Speaking as someone who’s been verbally harassed more times then I can count, being told to smile more while I’m behind the counter at work, in the elevator alone, in the street… This scene wasn’t for you, it was for me, and everyone else who has been in this situation.
Men do this shit all the time, they get to act creepy, threatening, and pass on unwanted “compliments” all the time and we don’t get to defend ourselves. You can tell people that a man made you uncomfortable, but he’ll just say it was an innocent remark, just a compliment. We can say “go away” or “fuck off” and that just leads to more, usually nasty comments or worse, behavior such as stalking or groping or physical abuse/rape, because a woman reacted and that means she “wants” that kind of attention.
The most we can do, the most we can ever do is ignore a man and hope he’ll go away, or hope someone else steps in and makes him leave.
Captain Marvel doesn’t have to ignore him. She doesn’t have to wait for someone to step in. She doesn’t have to call for help.
She’s not a hero for you, she’s a hero for me, and everyone else who has experienced this.
Furthermore, from what I understand, this is a deleted scene. It was removed. It’s not in the movie. I’d like to see the outrage over the sexism in the other Marvel movies, where women are literally just a prop or a plot device. I’d like to see the outrage of how actresses are treated in the making of these movies, how they’re groped and passed around, talked about as if they aren’t really human. I’d like to see some discussions into how we can teach men to behave better so women don’t have to put up with these “polite” requests for a smile, these “gentle” reminders from strangers that our boobs look great when we’re just trying to work, when we’re just trying to shop, when we’re trying to *live*.
But that rarely happens. Men don’t step into those conversations except to shut them down, to argue. “They’re just compliments!”
You’ve never been stalked after being “complimented” by a stranger, you’ve never gotten a ride home only for the driver to call you “gorgeous” and “sexy” and wonders what your vagina looks like the whole way home, then asks for your apartment number so he can “drop off flowers later”. You’ve never been told “oh he’s just like that, he probably won’t do anything” only to see him at your work everyday at your shift each day for the next six months until he’s aressted for assaulting someone else. You’ve never thanked God it wasn’t you he raped only for another man to step up on the subway and ask for pictures of your beautiful body. You’ve never been in a position where you can’t retaliate, where you can’t fight back, where you aren’t stronger, where you’re *scared*.
In the scene, he asked for a smile, but I and every other person who has ever been harassed felt our stomachs go in knots with that request and it was absolutely delightful to see someone *retaliate*. I was going to keep writing but none of you assholes deserve it. Captain Marvel isn’t a hero for you, she’s a hero for me, for women everywhere, and you can scream and shout about about feminism and how it’s ruining your life. But in the end you can go back and have millions of comics, movies, novels in which the world you want, the world where women are “politely” asked to smile and do so, where women roll over on command and think your sense of entitlement is “cute” and “charming” and I have one movie where the world I want is represented, where a woman *doesn’t* have to wonder in fear if a man is going to hurt her or not because he asked for a smile.
I like how Bucky and Cap thought put into them in the comments up there. “He took a moral stand” “he was brainwashed” whatever. My hero took a moral stand too, it just wasn’t for you.
Captain Marvel isn’t a hero for you, so leave her alone and go watch a movie about *your heroes* and come up with fun excuses for their behavior instead of throwing yet another temper tantrum over a thirty second deleted “feminist” scene.
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