Lois Lane

So I've never really understood the character of Lois Lane in the past.  She's brusque, often unkind, and not always likable.  She's entertaining as a character, but I've never understood why Superman would want to be with her.

Recently, I was thinking about a certain girl, and why I like her.  See, most people talk to me with a certain level of respect or deference.  It's kind of nice.  This girl, however, doesn't.  She can be very sweet when the occasion calls for it, but she will also treat me as an equal, and humorously call me out on things when I'm wrong.  In a weird way, I really love that about her.  I love that there's someone who can prove me wrong about something, yet still remain lovable.
As I was thinking about this, it hit me:
This is why Superman likes Lois Lane.

Superman has the odd privilege of seeing two sides of Lois: the sometimes-berating Lois who works with Clark Kent, and the weak-in-the-knees Lois that loves Superman.  In this way, Lois is both an equal and a lover.  In the best Superman stories, Clark Kent is not the bumbling character seen in the Christopher Reeve films (great as they are), but a very intelligent character who uses cleverness to hide his identity, not deception.  (Watch the video below)



Lois and Clark are equals.  Clark doesn't really get that from anyone else.  Everyone else in the world literally looks up to Superman in awe; Lois is the only woman in the world who treats him like a real person.  This makes perfect sense, since Clark is a generally humble person who wouldn't want a girl that just fawned over him all the time.  And, in addition, he still gets to see her more vulnerable, ultra-feminine side every time he saves her from something.

So yeah; I finally get it.  After all these years, Lois Lane's place in the Superman mythos finally makes sense to me.

Granted, the girl that inspired this revelation is nowhere near as rough as Lois, but maybe that's a good thing.  Still, I do have the dilemma of being romantically invisible, so I've got the Clark Kent side of things down pretty well.  Now I just need to figure out the Superman angle...