I see this on literally every social media platform.
I've seen it most recently with the weeks leading up to the release of Marvel's newest blockbuster "Captain Marvel". Granted, the people saying this are probably just Internet trolls looking to get a rise out of people. However, it very well could be people who are genuinely mad about female representation on the screen.
Why do we need a Captain Marvel movie? Why do we need a female superhero represented on the screen, you may ask?
Marvel Comics was born with political roots and the superheroes created within these narratives are inherently political as well. It's difficult to make the argument that comic books shouldn't be political when each publication addressed topical issues such as Tony Stark's transformation to Iron Man occurring during the growth of military industrialized weapons during the Cold War, Captain America punching Hitler in the face, the diverse mutant group of the X-Men making their debut during the Civil Rights Movement, and the Department of Education, Health, and Welfare asking for a comic to be made that addressed drug addiction in young adults.
And now people are complaining that Marvel is becoming too political because of the intersectional feminism occurring throughout the film? Since we have just established the political roots of Marvel, I think we can all agree that this definitely doesn't mean that you're mad about Marvel being too political, it means your embedded inner misogyny is showing.
This is the first film in the MCU to have a woman as its protagonist. I cannot even begin to express how incredibly important that is for women and for young girls everywhere.
I saw "Wonder Woman" a few days after its release and I remember crying as I was sitting in my seat because, for the first time in my life, I saw a powerful woman walking across the screen with men looking to her for guidance.
I remember thinking how that was going to impact the lives of so many women. I remember wishing this movie had come out when I was a kid instead of an 18-year-old.
So when I see people asking why we need another female superhero represented on screen, I have to ask why they are complaining in the first place. Instead of questioning why we need to have a movie with a powerful female lead, let's instead ask why we have the multiple remakes of Peter Parker's Spider-Man, the repeated sad song of Batman's origin story, or all the editions of Superman.
Why are we upset about diversity? Why are we upset someone other than a white male is being represented on the screen?
And it's not about box office numbers, it's not even for a second about how those movies do better at the box office. How could it be when "Wonder Woman" is one of the highest grossing superhero origin movies, when "Black Panther" made billions at the box office and won three Academy Awards, when "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" won Best Animated Feature and made millions at the box office?
It's clear that diversity wins every time. It's clear that these films do well in the box office and they hold the power to tell better stories and to send a more powerful message.
You're not mad that Marvel and similar industries are too political. You're mad that for the first time the narrative isn't representative of you.
The world is changing. It's about time these Internet trolls begin to change with it.