Ladies of the MCU in action.
Tag: women in media
[on diversity in media] I think its social responsibility. I think it’s our responsibility to stand up and say what we want. It think if you look at television in the past two years, it’s becoming the decade of the female. Like, all these new shows with female leads. Even if you look at television, as well as cable, as well as films, there’s been a resurgence, as far as the leading woman in Hollywood, which is great. And I think we’re also at the point now…you know, it’s interesting…x
These real-life Rosie the Riveters changed the face of labor
Vintage photos from the library of congress capture a time when the country ran on womanpower
How can you make the two greatest assassins in the universe completely useless and boring?
Oh man.
I loved GotG, but this is fantastic and true.
Somebody provide me with links to good fic of Gamora and Nebula? (Not shippy, please? I don’t know how close they are in age – because aliens – or quite to what degree they were raised together – because Thanos – but I like just seeing SISTERS.)
Besides, if she joined the Guardians of the Galaxy, she’d make them at least 300% more awesome.
EDIT: Also, as somebody who HAS a somewhat antagonistic relationship with my close-in-age sister sometimes? (Or has had – we’re a bit better now?) She’s always firmly held the belief that NOBODY GETS TO FUCK WITH MY SISTER EXCEPT ME, I WILL DESTROY YOU. (I pretty much just stick with the “I WILL DESTROY YOU” part. I was a REALLY NICE big sister.)
I wonder who’s in the “older sister” role? Like, either Thanos had her first or something? Or one was older than the other?
Ask me what kind of porn I’m into,
and I will take you on a magical journey to
fanfiction.com/harrypotter/nc17—What turns me on
is Ginny Weasley in the Restricted Section with her skirt hiked up,
Sirius Black in a secret passageway
solemnly swearing he is up to no good,
and Draco Malfoy
in the Room of Requirement
Slytherin in to my Chamber of Secrets,I am an unapologetic consumer of
all things Potterotica,
and the sexiest part
is not the way
Cho Chang rides that broomstick,
or the sound of Myrtle moaning,
the sexiest part
is knowing they are part of a bigger story,
that they exist beyond eight minutes in
“Titty Titty Gang Bang,”
that their kegels
are not the strongest thing about them,
and still,
I am told that my porn is unrealistic.Not quite as erotic
as flashing ads that say “JUST TURNED 18!”
so you can fantasize about fucking
the youngest girl you won’t go to jail for;I’m told that my porn isn’t quite as lifelike
as a room full of lesbians begging for cock,
told that this
is what is supposed to turn me on,Don’t you give me raw meat
and tell me it is nourishment,
I know a slaughterhouse when I see one.It looks like 24/7 live streaming
reminding me
that men are going to fuck me
whether I like it or not,
that there is one use for my mouth
and it is not speaking,
that a man is his most powerful
when he’s got a woman by the hair;The first time a man I loved
held me by the wrists and called me a whore,
I did not think, “RUN.”
I thought, “This is just like the movies,”
I know a slaughterhouse when I see one.It looks like websites and seminars
teaching you how to fuck more bitches;
Looks like 15-year-old boys
bullied for being virgins;
It looks like the man who did not flinch
when I said “Stop,”
and he heard, “try harder,”If you play-act at butchery long enough
you grow used to
the sounds of the screaming.It is just a side effect of industry;
Everything gets cut
into small, marketable pieces,
you can almost forget
they were ever real bodies.I will not practice bloody hands.
I will not make-believe dissected women.
My sex cannot be packaged,
my sex is magic,
it is part of a bigger story;
I am whole.
I exist when you are not fucking me,
and I will not be cut into pieces
anymore.
Brenna Twohy, FANTASTIC BREASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM
(via micdotcom)
WOW that is great
(via feminismforthewin)
Oh there’s the rest of the poem.
(via amemait)
Insecticide
There are valid reasons for why Marvel swapped out Janet Van Dyne and Hank Pym for Natasha Romanova and Clint Barton as founding members of the Avengers in the MCU. Especially for where Marvel’s collective head was back in 2008-2011, when they weren’t even sure there would be an Avengers to form. It required far less CGI (and thus less money), it fit better with the MCU conceit of the Avengers being a SHIELD-sponsored paramilitary unit instead of Team Treehouse living on Tony Stark’s dime, it avoided tipping the team too far into Science Geeks Plus Cap territory, Black Widow and Hawkeye had more currency, etc. These may not be the best reasons, the only reasons, or insurmountable reasons, but they’re valid reasons.
But Marvel is going to have to come up with perfect reasons to justify apparently fridging Janet in 2014 to give Hank a tragic past and Scott Lang an age-appropriate love interest.
They had options here, far more than they did in 2008 when this was all a pipe dream or in 2011 when they punched their golden ticket with The Avengers. The MCU has expanded greatly, both on Earth with Agents of SHIELD and out into space with Guardians of the Galaxy and there is plenty of room to fit Janet in. Janet’s tiny, she fits everywhere.
Except, apparently, in the MCU as a living woman.
From The AV Club, regarding Kevin Feige’s statement that we still have to wait for a lead female protagonist in a Marvel film.
Also, that is the clearest definition of “patriarchy” I have read in a long time.
An Open Letter to Kevin Feige
Dear Mr Feige,
You don’t know me, but I know you. I know you because you are the individual whose signature determines the future of a franchise that is dear to my heart, on which I have spent much of my hard-earned money. I know you because over the years you have made me and my sisters and the brothers of my sisters promises that have yet to be fulfilled.
Mr. Feige, when you say you won’t be “swayed by the backlash”—as if it is a negative thing, for billions of people to want for you to show that they, too, can be superheroes—what reason then should we have to be swayed to see what movies you do deem worthy of your attention? What justification do you have that we have not already heard countless times before and which has not already been disproven?
When, Mr. Feige, is “the right time”? When The Hunger Games: Catching Fire grossed over $800 million the world over—nearly as much as The Avengers and more than Iron Man 3—was that not the right time? When Life of Pi made more than the first Iron Man, and Django Unchained more than The Wolverine—was that not the right time? Or was the right time not when the first Pacific Rim made more money than the first X-Men?
When will the right time be? How many years? What does it look like? Quantify it for me, please, Mr. Feige, so that I might understand. You say you want a Marvel movie every year: what year, then, will we finally begin to see ourselves in starring roles in your films?
Do you believe piracy is wrong, Mr. Feige? Do you believe theft is wrong? Then how do you justify your constant thefts from us, Mr. Feige? You steal from us when you dangle vague promises in front of our noses and refuse to deliver. You steal from us when you promise us that our stories will receive adequate attention in movies that continue to give precedence to white men. You steal our hopes, our loyalty, and our money, and you do not deliver.
How familiar are you with statistics, Mr. Feige? Are you aware that the Motion Picture Association of America determined that 51% of the movie-going audience in 2013 was not white, and that 52% was female? And that is not even taking into account the rest of the world, Mr. Feige, which is far more diverse racially than this country is. The rest of the world accounted for the majority of The Avengers’s total gross earnings.
I work in retail, Mr. Feige. I see your consumer base. When a little girl approaches me after watching The Avengers because she wants to buy Black Widow comics, do you propose to tell her she is any less deserving of seeing herself reflected on the big screen as the little boys you feature in your films, inspiring and being inspired in turn by their heroes brought to life? When my female friends approach me to talk about their newly roused interest in comics and their restraining fear of the reception they’ll receive upon walking into a comic shop: do you wish me to tell them to stay away from the comic shops, Mr. Feige?
It’s time you start treating your female fans and your fans of color with respect, Mr. Feige. It’s time you start acknowledging that the wealth your franchise has made you and your company was made by people like us: made by women and by people of color who go to see superhero movies because we love superheroes. It’s time to acknowledge that we can be superheroes too—super heroes, not super sidekicks.
We’re ready, Mr. Feige. We’ve been ready. The ball is in your court. We’re waiting.
But I agree with you. It bothers me that I’m always told that I do strong female characters. When in reality, I look at my characters and I feel like they were all broken. They all came from a very devastating past. They were trying to achieve something, they had hope, and they wanted to get someplace, like everything other character that has a meaningful and relevant arc in the story.
It’s because we don’t really know women. We don’t write women accurately. We don’t see women the way that we should see women as a society, as a human race. When you see a real woman, you shouldn’t be saying she’s strong, you should be saying she’s real.
I’m not saying that Gamora is an exception, but you look at my character in Columbiana, and she’s stealthy, she’s agile, she’s physical. But even if I wasn’t physically agile, she would still carry the baggage of whatever happened in my childhood. And I handle myself in the way that I feel a woman should be. I don’t create it. It’s just something that comes natural.
So when people think they are paying me a compliment, in reality what we are saying as a society and as an art society, is that we need to focus more on the real aspect of what a woman is, and not the superficial cosmetic features of a woman as a muse to inspire us to create calendar girls. To create bombshells. To create serviceable characters, beautiful paintings of the girl with a pearl earring: if there’s nothing there behind it, it’s just her face – what’s the story?
Zoe Saldana, speaking to Den of Geek. These musings in particular are so wonderfully expressed. (via pixiegrace)
What were your inspirations, especially since [Tauriel] is a completely created character; what brought you to bring that power because there were a lot of ways you could have played that role that would have been along the lines of what we usually see for a girl in an action movie where she’s not in the adventure, she’s the prize…?
knitting in the dark 