Modern Depictions of Feminism

SPOILER WARNING FOR AVENGERS ENDGAME.

I will not be so bold as to say that there have never been strong female role models in movies historically. Two examples are Ripley and Sara Conner. The fact that I can only immediately pull two from the top of my mind goes to show that there is a vastly unrepresented portion of the audience.

Over the weekend, (like everyone else in the world, if box office numbers are accurate) I went and saw Endgame. I enjoy the Marvel movies, but I'm a pretty casual fan. I've always leaned more towards the darker and more serious comic book content. I love DC, Vertigo (I know it's a redundant distinction), Dark Horse, and the various works of Alan Moore. I'm glad I live in a world in which the Marvel movies are popular and attract a greater fan base. A raising tide lifts all ships, as it were.

As I was saying, although I've seen most of the Marvel movies (I think the only one I have missed at this point is Captain Marvel), I have no investment in them. They're fun and entertaining, but that's about it for me. Going in to Endgame I was aware that Robert Downy Jr gets a paycheck every movie somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 million, and given that expense, he probably wasn't going to make it out alive. The same sensibility went for Christ Evans and Chris Hemsworth. All of the original avengers are too expensive to keep around. So I wasn't surprised when Tony made the ultimate sacrifice, or when Cap was proactively aged out of the picture. Surprise surprise, Thor might be sticking around. With all these big character changes and deaths, I've been seeing a lot of social media posts about fanboys crying in the theater. Was I moved to tears by the dramatic conclusions on the screen? No. Was I moved to tears by other things? Yes. (Teared up would be a better description).

The theater I was in had a capacity of about 256, and by my observation I would say one third of the audience was female. Towards the end of the movie there is a moment where Peter Parker's Spiderman is trying to run the Infinity Gauntlet as far away from Thanos as he can. Ultimately he is unable to do it, this is when Captain Marvel steps up and says to give it to her. As she and Peter look out over the giant army of faceless cgi monsters coming at them Peter asks her how she's going to get through all those guys alone. Off camera you here a voice say "she's not alone." Enter, in what initially struck me as a pandering hamfisted glory shot, of every female hero. The lady from Black Panther, Valkery, Nebula, Gamora, Mantis, Captain Marvel, for some reason Pepper Potts in an Iron Man suit, and maybe some others I honestly can't remember who else there could have been there. What followed was one third of the audience, 86 girls, women, and ladies, who up until now have been grossly underserved in these super hero movies where so often the day is consistently saved by a man, screaming their heads off as every surviving female marvel character fought back and turned the tide of the battle with out the help of a man. Hearing the joy and appreciation and pride in their screams made me realize in that moment, how special that scene was, and I glassed up.

I'm glad I saw the movie with an audience, allowing me to experience that very special moment.