By: Greg Anderson
Captain Marvel comes out this weekend, and I have to say, this onslaught of female superheroes makes me very uncomfortable. This decade alone we already had one, then the other one, and now ANOTHER ONE! Enough is enough.
I don’t hate women. How could I, after all, my mother is a woman. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have any comic book movies about women. All I’m saying is that we have all we need. How greedy are today’s women that they can’t accept what they’ve been given? If I were a woman, I’d be perfectly happy with one movie a decade about a female hero. But then again, I’m an unselfish person.
Women have no idea what it’s like for me to go to a movie theatre and only have most of the heroes look like me, after a lifetime of having them all look like me. And sure, I could go to one of the numerous other movies playing right now, some of them even superhero movies, that feature male leads, but why should I have to make that sacrifice?
Think of all the little boys out there who will watch Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel and question whether they are the heroes of their own lives or merely side characters in someone else’s story. What does that even do a child? A male child, I mean, after all, female children are already used to it. And don’t even get me started on Ant-Man and the Wasp. What, so Ant-Man isn’t heroic enough to save the day by himself anymore? What kind of message does that send to the millions of little boys out there who dream of being Ant-Men? Or insect men of any variety?
If there must be more female superheroes, which, there don’t, but if you all insist for some reason, let’s put them where they can do the most good, as eyecandy and potential romantic partners comfortably ensconced in majority male ensembles led by male leaders. One or two women in a team of half a dozen or more men? Do the math, that means each female character is worth at least three male characters. What’s more feminist than that?
Ladies, please, tell Hollywood you’re tired of being pandered to. You’re fully capable of empathizing with male heroes, and it’s frankly an insult to all of womankind that studios are implying you want or need to see stories about people who are more like you. And what if things get even more out of hand and studios start to put out movies with non-white female leads? What kind of bigot can’t see themselves in a character who is different from them? I dream of a day when audience members of every race and gender are able to look at a white male hero and say either “that’s me” or “close enough.”
