{"id":750,"date":"2005-05-21T10:48:07","date_gmt":"2005-05-21T17:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reallifesuperheroes.org\/?p=750"},"modified":"2005-05-21T10:48:07","modified_gmt":"2005-05-21T17:48:07","slug":"the-anti-cupid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/2005\/05\/21\/the-anti-cupid\/","title":{"rendered":"The Anti-Cupid"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Grant Stoddard<\/a><\/h2>\n

E<\/strong><\/span>very superhero has a tragic creation myth. Bruce Wayne witnessed the killing of his parents and became the crime-fighter Batman. A young Brooklynite named Sarah got mercilessly dumped by her boyfriend and became Terrifica, a heroine whose mission is to prevent men from taking advantage of women. Men, she says, will use a deadly cocktail of \u201clies and drinks\u201d to get a woman into bed. So she patrols the city\u2019s parties, bars, and clubs, intervening when she spots a sketchy seduction in progress.
\n
\nOn a recent Saturday night in Park Slope, Terrifica bursts through the door of a bar called Commonwealth. She is resplendent in red spandex, scarlet boots, and red plastic overcoat. She wears no cape or mask\u2014tonight is an \u201cundercover\u201d operation. She makes a beeline to a dark corner where a couple looks poised to canoodle. After speaking to them quietly, she opens her utility belt\u2014referring to it as a fanny pack will not endear you to Terrifica\u2014and gives them a pair of gold lam\u00e9 fortune cards. When Terrifica moves on to another couple, I ask what happened. \u201cShe asked if we were going to hook up tonight,\u201d says Lauren, a 24-year-old painter. (\u201cWe\u2019re just good friends,\u201d interjects her buddy Justin.) \u201cShe offered us a condom and said that if I was going to be tricked into having sex, at least it should be safe.\u201d
\n
\nTerrifica is already running off to her next location. \u201cHow do you know where to go?\u201d I pant, two strides behind her. \u201cDo you sense impending danger, like Spiderman?\u201d
\n
\nTerrifica spins around: \u201cUm, I don\u2019t have any superpowers. I\u2019m not crazy, you know.\u201d
\n
\n\u201cWell, you claim to be a superhuman.\u201d
\n
\n\u201cI am a human, who just happens to be super.\u201d She looks me up and down. \u201cYou are a human who is un-super.\u201d She shrugs. \u201cI assume the addresses come to me because Sarah knows about parties and bars.\u201d
\n
\nTerrifica doesn\u2019t think much of her alter ego. \u201cSarah is a very weak woman,\u201d she sneers. \u201cVery needy, very insecure.\u201d
\n
\nLater, Sarah explains Terrifica\u2019s vitriol. \u201cI have loved two men in my life,\u201d she says. \u201cThe first man dumped me when I moved to NYC. That was Terrifica\u2019s birth. The second just dumped me. I thought that turning 30 and falling in love were signals for the retirement of Terrifica. But ever since I was dumped\u2014in the most brutally humiliating of ways\u2014I have felt compelled to put the stupid tights and wig back on. As soon as I pull on that mask, I feel really strong.\u201d
\n
\nBack on patrol, Terri\ufb01ca surveys a party in Park Slope. Acting as Robin to her Batman, I wander the floor trying to bring flirtatious couples to her attention. Finally, she swoops in to break up a passionate clinch. \u201cUnsurprisingly, she is much more invested in the relationship than he is,\u201d she scoffs. \u201cShe\u2019ll learn the hard way.\u201d
\n
\nAs we walk toward her \u201cCarri\ufb01c,\u201d Terri\ufb01ca announces that she\u2019s ditching me. \u201cI must go to a party on the Upper East Side,\u201d she says. \u201cFrat boys, Wall Street guys. It\u2019s dangerous work that I must do alone.\u201d
\nhttp:\/\/nymag.com\/nymetro\/news\/people\/columns\/intelligencer\/10359\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Able to stop an ill-advised hookup in a single bound.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[259,396,1841,1971,2181,2311,2548,2630,2819],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}