Wonder Woman (2017)

Let’s go back a few years to the release of “Wonder Woman” played by Gal Gadot. The movie depicts Wonder Woman as she fights alongside Steve Trevor (played by Chris Pine) and other soldiers in World War I, attempting to stop the release of a noxious, deadly gas created by Dr. Isabel Maru for the German army. However, before this begins, we see her living life amongst her family in Themyscira, a fictional island home to only women. The citizens of this island are incredibly strong (as shown by their attitudes and huge muscles), independent women who each show a fierce determination to protect their home. But at the end of the day, guess who becomes the hero—the skinniest of all the women who happen to follow conventional beauty standards according to Hollywood.

Next, we get into the imperialistic nature of Diana Prince (aka Wonder Woman). She’s helping fight World War I; a notoriously destructive period in world history, so granted there will be fighting and death. She battles alongside her love interest, Steve, and his comrades, kicking endless butt along the way, but she’s still reluctant to accept that human nature is naturally violent. She’s constantly in denial until she becomes angry after Steve dies, in which she unleashes death and destruction upon those who have wronged her by taking away her true love. She shows no mercy and it appears that she succumbs to the tragedy that is war, but then things get

28 the reporter even more weird when Dr. Maru is faced with Diana’s wrath. Dr. Maru, the creator of the deadly gas that was meant to be used as a weapon, is confronted by Diana, and instead of killing the woman who tried to murder millions of people, she lets her go free. In a twist of epic proportions, Diana spares the evil doctor claiming that she won’t kill her due to her respect for humanity. However, she showed no mercy to all the other people she slaughtered following Steve’s death, so why is there a double standard here? It subsequently comes across as a very backwards way of trying to establish kinship between Wonder Woman and humans. Hari Ziyad in their article “The Success Of Wonder Woman Proves Liberals Are Ok With Imperialism As Long As Its Led By A (White) Woman,” points out these striking missteps in the writing and subsequent message of this movie stating that Diana in this film picks and chooses the lives she deems worthy of living, adding to the idea of white liberalism being perpetuated in the film. It becomes apparent here that though there are obvious signs of imperialism, Wonder Woman, being a white woman with a supposedly good conscience and naivety surrounding the nature of humans, is excused from hate. All imperialism should be condemned, but unfortunately, that isn’t the case as two years later, we see the creation of “Captain Marvel” where all that was wrong with “Wonder Woman” was cranked up times ten.

Captain Marvel (2019)

The female imperialist trend seems to persist in Hollywood as after “Wonder Woman” came “Captain Marvel”: a blatant military advertisement. The talented Brie Larson plays the role of the hot-headed Carol Danvers—a US Air Force soldier who lost her memory following the death of Mar-Vell caused by a massive explosion, which led her to gaining superhuman abilities and join the Kree. The film follows her journey to regain her memory and fight the Kree after finding out about their true nature while attempting to send a feminist message. As many of you probably remember, this movie garnered a lot of backlash following its release, presumably due to its feminism and portrayal of a female superhero. While it should not have received backlash merely due to there being a female protagonist, there are some more nuanced critiques that are warranted.

Let’s start with the obvious: Captain Marvel is a depiction of American imperialism, and though Captain Marvel is the “hero,” she does not represent equality in the name of feminism. One of the bigger plot twists in the film is that the Skrulls—the enemy of the Kree—are actually refugees who are attempting to flee the Kree who are inflicting a genocide on them. Let’s dissect this. The Kree are a formidable power who are attempting to kill all Skrulls who coincidentally, look completely different, act differently, and speak differently; the Skrulls have alien-like features, whereas the Kree are primarily human-looking. Examining it this way, it’s obvious that there are extreme parallels to America’s imperialist nature toward refugees and/or immigrants. Initially, Danvers took part in these attacks against the Skrulls, but upon discovering the truth, turns against the Kree and fights for their freedom. At the end of it, she tries to come to terms with her new reality, wanting to change her suit to match the colors of the Skrulls, but in a tragic move by the screenwriters, alters her uniform to the colors of the US Air Force instead. By attacking imperialism, the film’s directors evidently end up condoning it. Not to mention the comparison of Danvers/Captain Marvel’s power to that of her male counterpart YonRogg, which only serves as another method of devaluing women’s power.

Jess Joho in her article “Captain Marvel’s shallow take on feminism doesn’t land,” makes a very interesting statement regarding the harm of female protagonists having their powers compared to another male character: “The feminist-ish sentiment of ‘girls are just as good as boys’ defines and measures women’s empowerment as it compares to men. Consequently, it devalues and trivializes feminine power in its own right.” This statement rings true as Captain Marvel from the beginning to the end of the film fights primarily male characters, and towards the end, even has feminist song “Just a Girl” playing over the back, adding another layer of irony to this movie. Women can be powerful, but why is there this constant need to evaluate their strength to that of men?