The Avengers I & II: MCU Mini Feminist Reviews
As an action movie lover and feminist, I feel strongly about the representation of feminist themes in big box-office narratives. Feminist themes make better, fresher narratives and incorporate emotional intelligence (the part that makes viewers actually think and feel). Not only is it important to represent progressive themes, but box-office hits have a bigger responsibility to do so. Their impact on social culture is huge.
The first two Avengers movies seemed to be finding their footing when it came to incorporating 6+ superheroes into one movie. The first was satisfying but lacked much emotional depth. The second tried but failed to understand its female characters.
These movies are still achievements when it comes to pioneering the superhero team-up and creating coherent storylines while still giving somewhat equal attention to each character. But if we’re talking in terms of feminism, it’s off to a bad start when the superhero-gender-ratio is 5:1.
The Avengers (2012)
On their first foray into teamwork, the Avengers comprised of Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye.
What’s that? A lady superhero, you say?
That’s right! Someone who is actually going to get dirty and fight alongside the big boys. Kind of.
Black Widow is highly stereotyped in the realms of female wiles. She’s attractive, deceptive, gentle, but then again, deceptive, and has the all-around worst superpowers ever. Sure, you can be a sexy spy and get the answers out of the bad guys by seducing them, or misleading them with your lady-emotions, but at the end of the day, it’s a performative story made for male viewers.
Ladies, would we wear skin-tight leather to fight? Would we wear our hair down when aliens come to attack? Do we want the little handguns that fit so nicely in our fragile lady hands?
No, we want to be tough like the guys. We don’t want to be treated differently because we’re a different sex. We deserve better superpowers! (*anxiously awaits Captain Marvel*)
Anyway, remember the controversy over the Avengers promotional posters? Black Widow is often posed at awkward angles to emphasize her butt or boobs (or both), and, honestly, it’s insulting.
Back to the movie, we see Black Widow doing the most emotional acting of all. She 1. uses her emotions to manipulate the bad guy 2. is apparently terrified of the Hulk and after near- smashing, she huddles on the ground a while 3. is the only one to talk to the scientist to see if there’s actually anything she can do to shut the inter-space portal that’s letting aliens invade New York. Apparently, the guys couldn’t stop kicking ass long enough to actually figure out a plan.
Aside from Black Widow, we have a prominent female SHIELD agent, Maria. Her role isn’t necessarily front and center, but she seems pretty intelligent and important, so points for that.
Feminist Rating: 4/10
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
The second Avengers movie isn’t quite as memorable or kick-ass as the first. As I’m writing this, I struggle to remember what “the twins,” Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, want with the Avengers for, but they ally with Tony Stark’s monstrous AI program, Ultron. Ultron is created to protect earth, but he soon proceeds to try to destroy Jarvis and the Avengers.
Wanda is an interesting character for a number of reasons. In addition to moving things with her mind, she can plant thoughts and visions in other peoples’ head. Already, her powers have a ton of potential, and she easily neutralizes the heavy hitters: Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, and Black Widow are all put in some sort of dreamlike state in their first encounter.
Ultron promises to help bring down the Avengers. And they’re cool with him until they see the damage Ultron intends to do to the world. Though their story is complex, we don’t see much of it on screen. We just see them totally flip mid-story and later seem fine with the Avengers. It’s cool, whatever.
And then Pietro dies helping the Avengers save the world and it’s sad. And Wanda unleashes on Ultron’s minions. I didn’t think much into this scene the first time, but it’s powerful because we see Wanda’s reality sort of shatter when she realizes he’s gone. She shows just how powerful she is, taking care of a herd of minions in one fell swoop.
Black Widow, again, has a harder time getting the serious storyline she deserves. BW and Bruce Banner have a weird sort of relationship. It’s implied that only BW can help calm him down when he’s The Hulk — because women are nurturers, obv. But she flirts with him forwardly more than once, but Banner doesn’t feel it’s possible for him to have a real relationship. He’s a monster, he says, and those around him are always at risk.
But where we really face-palm is when BW suggests she isn’t whole because she was sterilized as a kid. She indicates she is a monster because she can’t reproduce. Just slightly problematic, because we reduce her worth to being able to have kids.
I really doubt this would be the first analogy any woman would make to being an actual monster. There are so many worse things. Maybe she’s taken a lot of lives? Maybe she’s betrayed her country? Maybe she drinks from plastic straws because she hates the environment? Whatever the case, many women are not able to bear children and that doesn’t speak to how much of a human they are. It doesn’t mean they’re broken.
Aside from dehumanizing a woman because she can’t give birth, a cringey romantic interest, and a weird realization that Hawkeye has a picture-perfect farmhouse family, this movie just doesn’t resonate. The only character that seems to have any depth is Tony, who feels guilty for causing a potential apocalypse, but that even feels a little stale considering it’s not a new side to him.
Feminist Rating: 3/10
Next week: Avengers: Infinity War
