Women’s legs in comic books are supernormal stimuli, being longer than those of actual women, and further extended by being drawn in heels or on tiptoe

Burch, R. L., & Widman, D. (2022). She's got legs: Longer legs in female comic book characters correspond to global preferences. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, Dec 2022. https://doi.org/10.1037/ebs0000318

Abstract: Previous studies have shown that comic book bodies are supernormal stimuli, exaggerated in dimensions that are attractive to primarily male comic book consumers. Following the same methodologies as previous experiments, this study examined height and leg length measurements of comic book characters in both Marvel and DC comics. In accordance with the literature on leg length and attractiveness, we predicted that comic book women would have longer legs than comic book men and would have longer than average legs, matching preferences shown in cross-cultural studies. We also hypothesized that comic book women would be depicted as wearing heels or walking on tiptoe more often, as this further elongates the legs. Results showed that female comic character leg length matched the most common preferred leg length in cross-cultural studies and 86%–88% of female characters were drawn as either wearing high heels or walking or standing on tiptoe.

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Burch, R. L., & Widman, D. R. (2021). Comic book bodies are supernormal stimuli: Comparison of DC, Marvel, and actual humans. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, Nov 2021. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2021/11/comic-book-bodies-are-supernormal.html