March 8th was International Women’s Day, and the month of March is Women’s History Month, so it’s fitting that a movie like Captain Marvel should come out this month. Spoiler alert: I haven’t seen the movie yet. This post is solely on the merits of having such a movie with such a main female lead.
As part of the Time’s Up movement, Captain Marvel lead, Brie Larson, joined a group of over three hundred prominent Hollywood women who are not only working to help women protect themselves from sexual harassment, but also to bring gender parity to Hollywood. During a recent interview, Ms. Larson noticed that all of her interviewers during her press days for Captain Marvel were “overwhelmingly white males.” She called out the discrepancy and brought in a disabled woman of color, journalist Keah Brown, to interview her for Marie Claire.
Cue lots of white men taking this as a swipe at both their whiteness and their masculinity.
Calls for a boycott by angry white actors (cough cough James Woods cough cough) ensued, including a hashtag to see a different movie.
When you have a choice, pick a movie where the studio doesn’t hate half its audience… pic.twitter.com/69I3QuCxt3
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) March 3, 2019
Men gave so many poor PRE-movie reviews that Rotten Tomatoes had to remove the feature from their site. Fanboys flocked to the comment sections of comic book sites to declare they wouldn’t see a movie where the lead “hated men.”
Ms. Larson never said she hated men. She didn’t even remove any of the white male reporters from the press gaggle. All she did was add one woman of color.
I’m here to tell you, as a white woman, that if your masculinity and pride in self is so shallow that you cannot take adding one black woman to a crowd of white men, the problem here is neither the woman of color nor Brie Larson. It is you.
Hollywood’s Time’s Up movement is based on calling out injustices, and making space for women and people of color where there previously was none. Brie Larson did just that. She made a space and gave of her time to someone who otherwise was not going to be allowed in that room. No one’s “spot” was taken. She didn’t vilify men. The only thing she did was add to the diversity of the group interviewing her.
It’s Women’s History Month, and she started it off with a bang by pushing an envelope that needs to be pushed if we are ever going to find parity in Hollywood or anywhere else. Just like Carol Danvers, the female character and pilot who would go on to be Captain Marvel, did. Go, Captain Marvel! Higher, faster, further.
I can’t wait to see her movie.
Captain Marvel is directed by Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck. With Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Jude Law, Gemma Chan, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Lashana Lynch, and Clark Gregg. Carol Danvers becomes one of the universe’s most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races. This movie premiered March 8th, 2019.
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We celebrate Gay Pride all year long. But this year, we’re doing some special programing for a large-scale campaign #LoveEqually. We’re looking for both sponsors and contributors. Check it out! https://t.co/tkraXFPxLL pic.twitter.com/X2FlBEZb8Y
— The Good Men Project (@GoodMenProject) March 11, 2019
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