A gentleman values discretion

spontaneousthings:

hdkrock:

spontaneousthings:

hdkrock:

spontaneousthings:

hdkrock:

christianthor:

racebending:

The image above was created from gathering all of the significant named characters from released Marvel Studios movies as documented on the Marvel Movies wikia.

It’s pretty sad. As you can see, only 22% of the characters are women and half of them are love interests. There are over twice as many supporting characters who are men than women (and none of them function as love interests like the women do.) 84% of the characters are white.

• 60% of the characters are white men, including all the main characters

• 77%of the characters are men

• 76% of the men are white

• 81% of the characters (both genders) are white

• All of the women are white

• Allof the characters of color are men

• None of the characters are women of color

Out of all the films, Thor probably does the best in introducing diverse side characters. Natalie Portman and Kat Denning’s characters pass the Bechdel test within the first five minutes, and some of the Asgardians are played by people of color including Idris Elba’s Heimdall and Tabano Asano’s Hogun. Four white women characters are introduced instead of the other films’ average of one or two. But even then, there’s no question that the main characters of the film are Thor and his brother Loki.

Marvel is working off of decades of existing properties that for years solely focused on white men and a the demographic market of white men. So it makes sense that many of the films would have an abundance of white male characters. Beyond ratios, what doesn’t make sense is that even in the comics there is also an abundance of characters of color, etc. that they are ignoring or underutilizing. There are already five completed films where the titular character is a white man, with more to come. There are no films in the works where the titular character is a person of color or a woman.

…

Women made up at least 40% of the audience of The Avengers, yet only one out of the six Avengers–Black Widow–was a woman. Women also made up 40% of attendees at this year’s ComicCon. Why, given the scarcity of female heroic leads in the existing Marvel films, did Marvel choose to announce the addition of several more male characters but only one new female character?

Read the full article at Racebending.com: On Marvel, Mandarin, and Marginalization

This is Fucking ridiculous.  You can’t sit here and make this stupid demo graphic about marvel being sexist, and racist.

ALL of these characters have had plenty of interaction with other races, women, and even other species. God, you people Can’t fucking have ANYTHING good, you just decide to put things in your light to get a stupid fucking point across about how a fictional story wrongs you.

Reasons this is stupid.
1.These are the MOVIES, THEY TELL ONE STORY OUT OF LITERALLY THOUSEANDS SHOWCAING THESE CHARACTERS. YOU CAN’T MAKE A GENERALIZED STATEMENT FROM THAT EXAMPLE.

2. Captain America was set in a time with Racism, and prejudice. CAP DOESN’T SEE THAT, Cap sees a person, who he will defend with his life regardless of color, gender, or anything stupid like that. His love interest was a white woman because she was a british secret agent/military personnel. ( who by the way, if we’re looking at this historically Shouldn’t of been in the position that she was, let alone be an awesome character in her own right. 

3.  Thor, Despite being the one described as the most diverse one, Really shouldn’t have been. They Were All norse gods, Which as you might imagined the vikings imagined looking like themselves. Natalie portman’s character was a fucking super scientist, and even fought for her rights in the film when someone tried to wrong her. SIF, Don’t even get me started on sif, She could of kicked thor’s ass had she wanted to, she is literally a woman who decided that she was too god for the mother fucking valkryies so she was like FUCK YOU GUYS, IMA GO BE USEFUL.

I Could honestly Rant forever about how utterly STUPID this post is.
Yet, another Reason WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS. 

Also, I believe Black panther is getting his own movie, along with the other avengers ant man, and wasp.

I AM TIRED OF APOLOGIZING FOR BEING A WHITE MAN! You know who voted to give women the right to vote? White men. You know who fought to end slavery? Mainly Irish immigrants, but that’s not the point! White men do great things! 

I have no idea who you are, but let’s assume that you are a decent person. Congratulations. Here’s your cookie.

But let’s be clear. Racism and sexism still exist in America. They exist strongly. And who propagates, encourages, and defends them? White. Men.

Yes, you voted for the rights of minorities. Why was that the case? Because you were the only ones with the power to do so.

White men do not automatically get to call themselves heroes for assisting in the end of slavery or assisting in the acquisition of women’s rights, because it was your group who caused those problems in the first place. Choosing to defend the rights of minorities was not heroic; it was finally taking responsibility for your past cruelties.

No one is asking for an apology for you existing, or for who you were born as. No, we’re asking for acknowledgement of the fact that your social class continues, to this very day, to run the world, run the media, and through the media, runs how the world judges everyone else who is not white and who is not male. Your group still has the majority of the power in this world; use that power responsibly or yes, we will continue to point things like this out. Because frankly, after two thousand years of white patriarchal bullshit, we minorities sort of, um, deserve it.

Wow, you’re right. I forgot how hard you had it as a white woman in America. You can’t pigeon hole all white men into one role. People are people. Some people are assholes and other people, with the power to do so, counteract those assholes. It’s not about being black, white, asian, whateverthefuck. It’s about being people. These characters are all, historically, white men with white men friends and white women love interests. Lumping people into groups doesn’t solve anything, and this OP is just as sexist as if the movies outright said they where sexist. By the way, do you know the most powerful character in the Marvel Universe? Not Thor, not Galactus, not even the fucking Beyonder. It’s Squirrel Girl.

And do you want to talk about oppression and violence? My people have been in a blood feud with the Serbians since the 1300s. My people have experienced out children stolen from us by the Turks to oppress our own. My people where brought to genocide in the 1990s. The fucking 1990s. So please, check your privilege. There are a lot of more important causes where people are being harmed and women are being oppressed than in the Marvel Universe. So maybe focus your attention on that. 

You’ll note I said, in America. I have no first hand knowledge of problems in other countries, so I wasn’t commenting on that. As a white woman, I have so many more privileges than women in other racial groups. Fuck yes, I have privilege. 

I also make 70% less than men do on the dollar. Black women make 60% less. Latina women make 50% less than white men. 

My opinions are invalidated because “they are just emotional outbursts,” but if I were any other race, they would matter even less.

White male politicians (granted, mostly Conservative men) are constantly invalidating my sexual rights, my rights to health care and think that as a woman, I should just expect rape and abuse. And these white male politicians are voted into power by white males who agree with them. But no, dude, I totally don’t have problems.

Pointing out sexism or racism does not make someone a racist or a sexist, because the abused are the ones who decide if something is racist or sexist, NOT the abuser. I might not able to justify if something is racist because of this (since I am white), but I can damn well justify if something is sexist. You cannot tell someone they aren’t being offended or having their rights infringed upon because you are not a member of that abused class.

The Marvel example is one of thousands. White men dominate the media. They decide what is right and what is wrong. That is the problem. What adds to the problem are people like you who think just because you don’t feel like you’re limiting the roles of women or minorities, that you aren’t. Well, you are. And specifically in American society, the media shapes how the majority continues to feel about issues and different groups. It was only after the news finally captured graphic video of riots in the South, where the police were beating children in the streets, did white America give a crap about what was happening during the Civil Rights movement. Media Matters. So, yes, movies of any sort are important. Because they, like music, TV, and newspapers, shape what is important. If all people ever see are white male heroes or white powerful people (even villains!), how is any other group in this country supposed to feel empowered if even the people they’re supposed to look up to don’t represent them at all? 

What is so damn difficult about making movies or stories about powerful women as the main heroes? Or powerful heroes that are racial minorities? Yes, these are less important questions than solving hunger or crime or genocides, but it is still a crucial (American) problem for our society.

Don’t get me wrong, everything you said is true, and the way some women are treated is completely 100% unfair. Equality and all. But this seems very nitpicky. Production companies, at the end of the day, are companies. They exist to make money. A white male lead in a comic book movie is going to make them the most money. I’m not saying that’s ok. Would I like to see a Squirrel Girl movie? Hell yes! Squirrel Girl is fucking awesome. Not to mention a Black Panther movie would be pretty perfect. But you have to get that the majority of these characters are white men. There are strong female leads (usually played by Angelina Jolie) but they’re just not as common because, on a business aspect, it doesn’t make sense. Is that good? No. But it doesn’t change the fact that movie studios have implemented specific changes just to be more diverse. They straight up just made Nick Fury black. Out of fucking nowhere. And you know what Nick Fury’s job is? Head of S.H.I.E.L.D. Sounds pretty fucking important. And then when he leaves, who takes his place? Oh, right, Maria Hill. S.H.I.E.L.D. sure sounds like an equal opportunity employer to me. If you focus on the negative, yea, I guess you could point out some bad things. But in the end, I’m right, and isn’t that what really matters? 

“But in the end, I’m right, and isn’t that what really matters? “ « Was this supposed to be sarcasm??

Yeah, they have awesome supporting characters in the Avengers series that are both female and from minority groups. Yes, those choices were rather spontaneous, and awesomer for it. Yes, you are correct to say it comes down to economics, since the majority of movie goers (from the last statistic I heard) are the white male demographic.

It is not “nitpicky” to complain about these issues. They are real. They are tremendously influential in our country’s media. I suppose the real question is, “Why the heck are white men so afraid or displeased to watch minorities or women in the role of the hero?” Maybe they aren’t. Maybe it’s just the industry thinking they are, and if they changed, no one would really mind it after all.

But I sure can’t change the industry from where I’m standing; minority media producers can’t even change it. The people who run the industry right now have that ability. And yes, they are white males.

We’re not just picking on white men for the hell of it. It’s because they’re the ones who are messing up. Consistently. For the last two thousand+ years. I would be so very pleased to proven wrong the next time a blockbuster film comes out and we’ve got a transsexual black woman kicking ass as the main lead. Or if we’re stuck talking about Marvel/Avengers, a Black Widow movie would be a logical place to start. But until that happens, no, you are not right. This situation is not going away and we have every right to “nitpick” until those in power actually start to care.

Personally I was very disappointed that Rhodey didn’t appear in the Avengers movie, you’d think that Warmachine armour would have been perfect for fighting invading hordes of aliens and that Nick Fury would have someone with equipment like that on speed dial.

I suppose we needed the screen time for knocking norse gods out of frames and pointless fights between super heroes who think they’re still in high school.