Not Just A Girl

Higher. Further. Faster. Three words that any fan of Captain Marvel likely have committed to memory and coincidentally three words that also apply to a problem in our own world, that is, that we are definitely fighting and further progressing towards a better, truly equal future for women but that is the problem—we are still simply progressing when this problem truly needs to be eradicated much faster. Women are not completely equal in every way and thus the marginalization, trivialization, and treatment of women as less than is still a huge problem every single woman must fight against every single day. It is not only a problem prevalent in the world either but is also a huge problem in popular culture. One place this issue is especially prominent is the world of comics. Comic book characters have been taking the world by storm for quite some time now, yet female characters present throughout comics are almost always overshadowed or left on the sidelines and on top of that most of them are also presented as a weak, emotional, sexualized object of a woman. It took the two dominating comic creators, Marvel and DC, quite some time to release films in their cinematic universes, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe, that actually centered around a heroine. And once they did many, mostly men, found much to critique about them. Despite this DC’s Wonder Woman was overall still a smashing success, but Marvel’s Captain Marvel received heavy criticism despite also being a huge financial success due to many who did not recognize the films groundbreaking content. Carol Danvers is a strong, bold, fierce and unafraid to be herself woman, and this kind of a woman rebels against the stereotypes of the past and commands us towards a better future. Captain Marvel sets a new standard for comic book movies as the movie and its heroine break numerous stereotypes and is the first true representation of a feminist take on the popular hero trope. Three ways in which Captain Marvel breaks stereotypes in favor of feminizing them are through her outfit, through taking situations meant to degrade her and turning them in her favor, and through the way she behaves.

One way in which Captain Marvel breaks the stereotypes of the past and pushes forward to a feminist future for heroines is by her outfit. Captain Marvel’s outfit is not sexual, it is not revealing, it is not made to please the male gaze—it is entirely practical and sensible for a hero. Her outfit is easily comparable to that of Iron Man, Spider-Man, Superman, Captain America, Batman, Black Panther, truly, the list of superhero men in sensible costumes goes on and on, yet the list of female heroes and villains in sensible outfits is outrageously miniscule. The film Wonder Woman did come out awhile before Captain Marvel, two years to be exact, but her outfit, although representative of and true to the comic’s original design, may have been updated to be made of armor but is still not practical in the least as her body is still far too exposed to the undeniable dangers of battle. Women have the right to wear whatever they want to wear and should be able to do so without judgement but that said, what it comes down to here is the fact that any real woman would not charge into battle wearing sexualized impractical outfits made simply to please the male gaze, they’d instead opt for full body armor like Carol Danvers does in Captain Marvel. A soldier of any kind does not willingly charge into battle without being full suited up to do so. Thus, whilst Wonder Woman is a truly fantastic heroine, her and her movie still possess flaws and one of the big ones is her outfit. Harley Quinn of Suicide Squad is another example of a ridiculously sexualized, impractical outfit. And leaving the cinematic universe and entering that of the actual comics, characters like Poison Ivy, She-Hulk, Starfire, and Psylocke further represent the problems of women’s outfits in the comic book world. Marvel has definitely been dominating at the outfit game in comparison as in the MCU there has not been many female characters whose outfits have not been practical, but until Captain Marvel there was no movie that entirely centered on a heroine rather than a hero. The problem of heroine’s outfits throughout comics is a huge one, as further demonstrated in Watchmen, a satirical graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons that utilizes stereotypes and typical tropes in order to make a grander critique on the entire concept of superheroes. This novel only has two prominent female characters, both of whom are present but relatively unimportant and are often only there to move the story along, to represent the problematic depictions of women in comics, or to conform to the old stereotypical gender roles of a woman in order to make a statement. The two women, Sally and Laurie, both have extremely revealing, sexual, and impractical costumes for being heroes and are consistently treated as lesser than because of their outfits. This is demonstrated in one instance when Sally is practically accused of asking to be raped by the Comedian because of her outfit, seen in Chapter 2 on page 8 (Watchmen). Another example is that of when a degrading pornographic comic that a fan made of Sally is also seen in Chapter 2 on page 8. She and Laurie are both consistently sexualized and looked down upon because of their outfits but when Jon, another member of the Watchmen, changes his costume to be little more than underwear, no one treats him any differently, thus it becomes apparent that only the women are treated differently and sexualized because of their outfits. This is extremely unfair to women, yet this just seems to be the reality they live in throughout the novel and throughout the entirety of the comic world as a whole. In his article entitled “An analysis of embodiment among six superheroes in DC comics” from the journal Social Thought and Research Edward Avery-Natale analyzes the portrayal of heroes across time and specifically addresses what he calls the “hyper-fetishized and hyper-sexualized presentation of female characters” (72). This problem is apparent in this novel, in popular culture, and even in real life. What it really comes down to is the problematic, unrealistic portrayal of women, which is further addressed by Sarah Donovan and Nick Richardson in their essay “Watchwomen.” In this essay they state the problem is that it depicted that "it is acceptable for women to be crime fighters (and thereby take on a masculine social role), but only if their femininity remains beyond question (by their dressing according to a hyperfeminine social role)" (176). That is to say that women as a whole are depicted as heroines but only if they are still portrayed to be intensely feminine and thus more often than not are in turn heavily oversexualized and overdramatized. This further demonstrates why Carol Danvers is such an important character because she truly breaks away from the stereotypical “feminine” heroine and instead is an entirely powerful heroine in her own right, not by the rights of the typical sexualized heroine.

Carol Danvers takes situations meant to degrade her and bring her down and twists them in her favor numerous times throughout Captain Marvel. Being called a girl in a belittling way is something most women experience in one way or another at some point in time and this is precisely why the fight scene in which Carol epically takes down everyone to the tune of No Doubt’s Just A Girl is one of the most empowering, important, and essential scenes of the entire movie. It takes a word used by many to bring women down and instead twists it to their power. Furthermore, in one of the last scenes of the movie one of Carol’s villains, Supreme Intelligence, is trying to bring her down by telling her that she is nothing on her own, that she is only human on her own, to which Carol states “You’re right. I’m only human” (Captain Marvel). Her villain meant to degrade her here, yet she manages to those words and twist them in her own favor. In a slightly later scene, she says to her other main villain, Yon-Rogg, “I have nothing to prove to you,” further demonstrating just how powerful and free she is. This is truly an important moment as women in general often feel the need to prove themselves but in this moment, Carol makes it clear she knows who she is and what she is capable of and that is all that truly matters. These scenes are beyond empowering and are truly inspirational for any women anywhere as what they truly portray is Carol’s incredible persistence and perseverance, her ability to keep on fighting even with the odds stacked against her, and her undeniable relatability. Wonder Woman is an amazing, powerful superwoman, but relating to her was tough, whereas Carol Danvers is perhaps more powerful yet altogether more relatable. She may possess superpowers, but at the heart of it, she’s truly just a human woman fighting the fight just like women everywhere and thus she further breaks down stereotypes as she demonstrates what it really is like to be a woman.

The way Carol Danvers behaves throughout the movie is yet another way in which she breaks stereotypes surrounding heroines and women in general. One of the most popular complaints overall is that Carol Danvers does not smile enough, and this completely ridiculous accusation and criticization of her character only serves to further prove how important she is. Along the same lines she is accused by critics of being too tough when in reality both of these critiques are ridiculous as a male character who behaves the same would be seen as tough and manly, as in a character like Batman, who also never smiles and is almost always outwardly tough and even mean. Criticizing a female character for “not smiling enough” and for being “too tough” is blatant sexism and that fact becomes all the more apparent when compared to one of the most popular heroes of all time, Batman himself, a character known and loved for being moody, mean, and serious. Has he ever been criticized for this? No, because it is completely ridiculous to criticize anyone for this. It is really not surprising that she receives these critiques though, and Jonita Aro sheds further light on this in her article “Constructing Masculinity: Depiction of The Superheroes Superman and Batman,” from the IUP Journal of English Studies. In this article she discusses how stereotypical masculinity, though expected, is admired and liked by the audience and that men are expected to be strong, leaders, and dominant while women, on the other hand, are expected to be docile, emotional, and subordinate to men. In it she also explains how, generally, “To be strong and tough is masculine, being weak and soft is normally associated with feminine” (34). Thus, seeing a woman like Carol who is not sitting pretty and smiling sweetly and instead is fiercely, unapologetically independent and powerful goes against what a male audience has been trained to know and thus against what they prefer. Additionally, as Charlotte E. Howell points out in her article “‘Tricky’ connotations: wonder woman as DC's brand disruptor,” from Cinema Journal, in which she explains why Wonder Woman has been called a tricky character and why female heroes in general have been viewed as unpopular, there is another reason that male audiences critique powerful women. She believes that the unpopularity of female heroes may be because most female heroes have “close ties to feminism,” and thus are “seen industrially as unmarketable,” primarily because of the main fan base of superheroes, which is young men (143). Men typically don’t want to see a powerful, strong, feminist hero because powerful women are not something they can relate to. Instead they’d rather see strong, powerful, relatable male heroes. Thus, women like Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman, even though they are incredible superheroes, are still primarily treated unfairly by male audiences simply because of their gender. The novel Watchmen plays off of superhero stereotypes and all throughout this novel women, or rather, the only two women featured, are portrayed terribly both emotionally and physically. On top of having overly sexualized suits, both Sally and Laurie are also extremely emotional at almost all times. This is demonstrated in one instance in Chapter 12, page 8 of Watchmen. Laurie is depicted here as an over emotional mess, barely able to get her words out whilst Jon calmly assesses the situation around him. Another example can be seen in Chapter 12 on page 30. Here, even though the Comedian was a terrible, awful man who tried to rape her, Sally is still depicted to have loved him. Both examples depict the women as ridiculously emotional whereas the men never seem to show much emotion at all, always remaining calm and cool headed in the face of danger whereas the woman are consistently depicted weeping and whining left and right. In stark contrast, Carol Danvers is level, cool-headed, and reasonable in the face of danger, thus breaking the stereotype of the overly emotional woman and demonstrating that it is in fact just that—a stereotype that needs breaking.

A truly progressive, female-led, superheroine film that defies boundaries and sets a new standard for a feminist future, Captain Marvel is one of the most important and influential films to date. Superheroes are symbols of power and hope and thus people everywhere look up to them and after the release of Captain Marvel girls and women everywhere will get to grow up with a truly inspirational feminist symbol that rejects stereotypes and demonstrates to them that they don’t have to listen to stereotypes or conform to societies wishes and that they instead can be whoever they want to be.

Works Cited

Aro, Jonita "Constructing Masculinity: Depiction of The Superheroes Superman and

Batman." IUP Journal of English Studies 11.1 (2016): 32-38. SSRN, 8 Aug. 2016,

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2819950.

Avery-Natale, Edward. "An analysis of embodiment among six superheroes in DC comics."

Social Thought and Research, vol. 32, 2013, p. 71+. Gale Academic Onefile, https://link-

gale-com.libproxy.sdsu.edu/apps/doc/A353212049/AONE

u=san96005&sid=AONE&xid=c63fd5df. Accessed 30 Oct. 2019.

Donovan, Sarah, and Nick Richardson. "Watchwomen." Watchmen and Philosophy: A

Rorschach Test. Ed. Mark D. White. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2009. 173-84.

Print.

Feige, Kevin. Captain Marvel. Marvel Studios, 2019.

Howell, Charlotte E. "Tricky' connotations: wonder woman as DC's brand disruptor." Cinema

Journal 55.1 (2015): 141+.

Moore, Alan, and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. New York: DC Comics, 1987. Print.