When Marvel released an extended scene from Captain Marvel last week, the studio likely had no idea they were giving misogynists a weird new hill to die on. What should’ve been nothing more than a delightful bonus for fans quickly morphed into a lightning rod for a bunch of hypocritical men, who were none too pleased with Brie Larson’s superhero putting a sexist biker in his place when he sexually harasses her. As highlighted in this new video from Browntable, a whole bunch of dudes took to Twitter to clutch their pearls and call Captain Marvel a “villain” for having the nerve to stand up to a guy who sexually harassed her. The scene released by Marvel gives us a longer look at the moment in the film when a biker asks Captain Marvel if she needs “a ride” in a manner that could never in a billion years be described as anything less than slimy, at best. Then the guy tells our hero to smile for him—something every woman has unfortunately heard at least once in her lifetime. So it’s pretty rad when Larson grabs the dude’s hand and twists it real hard. Maybe he’ll think twice about sexually harassing women in the future. IF ONLY!
But there were several men on Twitter (and in comments sections on YouTube and this very site, even) who were not having it. “Villain!” they cried, willfully ignoring the actions of several male Marvel heroes, as Browntable points out. What about when Doctor Strange refused to perform surgery on a patient for fear of screwing up his record? What about when Peter Quill murdered a bunch of dudes mid-mission, just to get his Walkman back? Oh, right, I forgot that Walkmans are imbued with the power of nostalgia and thus far more valuable than the life or safety of a woman. You think if Rambo (or any hyper-masculine hero played by the likes of Stallone, Schwarzenegger, The Rock, et al.) encountered this biker, he’d do anything less than rip his arm out of its socket and beat him over the head with it? But I guess it’s different when a dude’s masculinity is threatened, right?
As the exceptionally wise and omnipotent misogynists of Twitter have made clear, a woman defending herself from a would-be assailant who sexually harasses her is downright villainous behavior and it will not be tolerated in this superhero cinematic universe or any other. What an exciting time to be a woman on this planet! No wonder Captain Marvel couldn’t wait to hightail it out of here.