How CAPTAIN MARVEL Helped Me Realise I’m A Feminist

I never thought of myself as a feminist. Sure, I owned a white T-shirt with the word FEMINIST in black bold letters that I had bought from Topshop for some stupid amount of money, but in general I rejected being called a feminist. Not sure why, because I most definitely wanted equality and not to be defined, or especially denied some privileges or opportunities because of my gender. Perhaps I just wanted to blend in, live my life in relative peace and quietness. The word feminist felt a bit dirty, a bit too extreme for a simple small-town girl like myself.

And then, about a month ago, something clicked. A small, little film was about to come out. You might have heard of it, Captain Marvel? Ring any bells? It’s Marvel’s first attempt at a female superhero in a standalone film and while it’s a bit of a mixed bag, it’s a hugely personal film for me. Not because of the story or even the characters, but because of everything that happened before the film came out and eventually those two hours spent in the cinema with Carol Danvers.

More Than Just A Film

Brie Larson plays the titular role and she has always been very vocal, especially online, about gender equality and human rights. Very early on during the film’s press tour, she called for more female journalists to cover the film, going to press junkets and reviewing the film. And oh boy, the men did not like this at all. AT ALL. For many of us female film journalists, it felt like maybe this was finally our time. Finally someone sees us, knows we’re there and we’re eager, hungry, but also sees that we’re never given the same opportunities. Unfortunately, many people, especially men, read this as a hostile call to arms. They interpreted Larson’s comments as them not being welcome at said junkets and that their opinions and reviews wouldn’t matter.

As a female film journalist, I have to say it has been hard. It’s a tough industry with a lot of competition and not a lot of cash flowing. The industry sometimes feels like a secret club that you try so hard to be a part of, but you’re never allowed ‘in’, there are still secret meetings, secret clubhouses that you’re just never invited to. There’s a lot of rejection and a lot of late nights. I work full time during the day and then use all my free time to write as much as I can. At times I’m angry at myself for not doing more, not learning and developing more. At the few press screenings I’ve gone to, the audience is roughly 80% male. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not against men in any way and I have met some amazing dudes through film journalism, incredibly talented and opinionated men whose writing is inspired and I could learn a thing or two from. I’m grateful for these friends and value their opinions, but I yearn to meet women like myself. To feel companionship and to navigate these waters together with.

I have also been looked up and down at, measured or just ignored. One guy once, despite my press pass hanging from my neck quite obviously, pointed me to the student queue when I joined him in queuing for a film at a festival. I politely corrected him that I was indeed in the right queue and he rolled his eyes at me and scoffed as if he couldn’t quite believe where his beloved industry was headed nowadays. Who let the young women in the house?! I reckon I could have learned a lot from that guy if he wasn’t so outraged about my existence and place in the same queue.

So when the Captain Marvel reviews started appearing online, many of them still by men, I was enraged. I was surprised how angry I was, to the point I was scaring myself a little. Where did the mild-mannered girl go and who is this feminist warrior instead? Many of the reviews were middling, 3-star reviews, with a couple of great 4-star reviews sprinkled in. And I was disappointed that the film didn’t seem to be the feminist victory I wanted it to be. And then it dawned on me.

All Rise

I did not need Captain Marvel to be a good film. I didn’t need it to discuss gender, it didn’t need to have a particularly feminist storyline. It just needed to exist right now. Alongside Wonder Woman, we needed another female superhero, battling evil on her own on the silver screen. I am happy to wait for a truly great female-fronted superhero film, but for the moment I’m just happy these ones exist, making way for new ones, better ones.

For years and for nearly 20 films in MCU’s case, women have been forced to identify with male characters. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s possible, it’s enjoyable and I personally love a good story about masculinity, it fascinates me. But isn’t it about time we allow women to see themselves, their bodies, on screen as we see them in real life; impossibly strong and capable of almost anything? Men will be able to see themselves in Carol Danvers just as we have been seeing ourselves in Captain Kirk, Indiana Jones or Tony Stark.

I also didn’t want to read any reviews by men, at least for the moment, in the first week or so. Not because male critics didn’t have anything to bring to the conversation or their opinion didn’t matter. Of course, it matters, but this is a different game. Women are bound by history to have a completely different experience watching the film. We have been denied so much, historically speaking but also just within the silver screen and even just in the MCU. We are experiencing something men have been experiencing for years, for the first time, thus the experience will be fundamentally different, informing our critique in a different way.

This doesn’t mean Captain Marvel is a good film, our female perspective doesn’t correct the film’s flaws, but I would have rather read a scathing Captain Marvel review from a woman than a praising review from a man, because, and I apologise for the extra cheesiness here, I needed to have hope that one day, I could review a superhero film of this scale, preferably with a woman as the lead. I needed those opportunities to materialise for someone else so they could become a reality for me one day.

In a study conducted in 2018 by the USC Anneberg, three scholars analysed that 77,8% of reviews of the top 100 films in 2017 were written by white men and only 22,2% by women. It gets worse. Only 18% of the critics were what they call underrepresented, while an overwhelming 82% were white. While there isn’t a more recent study, I doubt things are much better in 2019. What does film criticism mean? Why do we read reviews? Isn’t it, in a way, to dictate taste? Or at the very least, highlight great art or offer some insight into why something doesn’t work. While there are several examples of films that were almost panned by critics (looking at you Michael Bay) but the audiences loved, film criticism matters and we critics should advocate for films and bring tasteful and insightful criticism to the table. Isn’t it time for the 77,8% of critics to let us sit at the adult table finally?

All The Ladies, Put Your Hands Up

I’m still learning to speak louder, to demand to be heard, but Captain Marvel definitely played a part in making me embrace my gender and feminism in general. My feminism might only reach as far as film criticism and representation on screen, but I’m only getting started, give me time. Without Captain Marvel, I would have never specifically sought out reviews by fellow female writers and there are some great reviews that highlight our collective experience watching the film while also offer some great critique on the film. Seek them out, support them, they’re worth your time.

This is my call to arms. All you ladies at home, at your desks and at your university lectures. When you get home tonight, write. Record. Film. Do what you got to do and do it to the best of your ability. Release it onto to the world, pitch your heart out. There will be rejection, a lot of rejection, but there will also be someone who will look at your work and be moved beyond words and they will say yes. They will help you, they will guide you and there will be a whole community to support you. We’re all in this together, we can’t do this alone. So let’s get down to business and make our voices heard.

We’re here to stay.