Miss Representation

So, it's femslash February, which is a problem if you're in the MCU fandom.  Because when it comes to women... well, we really don't have any.  We only need one woman per situation, right?  We have Maria Hill for SHIELD stuff, Natasha for Avengers stuff, and Pepper for Iron Man stuff.  (I was actually surprised we even got Pepper, honestly.)

I will argue that the Thor franchise has actually been the most female-positive of all the recent Marvel movies. Aside from the fact that it is the only one to pass a Bechdel test, (Well, okay, Iron Man 3 passes. Yay!) it prominently features women as something other than sex objects.  If anyone is being objectified in Thor, it's Chis Hemsworth.

I'm just gonna leave this here.  For reasons.

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Meanwhile, our women are dressed like normal people-- sweaters, jeans, and nary a low-cut top in sight.  I haven't been so pleasantly surprised since the last Superman movie.

(And before you say anything, yes, that movie was a train wreck, but we got a female villain in normal armor, not weird boob armor, and Lois Lane walking around in overalls instead of some one's Naughty Office Girl cosplay outfit.)

I think this might be another reason why we like Darcy so much, because she has her own agency independent of being a romantic interest.  (Well, and she's Kat Dennings.)

Ahem.  But today, we're not here to talk about Darcy, or Chris Hemsworth with his shirt off.  Today, I want to talk about the only woman we've really been able to get to know in the sausage-fest that the MCU has been.

Take a good look, because this is all the woman you're likely to get for a while (since they've pushed back the Captain Marvel movie... AGAIN).  I say this as someone who has a lot of love for Widow:

This is a problem.  Sure, she's tough, she's complex, but the Black Widow is a very sexualized character.  She's in charge of her sexuality and uses it as an asset against men, but being a sexy woman is a huge part of her character. Even her name defines her this way, the predator that will mate with a male and then devour him.

She is constantly portrayed as being sexually available.  She uses it to her advantage to manipulate men, certainly, but I think this just reinforces the idea of woman as some sort of 'other', relevant only in their association with men.  I don't think there's a better example of how the MCU thinks about women than a post that went around tumblr a while ago where the representatives of Marvel's Canada twitter asked their fans who they were more excited to see:  Iron Man, Thor, or Captain America.  Why these three?  Well, they're the ones with their own movie franchises, so they must be the most popular, right? (Hulk had his own movies, but I guess no one cares about Hulk.)

In an embarrassing plot twist, everyone voted for Black Widow.  But do we love Natasha for Natasha, or do we love her because she is almost literally our only option?  Are we just hungry for more female lead projects?

No, I think we actually like Natasha.  I have never read a fanfiction that has Natasha as the villain.  Sometimes she's cold, or scary, but she's never portrayed as some kind of soulless automaton.  She's a best friend and a protector.  She loves deeply.

So, in honor of Natasha and femslash, I suggest I've Suffered Shipwrecks. It features some femslash, although not Natasha/Pepper (which I am always a fan of because I think that Tony needs as many relationships with women that don't involve sex as possible).  It's a coffee shop AU, and has some pairings that I haven't seen that often (such as Steve/Thor).

I'm still searching for a longer fic with Natasha/Pepper, and I'll certainly post it when I find it, but I have also enjoyed Not just a river in Egypt.  This is more of a Steve/Tony centered piece, because longer Natasha/Pepper fics are not thick on the ground, but it's a nice read and leaves me, at least, feeling satisfied.

Females are Friends, Not Obstacles

Sorry I've been so slack on this, I moved to Germany recently, and got really busy!

So, the last time we talked we were looking at Star Trek.  Since the most recent movies feature much more attractive actors (there may be debate about this, but I will take Chris Pine over Shatner any day), that part of the fandom has been the most active these days.

What does that mean?  Well, now we have to deal with the whole... Uhura thing. *Ugh why*

I'm sure I'm not the only person who thought there was more sexual chemistry in the scene where Spock tries to choke Kirk, than when he's kissing Uhura.  It's like some shitty rom com, and the hero now has to get rid of their disposable love interest before they can move forward with the real love story.

It's a common issue in fan works, as writers often have to 'write out' an established relationship.  Sometimes this leads to vilifying the other character, which is one of my least favorite things.  (My least favorite thing, as always, is MPreg.)  I would even go so far as to say that it is a deal breaker for me as a reader.

I've been happy to find that we, en mass, love Uhura too much to do that to her.

Below are two fics that I enjoyed that give us an Uhura that we can all love.  The first deftly deals with her relationship with Spock, the second just refuses to go there at all (they never date).

Atlas is long, and it gets a little weird at the end, but it is 100% worth your time.  The slow burn romance that we all love in a Star Trek fic, and Spock is very in character throughout the piece.  I've read it all the way through more than once.

THE SUM OF BOTH OF US is the kidfic that I think I always wanted about Kirk and Spock.  (The brief glimpse we get of them as children in the newer movies was really appealing to me.  They're such fierce little things, I always wanted them to be together sooner.)  Along with a great Uhura we get a fantastic T'Pring (who I've always really dug as a character), a really good Amanda, and an adorable sehlat.  This is also a love letter to Vulcan in the way that Observations was a love letter to New York, which I need so much.