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| Comic books survived aliens, multiverses, and reboots. They’ll survive women too. |
Conservative commentator Matt Walsh thought he had cracked Hollywood’s latest “woke” mystery with one smug tweet about Supergirl. Instead, he accidentally exposed how little he understands modern superhero fandom — or pop culture in general.
Walsh recently posted:
“What is the audience for ‘Supergirl’ exactly? My sons like superheroes but they want to see Superman, not a girl. My daughters don't really care about superheroes generally. So who’s watching this slop? Seems specially designed to appeal to no one.”
It’s a classic “my household equals the entire market” argument — and it collapses almost instantly under scrutiny.
Because the truth is simple: audiences have already spent decades proving they do want female superheroes. Repeatedly. Loudly. Profitably.
And Supergirl isn’t some bizarre Hollywood experiment. She’s one of the most recognizable characters in comic book history.
First Problem: Matt Walsh Thinks Boys Won’t Watch Women Heroes
This argument died years ago.
Boys watched The Hunger Games. Boys watched Alien. Boys played as Lara Croft for decades. Boys lined up for Wonder Woman. Teenage guys helped turn Buffy the Vampire Slayer into a cult obsession.
The idea that male audiences refuse to engage with female protagonists is not supported by reality. What audiences reject are boring characters.
If a superhero movie is exciting, funny, emotional, visually huge, and culturally relevant, people watch it. Gender becomes secondary very quickly.
Nobody walked into Alien saying: “Sorry, I wanted a male space survivor.” They walked out obsessed with Ellen Ripley because she was compelling.
That’s how entertainment works.
Second Problem: “My Daughters Don’t Like Superheroes” Isn’t Evidence
This may be the weakest part of Walsh’s argument.
Your children are not Nielsen ratings.
Millions of girls and women love superhero stories. Comic conventions are packed with them. Marvel and DC fandoms are packed with them. Streaming analytics, merchandise sales, cosplay culture, fan fiction communities, and social media all reflect that reality.
And even more importantly: girls do not need to like superheroes because they are girls. Different people like different things.
Walsh treats audience demographics like rigid biological destiny. Real life is messier than that.
Some girls adore capes and cosmic battles. Some boys prefer romance anime or horror movies. Culture is not a laboratory experiment sorted into pink and blue bins.
Third Problem: Supergirl Already Has an Audience
This is the part that makes the tweet especially bizarre.
Supergirl has existed since 1959. She’s not some random diversity replacement invented last Thursday by a corporate focus group.
She has:
decades of comics,
animated adaptations,
merchandise,
games,
novels,
and a successful TV franchise.
The CW’s Supergirl ran for six seasons. Six.
A show “designed to appeal to no one” does not survive six seasons in modern television.
And before critics scream “but ratings declined,” welcome to literally every CW superhero show after peak streaming fragmentation. The entire network ecosystem changed.
The existence of audience erosion does not mean there was never an audience to begin with.
Walsh’s Real Argument Isn’t About Supergirl
It’s about resentment toward cultural change.
For years, certain commentators have treated every female-led reboot, sequel, or franchise expansion as evidence of civilizational collapse. The pattern is now painfully predictable:
Woman cast in major role.
Internet outrage cycle begins.
“Who asked for this?”
Movie or show releases.
Everyone moves on to the next outrage.
Sometimes the projects succeed. Sometimes they fail. But their success or failure usually has far more to do with writing quality, franchise fatigue, marketing, and audience trust than gender politics.
Hollywood has produced terrible male-led superhero movies too. Plenty of them.
Green Lantern wasn’t bad because it starred a man.
Morbius didn’t become a meme because audiences suddenly rejected male protagonists.
Bad entertainment fails all the time.
The Irony? Superman Himself Represents Inclusivity
The funniest part of the discourse is that Superman has always embodied outsider mythology.
He’s literally an immigrant refugee raised in a foreign land, hiding dual identities while trying to help humanity despite suspicion from parts of society.
Comic books have always evolved with culture. Always.
People who demand superheroes remain frozen in one narrow interpretation fundamentally misunderstand why these characters endure for generations.
Also: Women Drive Pop Culture More Than Ever
There’s another huge flaw in Walsh’s logic: modern entertainment economics increasingly revolve around female audiences.
Women dominate enormous sections of online fandom culture:
streaming engagement,
fandom communities,
convention attendance,
TikTok edits,
fan art ecosystems,
celebrity discourse,
and merchandise consumption.
Hollywood knows this. That’s why studios keep trying to broaden superhero audiences beyond adolescent boys.
Sometimes they do it clumsily. Sometimes brilliantly.
But pretending female viewers are some tiny irrelevant niche in 2026 is economically absurd.
What Actually Makes People Reject Superhero Movies
Here’s the real reason audiences are getting exhausted:
Not women. Not diversity. Not “girl superheroes.”
It’s oversaturation.
Audiences are tired of:
lazy CGI,
interchangeable plots,
endless multiverse sludge,
disposable villains,
and corporate assembly-line storytelling.
If the new Supergirl film succeeds or fails, that will be the reason — not because boys are biologically incapable of watching a woman fly.
Final Verdict
Matt Walsh’s tweet sounds confident until you examine it for more than ten seconds.
His entire argument boils down to:
“The kids in my house don’t like this, therefore nobody does.”
That’s not cultural analysis. That’s anecdotal projection wrapped in outrage bait.
The entertainment industry has already proven — over and over again — that audiences will embrace female heroes when the stories are good.
And frankly, the existence of Supergirl isn’t some radical attack on Superman. The two characters have coexisted successfully for generations.
Comic books are big enough for both.
Matt Walsh may not understand the audience for Supergirl.
But that audience absolutely exists.