How The Marvel Cinematic Universe Erases Women

The Captain America Franchise

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) – Directed by Joe Johnston, written by Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) – Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, written by Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely

The use of women in the Captain America film series is a fascinating thing, and perhaps the clearest demonstration of tokenism in the entire MCU – and it all hinges on the plot device of the patriotic supersoldier actually being a man from the 1930s, when sexism was far more blatant than the insidious oppression that happens today. It is the Captain America films that spawned Agent Carter, and gave greater emphasis to the character of Black Widow, after Avengers – but offering up marginalized token female characters does not detract from the fact that women are systematically erased elsewhere.

In 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger (already a title that erases The Wasp), Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) is a fantastic female character. Capable, intelligent, ambitious and independent, she displays a combination of strength and vulnerability that easily makes her the equal of Captain America – save for the supersoldier serum. However, it’s as if the filmmakers poured all of their ability to write female characters into that one white woman – because she is the only female with more than a few lines, and certainly the only female who isn’t simply a sexual object.

By the time the sequel came along – 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier – the story had moved into modern times, with the addition of Black Widow. Also known as Natasha Romanoff, Black Widow is generally a fantastic character in the comic book source material. Though she is technically a spinoff from the Iron Man comics, she has an intriguing back-story of her own, involving childhood training in espionage, a morally-conflicted professional history, and superhero teamings with a wide variety of characters (including Daredevil). In the MCU, however, she is routinely relegated to the position of supporting character – called upon to help the menfolk when additional strategizing and muscle is needed.

The Winter Soldier does introduce the character of Agent 13 (Emily VanCamp) who, in the comic books, is Sharon Carter – a relative of Captain America’s previous love interest, Peggy Carter – but, while Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) is also afforded additional screen time, it is not in such a way as to reflect her significance in the comic books. The source material sees her rise through the ranks of S.H.I.E.L.D. to the position of Interim Executive Director, and Deputy Director, for example.

Captain America is arguably one of the most testosterone-heavy titles in the world of Marvel comic books, but there are still great female characters to be found that would have significant impact on the entire MCU. Madame Hydra, for one, is a supervillain and sometime leader of the organization that has plagued Captain America for decades. The Sisters of Sin is a group formed by Red Skull, around his daughter, Sin, and Superia is the leader of another group of female supervillains. Mother Night is known to be an ally of Crossbones, and Vamp is a supervillain that secretly infiltrated SHIELD by posing as a superhero.

Any of those characters would have created great plotlines for Captain America movies, but have so far been rejected in the process of ‘paring down.’