Is America ready for a really hulky She-Hulk?

But when the trailer was released, She-Hulk’s physique left a lot of mass to be desired. The Disney Plus trailer revealed a protagonist, played by Tatiana Maslany with a CGI assist, who looked more like an extra-tall yoga teacher than a woman who could fold a car in half. Rumors circulated that the filmmakers had originally conceived She-Hulk as much more muscular than the character who appeared in the trailer.

It’s true that since the character was first introduced in a 1980 comic book, She-Hulk’s physical form has ranged in muscularity. Most of the comic renderings make her look more like a fitness model than a CrossFit competitor. Even so, after the trailer was released, plenty of commenters were angry at Marvel for not making her hulkier. “Let She-Hulk be Huge,” argued one article in the Ringer.

The whole thing is a reminder that despite strides in the “body positivity” movement and the push for representation of various body shapes, a society dominated by the male gaze still tends to react to muscular women with ambivalence at best and hostility at worst.

Hostile case in point: In 2020, a playable video game character called Abby in “The Last of Us Part II” caused a huge backlash among mostly male gamers. A large part of their problem? Abby was visibly muscular, with smaller breasts. Her character worked hard to build her physique — something not often seen in video games or shows. She was accused of being on steroids, or a transgendered man. Men went so far as to trawl the game for evidence that she couldn’t be that buff in real life, and then to make videos saying that her physique was “impossible.”

We are raised to believe that men are not only naturally stronger and more muscular than women but also that they are entitled to force and power. And it shows in how many superheroes are rendered. I mean, why should X-Men’s Cyclops, a guy who shoots lasers out of his eyes, be jacked? Meanwhile, female figures aren’t usually given that visual power. Even X-Men’s Rogue or DC’s Wonder Woman — both superheroines who are supposed to have superhuman strength — are rendered as slim, with hourglass figures and heart-shaped faces. It’s no wonder we have restrictive ideas of what “normal” superwomen should look like.

Big, buff women exist! In her book “The Frailty Myth: Redefining the Physical Potential of Women and Girls,” Colette Dowling argues that girls and women are not necessarily biologically weaker than men, but that for generations, girls and women have been socially engineered to not develop their physical potential, lest they become less attractive to male mates. Young girls are discouraged from active play, and from training in sports, lifting and martial arts. According to Dowling, some studies suggest that girls who begin training at an earlier age are able to close the strength gap and even outperform boys in certain tests. Those that don’t are conditioned to accept themselves as just naturally weaker — and more defenseless.

This ambivalence about women’s strength and muscularity hits home. I was 13 in 1999 when Brandi Chastain, a soccer player on the women’s U.S. national team, stripped to her sports bra to celebrate scoring the winning penalty shot against China. Everyone was in awe of her ripped physique; I remember wanting to play soccer and train because I thought she was just so cool. To me, hers was the ideal body.

But as the years went on, it seemed the Chastain effect wore off. In a controversial 2015 article, the New York Times detailed how many elite female tennis players were afraid to bulk up, lest they feel “unfeminine.” In the piece, the famously buff Serena Williams spoke about how she struggled with her body image and public shaming, wearing long sleeves and refusing to work out with weights. At the time, she said it was “uncomfortable for someone like me to be in my body.”

For those women and girls who wish to see bigger women on screen, all hope is not lost. A supporting character, Luisa from Disney’s recent animated movie “Encanto,” is an example: She is not just physically but visibly strong. The Internet fell in love with her, as did little girls — with parents taking to Twitter to say their daughters were asking for Luisa merchandise.

So, count me in with the crowd that wishes She-Hulk could have been a wee bit bulkier. Obviously, we have to wait for the series to see how her story will play out. But may it be a reminder to Hollywood and game makers that for all the pushback, there are plenty of people out there looking for a bigger, buffer heroine.