though he's clearly bummed about it, but it's just so... typical that a man's first thought would be physical.

We have the moment where the alien takes Rutheye's sword and Kara goes out to reclaim it for her. It's implied the alien says, "you talk too much." Male characters like Peter Parker, who's a literal chatter box, has never been told he talks too much. From what I can remember, anyway. I'm sure there are dozens of other examples out there. But the point is that if Kara had been a male character, I can guarantee the line, "you talk too much," wouldn't have been in there, and I do think the script writer being a woman writing a woman character led to that moment being in the movie.

The entire bar sequence on Bilquis and how Kara and Rutheye are treated... I feel like all of that is self explanatory.

Kara is roofied. Like, I'm sure everyone picked up on that, but I'm so surprised I haven't seen anyone talking about it. She literally gets roofied to be traded in for sex trafficking. It's basically stated in the movie that the only prisoners the Brigands want are girls and young women. If Kara had been a man....... the intentions would have been MUCH different. The implications would have been different. Krem only changes his intentions with Kara once he realizes she's Kryptonian. Once he does, he cares more about her as a trophy than a slave, but until then... yea, it's fuckin dark. But I cannot get over the fact Kara is roofied, and how everything about that scene would have inherently meant something different if it had been a man.

Because Kara is a woman, she's experienced sexism firsthand. She immediately clocks what the Skalarian raiders are talking about in regard to the sex trafficking, and you can see in her expression she's dreading what she's dragging Rutheye into. A man might've eventually picked up on it, but the weight of it wouldn't have hit him like it does Kara. The male character probably wouldn't even fully be aware of the true danger Rutheye is in, and maybe wouldn't have been quite as protective in the ways Kara is.

Honestly, I could probably keep going. Maybe I'll make another post with more examples eventually. I just really wanted to word-vomit the points I had at the front of my mind. I think what they mean is that Supergirl isn't a "girl-power" movie, but there aren't any woman-led movies out there like this one. It's hard to define because it seems like it's the first of its kind. Supergirl 2026 is the first time we're seeing a woman get to be fully realized and display our true lived experiences. This is the most authentic lived experience I've seen for women since... ever.

Basically, I feel like Kara is the first woman character I ever thought something along the lines of, "this person exists in real life. Everything about her is real and authentic. She's not written or portrayed through a lens to make her an idealization for girls, particularly what men consider the 'ideal' woman. While I'm not 100% like her, I find so much about her that's relatable, and I actually see myself in her in so many ways. I actually feel inspired because what Kara does, being good and caring, is achievable for me. I can't say that about almost any other woman character. They feel they're out of reach for where I'm at."

But anime and video game boob jiggling is like. The most uncanny valley shit I've ever seen nine times out of ten. You would think people this horny about tits would have actually looked at some but I guess not.