Detailed spoilers for "The Avengers." Trigger warning for violence, torture, rape, and a misogynistic slur, as mentioned within the movie.
I have finally caught up with what seems like the rest of the world and seen "The Avengers." I really liked it. I liked how there were three female characters and only one of them was somebody's love interest. I liked how Maria Hill's gender was totally irrelevant to her characterization and her plotting, and how Natasha Romanoff's almost was. I liked how sexual tension and romance were also irrelevant to the plot. It was a movie about people working together to get stuff done.
One of the things I didn't like pertains to the Black Widow. I was very pleasantly surprised by her characterization-- she's not portrayed as a helpless love interest, she's on equal footing with the other Avengers, she basically saves the day. As I said above, her gender is almost irrelevant to her plotline. (One line I appreciated was when she told Banner, "You didn't come because I batted my eyelashes at you," subverting the idea that her strength lies in her sex appeal.) There are two times when it was relevant, though, and one of them, I found problematic.
The first time is when she's ostensibly being interrogated by a Russian general. She's tied to a chair, and apparently helpless. The general dismisses her with the line, "The famous Black Widow is just another pretty face." She opens her eyes wide and says, "Do you really think I'm pretty?" He has her tied to a chair and is threatening to rip out her tongue with pliers, and she mocks him to his face. She then proceeds to beat up everyone in the room, while still tied to the chair, before dumping the general down a hole in the floor. This was not the time I found problematic. This was a subversion and it was wonderful.
The second time is when she goes to talk to Loki, ostensibly to bargain for Clint's life. While Loki dresses it up in pretty words, he basically threatens to use his mind control to make Clint rape and kill her, to mock her for thinking that saving Clint would make a difference in the balance of all the people she's killed in the past. He calls her a "mewling quim," the latter word apparently being the English equivalent of "cunt." She pretends to break down, and he tips his hand by mentioning the Hulk. She interprets this (apparently correctly, in light of later events) as meaning he's going to manipulate Bruce Banner into Hulking out and destroying the helicarrier, and as she leaves to warn the others, it becomes apparent that her breakdown was a trick to get Loki to talk. Loki is left looking like he doesn't know what hit him.
I appreciate the fact that Natasha uses an appearance of vulnerability to get her opponents to reveal information to her, and I especially appreciate the fact that she tricks the Trickster God. But this scene feels forced to me because it's ultimately rather pointless. She warns the others that Loki wants Banner to Hulk out, but they start arguing instead of doing anything about that, so that Banner does turn into the Hulk when Hawkeye and his fellow mind-controlled minions attack the helicarrier. Natasha goes a harrowing round with a demigod and wins, only for her valuable intel to be ignored by a room full of men having a pissing contest.
It seems as if this scene exists solely for Joss Whedon to show us how informed he is about the harmfulness of misogyny, while still allowing him to be "edgy" by throwing in some verbal abuse and misogynistic slurs. It's a lovingly-crafted display of misogyny-- we know how much Whedon likes the phrase "mewling quim"-- that's subverted at the end with a hasty, "Don't do this, kids, it makes you careless!" It's Whedon's attempt to show us that he knows how the bad guys operate, but he's one of the good guys. Except it falls flat, not because Natasha's not awesome, but because her awesomeness is wasted here.
P.S. If you haven't seen it, Feministe has a good post up on the characterization and costuming of the Black Widow, and the sadly predictable misogynistic reception she's gotten from some reviewers.
P.P.S. In most other respects, though, the movie was very good, and was actually one of the more refreshingly feminist things I've seen lately. Which is sad considering that it has all of three named female characters and doesn't pass the Bechdel test, but it does have a hardcore superspy who rescues her best male friend instead of vice versa, a no-nonsense soldier who answers only to Nick Fury, and a more "traditionally" feminine woman who's a high-powered businesswoman and, apparently, an architect. Three different ways to be female and awesome!
