Middle East Centre IN-BETWEEN IDENTITIES AND MS. MARVEL AND THE REPRESENTATION OF CULTURES YOUNG MUSLIM WOMEN Jennifer Jackson-Preece and Manmit Bhambra LSE Middle East Centre Paper Series | 50 | May 2021 About the Middle East Centre The Middle East Centre builds on LSE’s long engagement with the Middle East and provides a central hub for the wide range of research on the region carried out at LSE. The Middle East Centre aims to enhance un- derstanding and develop rigorous research on the societies, economies, polities and interna- tional relations of the region. The Centre pro- motes both specialised knowledge and public understanding of this crucial area and has out- standing strengths in interdisciplinary research and in regional expertise. As one of the world’s leading social science institutions, LSE com- prises departments covering all branches of the social sciences. The Middle East Centre harnesses this expertise to promote innovative research and training on the region. Middle East Centre In-Between Identities and Cultures: Ms. Marvel and the Representation of Young Muslim Women Jennifer Jackson-Preece and Manmit Bhambra LSE Middle East Centre Paper Series | 50 May 2021 About the Authors Abstract Jennifer Jackson-Preece is an Associate Can superheroes tell us something Professor at the European Institute and important about changing public Department of International Relations, attitudes towards young Muslim women? LSE. Since the 1990s, she has had a sus- To answer this question, we compare tained engagement with problems and how young people react to the portrayal practices of minorities and migrants. of the superhero Ms. Marvel as a young Muslim woman in different locations in Manmit Bhambra is the Research Officer the Middle East and beyond. Our find- of the Religion and Global Society ings suggest that a superhero like Ms. research unit at LSE. Her research inter- Marvel can create a global discourse on ests are centred around identity politics gender and Islam that transcends specific and formation, national identities as well cultural contexts. as the broader themes of inclusion and minority rights. She works actively with youth organisations and is interested in issues facing young people today. Acknowledgments We would like to thank Dr Dima Issa, University of Balamand, and Maryam Abdelsamie and Iman Al Ali, American University of Sharjah, for their invaluable contributions to the project. The research for this paper was conducted as part of a collaboration project entitled ‘Challeng- ing Stereotypes: The Muslim Woman as Superhe- ro’ funded by the LSE Collaboration with Arab Universities Programme, which is supported by the Emirates Foundation. The research partner was Professor Badreya Al-Jenaibi of United Arab Emirates University. 6 In-Between Identities and Cultures: Ms. Marvel and the Representation of Young Muslim Women Introduction This project explores the in-betweenness of gender, Islam and culture as it is mediated through the Ms. Marvel graphic novel No Normal.1 In this endeavour, we are inspired by Homi Bhabha’s work on culture and identity: What is theoretically innovative, and politically crucial, is the need to think beyond narratives of originary and initial subjectivities and to focus on those moments or processes that are produced in the articulation of cultural differences.2 Our decision to explore identity constellations via a graphic novel is in keeping with the cultural turn in the social sciences.3 Popular culture is now widely recognised as an important medium through which individual and collective identities are renegotiated.4 Ms. Marvel is a particularly relevant starting point for our investigation precisely because this series purposefully reimagines a well-known superhero from the Marvel comics pan- theon as a second generation Pakistani American Muslim immigrant. The original Ms. Marvel launched in 1968 as the quintessential blonde-haired, blue-eyed all-American girl, a character otherwise known as Carol Danvers.5 When Carol Danvers was promoted to Captain Marvel, the first female rendering of that character, Marvel Comics cast a very different persona for the new Ms. Marvel. As of 2013, Ms. Marvel became Kamala Khan, a 16-year-old Pakistani-American girl living in New Jersey.6 Kamala’s parents are from Karachi and emigrated to the United States before their daughter was born. Kamala and her family are devout Muslims. Her brother is a Salafi Muslim, her best friend wears a hijab, several scenes take place in a mosque and the Qur’an is cited as a source of inspira- tion. Thus, the contrast between the Carol Danvers representation of Ms. Marvel and the Kamala Khan representation of Ms. Marvel is striking. The Kamala Khan Ms. Marvel character is part of a larger effort to diversify popular culture. For more than 75 years, Marvel comics have been the home of superheroes Spider-Man, Iron-Man, Daredevil and Captain Marvel; all white men. In the last decade, global comic brands like Marvel and DC have begun to integrate and prominently feature both more women and more black, minority and ethnic characters in their plots.7 Recasting Captain 1 G. Willow Wilson, Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal (New York: Marvel Worldwide, Inc., 2014). 2 Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (Abingdon: Routledge, 2004), p. 2. 3 Iver B. Neumann and Daniel H. Nexon, ‘Introduction’, in Iver B. Neumann and Daniel H. Nexon (eds), Harry Potter and International Relations (Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), p. 5. 4 See among others: Alanoud Alsharekh and Robert Springborg (eds), Popular Culture and Political Iden- tity in the Arab Gulf States (London: Saqi Books & SOAS, 2012); Jason Dittmer and Daniel Bos, Popular Culture, Geopolitics and Identity (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019); Tim Edensor, National Identity, Popular Culture and Everyday Life (Abingdon: Routledge, 2020). 5 Tracy Brown, ‘“Captain Marvel”: A Brief History of Carol Danvers’, Los Angeles Times, 28 February 2019. Available at https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/herocomplex/la-et-mn-captain-marvel-history- 20190228-story.html (accessed 15 September 2020). 6 Miriam Kent, ‘Unveiling Marvels: Ms. Marvel and the Reception of the New Muslim Superheroine’, Feminist Media Studies 15/3 (2015), p. 523. 7 See, for example, ‘15 Muslim Characters in Comics You Should Know’, CBR, 3 February 2017. Available at Jennifer Jackson-Preece and Manmit Bhambra 7 Marvel as Carol Danvers, a woman and the first Ms. Marvel, is part of this trend. Black superheroes such as Black Panther (Marvel) and Black Lightning (DC) now feature in blockbuster movies and television series. Muslim and Arab superheroes are also gaining prominence and it is not simply due to Ms. Marvel. For example, one of Marvel Comic’s X-Men superheroes is Sooraya Qadir (Dust), an Afghan Muslim woman. Similarly, DC’s Green Lantern superhero appears as Lebanese American Muslim Simon Baz. This effort by the comic industry to portray a more diverse range of superheroes has gar- nered considerable attention, both in the media and increasingly also in academia. The representation of Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel is particularly important because it seem- ingly challenges the ‘oppressed Muslim woman’ stereotype that has long been a feature of Orientalist narratives underpinning western hegemony.8 Historically this stereotype was used to justify continued European rule over the ‘Orient.’9 In more recent decades, the ‘oppressed Muslim woman’ stereotype has been used to validate the ‘War on Terror’, the backlash against multiculturalism and the rise of populism in the West.10 In stark contrast to this stereotype, Ms. Marvel has been hailed as ‘a real world emblem of protest against Islamophobia’,11 and ‘a young, female Muslim superhero for our times’.12 The lives of Muslim women are both a source of interest and scrutiny in the new Ms. Marvel series. Sana Amanat, the creator of the Kamala Khan Ms. Marvel character, stated that ‘the big idea behind Ms. Marvel was very much about finding your authentic self’.13 When re-imagining Ms. Marvel as a Muslim teenager, Amanat drew on her own expe- riences as a child of Pakistani immigrants in the New Jersey suburbs: ‘Kamala Khan’s struggles to fit in, her relationship with her parents – they’re related to a lot of the feelings I had in high school about being a minority in a country where the racial norm is being white.’14 Through the introduction of Ms. Marvel, Amanat has been able to reflect on her own experiences of the intersecting identities of race, gender and religion,15 as well as the wider challenges facing Muslim women and other minorities in Western societies. Fem- inist scholar Miriam Kent argues that Ms. Marvel has been groundbreaking as a comic in the way it represents the intersectional experience as it breaks with a ‘history of framing https://www.cbr.com/muslim-comic-book-characters-you-should-know/ (accessed 24 November 2020). 8 Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Pantheon Books, 1978). 9 Lila Abu-Lughod, ‘Review: “Orientalism” and Middle East Feminist Studies’, Feminist Studies 27/1 (2001). 10 Tania Saeed, Islamophobia and Securitization: Religion, Ethnicity and the Female Voice (London: Springer, 2018). 11 Aja Romano, ‘Muslim American Superhero Kamala Khan has Become a Real-World Protest Icon’, Vox, 2 February 2017. Available at https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/2/2/14457384/kamala-khan-cap- tain-america-protest-icon (accessed 15 September 2020). 12 Coco Khan, ‘All Hail Ms Marvel, a Young Female Muslim Superhero For Our Times’, The Guardian, 17 May 2018. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/17/ms-marvel-fe- male-muslim-superhero-kamala-khan (accessed 15 September 2020). 13 Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux, ‘A New Kind of Superhero: Sana Amanat ’04 Brings a Groundbreaking Muslim Crime Fighter to Marvel Comic Books’, Barnard Magazine, Summer 2016. Available at https:// barnard.edu/magazine/summer-2016/new-kind-superhero (accessed 15 September 2020).