As a woman and proud feminist this seemed like an important day to celebrate and to do so I went to see Captain Marvel! Watching Marvel Studios' first woman-led superhero movie feels overdue, but it was pretty decent as a film. It’s ridiculous how few women's voices are heard in front of and behind the camera in the film industry. The Marvel universe has some brilliant female characters but up until now they’ve not had their own films so it’s great to finally see that beginning to change. I’m not surprised it’s brought in $455 million in its opening weekend and that there’s been such an appetite for a female led superhero film (after Wonder Woman it was pretty expected). It’s great to see it doing so well, I’m always nervous when a film like this comes out that if it’s not good it will be blamed on it being ‘feminine’ instead of any other possible reasons.
There’s already numerous articles and videos online dissecting Captain Marvel and it’s third-wave brand of feminism, the conversation generated around it is great to see. As undeniably important as normalising the rise of content like Captain Marvel is though I’m wary of being sold feminism. As a movement and political position it’s definitely in vogue at the moment and has become deeply commodified. As far as I’m concerned more debate, awareness and equality is all good but it’s important to be aware of what you’re being sold by who and why they are selling it. Profit driven companies like Marvel at the end of the day wouldn’t go near feminism if it wasn’t going to make them money. The shiny ‘girl-power’ brand of feminism on sale is wonderful but ultimately shallow. When Wonder Woman ran across the battlefield deflecting bullets and when Captain Marvel got all glowy fisted of course I was like ‘Fuck yes! Take my money’. Just like when I first saw the super cute t-shirts being sold everywhere that say ‘The Future Is Female’ and was like ‘Fuck yes! Take my money’... but well...it does distract from less ‘cool’ and I would argue more important women's issues like domestic violence, reproductive rights, FMG and period poverty to name just a few. Don’t get me wrong I’m going to keep consuming it all we just need to be aware to not lose the deeper aims and core fundamentals what what it means to be feminist and promoting of women's rights.
Diatribe over. Go watch Captain Marvel it’s a good film and the more people that see it the more female led films we are likely to get in the future.
As a final International Women’s Day celebration. When I got home I finally got round to putting the suffragette pin I got for Christmas on my coat, I’d been meaning to for a while!
All in all a pretty well celebrated day. International Women’s Day...9/10