Gender Vigilante Game

[Abishai100]

In the year that the first woman may become president of the United States, I thought it would be interesting to create a gender-challenge game involving a story open to revision ideas.

Black Cat (Marvel Comics) is a sometime-heroine, sometime-villainess and fierce vigilante who has sometimes worked with the webbed hero Spider-Man.

So here's a story involving Black Cat rescuing and transporting two Tibetan refugees from Asia and engaging them in a dialogue about human rights (from a woman's perspective). The challenge is to offer up male superheroes from comic books who you think would do a better job at this operation involving these two refugees and what these men would say that would offer more help.

My hypothesis is that Black Cat's work here is sufficient.





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Black Cat had successfully bailed out two Tibetan protesters from a Chinese prison and was transporting them across the Himalayas. She used her incredible strength and agility to knock out the guards in front of their cells and then used a rope to haul them up from the roof. Black Cat was transporting these two refugees, Tashi and Tenzin, to the US Embassy in India.

As they hiked across the Himalayas, Black Cat assured them that they would get to the embassy safely. Tashi and Tenzin wondered how a female could be so strong and resourceful, and Black Cat explained to them that American women are much more liberated. After their first week of hiking (one half of their journey), the trio ran into a terrible snowstorm and had to take shelter in a cave.

Soon the food rations became almost depleted, and the snowstorm would not let out. That's when Tashi and Tenzin started to get really anxious and demanded Black Cat use her superpowers to find a way to get them to the US Embassy safely. Black Cat assured them everything would be alright if they had faith but that there was nothing she could do at the moment to get them there faster. A very strange conversation ensued.

TASHI: We will not make it in time; we will run out of food!
TENZIN: I thought you were a superheroine, Black Cat!
BLACK CAT: Please relax. Let's keep warm, and I'll sing to you.
TASHI: We need a superhero, not a superheroine!
TENZIN: Why did they send a woman to rescue us?
BLACK CAT: Please, Spider-Man was unavailable.
TASHI: Well, we will run out of food.
TENZIN: I suggest Black Cat sacrifice herself as food for us.
BLACK CAT: That seems practical, but you're panicking.
TASHI: There is no alternative. Your superhuman flesh is perfect.
TENZIN: You'll be a hero if you do this for us.
BLACK CAT: I'm a super-woman to comfort you.
TASHI: I suppose you're right.
TENZIN: Forgive us for the panic.
BLACK CAT: Don't worry, please.

Miraculously, the snowstorm ended and the trio were back on their trek. Within two weeks, they made it to the US Embassy and with just enough food, but when they got there, the first thing they wanted was a full plate of meat and potatoes and stew. Black Cat was satisfied that her random act of political vigilantism was successful, but she always wondered if Tashi and Tenzin were right about a super-woman's opportunity to perform a great act of self-sacrifice (even if it's pseudo-cannibalism).

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[The Great Goose]

pretty sure it was a full mobilisation.

 

[Abishai100]

The Game


Here's a nice background (or prequel) story about Black Cat (Felicia Hardy) developing the necessary vigilantism skills to tackle a courage-dense issue as 'cannibalism ethics' while her male nemesis Spider-Man (Peter Parker) challenges her notions about female courage and patience.

This is a story about a psycho-sociological gauntlet game involving the selection of water-pistols for a special human-hunting mission. The water-pistol selection here substitutes for the better-known custom of the Easter egg hunt, if you will.

The purpose of this background 'gender game' is to motivate readers to come up with scenarios (publicly or privately) to argue points about male-female biases.



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Felicia Hardy was a gritty new cop working for the NYPD and hunting a new and eerie male menace named Kraven the Hunter. Felicia had heard of the journalistic exploits of the ambitious and handsome young American man Peter Parker who worked for the Daily Bugle submitting pieces and photos about vigilantes and vigilantism. Like Felicia, Peter was searching for the trail of Kraven the Hunter, and the latest clue received by the NYPD (which was leaked to the press) was that Kraven the Hunter had sent in a note with the following 'gauntlet game' challenge:

"I, Kraven, challenge the NYPD to produce a daring new female cop to compete with the accredited and ambitious Daily Bugle photo-journalist Peter Parker (a man seemingly very interest in vigilantes) to go to Central Park on Halloween Eve costumed and camouflaged and search for well-hidden water-pistols I've placed throughout the park. The person who finds the special green plastic transparent water-pistol first will be declared the winner of this 'game.' If you pick up a water-pistol and start shooting with it to douse your opponent with water, you will gain short-term points, but this will detract from your overall score from finding and using the special green water-pistol to shoot your opponent."

The object of the game was obviously to test who had more daring and patience to use and search for the water-pistols and prioritize wisely enough to hold out as long as possible to search, find, and use the special green pistol. Kraven seemed to believe that a male such as Peter Parker would be anxious to use any water-pistol he found first and use it to rack up mini-points, while the female cop would be willing to duck and dodge the shots from the other water-pistols and refrain from using the subsidiary water-pistols to rack up points so as to hold out for the big-point earning special green water-pistol. Kraven had planted red, black, purple, blue, and pink plastic transparent water-pistols throughout Central Park (20 in all), but the special green plastic water-pistol was hidden underneath the main park water fountain sculpture (opposite a subsidiary black plastic water-pistol).

Peter Parker had shown up for the challenge and faced Felicia Hardy, whom the NYPD selected as its female cop delegate. Kraven had promised that if the Daily Bugle printed the results of this male-female competition, he would turn himself into the police to elucidate his philosophical rationale about vigilantism in NYC and perhaps (possibly) even work out terms for peaceful surrender and rehabilitation/treatment. Everyone knew Kraven was a firecracker, a rogue vigilante who never killed anyone (as far as anyone knew) but had committed over a dozen successful bank robberies across North America within the course of only two years.

Peter and Felicia started scurrying around Central Park at midnight, searching for the water-pistols and evading each other through swift-footedness. Peter found the pink water-pistol by a tree in the park and decided to use it to try to shoot Felicia for quick starter-points. Both Peter and Felicia were wearing bright white t-shirts (as ordered), and Central Park was well lit for this special event (with lamps), so reporters could see how much each contestant was struck with water (from the water-pistols). Felicia next found the red water-pistol (by a park bench) but decided to pass up on it to keep looking for the green water-pistol. Peter found the purple water-pistol (by a swing-set) and decided to pass up on it to keep looking for the green water-pistol. Felicia next found the blue water-pistol (next to another tree in the park) and was frustrated with not finding the green water-pistol yet and decided to use the subsidiary blue one to shoot Peter. Now, Peter and Felicia both had 10 points each.

Finally, Peter found the black pistol next to the main water fountain and realized the green one must be on the other side of the fountain, but it was too late; Felicia had already scooped up the special green water-pistol, so Peter decided to accrue as many points as possible with his subsidiary black water-pistol. Felicia was ready and fit and used her green water-pistol to shoot at Peter multiple times, and the points accrued by Peter's black water-pistol were simply not enough, and Felicia won the contest 25-20. At the end of the competition Peter congratulated Felicia, and the reporters were thrilled a woman won the contest, and Peter and Felicia shared a light conversation.

PETER: Why do you think Kraven pitted a male against a female?
FELICIA: He wanted to measure the bravado of men against the patience of women.
PETER: Well, he was right. You were more patient and won.
FELICIA: I lucked out in finding the green water-pistol before you did.
PETER: And my luck ran out, since my black water-pistol did not accrue sufficient points.
FELICIA: I wonder what the outcome would be were we to compete in a more serious setting.
PETER: That, I think, is what Kraven wanted to see all along, Felicia.
FELICIA: Kraven is a Machiavellian and possibly wanted to prove that females are more organized than men.
PETER: Maybe he's right.
FELICIA: Maybe we'll both become vigilantes someday, Peter, and challenge Kraven's conclusions.

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