One last Avengers link (point counter-point)

[drwex]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2015/05/05/black-widows-feminist-heroism/?tid=pm_opinions_pop_b

Alyssa Rosenberg defends the character and treatment of Black Widow. I think she's too generous in the credit she gives Marvel/Disney/Wheadon but her interpretation is relatively close to mine. Particularly, she reads the Loki/Black Widow scene in Avengers I the way I (now) read it. Her argument is that Natasha "...wasn't around the people who deserved to see..." her other side.

What's missing from this article, though, is any acknowledgement of the awful slut-shaming that cast members have thrown at Natasha's character, and the tepid response to it from officials at the franchise. I think that has affected peoples' interpretations of what happens on-screen.

Like me, Rosenberg seems to have a mental image of how the character is thinking and feeling that isn't all that widely shared. Any (good) piece of media has room for multiple interpretations and ways of reading - I don't expect official pronouncements from anyone at Marvel or Disney to settle the debate. But I do think it's incumbent on them to address the issues of (lack of) representation outside the movie as I expect the upcoming releases to further develop her on-screen character.

And I still want my Black Widow movies. As ricevermicelli mentioned in comments on prior post, the flashbacks we get through Scarlet Witch's manipulations open up a lot of questions that could be fruitfully mined. I lay a fair chunk of blame here at Joss Whedon's feet because he's a golden boy at the moment. Hollywood goes where the money is and he's proven he can make a gazillion bucks for them. If he said "I want there to be a Black Widow" movie you can bet people would be lining up to write him checks for it.

Comments

[elfy.livejournal.com]

Have you seen this article? http://io9.com/black-widow-this-is-why-we-can-t-have-nice-things-1702333037

Because I can agree with it quite a lot. The two things that annoyed me most about the movie were 1) Black Widow being so emotional about not being able to have babies (and I, too, felt it sounded as if she said she is a monster because they sterilized her, which is a big "wtf". It might have been meant differently, but it just came across like this for me) and 2) her showing a tiny scar on her hip and saying "Byebye Bikinis", which is ... also ridiculous.

[drwex]

Yes, I did see that critique. I figured I'd covered the negative side in the previous post and wanted to show there are people (even thoughtful female critics) arguing the other side.

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

Oh god, I hate that bye bye bikinis line.

[fenicedautun.livejournal.com]

On the Black Widow movie, I wonder if part of that is ScarJo herself not being willing to sign up to that, especially given she was 4 months pregnant during the Avengers 2 shoot, and was a major component of 3 of the past 4 movies. And she may not be willing to sign up for a full movie on her own shoulders for 4 years from now given her career is moving in lots of directions. (I have no actual knowledge, just speculating, as I believe her contract is also up after Avengers 2, much as Downey's was)