If you haven’t seen it, I apologize, but there are spoilers coming. More specifically, the part where Captain Marvel takes the gauntlet from Peter Parker, who says something along the lines of, “Good luck getting it through on your own,” which prompts Okoye to say “She’s not alone.” I started to sob happy tears when all of the female characters stood there ready for battle to help Carol. But that’s just it– I don’t think that that level of representation should have made me cry. The boys don’t cry watching the men assemble to help one another when it was Thor, Captain America and Iron Man against Thanos. Why should I feel the need to be so overly happy for something that should have been there regardless?
Representation and by that I mean good representation, is hard to come by, but it is important nonetheless. Don’t get me wrong, I love Marvel and I truly think they are on the better end of the spectrum when it comes to adding in diversity. LGBT+ diversity is still lacking from their films, but in regards to female representation it does a lot better than other franchises—especially since Marvel’s women actually wear appropriate armor; just look at Valkyrie. However, this does not change the fact that good female representation in mainstream media is so low that it brought tears to my eyes to see on the big screen. That calls for a change if other women felt the same. I want to be able to see something like that and instead of happy sobs, just enjoy how great these characters are. Female representation deserves to be normalized.