As of late Marvel as come under fire for a lot of sexism in their toy department, actor comments (Jeremy Renner I'm looking at you) and specifically the thing that has drawn the most fire is probably the portrayal of Black Widow in Avengers Age of Ultron.
OK before I get into the real meat of the issue first off that whole thing with the Black Widow and Scarlett Witch being left out of toys is completely stupid on Marvel's part and is really horrible especially considering now more than ever girls are interested in superheroes besides having crushes on them not to mention Black Widow has so much merchandisable potential (toy weapons, making her bike in the movie into a real one for little girls to ride) makes me wonder what time period the Disney executives live in if their aren't even Barbie Dolls of either Black Widow or Scarlett Witch.
Now for the Jeremy Renner comments those are just horrible and I'm surprised more people were pissed at the Black Widow portrayal than at that. The whole "Black Widow is a slut" is both wrong and a horrible way of thinking. Wrong because the only guy she was interested was Bruce Banner whereas Hawkeye and Captain America were platonic friends, her relationship with Cap resembling more of Brother-Sister relationship than anything else. Horrible because for Black Widow to get with a lot of guys, a lot of guys have to get with the girl in the first place. Tony Stark slept around with a bunch of women before Pepper yet no one called him a slut, in other media Male Shepard from Mass Effect isn't referred to as a slut even though he has way more romantic options than Female Shepard, Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones slept with a lot of women yet he wasn't called a slut and in real life Hugh Hefner is with a lot of women most of whom could be his granddaughters yet barely anyone calls him a slut. The whole Slut thing is a really bad double standard in our society and is another discussion for later.
Now while I can understand the anger behind the merchandising and Jeremy Renner's comments because that's genuine sexism. The portrayal of Black Widow in Age of Ultron is not sexism, in fact I would actually call it the reverse and say it's progression with female characters yet the fact ignorant feminist and people who just want to sound off at Marvel studios are calling Sexism is what gets me the most pissed.
If you've read my Cinderella review or read my twitter you can tell that my favorite kinds of female characters are female characters who can kickass either physically or mentally or both (physically strong people who are also intelligent either male or female do exist), have good personalities that are three-dimensional, have flaws and weaknesses, have rich interesting backstories or at the very least have interesting relationships with other characters, can make choices based on their own volition. To me those are the best kind of female characters because at that point they're not just female characters they're regular human beings.
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| Tali Zorah Vas Normandy-Good female character |
Out of all the Disney Princesses my favorite is Tiana because while she can't fight like Mulan or have magical powers like Elsa she has a strong-willed, determined, hard-working yet compassionate personality, at the same time stretches herself too thin, she forgets what matters a lot and has a genuinely vulnerable moments, has interesting relationships with parents, has a career-goal in mind and makes choices of her volition. I can relate to Tiana, Tiana is a good-role model for girls because she basically says if you have dream you have to work for it. While she does fall in love its because she wants to fall in love, she falls in love with him because she gets to know him over the course of her journey and sees he's a good guy and even though she gets married outside of the relationship Tiana is still a strong character.
To me that encompasses the perfect strong female character.
Now what's a bad female character. A female character who has no personality or a two-dimensional personality, no flaws, no backstory, no choices of her own, and if she's in love either becomes a weaker character or cannot survive as a character on her own and literally the only strong thing about ,if she doesn't have the other things, is just physically strong. That's not a person anymore that's a archetype, a card-board cutout of a female character, a bad representation, that is sexism.
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| Bella Swan- Bad female character |
Some examples of bad female characters are (and I know I'm going to get so much hate for this) but River Song from Doctor Who and Mikasa from Attack on Titan. Now they both do display some qualities of a good female character but what happens to them and what's not done is so sexist and demeaning. River Song has an interesting personality but is portrayed as being the pinnacle of perfection and even when she makes mistakes she faces no consequences. Mikasa had an interesting backstory that had nothing done with it and has no personality out of stoicism, like River is portrayed as being near perfect and emotionless. Neither Mikasa or River are female characters who fall in love yet can't survive outside of their relationships and in fact become weaker characters because of it, both are fanatically devoted to their partners with not that strong of reasons for it. Both make choices not because it's what they genuinely believe or want to do but because they are influenced by other people for example River Song only became an archeologist not because she liked history or it was her dream but because she wanted to meet the Doctor and Mikasa only joined military and survey corps to follow Eren. The only thing strong about them is their physically attributes with means nothing if their is hardly any substance to back them up.
Black Widow from the Marvel movies is interesting because she progresses from being a bad female character to a good female character. In Iron-man 2 she's nothing more than a sexy badass of no personality, choices, backstory or anything of substance yet in Avengers, Captain America Winter Soldier and Age of Ultron she progresses to a more richer character. She's determined, really resourceful, insecure, funny, loyal and brave person who has a very dark backstory that she is personally ashamed of yet she bravely lets out into the open, she contributes a lot but has her limits as while she is a super spy she still gets hurt and sometimes can't win, has an equal partnership with Hawkeye, a qusai Brother-Sister relationship with Captain America and a romantic relationship with Bruce Banner yet she still makes her own choices as she choose to leak out her backstory and give up Bruce basically and is a strong character outside of her relationships.
She's probably the most developed in Winter Soldier and Age of Ultron. Yet people complained about the way she was handled in the movie Age of Ultron because of a comment in the movie, her relationship with Bruce Banner and the fact she gets kidnapped.
First off the whole her getting kidnapped thing I do not mind whatsoever because I don't mind female characters getting kidnapped if they are in a believable situation when they could not possibly escape on their own. People give Princess Peach a lot of crap for being a damsel in distress but Bowser is a dinosaur man twice her size who she has not way to beating in a believable way. Now in Age of Ultron Black Widow gets captured by Ultron who is an eight-foot robot with lasers, super strength, a robot army and has the capability to manhandle Thor a demi-god and you expect her to just walk out his liar with no weapons since Bruce Banner brings extra to her in a duffle bag and not die in the process. Not to mention she gets captured because she was protecting Vision who has a magical object that took over her best friend in him so she doesn't exactly gets kidnapped without a fight and while she's captured makes a machine in her cell and sends Morse code to tell the Avengers where she is.
Second the relationship with Bruce Banner was exceptionally done. Not only is she still a good character outside of her own backstory the relationship makes sense, they both view themselves as monsters who don't deserve any love or affection yet they find it within each other despite hesitation and they can understand each other better than anyone. In fact Black Widow becomes a stronger character because the relationship leads into her backstory and it's her choice of whether or not she wants to proceed. Women can fall in love they just need to be done right.
Now for the last thing the comment. The comment in question is when Black Widow is comforting Bruce Banner and calls herself a monster to comfort him. Now what many people misinterpreted it is as Black Widow calling herself a monster because she was sterilized in her backstory so she can't have kids. Now Ok I can understand people misinterpreting it as that because the scene is one of the more less tightly written scenes and it's easy to confuse it but that's not why she is calling herself a monster. She is calling herself a monster because from a young age she was trained to be a killer, ever since she was young she's killed hundreds of people and feels guilty about it.
To me the complaints about Black Widow points to a much bigger problem and that's how people perceive what a strong female character ( a badass women who needs no one and can only kickass) and why it's there. People believe that the only way a female character can be strong is by being a kick butt warrior is because in media be it movies, video games, and TV shows women portrayed a strong aren't that diverse from one another. You've seen that archetype before the stoic, cold hearted women who needs no man and kicks butt that's the typical "positive" portrayal of a female character and those who are portrayed as smart, kind, funny or anything else aren't typically given the spot light of a hero, they sometimes are even portrayed as being weaker. All women are different. Not to mention while they're are exceptions like Quentin Tarantino, George R R Martin and Joss Whedon- writers aren't that very skilled at writing good female characters because they don't understand what makes a truly great female character other than the typical archetype, a love interest or just being "the girl" of a team. Now while I do think it's getting better until you see more non-traditional female heroes come into play and writers become better equip to female characters we still have people misconceiving what makes a good female character.
Boy that was a long one but fun to write and tomorrow, hopefully Avengers Age of Ultron review.
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