Marvel and the Feminazis
On May 26th, I went to the premiere of one of the most -if not the most- anticipated movies of this year: Avengers: Endgame. I had been waiting for this film since the last frame of Infinity War, and suffice to say that it truly delivered spectacularly.
I’ve already written about it, and this is not a review of the film -although I will address some events from the movie, so if you’re still dodging spoilers: you’ve been warned!. What I’m about to concentrate on is in regards to a curious experience I had during the premiere.
It was an early showing, and, surprisingly, it was quite packed, particularly with youngsters -almost no kids, fortunately!
The audience at my showing was exactly what you would expect and/or want in a premiere of a highly-anticipated Blockbuster: they were excited, they cheered, laughed, sobbed, gasped… and most of them were quite respectful and mindful of others -I can account for only a handful of loud speakers, mobile phones ringing, or people blinding us with their flashlights as they scrambled to their seats. So, in general, I was content with them.
And then it happened.
Captain Marvel popped on screen and most of the audience was glad to see her. All except the young man -maybe in his late teens, early twenties- sitting next to me, who turned to his buddies and loudly declared: “the feminazi!”
I was stunned.
Not only did I really enjoy the character in her solo film -which, for whatever reason, seems to be somewhat of an unpopular opinion-, but I was genuinely excited to see what part she would play in this Marvel finale.
I knew that the actress has faced some backlash on grounds of her overall attitude or her feminist statements. But although I’ve learned to just go with the flow and let people hate feminism, based mostly on a flawed understanding of the term and the actions of certain radical groups; I did think it was curious that suddenly the character itself was being rejected for it, not to mention she was defined as a feminazi by simply appearing on screen.
I didn’t see Carol Danvers say anything like “all men are terrible, they must be destroyed”. She doesn’t say “I’m better than all men”, either. Yes, she cockily believes she can take Thanos on her own, but that’s far from a gender thing. She clearly deems herself superior to all of the Avengers, whether that’s Iron Man or Black Widow. And you could feel certain antipathy to that posture -hell, all of my audience groaned at those moments-, but in her defense, I would definitely raise one extremely arrogant and self-confident Tony Stark, Stephen Strange or Peter Quill.
Anyway, the movie went on, and I decided to think about my fellow moviegoer’s reaction later. I wouldn’t let it damper any of the excitement and enjoyment I was getting out of the film.
But, alas! Of course it couldn’t be that easy!
During the final battle with Thanos and his crew, all female Avengers crowd around Captain Marvel to aid her as she retrieves the glove to keep it from the Mad Titan. It’s a short but inspired moment that does, indeed, feel half like pandering -wink, wink! We’ve got you, girls!- and half: “yeah! They’re so badass!”.
Of course, the same guy from before wasn’t all too happy with it. As soon as it occurred he stridently stated -again-: “the feminazis!”. Again, I was floored by his reaction.
I turned to my friend -male, in case you were wondering-, and asked him in whispers what the hell was wrong with that person. Later on, once the movie was over, we talked a little bit about it in more depth. We both found it a little bit hilarious that a guy would complain about a bunch of overly-attractive women walking together towards the main bad guy. I mean, just minutes before I had stared as Iron Man, Captain America and Thor made their great entrance on the battlefield. And, oddly enough, I didn’t feel the need to shout: “toxic masculinity!”, “look at that machismo!”, “they think they’re superior to women!”, or whatever people think feminists think about all day.
No. I was excited to see the three of them walk towards the battle although they were injured -both physically and emotionally- and strikingly outnumbered.
However, these were women. And it seems like my fellow moviegoer instantly equates a group of women working together to an explicit form of radical feminism.
The term feminazi has ascended in later years to incredible rates of popularity. I’ve started seeing it thrown around to encompass any activity related to the fight for gender equality that could be considered too drastic. Women showing their breasts during a protest? Feminazis! Women with hairy armpits? Feminazis! Women marching together? Feminazis! Women supporting abortion? Those damn feminazis!
As you can guess, the word combines two very different terms: feminist and nazi. Nazi, as in those who supported the politics of one Adolf Hitler; or, more recently, those who are likened to them for being a “harshly domineering, dictatorial, or intolerant person” (Merriam-Webster).
Now, let’s say we accept the term and dismiss the unfortunate implications of its use -for example: it strips away and devalues the horror of actual Nazism, and it’s largely used in a derogatory manner to classify an entire movement based on equality-, I do wonder: at what point of the film did Captain Marvel or any of the other female characters display any “harshly domineering, dictatorial, or intolerant” behavior? Unless you side with Thanos, I guess! Then, you’re perfectly justified in believing any violence towards him and his associates is an act of intolerance.
And if that’s the case, I would really advise some soul-searching. Now that I think about it, perhaps I should have asked my fellow viewer if that was the case.
No, Marvel has not boosted a group of feminazis in their female line-up. In fact, it has done a mostly stupendous job at showing both males and females as equals, supporting each other and working together throughout their 22 films. It might have taken a while to get a female character’s solo film, but that doesn’t make any of the characters we’ve come to love so far any less important and remarkable.
We throw around words way too casually. We devalue them for the sake of a meme or a joke, and in the end, we do more harm than good. We’ve made it acceptable to freely swap feminist and feminazi, we’ve made it acceptable to believe that demanding agency over our bodies and decisions is ‘radical’, and we’ve made it acceptable for young men to believe we’re attacking them by saying: “I’m tired of society treating me differently because my body is not like yours”.
And look, you don’t have to like that scene. Like I mentioned before, I initially cringed and only later let myself enjoy it -which has prompted me to think deeply about what that embarrassment might mean. But, here’s a thought: maybe it’s Ok to understand that that scene might not even be for me, precisely. It might be for that little girl that lives under a conservative society that pretends to tell her what she can or can’t do. It might be for that woman who is not feeling particularly understood in her workplace, or her neighborhood. It might be for the girls who are growing up, listening to things like “that’s a girls’ thing”, “you can’t do that because you’re a woman”, “all men are like that, don’t trust them”, “don’t wear that, or else something might happen to you”, don’t, don’t, don’t, do, do, do.
You might not like Carol Danvers and find her arrogant, or think her voice is too high and girly for being the supposedly strongest of all heroes -yes, that’s an actual criticism I heard from a reviewer-, and you might even dislike Brie Larson for having an attitude or trying to get more women journalists in her movie’s press tours. That’s all fine.
What’s not fine is to let that seep in and cloud your view of a particular story gratuitously. And although I, myself, will always advocate for getting rid of gender labels and barriers instead of promoting them, I can also understand that if we’re still having to tackle and emphasize moments of female action, it’s because globally we’re still not where we should be. That although one day I want to enjoy a character’s intervention without the obvious ‘wink’ to their gender, sexual orientation, skin color, etc.; there’s still a long road ahead.
For now, dear men and women, you can rest assured. The Marvel ladies are not feminazis, radicals or whatever you want to call it. They’re interesting, layered characters who love, fight, lose and make mistakes. And what’s not to like about that?
