blog 4 : black widow

Black Widow (2021)

Director : Cate Shortland

Initially, I wasn't going to do a post about Black Widow. But the more I thought about the film, the more I realised there is to discuss and write about it. Despite being the first female avenger,  only now has Natasha Romanoff finally got her own standalone film within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it is also the first MCU film directed solely by a woman. Yep. It has taken 23 Marvel films for a woman to be the sole director. And to me, one of the biggest standouts of Black Widow, is how differently Natasha Romanoff is portrayed by a female director compared to a male director.

! As always, spoiler warning ! I will be discussing events that occur in this film, so if you don't want it spoiled, I highly recommend stop reading here, go and watch the film, and then come back to read this:) For non-Marvel readers, if you want to watch Black Widow but don't want to watch all other 23 MCU films, I would recommend watching the following before: Captain America : Civil War, Avengers : Infinity War, and Avengers : Endgame. Since Black Widow takes place between Civil War and Infinity War, watching these three should give you a pretty decent understanding of why Natasha is in the situation that she is. In this post, I will also be discussing the portrayal of Natasha Romanoff's character, as well as the film.

The sexualisation of Natasha Romanoff

For those unfamiliar with the male gaze (although you're probably more familiar than you thought), it is generally described as where the viewer is forced to see female characters through a male lens, and therefore distorting our images of women. This is the result of the majority of entertainment being created by men, which is obviously very evident in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Natasha Romanoff is probably one of the best examples of a female character being portrayed through the male gaze, along with other women in the MCU and outside of it, such as Harley Quinn (DCEU). Since Natasha Romanoff's first appearance in Iron Man 2, she has been constantly sexualised through the male gaze. This has been apparent in her outfits, hairstyles, shoes, and relationships to other characters. While these may all seem relatively unimportant details, when they are compared to the male characters, a level of misogyny and sexualisation is very much evident. 

Firstly, let's look at Natasha Romanoff's outfits she wears during fights, compared to Tony Stark's Iron Man suit.

On the left is Natasha Romanoff in Avengers (2012), and on the right is Tony Stark in Captain America : Civil War (2016). The differences are very stark (excuse the pun), with Natasha's suit being very skin tight and fitting, showing cleavage, with seemingly little protection if she were to get hit or injured. Whereas, Tony Stark's Iron Man suit is quite the opposite, very robust and, according to Tony Stark, made of a 'a nickel-titanium alloy'. While Iron Man's shoes are always flat footed, in the majority of films before Black Widow that Natasha is in, her shoes have some sort of heel. Pretty inconvenient to fight in, right? This shows concretely the difference in attitudes towards Natasha Romanoff and Tony Stark, as well as other male characters in the MCU. Whilst male characters are given thick, protective suits, women tend to be given thin, unprotective, and inconvenient outfits to fight in. Other examples of this are Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and Wanda Maximoff in Avengers : Age of Ultron (2015). Similarly, Natasha Romanoff is constantly shown with her hair down during fights, which is definitely not convenient and further shows how Natasha is shown through the male gaze. The men writing/directing her seemingly only care about how attractive she looks during fights: her hair down, skin tight thin suits, cleavage, heeled shoes. The lack of practicality and thought gone into making sure Natasha would actually be protected during a fight is next to none. 

However, this changes in Black Widow, as Natasha, as well as other women such as Yelena Belova and Melina Vostokoff, is finally able to wear a protective suit, flat shoes, and have her hair up!!! As you can see in the image below, both Natasha and Yelena's suits (Melina wears the same as Natasha) looks pretty protective and convenient to fight in. Natasha's has the protective padding on it, whilst Yelena's vest offers an extra layer of protection. They both wear flat shoes, and have their hair up during their respective fights. This suggests their characters have not been written for the male gaze, and while at some points you can tell it was written by a man, the female characters in Black Widow are significantly less sexualised than in previous MCU films. Whilst this may not be revolutionary, it certainly feels like a step in the right direction from the traditionally male-dominated MCU. More female-led MCU projects also further shows this direction, with films such as Captain Marvel (2019), The Marvels (2022), and Black Widow (2021), to TV shows such as WandaVision (2021), it feels like the MCU is starting to recognise female heroes in a way that isn't just a side character or love interest.

As well as being sexualised, Natasha Romanoff is also constantly shown as having a different romantic love interest in many films pre-Black Widow. Now, there is nothing wrong with love interests in the MCU, Peter and MJ have my heart, but the inconsistent and poor writing of Natasha's romantic relationships can become painful. The most obvious examples are Avengers : Age of Ultron (2014) and Captain America : The Winter Soldier (2014). In the first, Natasha's character is so painfully obviously written by a man (Joss Whedon), from instigating she is a monster because she can't have kids to her forced romance with Bruce Banner, it is all just so messy. Throughout Age of Ultron, we see Natasha and Bruce Banner constantly flirting, suggesting they may have romantic feelings for each other. However, this relationship never actually goes anywhere and is pretty much never talked about in films following this one. Is it lazy writing, or just a lack of care for Natasha Romanoff's character? Probably a bit of both, as in The Winter Soldier, her and Steve Rogers are shown to potentially have romantic feelings for each other. Once again, this relationship doesn't officially go anywhere, apart from the occasional flirt in later films. Now, this is not me saying that characters can't flirt with each other, but when you're practically forcing relationships to happen and then never taking them anywhere, or ever mentioning them again, it just looks lazy. The lack of love interests in Black Widow allows the characters to fully showcase their ability without reducing them to love interests, or lowering their ability to make the men in the film look better. Not forcing Yelena into a romantic or sexual relationship also slightly aligns with her asexuality in the comics, therefore not erasing such an important part of her identity. We can only hope that the MCU will not erase Yelena's asexuality in future projects just to cater towards audiences, as there is already a lack of canonically LGBTQ+ characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. On the topic of Yelena, already a promising character, she is quick to shut down Alexei's misogynistic assumption that her and Natasha are in bad moods because of 'that time of the month'. Yelena's response to Alexei is as follows:

“Yeah, that’s what happens when the Red Room gives you an involuntary hysterectomy. They kind of just go in and they rip out all of your reproductive organs. They just get right in there and they chop them all away, everything out, so you can’t have babies.”

Potentially a reference to in Avengers : Age of Ultron, where Natasha sees herself as a monster due to how she cannot have children, Yelena's response highlights the true gruesomeness of the Red Room, and the inhumane way they treat the girls in it. Despite Pugh's humorous delivery of the line, fitting with her character's personality, it sheds more of a light on what all of the Black Widows have to endure during their time in the Red Room, something not commonly touched upon in previous MCU films. The original line that Whedon wrote, deeming Romanoff as a 'monster' for not being able to reproduce, is deeply damaging and harmful as it furthers the sexist idea that women who can't have children, eg for biological reasons, or women that don't want children are monsters. When in reality, no woman is obliged to having children, and they are not a monster if they don't.

How Black Widow shows human trafficking

In recent projects, Marvel has been showing real life issues more commonly than when they first started making films. Black Panther (2018) gave people of colour the representation they scarcely get, especially in superhero films, and tackled issues such as race and identity rather than ignoring them. It shows collaborative power, as well as not reducing their women to Hollywood stereotypes, for example, their costumes did not over-sexualise them, wore their natural hair, and were amazing, strong female characters who stood together in times of need. In Falcon and the Winter Soldier, it tackles the racism that Sam Wilson endures after becoming Captain America, and how different his experience as a black man having the shield was to Steve Rogers, a white man having it. It does not ignore these issues, or show white saviorism, but deals with these issues head on. 

In Black Widow, it shows the occurrence of human trafficking by the Red Room in order to make young girls into Black Widows. This is shown primarily in the opening title sequence of the film, in which young girls are shown to be being brainwashed into assassins, and having loss of control over their own actions. The reason for the Red Room making their Black Widows infertile is so her sole loyalty is her mission, and not a child, allowing them to become 'better' assassins. This idea as a whole is built on patriarchal assumptions that all women have a desire to become a mother, and that it is the most important aspect of a woman's life. In Black Widow, Dreykov uses the girls and women as weapons and killing machines, seeing them as disposable and replaceable. This is furthered by how many of the young girls who are trafficked by the Red Room often have no biological family, and therefore Dreykov sees them as even more disposable. Dreykov himself says the reason he started the Black Widow programme is because "the one natural resource the world has too much of [is] girls." Natasha Romanoff's character dispels this idea of a lack of biological family meaning you have no family at all, as she is able to find love and a family within the Avengers. As Natasha says herself in Avengers : Endgame:

"I used to have nothing. And then I got this. This job. This family. And I was better because of it. And even though they're gone... I'm still trying to be better."

Even though elements of the film are dramatised, for example Dreykov's use of a pheromone which means the Widows can't harm or hurt him, it still sheds a light on the issue of human trafficking in a way that doesn't play down the severity, reality, and impact of it.

Taskmaster : a villain or a victim?

One of the main criticisms of Black Widow is the lack of support for Taskmaster as a villain compared to other Marvel villains, but after watching countless tiktoks and doing lots of thinking, I realised that Taskmaster isn't really a villain. But another victim of Dreykov. After finally learning what happened in Budapest, and how Natasha had to kill Dreykov's daughter in order to get to Dreykov himself, we are obviously made to believe his daughter is dead. However, later on it is revealed that Dreykov was able to keep her alive by putting a chip in the back of her neck which controlled her mind and body, and so making her into Taskmaster. This gave Dreykov total control of his daughter, Antonia, and meant he was able to keep her alive. 

Some of Taskmaster's powers includes the ability to mimic her oppositions fighting techniques due to photographic reflexes, shown during her fight with Natasha earlier on in the film. This is due to how she is sent after Yelena, who possesses the Red Dust that is able to free Black Widows from Dreykov's control. However, near the end of the film, Antonia herself is exposed to the Red Dust and therefore meaning she is no longer under her father's control. The criticisms over her character are varied, with some fans being disappointed with her characters lack of development, some being disappointed with the introduction of a new character as Taskmaster rather than Tony Masters from the comics, some saying she wasn't a good enough villain, to some genuinely being annoyed that Taskmaster turned out to be a woman. A lot of the criticisms also seemed to be saying how different Taskmaster in the films is to Taskmaster in the comics. This, to me, doesn't seem like a very logical argument due to how pretty much every character in the Marvel films is different to their comic counterparts. It doesn't necessarily mean the character is bad if they're different!!

However, the criticisms of her not being a good enough villain were interesting to me, especially when the character is compared to the main antagonist of Captain America : The Winter Soldier, the Winter Soldier AKA Bucky Barnes. Bucky is a largely loved character by fans of Marvel, and I tend to not see many criticisms of his Winter Soldier as a villain/antagonist (though, there are obviously are). In @nathanielsemsen tiktok video, he highlights the similarities between Taskmaster and the Winter Soldier. For example, they are both subject to mind control, both forced to become an enhanced individual against their will, both sent after the main protagonist (Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers, respectively), and both have a reveal of being someone the audience thought was dead. In his video, he points out many more similarities between the two characters, and how differently they were received by audiences despite these similarities. In case you want to check out Nathaniel's video, I will leave the link here! https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMR27TsQU/  

Obviously there are differences between Taskmaster and the Winter Soldier, such as Bucky being introduced before becoming TWS, but it doesn't mean that their similarities should be ignored. So, in my opinion, Taskmaster/Antonia was very much a victim rather than a villain, brainwashed into committing acts against her control by the real, and obvious, villain of the film - Dreykov. Dreykov as a villain was most terrifying because of the element of realism to his character. People like him truly exist, who traffic young people and don't see a problem with it, or believe they're doing it for a 'greater good'. So whilst there may be better villains than him, and villains worse than him, the argument of Black Widow not having a good villain is pretty empty. And, Taskmaster should not be the villain in question. 

Overall, Black Widow tackles important issues that have not previously been explored in MCU films, as well as introducing characters, like Yelena Belova, who will play a vital role in future Phase 4 projects. Belova is set to star in the upcoming Hawkeye series, which follows Jeremy Renner's Clint Barton/Hawkeye and Hailee Steinfeld's Kate Bishop. Black Widow is a film most definitely worth watching, especially if you're a Marvel fan, and make sure you stay till the end of the credits, otherwise you might miss something important...

I hope you have enjoyed reading my fourth blog post, any comments on your thoughts on the film, its characters, themes etc are welcome as always as there is a lot of discussion to be had around this film! Make sure you see the new MCU film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which 'follows martial arts master Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) as he confronts the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organisation', in cinemas on September 3rd! It is Marvel's 25th film, and their first Asian led film with their first Chinese superhero, with people saying it could become one of the MCU's best films. So don't miss out on seeing it, especially in cinemas!!

My top 5 favourite MCU projects :

Spider-man : Far From Home (2019)

Director : Jon Watts

Thor : Ragnarok (2017)

Director : Taika Waititi

Black Panther (2018) 

Director : Ryan Coogler

Captain America : The Winter Soldier (2014)

Directors : Joe Russo, Anthony Russo

WandaVision (2021)

Director : Matt Shakman