The Problem with Women in Marvel

Illustration by Kessy Sambou

As a 10-year old thoroughly engrossed with superheroes and Marvel, time and time again, I was faced with the same, tedious question: “who is your favorite character?” Back in the early ‘10’s, when Marvel only had a small percentage of the legion of heroes that now inhabit the MCU, my answer was always the same:  “Black Widow”, I would say quickly and decisively. But then came the trickier yet inevitable follow-up: “Why?”.

It was one heck of a good question; why was Black Widow my favorite character? At ten,  I did not really have a solid reason. All I knew is, out of everyone there, she looked the most like me. But it makes me wonder, if Iron Man was a woman, or Thor, or Hulk, or Hawkeye, even just one of them, would I still have chosen Black Widow? 

Because, quite frankly, Black Widow is not all that great of a character. But that isn’t her fault. Black Widow is a cool hero, with cool powers, a cool outfit, a cool personality, and a great actress portraying the role. But that’s kind of where she ends. She’s just cool. Black Widow is only one example of this, because it seemed like as the MCU expanded, more examples – particularly female –  with the same issue appeared. The female superheroes tend to be, in comparison to their male counterparts, somewhat two-dimensional.

This is something that has been discussed frequently, often without any satisfying conclusions. As it happens, this topic does not hold much of an argument for itself with tangible evidence. It is more so, in essence, a feeling. That is why this article is simply an exploration of different perspectives and opinions from myself, as well as a few people who took the time to share their thoughts in a survey. An attempt to put into words what we find to be the root of the flaws in Marvel’s representation of women.

The Female Experience

A common criticism of the female characters in Marvel is that they are not written as well as the men. “Overall they fall flat and aren’t very interesting. This stems from what is usually really poor writing for the characters, although that’s just marvel as a whole right now”, said an anonymous respondent to our google form.

I believe that a root of this issue is that Marvel struggles to draw the line between a female superhero, and a superhero who is female. It is the fine line between somebody’s gender impacting their identity through experiences, and it impacting their identity simply by existing. 

“They’re very under-appreciated and in some scenarios heavily stereotyped; Brie Larson even struggled with Captain Marvel because she had to do the minor role in End Game before she had filmed the Captain Marvel movie, meaning she had not been given much context to the character that she was playing” wrote respondent Stàs Moore.

A lot of the female characters come off as stereotypical and bland due to their lack of depth. Taking a look at Black Widow again as an example, her gender is a clear part of her identity. From the beginning, she had been the female avenger. It was not until later on, when her character developed more, that they began to explore how her gender impacts her experiences, and from there how those experiences impact her identity. Gender does not directly impact someone’s character. It impacts how society perceives, treats, and reacts to them. A person’s reaction to this is what impacts one’s character. These experiences created by society’s perception of one’s gender is what Marvel writers seem to neglect when they create their female characters.

Sexualization

It is impossible to discuss female superheroes without mentioning the debate regarding their sexualization. While this issue has certainly improved in the past few years, the early generation Marvel movies-along with the comics-certainly struggled with portraying their female characters in a respectful light. 

At times, the costume choices for female characters are, compared to the men, far more revealing or impractical. “Other female characters are made into comic relief characters or given skin tight suits that wouldn’t even be useful in a fight”, one respondent said.

A significant contributor to the issue of sexualization is not just the character design, but the fact that a skin-tight suit has to compensate for a lack of depth and/or personality. “I think there’s a big difference between the comic books and the movies. Growing up reading the comic books made me feel empowered, seen and strong. Watching the earlier movies with an adult perspective the women were often overlooked/sexualized but grew overtime into something better. I think they are great representations of strong women in power in the more recent films”, another anonymous respondent wrote. 

Having female characters that dress more revealing is not inherently a bad thing. It can be executed very well if the character is well-written, and the writers take into account the rationale behind the character’s choice to wear what they wear. But much of the time, when a female character is portrayed in a revealing outfit combined with a lack of personality behind it, the character is typically there to cater to the audience visually.

The Audience

The notion of catering to the audience is a perfect segue into the next, and arguably biggest, problem with modern Marvels’s poor perception of women. In a franchise as big as Marvel, with a huge following of dedicated fans, the company has to practice a balancing act when it comes to satisfying their consumers. In the past, with an audience dominated by men, there were many factors that contributed to the lack of relatability and two-dimensional feeling of female Marvel heroes. This included a lack of development and exploration of character, to oversexualization, and finally to the pressure to create a satisfying character from two opposite viewpoints. The task is certainly not easy, as is evident, but Marvel is slowly improving. “more recent female superheroes have been a bit more diverse and developed but I think it’s only a start for Marve” Stàs Moore said.

A survey respondent praised the Scarlet Witch’s development, saying “The audience was able to follow her tragic descent into madness and despite the story being a bit shaky due to some poor writing decisions near the end, ultimately I believe her character was very interesting to watch” respondent Brian shared. At the same time, another praised Black Widow (the notorious initial victim of the evolving Marvel female writing) “Even Black Widow improved throughout the Avengers saga, with Infinity War and Endgame giving her character a satisfying conclusion where she was able to turn her pain into something positive by sacrificing herself to get an infinity stone”.

This analysis of some of the reasons behind the feeling of disconnect between the representation of women in Marvel is meant to draw attention to the issue that has for so long been acknowledged, but not typically explored. Hopefully, in the future, Marvel continues to approach characters with an open mind and a desire to create personalities with actual depth and relatability as opposed to the simple catering of an audience. “I am very excited to see more of these stories develop and I am hopeful that more women, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community are able to contribute to the creative processes in big studios and develop well rounded characters to bring new life to the MCU”, says Brian, and I could not agree more.

Perhaps not much was expected for the early Marvel female characters, except to look good in their costume, with the traditional superhero genre being made up mostly of male viewers. However, as time goes on and the audience expands, the demand for inclusivity and complexity grows.

“I think they also often make characters who’s main attraction is that they are a women instead of making characters who have good and interesting stories because they want to seem inclusive”, said an anonymous respondent. “I think a perfect example is the scene in endgame that felt out of place and was just put in to make them seem more inclusive. I think they have the ability to make a great women character but they just don’t…” They continued.

Another respondent mentioned a similar topic. “Sometimes it seemed as if Marvel was using its female characters purely as a way of pulling in a bigger audience. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I believe it did lead to some of their storylines suffering as a result” wrote respondent Brian. They go on to mention how female characters tend to play minor and/or supporting roles for their male counterparts, especially in older movies. “However, as representation is becoming more common in media, I believe Marvel is learning that one dimensional female characters aren’t going to cut it anymore. Both the audience and the characters deserve storylines that develop their humanity”

Marvel seems to be attempting to improve and enhance their representation, with more main female characters, but the desire to build mass appeal to their audience seems to be overshadowing their relatability. The ulterior motives for satisfying the audience peaks through the cracks of these hastily written characters. “They are pushing their agenda too hard more often than not and it’s actively hurting the success of the majority of the female cast” a respondent shared anonymously.

But the challenge of developing more complex female characters is an interesting balance for Marvel to figure out. While there certainly is a demand for more female characters, and Marvel appears to be trying to develop fully formed female heroes, there is another side to the story: Fanboys who simply do not like the female characters. Internalized and societal misogyny is still prevalent in our modern culture. While it may not be as extreme as before, when it comes to previously typically male-populated media like superhero movies, there is bound to be some resistance to change. Female characters in Marvel not only have to satisfy the people who want them, and turn to them for representation, but also satisfy the people who do not want them. This conflict of audiences makes writing a good female character far more difficult than it would be without the pressure of catering to a market.

In the end, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is entertainment.  But let’s face it, it is remarkably popular entertainment which makes it incredibly influential entertainment.  Millions of kids are growing up with the films and shows of the MCU, so even if one thinks they have no responsibility to present well-rounded, complex female characters, you cannot deny that they at least have to acknowledge this powerful reality. If Marvel keeps going down the same path, hopefully we will see more complex and realistic representation of women in the future films. So far, the results have been mixed.  Kate Bishop was a fun, independent and resilient character in the Hawkeye series, but Cassie Lang spent 80% of Quantamanium running in circles and screaming for her dad. Now, as reviews begin to pour out for the recent, female-led film The Marvels, the mixed perceptions of the film only further goes to show the complex opinions of the audience when it comes to modern female superheroes. But nevertheless, the increase of female leads in Marvel Films is a hopeful sign for the future, which could pave the way for not just gender, but diversity as a whole.