The Tragedy Of The Untouchable Superhero Girl Trope

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Elsa's parents advised her to "Conceal, don't feel" her ice abilities, which harmed her more in the long run, and she took those words to heart, even when she's rejecting them during "Let It Go."

There's a puritanical aspect of equating a girl's untouchability with virtue and sexual innocence. A noteworthy counterpoint being Rogue herself - when she was initially depicted as a villain, white streaks on the sides of her (short) hair and the way she was drawn, as an older woman, well into adulthood. And her powers were not a curse because she used them against people for her benefit. She was essentially the super-villain equivalent of a succubus. When they decided to make her sympathetic and join the X-Men, she was drawn as younger and the white hair was changed to be more fashionable rather than an indicator of age.

This was a great topic but left out so much. For example the untouchable troupe seems to be commonly an unwanted, neglected, or abandoned child. Next, they seem to always find a chosen family which speaks to their ability to make friends wherever they go.

On the point of Alisha, it also goes in the hand of the "Jezebel" trope black women go through.

As a young queer Christian teen, I resonated with Rogue's inability to kiss a guy.

I stan Alisha & Simon forever.

the fact that you didn’t mention bo from lost girl is so 😢😢 but i love this trope sooo much!

The "Grimm" episode Heartbreaker also feels worth mentioning here. In it Nick encounters a wesen that appears as a beautiful woman but secretes a lethal poison whenever a sexually aroused man touches her. The women of her family deal with this by deliberately scarring their faces so that no man will want them. The episode stands as a commentary on how beauty can be toxic and how women are expected to be the ones to prevent sexual assault against themselves.

I loved Cate in Gen V! Excellent villain Arch!! 😃 RIP Chance Perdomo 😥😭

Not to joke but this trope describes the way many women feel, untouchable.

I think there's also a bit of commentary buried in this same discussion about women (and just people in general) who are voluntarily alone. Not alone in the sense of having no emotional connections, but just romantically alone. There are people who don't particularly seek out a relationship because they aren't driven to find one, and that's perfectly acceptable. I'd like to note that I feel like it's equally questioned in both men and women, so I don't want to isolate one gender here, but I just feel like it's a related discussion. It's a "forced isolation" in this topic, but along a similar thread is the story that's often untold about those who are alone and happy to be that way instead of miserable.

Legion is such a great show. Super underrated.

I feel like Chuck from Pushing Daisies should have been mentioned Edit: Now that I’ve watched the full video maybe I was wrong, but she really fits the title

Kaz on Shadow and Bone is an untouchable boy due to truama he had as a kid. I wish they didn’t cancel that show. I guess my favorite is Elsa. I was her for Halloween twice I was also Wanda for Halloween and I like her but they went to far with her in Doctor Strange

How about just calling it like it is and calling what Alisha did rape?

omg or theo from haunting of hill house!!! my favorite character everrr!!

You should watch/read Undead Unluck. It’s about a story of a woman who, whenever she touched people, she causes something unlucky to happen to them according to how much she loves them. And what the touch meant to her. When she was a kid she hugged her parents before they went on a plane and the plane crashed, killing everyone on it. But right before she is about to kill herself, she meets someone who is Undead. Unable to die. It is the story of their romance and bid to try and be free of their powers. There is literally a side character in the story called Tatiana that has the power called “Untouchable”. She is literally the untouchable girl.

Some historic context to add for Rogue is that she premiered in 1980 and was added to the X-Men's lineup in 1983. I've read arguments that her powerset at the time may have been a metaphor for living through the early years of the AIDS epidemic. And considering just how very queer coded much of Chris Claremont's 17-year-long run as the X-Men franchise's primary writer was, I'm prone to accept it. Her mutant gift draws a straight line between physical intimacy and harm to the people she comes into contact with. She almost always wears costumes that provide condom-like full-body coverage during an era when the GMHC was formed and started promoting safe sex as a method of prevention.

The untouchable girl trope makes me think about my experience as a relatively closeted queer individual, although in my case it's more about wanting to touch and not being able to due to my shyness and the mostly conservative environment (in regards to the LGBT community, at least) I grew up in. Therefore, it could be said that I became the untouchable girl by proxy.