X-Men: The Face of Sexism

In Betty's  "X-Men: Days of Future Past"  and  "Further thoughts on X-Men Days of Future Past"  and Stan's  "X-Men: Days of Future Past just another racist film," "Why Ant-Man's film should be shelved" and "Alyssa Rosenberg is an embarrassment" they have tackled the lack of women in the latest X-Men film.  For those not getting it, that's the cast photo.  Halle Berry's not in it.  If she were, there would be 19 cast members and four of those would be women.  15 men, 4 women.  Are you starting to see the problem that Betty and Stan have been documenting?  15 men, 4 women and three of the four women do nothing -- see Betty and Stan's writing -- and the fourth is pushed and prodded by men.  What a proud moment, right?

When the first film, 2000's X-Men, showed up on screens, the X-Men were Halle Berry (Storm), Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Famke Janssen (Jean Grey), James Marsden (Cyclops) and Anna Paquin (Rogue).  Nowdays, the X-Men looks as awful as the trash of The Avengers.  As someone who read both comics, I know damn well that The Avengers was never a group of men and one woman.  It's cute the way Joss Whedon and Bryan Singer forever escapes charges of sexism when they adapt these comics and somehow forget to include women and then work to weaken the token woman that is included.

It's a real shame that James Cameron didn't helm either franchise.  He's a director who appreciates strong characters -- men and women.  Joss has been privately insisting that the sexism was imposed by Disney and that he wanted more women in the first Avenger film. He states privately that he never planned to just include Black Widow but Disney shot down other women being in the film.  Well, Joss, this is my gift to you, I just outed your private excuse, now you can choose to publicly talk about it or not.

But you can't continue to pretend that it was acceptable to present no super heroine on The Avengers (Black Widow is a fighter a la a Bruce Lee character, I wouldn't confuse her with Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Ms. Marvel, Mantis, Hellcat, She-Hulk, Moon Dragon, Mocking Bird, Firebird, Sue Storm's Invisible Woman, Firestar, Sersi, Spider-Woman, Valkyrie (what a treat for Defenders fans if Hellcat and Valkyrie were both included), etc.



 x-men