We're Still Stuck with "Strong Female Characters" Who Are Smug, Mean, & Reductive

it's not progressive to squeeze so many female characters into a tired set of tropes

Things look grim for The Marvels, the latest Marvel film, in theaters today. Early tracking suggested a box office return less than half of that of Captain Marvel, the film’s (sort of) precursor. Presales looked even worse. All of this has happened against a backdrop of serious woes for the “cinematic universe” and for its owner, Disney, with a big exposé recently published in Variety that detailed all manner of problems, including extensive reshoots for Marvels. There’s also been some bad blood floating out there about this movie, although mostly in the realm of rumor. There’s been repeated signs of tension with director Nia DaCosta and the studio. (Her recent statement that The Marvels is “a sequel to five different things” does not inspire confidence.) Star Brie Larsen has publicly suggested that she’s done with Marvel after this, and rumor has it that she was angered by the (admittedly weird) choice to turn the sequel to a movie about one superhero into a showcase for three. There’s also the unfortunate history where, as has become an ugly pattern in franchise moviemaking, a small but loud group of angry fans attacked the original film for having a female lead character. (Which did not stop it from grossing more than a billion dollars.)

For me, though, the problem with The Marvels is that I don’t like how Captain Marvel is portrayed in the original and so I’m not particularly interested in the new film. I find the way that they choose to characterize her really aggravating, and it’s not an isolated problem. tired , which is a parody of what feminine strength looks likeAs Hollywood has made progress in representing women in genre films, the industry has also developed a grating tendency to write the same kind of female characters, a series of tired tropes that inevitably leave us with women who insult everyone, never betray the vulnerability that actual human beings possess, and drop tired joke after tired joke in lieu of real dialogue. -moviesthe sawith The Marvels is both bigger and smaller than anything happening with Marvel: I don’t like how Captain Marvel is portrayed in the original film and so I’m not particularly interested in the film. I find the way that they choose to characterize her really aggravating, and it’s not an isolated problem. I’m tired of the archetype Larsen’s character represents, which is a parody of what feminine strength looks like. As Hollywood has made progress in representing women in genre films, the industry has also developed a grating tendency to write the same kind of female characters, a series of tired tropes that inevitably leave us with women who insult everyone, never betray the vulnerability that actual human beings possess, and drop tired joke after tired joke in lieu of real dialogue. Women-led movies, women characters who are competent and self-assured, women characters who are funny, women characters who aren’t afraid to mix it up with the men, women characters who demonstrate excellence and pride - we need more of all of these things in Hollywood. What we don’t need is the cliché that Captain Marvel represents and which has become inescapable, the woman who speaks only in insults, who condescends to everyone around them, who’s perpetually unimpressed. That’s not progress. who’s perpetually unimpressed. That’s not progress.