#AND ANOTHER THING. with the mcu. and how there were hints of how it wasnt going to get better thanit was in the start. was when it was clea

[snakesinsocks2005]

I’m so curious about your specific interpretation of Thor as someone who hyperfixated so hard on marvel at one point, especially the first two Thor movies for some reason. What is your opinion on the Thor movies actually, being as you seem to consume the animated series and comics too!

Ough believe it or not there was once a time I had very little idea about marvels comics, and solely fixated on the movies, and that's where my initial love for thor came from!

I still very much to this day Adore and wholeheartedly appreciate the first two thor movies (as admittedly boring Dark World was-) the amount of D e t a i l and work went into the costume design and the cgi and the sets and the. God just the everything... was Sooo well done. Chefs kiss.

Thor ragnarok, when it first came out in 2017? I think it was? I actually really liked! It was and still is a solid and fun movie. However looking back im kinda bitter at how it and taika kinda put the first domino (atleast in my opinion) in the downfall of the mcu.

The complete 180 on the dialogue, the writing off on sif and the w3, really just taking anything and everything thor ever had before like his family his friends his hammer his HAIR his eye his planet his culture his.well I could go on. And reading interviews on how taika thought of the previous movies and comics put a bad taste in my mouth, it was real clear he had little to no respect for the original (And Original) material, and how he was just making it more enjoyable for him specifically, no matter how it was planned to be in the start. Impulsive with good intentions middle english speaking mcu thor I miss you so much,,

I've grown up watching various marvel animated shows on Disney xd (rip) such as ultimate spider-man, hulk and the agents of smash, guardians of the galaxy, and my favourite of course Avengers assemble. After disney xd's TV channel poofed off into the void, I had to delve deeper into the mcu to get my marvel fix, and that worked for a good while. Until it was clear marvel was on a steep downslope (after endgame I kinda lost interest, I've kinda stopped keeping up with the mcu completely after quantumania and multiverse of madness. Sigh. I reckon wandavision was the last top quality thing theyve put out)

Re and rerewatching marvel shows has helped me regain interest with marvels characters, with that plain to see with thor especially (the latter half of the fourth and fifth seasons of aa im totally ignoring, seeing as how its desperately trying to mush itself into the mcus continuity sespite making No sense and just being kinda :///)

I've since then taken a greater interest in the comics, despite having no easy resources to read through any completely other than small snippets I happen to find (most of the comic pages I've seen I've reblogged on here lol)

And man!! There's such an appeal to love a character from a specific source and find out there's possibly hundreds of versions of him out there with different writers, story directions, and art styles with unique yet recognisable designs!!! (Herald of thunder from what I've seen of you you are GORGEOUS.)

As for my specific interpretation of thor and marvel overall, it's quite alot of my own indulgence and preferences sksjf. Mixing what I liked from parts of the mcu, the animated shows and the comics heaps of lore/s, it's basically a big hoge-poge au of mine.

Thor is both classified as an Alien and God because why can't he be both? There's elements to him that are very very different to humans biologically (hyper density, more efficient senses, inhuman physical capabilities, glowing eyes, glittering blood, no finger prints, etc etc) with mystic (able to sense and 'see' different energies, everything to due to his asgardian Allspeak ability, able to surive in space with no air) and asgards incredibly advanced it looks like magic tech (mjolnir!!!!!!) With lots of things a mix of the three (his ability to harness storms, lightning in particular (probably the best idea taika put in that film was having thor have magic on his own with mjolnir only serving to harness and focus it)

There's lots of other details I could write but Man is this getting long lmao

[inawickedlittletown]

Walking The Wire (109/?)

Summary: Tony Stark always knew about Peter Parker. He didn’t know that Peter was going to get superpowers and become Spider-Man, but he always knew about Peter because Peter was his son.

This will span from pre-Iron Man up through the rest of the MCU (eventually including Infinity War) and will be for the most part canon compliant except where I’ve taken some liberties and interpreted canon a certain way.

Pairings: Pepper/Tony, Tony/Steve (endgame), Tony/Mary (past)

A/N: If you want me to tag you when I post new chapters let me know. This fic is also on AO3

I used Collider’s MCU timeline to stay canon and the title of this fic is an Imagine Dragons song that is just so fitting for Peter and Tony

@findmeinthestarss

Masterpost

Chapter One Hundred Eight

2018

Ben & Jerry’s came out with a whole bunch of new flavors that were Avengers inspired. Peter found out when Ned texted him and MJ about it in a group text. Later, when he got home from school, he found out that not only were there new flavors, but that Ben & Jerry had gone ahead and sent them at the tower a few pints of each of the new flavors.

“This is amazing,” Peter said when he peered into the freezer. “Did you know this was happening?”

“Despite your metabolism, I don’t expect that eating all of it at once would be wise,” his dad said. “And no, I didn’t.”

“How long do you think they’ve been working on this?” Sam asked. He was leaning against one of the counters and already digging into a pint box of the A Hunka-Hulka-Burning Fudge. “Don’t they take years creating flavors?”

“Not sure. Don’t care,” Tony said and reached into the freezer to pull out Cap-ilicious Triple Berry.  “All I know is that apparently I’m not off dairy and that this is delicious.”

“I would have thought they’d do a more patriotic look to Cap’s ice cream,” Sam said.

Peter reached blindly for one of the containers so he wouldn’t have to make a choice and he saw his dad shrug as he took a bite of the Cap inspired ice cream. Peter had wound up with Stark Raving Hazelnuts which really was not all bad. It was certainly a nice thing to come home to. He took another bite and then took a picture of the ice cream to send to Ned.

“You know, I’m really glad we got a wedding planner,” Tony said as he looked through a few cake design options.

Steve who was in the middle of painting something laughed. “You mean, you’re glad Pepper got us a wedding planner even though this whole thing was supposed to be a small thing because Peter despite his excitement is still just a teenage boy that knows next to nothing about weddings.”

Tony shrugged. “Sure, what you said. But I’m still glad. Anyway, people like parties. And at this rate we just really have to make a few choices and then just show up. We can even leave early if you really want. What are you painting anyway?”

“The view,” Steve said and sure enough he was. Everything outside the window had been transferred to the canvas. It wasn’t exact -- more of an abstract, but that didn’t make it any less beautiful. Tony had never really understood art or even bothered to like it -- but that didn’t mean he didn’t appreciate everything that Steve created.

His art room had filled up with more and more art since Steve had finally focused on his hobby. He wasn’t obsessive, but he spent hours painting away or sketching. It kept him entertained and Tony was happy about it. He liked that Steve had something to do that was all his own. Tony also loved watching him do it -- the concentration that he put into his art was unlike anything else. In another lifetime, it was possible that Steve would have just become some artist that everyone admired.

Tony got up. “I’ll leave you to it. I have a bit of work to finish up in the lab.”

Steve nodded. Tony pressed a kiss to his temple and walked out of the room. He found Sam and Wanda watching some odd cartoon and then spotted Vision in the kitchen.

“Hey, Viz.”

Vision and Wanda spent a lot of time on their own on their floor but it wasn’t odd to find them up in the penthouse some days. What Tony found weird about it was that Vision seemed to be more and more human-like these days. He had started dressing like a regular person a long time ago but now he seemed to not mind changing his appearance to look human. It was a little strange.  

“A letter arrived for you,” Vision said.

“That’s odd,” Tony said. “We usually don’t get any mail sent up here.”

“It is possible someone brought it up and left it in the kitchen for you to find,” Vision said.

“Right,” Tony said but it all still sounded a bit odd.

Vision didn’t respond and he picked up the bowl of popcorn and went to join Wanda and Sam in the living room. The letter was in a manila envelope and Tony figured he’d take it with him, but his mind was already turning to the new designs he’d been working on. Natasha was already out of her house arrest unlike the rest of them and she’d been cleared to rejoin The Avengers officially. It also meant that she was free to do whatever Fury wanted from her and Tony wanted to give her the best gear to do that with.

The heater in the Spider-Man suit was one of the best things ever. It meant that Peter could actually patrol without feeling the brisk cold air. It had snowed a few days earlier and there was gray and dark dirty snow on the edges of most streets. Peter also found that most rooftops were covered and useless to him. But he was still out and about for a few hours.

But it turned out that when it was cold out that there wasn’t a lot of crime to go after. Not a lot of people were out unless they needed to be. Peter did save a woman from slipping on ice.

“Anything going on, Karen? I’m kind of getting bored.”

“Not that I can tell,” Karen said.

“I should have just gone and trained with Steve. I guess it’s a good thing, right, that nothing is happening.”

“I believe so, Peter.”

He swung off of a fire escape and headed towards the tower. Maybe he’d just go and actually work on his homework. There was an essay due in a few days that he should get on top of. His junior year of high school had brought along a ton more work and college was a thing that everyone was starting to get worried about. Tony liked to mention MIT in passing all the time and then May brought it up in her own way too, always hinting at how Peter would need to give up Spider-Man for it and Peter just -- he didn’t want to think about that.

He got back to the tower to find Natasha was back from a mission and sitting in the living room with Sam, Steve, Wanda, and Vision.

“Hey, Peter,” Natasha said. She had a split lip and yet she still smiled at him.

“We left you food in the kitchen,” Steve said. “We also left food for Tony if you want to bring some to him.”

“Cool. Thanks. I will.”

Food turned out to be sub sandwiches so after getting back into his normal clothes, Peter just grabbed both and went to the workshop. He was expecting to find Tony working, but instead his dad was looking at paperwork.

“Hungry?” Peter asked.

His dad turned to look at him. “Oh, you’re home. I -- I must have lost track of time.”

“What are you working on?” Peter asked.

“Nothing. Nothing. Just something that got in the mail today got me a bit distracted.” He waved his hand and the display disappeared. “Anyway, food. How was school today? Patrol?”

“Same. Not much going on.”

Tony nodded. He was oddly distracted. It made Peter worry a little. His dad only tended to get weird when something was happening.

“Did I ever tell you that I can’t actually have kids,” Tony said after they’d sat in silence eating for a while.

“No,” Peter said, not sure where the conversation was going. “I mean, maybe. I kind of think I knew that already.”

Tony nodded. “I -- it was to do with the arc reactor. Anyway, there was a time when I didn’t think that I would ever meet you or that it would make a difference because you were growing so fast and I never needed my parents when I was your age -- well, I probably did but I didn’t really have them. I guess that’s what makes more sense.”

“What are you getting at?” Peter asked. He was so confused.

Tony sighed and he wiped his mouth with a napkin and then he got up and grabbed a few sheets of paper. “A while back I applied to adopt. Sort of on a whim. Sort of because I really wanted to be a dad since at the time I couldn’t really be yours. I thought I’d never get to meet you. It takes time to adopt and I had forgotten about it just because of everything that happened. Actually -- I don’t remember if I told Steve about it. Thing is, nothing came of it and then I met you.”

Peter remembered a conversation about his dad possibly wanting other kids and how much Peter just -- he didn’t know how to feel about it. He hadn’t really let himself think about any of it especially since Tony had said he wasn’t sure if anything might happen.

“But why are you -- what’s that paper?” Peter motioned to the papers that Tony was holding.

“They want to know if I’m still interested,” Tony said.

“Oh,” Peter said.

Tony let out a breath. “I don’t think this is the right time,” Tony said. “Not for any of us.”

“Oh,” Peter said again and it was as if he didn’t know how to say anything else. He just -- he didn’t know if his dad wanted his opinion or if he was just telling Peter about it to tell him. Peter was also quite sure that he didn’t know how to feel.

It was getting closer to the end of the school year when a school trip was announced and Peter was dismayed to hear that it was a tour of SI. MJ cackled and laughed for a solid minute once she found out and just wouldn’t let it go all throughout lunch and then later when they were walking out of Midtown. Ned on the other hand seemed as excited as everyone else. The trip wasn’t for another few weeks, but Peter was already dreading it. He just knew that it wasn’t going to go well. He had kept the fact that he was living at the tower a secret from everyone including Ned and Michelle for over a year and this was going to be thing that finally revealed that to them -- he could just feel it.

“Aha, so we finally get to find out that Penis Parker has been lying about that internship all this time,” Flash said when he walked past them.

Peter rolled his eyes.

“Or prove Flash wrong,” Ned said. “This is actually really awesome. Do you think any of the Avengers will show up?”

Peter shook his head. “It’s not a trip to the living floors. Just the labs and SI. They don’t usually go down there.”

“But wouldn’t it be awesome if Flash saw you talking to them and they ignored him.”

Peter settled him with a look. “That’s not going to happen, Ned.”

When he got back home, he almost hesitated to mention the whole thing. He was going to have to get May to sign the permission slip since she was still his guardian, but if Peter was going to go -- and he really couldn’t not without giving ammunition to Flash to make fun of him with -- he was going to have to make sure that he did appear to be an intern at SI. Peter couldn’t remember the last time he had gone down to those floors of the building. He assumed that the trip was going to be geared towards the R&D rooms. Maybe he could get Pepper to help him out with making his story seem legitimate.

He ran into Steve as he was getting out of the elevator.

“Hey, Peter,” Steve said. “Not patrolling today?”

“I might go out later,” Peter said and followed Steve to the kitchen where Sam was in the middle of taking cookies out of the oven.

“Well we were planning on a movie if you want to join,” Sam said.

“Yeah, I will,” Peter said. It offered for the perfect distraction. He would figure out what he was going to do about the trip later.

Chapter One Hundred Ten

[kylostantrums]

This June, Wonder Woman, directed by Patty Jenkins, finally hit the cinemas. After the complete bombshell that was Batman v Superman (2016), I was half worried for the film — given the ridiculous sexist history of movies since the beginning of film — and half excited — given that a woman was directing the film. To a man, this might not seem like a big deal. We live in a world where action movies a dominated by male cast and crew members. The Avengers’ cast ratio from male to female is 8:2. Age of Ultron’s is 13:4. Guardians of the Galaxy, although co-written by a woman, is 8:3. Harry Potter’s Golden Trio is two males to one female. The Lord of the Rings trilogy features an entirely all-male cast with the exceptions of two female elven characters and Eowyn, whose “I am no man” scene does not redeem the entire trilogy of its utter lack of female characters nor does the book’s version justice. Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise, although features a female lead, she is seriously outnumbered. Star Wars’ featured trios are 2:1 for each instalment. Even Star Trek lacks in female leads (although their upcoming show, Star Trek: Discovery, will feature two female leads — one Asian and one black, too).

To a woman, this inequality is a serious problem. The message we interpret from the male to female ratio in these blockbuster franchises is that women are less essential, less capable, and less wanted. We see ourselves onscreen through the lens of a male writer and director, and what we see is not always good. Even though we are given badass female characters like Natasha Romanoff, Gamora, Hermione Granger, Ellen Ripley, Leia Organa, or Uhura, the majority of the time they have been sexualized in one way or another. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, both Romanoff and Gamora’s characters are trained assassins, reduced to either a sex object or love interest. Romanoff’s first appearance in Iron Man 2 leads to a comment made by Pepper Potts that she was a “very expensive sexual harassment lawsuit” waiting to happen. From there on, she was seen by the audience as something pretty, completely forgetting the fact that she took down Tony’s bodyguard Happy Hogan with ease. Her portrayal in the consecutive films she appears in stays relatively the same. She is smart, fierce, and witty — but the script uses that in ways to make her alluring, sexy, and desirable. Fast-forward to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, where Romanoff serves as a wonderful main character in one of, in my opinion, the best MCU movies to date. However. If you take a look at her promo poster, there are several things wrong with it. Firstly, it is agonizingly obvious that her entire body has been photoshopped. We have watched Romanoff in action in both Iron Man 2 and The Avengers already, and are familiar with her tight suit — but not so tight to completely alter the size of her arms, breasts, waist, and thighs. In the poster, Romanoff’s body is nothing like Scarlett Johansson’s.

In addition, her pose is not one of a trained deadly assassin. It is not comparable with Nick Fury’s death glare or Falcon’s action shot. As Bustle put it, “Despite the fact that Johansson’s character Black Widow is a superhero and a member of the Avengers, her poster is wildly sexualized. Rather than striking a pose of strength — something even Nick Fury gets to enjoy in his poster appearances — Black Widow appears softened and coy, almost blowing in the wind along with her hair.”

Age of Ultron brings the worst of it with her completely inexplicable love story arc with Bruce Banner/Hulk. The character of Black Widow deserves so much more than serving as just a love interest. As the only female Avenger, she represents every woman everywhere. That is the burden put on her as the only female lead in the cast. Of course, at the end of Age of Ultron, Scarlet Witch joins the team — only to go from a fierce fighter for what she believes in to a love interest of Vision’s. In Guardians of the Galaxy, even Gamora is reduced to a potential love interest of Peter Quill’s. She turns him down in the first film, but yet at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, she hints at what Peter kept referring to as “some unspoken thing” between the two of them.

What I am trying to say is, simply, we need some representation of a female superhero that isn’t sexualized for once.

I entered the theatre for Wonder Woman with all of this running through my head. I was worried that she would become a love interest first, and a fighter second. I knew that this first female-led superhero movie in a blockbuster franchise was going to set a precedent for any upcoming films — DCEU’s Batgirl, MCU’s Captain Marvel — and I was scared that it was going to keep the standard that the previous films had. I went in with the knowledge that the movie had been directed by a woman, but then again, Guardians of the Galaxy was co-written by a woman.

Nothing could have prepared me for the beautiful film that was Wonder Woman. The island of Themyscira was populated entirely by strong, fierce female warriors, training to fight together; wearing functional battle armour that was beautifully crafted but never sexual. Their ages varied greatly, but the elders’ crows feet and wrinkles were nothing to be ashamed of. Their scars and bruises and weathered skin were marks to be proud of, not to be hidden or photoshopped out. I had never, ever seen a film with a scene like that. My friend had sent me her thoughts on the scene on tumblr in this post, reading:

“i had no intentions of actually going to see wonder woman bc i never really loved the brand or whatever, but catch me in the first ten minutes before anyone had even been hurt or died deadass SOBBING in the theatre bc the visual of hundreds of strong, non-sexually depicted, fearless women descending down a wall and prepping for battle in unity and strength rendered me a complete mess. wonder woman wasnt the movie i asked for, but it was the movie i needed.”

“The visual of hundreds of strong, non-sexually depicted, fearless women descending down a wall and prepping for battle in unity and strength rendered me a complete mess.”

How can a scene be that powerful? This Tumblr post nails it right on the head:

“Watching a super hero movie directed by a woman is like putting glasses on for the first time. 

I didn’t realize how much I had to squint through the ‘male gaze’ till suddenly, miraculously, I didn’t have to.

There were absolutely NO eye candy shots of Diana. There were Amazons with ageing skin and crows feet and not ONE of them wore armor that was a glorified corset. When Diana did the superhero landing, her thigh jiggled onscreen.

Did you hear me? HER FUCKING THIGH JIGGLED. Wonder Woman’s thigh jiggled on a 20-foot tall screen in front of everyone.

Because she wasn’t there to make men drool. She wasn’t there to be sexy and alluring and flirt her way to victory, and that means she has big, muscular thighs, and when they absorb the impact of a superhero landing, they jiggle, and.that’s.WONDERFUL.

Thank you, Patty Jenkins, for giving me a movie about a woman, told by a woman,so I can see it through my eyes, not some dude bro who’s there for boobs and butts.”

“I didn’t realize how much I had to squint through the ‘male gaze’ until suddenly, miraculously, I didn’t have to.”

Think about that for a second. We live in this society where our entertainment is so male-dominated and male-centric that us women did not even realize how bad it was until we finally received something that was the opposite. Finally, we have a superhero film for everyone — men and women. The men I have spoken to that have watched it enjoyed it just as much as they have enjoyed any other superhero movie. The women, however, have noticed each and every single difference, because, for once, we have a lovely representation of women onscreen, not catering to the male audience. We have several female characters, not just one token female lead. Diana can hold her own, and her male counterpart quickly realizes that. Steve Trevor is a tough fighter and a good soldier, but never once tries to take control of a situation. He guides Diana through modern society but on the battlefield lets her do what she does best. He will purchase her clothes and ice cream, but never belittles her for not knowing the rules of society or war. He understands and gently guides her in the right directions, but in the end following her where she goes.

There are several powerful scenes in Wonder Woman, but not all of them are as intense or visually stunning as the No-Man’s Land scene. My personal favourite is that scene where Steve purchases Diana ice cream. This post breaks it down into several micro-elements that are hard to catch (I have paraphrased):

The way she eats the ice cream. She just eats it. No coy lick or self-conscious taste, no male gaze here, no oral/sexual pleasure of the viewer. Diana just she eats the ice cream, and it’s the kind of sloppy big bite of someone who is not self-conscious of eating, who hasn’t been trained from birth to think about how she looks as she does everything, even eating. She hasn’t spent her life being told that her purpose is in being attractive, even as she does a vital daily thing like eating. She doesn’t have a voice in her head saying, “oh, but ice cream, it’s kind of fatty, and what will people think?” She’s just, “wow, this thing is delicious, I think it’s great, the person who makes it deserves to be told how great their skill is, how great their actions that have lead to this product are.” Even in this she demonstrates valuing people by their actions and abilities and choices and who they are, not what they look like. The fact that is so rare and startling and obvious to me, the fact that Diana Prince eating ice cream moves me so much is So Terrible and makes me despair for our civilization and (nearly) all media produced before this.

During the shot when she takes the first bite, Steve is reaching his arm out to pay the ice cream seller. That movement is much bigger and more eye-catching than Diana eating the ice cream. This scene normalizes females eating on screen, through both subverting the erotic eating trope and allowing women to eat and enjoy whatever they want without feeling self-conscious.

Even more, Steve isn’t looking at Diana as she eats. A big part of the male gaze is that the default POV of films is generally that of the straight, white, male viewer. Generally, Steve would be the stand in for that default gaze, but he doesn’t even look at her! He doesn’t buy it for her so he can watch. He doesn’t even pull some Nice Guy bullshit like, I did something nice for you now do something nice for me, even as a vague joke or subtext. He isn’t trying to  get anything out of it. He just thinks she’s probably never had it and might enjoy it. It’s about her enjoyment, not his, despite everything trying to tell us that women feed appetites but aren’t meant to have any of their own.

In addition to that, there’s also the overt humour of the moment that could have been gross, too, but wasn’t. The ice cream seller offers her the ice cream but Diana is not familiar with the concept of “goods for money” so they could have made a big joke about it with Steve basically giving her an immediate “lesson” about how she can’t just TAKE the ice cream and how you’re supposed to pay for it. That’s basically how introducing a character from an Utopian society to a capitalist world always works. And that’s always the joke, “oh look how silly and uneducated this person is, doesn’t even know they have to pay for stuff!” But here though Diana does take the ice cream without planning to pay, but Steve doesn’t make it into a “big deal,” he just reaches over and pays. And so the scene flawlessly skips over any need to publicly shame or embarrass Diana and we can just focus on how adorable Diana is when eating ice cream for the first time in her life.

The character of Diana is wonderfully multi-dimensional. She can kick ass, but she also lives in complete awe of the human world. She excitedly exclaims, “A baby!” when she passes by one on the street. She enjoys an ice cream for the first time. She takes complete joy in a light snowfall. She is not just fierce but she is kind, she is strong but she loves deeply. She crosses No-Man’s Land (which, by the way, is a much better “I am no man”) to save the lives of men and women she does not know, because she feels such deep empathy for those crying out for help. She fights alongside men but sees more to them than just their dog tags. She realizes the full potential of each and every man she fights with. This post puts it into words I don’t want to steal or try to paraphrase:

After Veld is liberated and before they’re getting ready to go to the Gala, Charlie finally falters, expressing his self-doubt at joining them after choking earlier.

And Diana – kind, good, darling Diana – she smiles and laughs, not in a way that mocks or belittles, but rather expresses a purity and sincerity.

“Oh Charlie,” she breathes, “Then who will sing for us?”

With such a simple, seemingly innocent gesture, she reminds us of her true superpower. Yes, she’s strong. She’s a fierce warrior, she can fight like a badass and make us cry while watching her deflect bullets and swing a sword, but more than that, more than making us believe in her, she makes us believe in ourselves. 

Wonder Woman inspires and reminds us of the goodness within; of our own value, strength, and significance. 

She reminds Charlie of his own worth. That he is more than an eye behind a lens and a finger above a trigger. That a moment of weakness doesn’t define us, any more than our pasts, and she lifts him out of that insecurity effortlessly.

On the topic of her comrades, one extremely important aspect I noticed about them is that they are of wildly different backgrounds. Of course there’s Steve Trevor and Etta Candy, both white, but Steve is incredibly progressive in his respect for both women and his fellow soldiers, and Etta is an advocate for female suffrage and equality. Most importantly are the men that join Steve and Diana on the mission: we have Sameer, a Moroccan actor-turned-spy played by Saïd Taghmaoui, a French actor of Moroccan descent; Charlie, a Scottish sniper struggling with PTSD, played by Ewen Bremner; and Chief, a Blackfoot Native American played by Eugene Brave Rock, a Blackfoot from the Blood Tribe in southern Alberta, Canada. By incorporating these three men in the mission, rather than three other white soldiers, Wonder Woman has progressed from representing women to also representing people from other cultures and ethnicities.

Of course, the main cast is composed of mostly men. We still have a long way to go for female cinema. But this film, this beautifully written and directed film, is taking modern cinema in the right direction towards more feminist and representational content. The effect has been overwhelming for me, having a female-led superhero movie that is not sexualized or set from the perspective of a male. It is so refreshing. Its effect on children is the most important of all, because they are so highly influenced by the books they read and movies they watch. This post was shared by Patty Jenkins on Twitter and quickly went viral.

I work at a kindergarten and this is a collection of cute Wonder Woman related things that happened within a week of the movie being released. 

On Monday, a boy who was obsessed with Iron Man, told me he had asked his parents for a new Wonder Woman lunchbox. 

A little girl said “When I grow up I want to speak hundreds of languages like Diana”

This girl had her parents revamp her Beauty and the Beast birthday party in THREE DAYS because she simply had to have a Wonder Woman party. 

Seven girls playing together during recess on Tuesday, saying that since they all wanted to be Wonder Woman they had agreed to be Amazons and not fight but work together to defeat evil. 

There is this one girl that refuses to listen to you unless you address her as Wonder Woman. 

Another girl very seriously asked the teacher if she could ditch her uniform for the Wonder Woman armor bc she “wanted to be ready if she needed to save the world”. The teacher laughed and said it was okay, and the next day the girl came dressed as Wonder Woman and not a single kid batted an eye.

They are making a wrap-up dance show, and they asked the teacher if they could come as superheroes, they are going to sing a song about bunnies. 

This kid got angry and threw a plastic car over his head and a girl gasped “LIKE IN THE MOVIE”

A boy threw his candy wrapping in the floor and a 5-year-old girl screamed “DON’T POLLUTE YOU IDIOT, THAT IS WHY THERE ARE NO MEN IN THEMYSCIRA”

On Wednesday, a girl came with a printed list of every single female superhero and her powers, to avoid any trouble when deciding roles at recess. 

I was talking to one of the girls that hadn’t seen the movie, and the next day she came and very seriously told me “you were right, Wonder Woman was way better than Frozen.”

Consider this your friendly reminder that if this movie completely changed the way these girls and boys thought about themselves and the world in a week, imagine what the next generation will achieve if we give them more movies like Wonder Woman.  

The impact Wonder Woman has and will continue to have on audiences astounds and excites me. The DCEU has taken a progressive step in the right direction and I truly hope that the MCU follows in their stride with their portrayals of Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, and the upcoming instalment Captain Marvel.

If you have not made it to the theatres to see Wonder Woman yet, please do so. You will not be disappointed.

References and for further reading:

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/women-lead-roles-in-movies-study-hunger-games-gone-girl-1201429016/

https://www.nyfa.edu/film-school-blog/gender-inequality-in-film/

https://pudding.cool/2017/03/film-dialogue/

http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-avengers-black-widow-problem-how-marvel-slut-shamed-their-most-badass-superheroine

http://www.btchflcks.com/2016/05/why-black-widow-is-the-realest-superheroine-of-the-marvel-cinematic-universe.html

https://www.bustle.com/articles/14238-scarlett-johanssons-waist-isnt-actually-the-issue-with-her-captain-america-2-poster

Wonder Woman, Representation, and Feminist Film This June, Wonder Woman, directed by Patty Jenkins, finally hit the cinemas. After the complete bombshell that was Batman v Superman (2016), I was half worried for the film — given the ridiculous sexist history of movies since the beginning of film — and half excited — given that a woman was directing the film.