There is a scene in Avengers: Endgame where all of the MCU female characters that fans have come to know and love team up on the battlefield to fight Thanos together, in a moment that the directors and writers probably thought was a great show of “girl power.” Unfortunately, this show of “feminism” falls a little flat in a franchise that has historically pushed its female characters to the side and took 10 years to even give one of those female heroes her own solo movie.
For a studio that has been at the forefront of superhero content for the past decade, Marvel has been surprisingly behind on bringing female characters to the screen in a way that is just as compelling as the male characters. Even DC managed to beat them in this regard, with the releases of Wonder Woman and Birds of Prey, which are regarded as overall successes and include a lot of well-written women and female representation. So what are the main problems regarding the MCU’s female characters, and how can they be fixed going into the future?
The first, most simple answer is that the MCU needs more female-led films or, now that they seem to be pivoting to a lot of television content on Disney Plus, some female-led shows. And it does seem that Marvel is moving more in this direction, with the upcoming Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and of course, the continuously delayed Black Widow movie. In the past, the MCU has always put more of a focus on the male heroes, which makes the women always feel like side characters. Going forward, Marvel needs to put more of an emphasis on their female heroes, and maybe let them lead teams and have their own stories, rather than always being the supporting cast of someone else’s. But just making women main characters isn’t enough to solve the problem that Marvel has. They also need to start writing these characters to be more complex.
The personality of almost every woman in the MCU (particularly those who are branded as “strong female characters”), with only a few exceptions, is some variation of stoic, confident, strong, and not overly feminine unless they use it to their advantage in a femme-fatale, Black Widow-esque way. And while these women are still somewhat interesting and beloved by fans, there’s not much variety. Think about it: Black Widow, Captain Marvel, Gamora, Sharon Carter, The Wasp – all of these feel like vaguely the same character with only minor personality differences. Compare it to the wide variety of male characters, who all have personalities and quirks that are very distinct from one another. Iron Man, Captain America, Bruce Banner, Ant-Man, and Black Panther are all very different from each other and diverse in their natures and temperaments.
The MCU needs to start writing more complex female characters with realistic emotions and a variety of personalities. There seems to be this idea that a female character can only be strong if she doesn’t show emotion and rejects most of her femininity. This is one expression of strength, but it shouldn’t be the only one. It would be interesting to see women with more varied personalities in this universe: more soft and stereotypically feminine heroes, female heroes who are funny in the way that the male heroes like Ant-Man get to be funny (i.e. a more goofy type of personality), or more super-genius female characters (the character of Shuri in Black Panther might be a good start towards this).
Women in real life have different personalities and can express themselves in different ways, so why couldn’t it be the same way in a superhero flick?
There’s also the issue of women of color, who have perhaps been even more shafted by the MCU than the white female characters. In general, there’s just not many non-white female roles in Marvel movies, and the ones that do appear get limited screen time (such as the supporting cast of Black Panther who got that movie and then a few short appearances in Infinity War and Endgame) or are in a role as some alien species (such as Gamora and Mantis). If we’re championing for women being able to see themselves represented on screen in the MCU, we should also be championing for non-white women, who are historically underrepresented in film, to have the same experience.
The real solution to all of this is to get more women involved in the creative process. The MCU’s slate of directors has been overwhelmingly male up until this point, and it would be great to get more female talent behind the camera. Putting more women in the writer’s room could also help prevent issues in the future, and avoid the stereotypical depictions of women that we usually end up seeing on screen. It would also, of course, be particularly helpful to hire more women of color for these behind-the-scenes roles, in order to prevent the problems previously mentioned.
There appears to still be hope for the MCU in this regard. The Disney Plus shows in particular seem to be taking the route that Marvel needs to complicate their female characters. In Ms. Marvel, we’ll get to see a young woman of color in the lead role, and as Kamala Khan is quite young, we might get a different type of personality for a female character than we’ve seen in the past. WandaVision also seems to be gearing up to give fans a much more in-depth look at Wanda Maximoff’s character, who hasn’t gotten much development until now.
Hopefully, Marvel will stay on this trajectory and continue to pursue more female-led stories, and will expand their network to include the many talented female writers, directors, and producers in the industry to help these stories get told in a respectful and interesting way.
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