Tom Holland’s recent call for LGBTQ representation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was met with plenty of acclaim. Many fans felt that it was extremely brave of him to call for such a progressive move. Yet when Brie Larson did the exact same thing a few months earlier, she was met with extreme backlash from her legion of critics on the Internet. This opens up the important question of the difference between these two actors and why Holland is allowed to speak out while Larson is criticized for it.
The truth is that there’s really no logic to this double standard. The trolls on the Internet hate the Captain Marvel actress for no real reason other than because she’s a woman with an opinion. They’ve despised her since the standalone movie came out earlier this year and that unjustified abhorrence has only grown in the months since.
A moronic online petition to replace the 29-year-old in the MCU with literally anyone else is about to reach its goal of 25,000 signatures, while those same bitter fanboys continue to eviscerate anything and everything that has to do with her character. Larson is an extremely talented performer with an Academy Award who only wants to promote equality in the biggest cinematic franchise of all-time. There’s literally no reason for anyone to hate her.
Unfortunately, this is a trend that’s seen way too often on the Internet. These “fans” are likely the same ones who harassed Star Wars actresses Kelly Marie Tran and Daisy Ridley off of social media forever. They’re identical to the people who make and enjoy bizarre edits of Avengers: Endgame that remove all of the women and anything vaguely resembling LGBT elements. People who spend their time criticizing everything Larson does are just misogynists who constantly try to put down any woman who ever challenges the status quo of a mostly male-dominated franchise.
Holland is awesome for calling for more representation onscreen, but Larson deserves credit for doing it first and in the face of much harsher pushback. The best thing the 23-year-old Spider-Man actor can do is use his platform to continue advocating for progress while simultaneously defending his co-star from the many sexists who occupy social media.
Meanwhile, these fanboys’ heads are about to explode when they find out that Larson will star in at least five more Marvel movies. Even better is the fact that there’s a solid chance her character turns out to be gay. Then the unfair criticism will ramp up to a whole new level.
If anyone can handle it, it’s certainly Larson. Still, it would be nice to see some of her male Marvel co-stars like Holland stand behind her and make sure that she has the support of those who are beloved by all fans. Maybe together, they can finally shame these misogynists back into whatever hole they crawled out of when Donald Trump was elected president.
