In a world where the pressures of day-to-day can take their toll and oppression is very real, very powerful, and very painfully obvious, It's important to know your value.
That's what Agent Carter, coming out tonight at 9-8 central on ABC for it's 2nd season brings to me. Marvel has consistantly touted it's representations of characters from across the spectrum of human beings. As Daisy Johnson says, "Being different can mean making a difference." The question is how to get there and learn to embrace your differences when so many people are trying to bring you down?
Peggy is the first character who addresses the idea of actually taking those of us who don't have the self confidence to boldly declare that it's okay we're different or odd or unique or special, and she's the first character that I, as an adult, have so openly connected with.
Personally, my history's an ugly one, and not until Peggy Carter has there been a character who seems to genuinely want people to get better, who stands on her own two feet and says that despite everything that she faces she's worth it. The difference between her and other heroines of the MCU is that out of all of them she's the one who admits her fallibilty and her weakness. Jessica Jones drinks to escape her pain and shows the audience what it means to be compassionate and that we must reach out to others, Daisy Johnson screams that she's here and we'd better get used to it.
All valid responses, however for a woman who's been beaten down far too many times in her life, for a little girl who learned mistrust at an early age, for a person who feels far too much about the ugliness of reality - Peggy Carter is the first character who looks like us, talks like us, and acts like us. Peggy does something more then just declare that she is here, a woman, and troubled. She tells those who lack hope that they can come back and she manages to be strong while doing it. Her actions, her relationships, all say that it's okay that I'm not curled up in a ball like an angry cat, or proudly slamming who I am in the face of everybody that I know to invite more potential oppression. She calmly, quietly, and bravely tells the world one thing.
Amid all of the differing opinions, I know my value. Amid all of the change, I know my value, amid all of the horror and the heartache, the abuse, the torture, the horror of the world, I know my value. Amid a thousand screaming people who all want to be recognized and loved, amid all of the pain, amid every screaming internet troll, every abusive monster, every tweet from Donald Trump and the world shouting it's rage to the skies.
They're powerful words from writers who have through their body of work demonstrated a deep and powerful understanding and support of people who are broken, who are lost, and who want nothing more than to come home, who represent a key often overlooked facet of humanity that people forget in their haste to change the world. Kindness. Today starts the second season, and while I'm a realist - I'd really like for there to be a 3rd, and a 4th, and a 5th.
Peggy Carter isn't a lionness or a goddess, she's a woman who gets it and we need more women like her, because the whole point of characters like her is to teach people how to become lionnesses and goddesses. To give people the strength to see themselves in a character and learn how to be better. That's one of the fundamental parts of storytelling, it's one of the biggest parts of being human.
And one day, I can be the lionness and goddess that I know I am inside.
You can join me watching tonight - or tomorrow if you want to catch the Flash, but just watch because Peggy's message is important, Peggy Carter matters, and we need to hear everything else that she has to say.
So join me tonight, and join me in taking #PeggysPledge with the Carter Corps so that you can promise to make a change just like she did. You can follow the Marvel Report for more information about this fantastic fan opportunity
And to any Disney Folks who are reading this somehow:
"Our heritage and ideals, our code and standards - the things we live by and teach our children - are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings."
Tonight you guys are doing Walt's work and keeping his dream alive by making this show happen. You made the world a better place by doing it.
