Sex and the Single SuperheroSpider-Man's vow of celibacy.
Updated Tuesday, June 4, 2002, at 11:26 AM ETSpoiler alert: This article gives away plot points of Spider-Man and Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.
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"This story, like any story worth telling, is about a girl," Peter Parker intones in the opening line of the summer's blockbuster hit Spider-Man. Except it's not about a girl. At the film's end, Spider-Man wins the girl, as we've come to expect of our movie heroes, but instead of embracing her, he spurns her love. Spider-Man turns out to be a coming-of-age story about a boy who decides that his moral responsibility to the world at large is too great to allow himself the selfish, singular attachment of romance.
Which sounds a lot like what Roman Catholic priests do. Or are supposed to do, anyway. Many critics have pointed out that Spider-Man unfortunately reminds viewers of the World Trade Center disaster. But the movie also speaks, quite eloquently, to the debate over celibacy in the Catholic Church. By the end of the movie, viewers learn that Spider-Man is celibate, and his superherodom is a calling, a voluntary priesthood.
The vow of celibacy in Spider-Man isn't overt. The movie implies that Parker/Spider-Man's decision to rebuff M.J. is made out of a concern for her safety, because Spider-Man's enemies will seek to harm those whom Spider-Man loves. But Parker never considers the alternative: He could abandon being Spider-Man and live a life of normalcy with M.J. No one would be the wiser, and as an added bonus, Parker's roommate, Harry Osborn, wouldn't have to deliver on his vow to avenge his father's death—because Spider-Man would have mysteriously disappeared. (This decision would of course ruin the potential for sequels.) Instead, Parker/Spider-Man tells M.J. that friendship "is all I have to give." Because "with great power comes great responsibility," Spider-Man must be wedded to the world. He can't walk away from the moral obligations his powers impose on him.
And it's not just Spider-Man. Hardly any movie superheroes get laid, for similar reasons. In the summer's other big movie so far, Attack of the Clones, we learn that Jedi (the superheroes for young boys born in the past 30 years or so) are bound by formal vows of celibacy. Anakin Skywalker's decision to break his vow and get busy with Padmé Amidala is one of the acts that leads to the downfall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire and Darth Vader. And in Superman II, Clark Kent/Superman initially makes the same decision that Spidey rejected: He explicitly renounces his superhero powers in order to settle down to an ordinary life with Lois Lane. But by the end of the movie he's realized that the obligations of Superman are too important. He reclaims his powers, defeats General Zod and company, and returns to his lonely, solitary superhero existence.
Who'da thunk it? Hollywood takes celibacy more seriously than most members of the elite Eastern media, whose by-and-large reaction to the church's pedophilia scandal has been to opportunistically attack a celibacy doctrine they see as outdated and nonsensical. It's startling to see putatively liberal moviemakers portray celibacy as a noble, selfless, even rational endeavor. Of course, it's possible that the Hollywood message is more subversive and underhanded than that: Only superheroes are fit for lives of celibacy, and as we've learned, not all priests are superheroes.
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Reader Comments From The Fray:
In fact, I think that the final scene of Spider-Man was intended to give a different message. We're all screaming at the screen "You can work it out, Spidey!", and we are all full of simple, workable suggestions for the webslinger. Remember, though, that this is a story of teenage angst. Spidey was overwhelmed by an urge for moral simplicity and sacrifice that feels good to a teenager even though it's totally irrational and unnecessary. It may not have been the right thing to do, but it was a very Spidey thing to do.
As for Anakin Skywalker...I'm sorry, but when's the last time Lucas was in touch with anything beyond his universe? 1978? The Trade Federation is made up of evil aliens who sound Japanese...Jar-Jar was an idiot who melded every condescending racial stereotype available, etc. I just can't see his statements on the catastrophes of sexuality as relevant to our culture. They say more about Lucas himself.
--Mangar
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There is a very good reason for superheros like Superman or Spider-Man to be celibate: they are so damn strong that they would crush to death anyone they embrace during the sexual act.
--David Brandon
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Doesn't swearing off the lure of women really stem from the misogynist attitude that women are strength sucking creatures that will a) make you less manly once you are in their thrall, and b) ruin all your fun with the boys. 'Don't have sex before the game' and all that rot? Whatever each superhero's rationale for celibacy, it all seems to be just that, a rationalization.
--SylviaF
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To SylviaF: Believe it or not, men actually do have a right not to mate with women. It is not "misogyny" for a man to choose a life that doesn't involve romance with women--after all, that would stand all gay men, monks, and priests up to the accusation.
In the case of the examples in the article:
Jedi: attachment is forbidden, possession is forbidden. This is as true for the many female Jedi we see in "Attack of the Clones" as it is for Anakin.
Superman: his reason in Superman II for ditching Lois and regaining his powers was that he is literally biologically incompatible in his "super" state. In the comics, he is married to her.
Spider-Man: in the movie, Peter forswears MJ because he knows she would be a target for anyone trying to get at him, after his best friend's father tried to kill her for that very reason. "Sucking" had nothing whatsoever to do with it.
--Non-Misogynist
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There are really only 2 reasons for the Celibacy of superheros in Hollywood movies. and they are the same as the reasons for their celibacy in comic books. One is marketing: comic books and the superhero movies are both aimed, for the most part, at adolescent males who feel uncomfortable with their position within their social groupings and who are in general virgins (ala Peter Parker or Clark Kent.) The heroes reflect this self image. The second reason is thematically related to the first and has to do with plot development. Romantic entanglements change the nature of the story, making it a love story not a superhero adventure. As far as the Star Wars movies are concerned, Lucas is consciously attempting to create a mythology and celibacy and its ultimate betrayal by a character have always had a part in mythology.
--JS
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(6/5)