In comics and things like that the people who fly are usually women. Superman and the Green Lantern are major exceptions. Am I just being short-sightened or am I right? If the latter, why is that?
I’ll be a geek and think of as many flying comic book characters as I can.
Men:
Superman, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Starman, Iron Man (using his armor), Thor, Supreme, Apollo, Captain Marvel, Captain Atom, Martian Manhunter, Red Tornado, Dr. Fate, Angel/Archangel, Human Torch, Namor, Captain Britain, Miracleman…
Women:
Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, Mary Marvel, Fire, The Engineer, Swift, Wasp, Rogue, Storm, Phoenix (using telekinesis), Stargirl…
Just from these lists, which I dashed off in two minutes, it makes me think that flying is kind of an equal-opportunity super power. I thought of more males who can fly just because there are more prominent powerful male characters, but these are by no means exhaustive lists.
You forgot…
Powdered Toast Man.
because it looks cool… long hair is like a cape, but more dramatic.
Too Much Coffee Man didn’t fly, did he?
I don’t think flying is a “girl thing”. There was a This American Life show where the question of which superpower would you rather have, flying or invisibility? Most women chose invisibility and the men chose flying. Various theories on why people chose the power they did were given.
<RandomDarkCrystalQuote>
Silly. Girls have wings.
</RandomDarkCrystalQuote>
The OP may be referring to X-Men, where this is noticeable.
Jean Grey - can fly.
Storm - can fly.
Rogue - can fly.
Shadowcat - can fly (walk on air)
Cyclops - nope.
Wolverine - nope.
Gambit - nope.
Beast - nope.
Also, look at the JLA and Teen Titans on cartoon network - on both teams, every female character can fly. No exceptions.
There is no real lack of male flying characters though. There is a lack of female grounded characters. In general, female comic characters have to learn to fly if they want to be popular.
So you can look up their skirts.
(apologies to Steve Martin)
They fly to prove they aren’t aerodynamically unsound. The…bumps…don’t create rough currents.
Lucy Lawless…
I think the real factor behind this is the fact that (at least until the last decade) there were many more male characters in general than female. Take the X-Men for example, the original team had four guys and one girl (Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Beast and Marvel Girl); the original ‘new X-Men’ had seven guys and one girl in the starting line-up (Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Banshee, Colossus, Thunderbird, Sunfire and Storm). Bear in mind that the X-men were the first team to (eventually) include a more even ration of male to female members.
Then there’s the JLA: Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman; six guys, one woman. In the cartoon version, there is a grand total of TWO women, to five guys.
The original “new” Teen Titans: Robin, Changeling, Cyborg, Starfire, Wonder Girl, Starfire, Raven and (occasionally) Aqualad and Speedy. Four (or six) guys, three girls.
Basically, there are many more male superheroes, and therefore a much more diverse crew of superheroic men than women.
What’s more, women tend to have the same type of power. Most female characters fall into the ‘pose & point’ category: whatever their power is supposed to be, they always stand in some statuesque pose and wave their arms in the general direction of the bad guy. With a few exceptions (She-Hulk and Wonder Woman come to mind) most female characters have some type of power that enables them to stand in the background and not physically engage in combat. Flying enables the women to keep a distance from the thick of combat.
Outsiders: Jade (Green Lantern energy, can fly), Indigo (super android from the future, can fly), Thunder (Can make herself super-dense and hard, no flight) Grace (giant, super-strength, no flight), Nightwing (no powers) Arsenal (no powers) Metamporpho (can change his body into elements, limited flight by becoming a gas).
Four female, three males. The traditional muscle powered heroes are both female, the most powerful heroes are both female. Flight fairly evenly distributed.
As a minor note, I’d point out the probability that in cartoon shows, the artists like flying characters because they can strike a single pose and just move rapidly across the screen, whereas a running character needs lots of leg movemnents and whatnot.