PSA about Captain Marvel

Sooo I watched Captain Marvel. Twice. And I sort of liked it. It had it's rough elements (Carol sometimes came off as annoying/overconfident, lack of character arc, some feminist undertones) but overall I thought it was a pretty good prologue story for having been jammed in between possibly the two biggest MARVEL films in cinema history. The settings were nice, the Skrulls were very well portrayed, young Colson is essentially a puppy, Goose/Fury interactions were beautiful, and Ronan actually sounded like a normal creature instead of some hybrid between a cave troll and a garbage disposal.



Then I got on Pinterest.
.......................................................................................................... *deep breath *

So. Many. Posts. Saying Carol was lesbian.

But as I found no evidence of this in the film (EITHER time) I thought I'd just put this disclaimer out there: there is no. evidence. of. it.

So how could this pressumption have been made? What was the motive? Why should we care?

First things first, the actual content.

It is stated that Carol didn't get along well with her parents (in the comics, it's explained that her father was an abusive drunk and her mother just let her dad do whatever he wanted) so she lived with her best friend, Maria, who was a single mother (no backstory on that.)

This is probably where most of the rumors took their root. Two women, living in the same house for an extended period of time, both unmarried. But you know who else lived in the same house with a person of the same gender for a long period of time?

Owning/renting a place is expensive. I mean, I'm hoping to be able to share a place with someone when I move out! Everyone in my family has shared a house with someone else before getting married etc. Plus, the world is a dangerous place, and living with friends gives a good sense of security.

Also, Carol helps Maria raise her child. But really, if you're gonna live in the friend's house and she's a single mom trying to raise a kid, if you don't help out when you have the time for it, what kind of a person are you?

Through several flashbacks we see Carol and Maria's friendship, and that's basically what it is. A vibrant, joyful, supportive friendship. This will be discussed further in the next section, part A.

Second things second: what's NOT there.

For years, audiences have been begging MARVEL Studios to give us a female superhero story that doesn't revolve around a romantic relationship. MARVEL delivered with this film.

True, there is the beginning in which Carol and Yon Rogg (pictured) seem to have a relationship budding, but at the same time it's obviously not the cliche romance story. She's wants to prove herself to him, he's constantly belittling her. It's not really exploited as a 'Oh, I miss you and your smile and warmth' relationship, but a 'You can't possibly do this yourself efficiently/my idea is better you need me' relationship.

SPOILERS:
They break up in the end in a beautifully satisfying way :)

So, what was there for the internet to do but create a romantic relationship to jabber about?
We, as a culture, seem infatuated with romance, and not in the good, healthy way. We say we don't want our female characters to live with their lives revolving around the males, because they can be strong and independent and interesting without a romance subplot, but once that's taken away we scramble to put it in. Even if it's a subplot, it's thrown to the forefront, before everything else that's important.

'And why not make it a romance between Carol and Maria? They're so happy together and they care so much about each other and it's - it's -"
..... what a normal friendship should be? I mean, if you can't be happy with your friends, and have fun, and care about your friends, you have no friends. And you're cold. And need therapy.

"This imposes on me at the outset a very tiresome bit of demolition. It has actually become necessary in our time to rebut the theory that every firm and serious friendship is really homosexual.
      To say that every Friendship is consciously and explicitly homosexual would be too obviously false... Those who cannot conceive Friendship as a substantive love but only as a disguise or elaboration of Eros betray the fact that they have never had a Friend... On a broad historical view it is, of course, not the demonstrative gestures of Friendship amoung our ancestors but the absence of such gestures in our own society that calls for some special explanation."
                                                                                                        - C. S. Lewis, the Four Loves

      Something also lacking in this portrayal of a female superhero is the sexualization of her appearance. For example:

Black Widow - Plunging neckline and accentuated posterior
Wasp - Accentuated breasts
Dora Milajae - Accentuated breasts
Scarlet Witch - Plunging neckline
Gamora - (Mostly in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 1)  - Costume specifically cut to reveal cleavage + transparent cloth underneath that cleavage cut
Hela (yes, a villain) - Accentuated breasts and pelvic area
Valkyrie - Accentuated breasts

Now, Captain Marvel:

Breast plate melds seamlessly into the rest of the costume in a smooth, non-molded curve.  Colors in Kree uniform version are more subtle, admittedly, drawing less attention to the chest, but the lines in either case are both designed not to draw the line over breasts, but across chest. Clothes are somewhat form-fitting, yet still have breathability and the shapes of it are broken up so as to draw the eyes more towards her shoulders. This also works as in combat you would want to draw your enemies' eyes to the more armored parts of your body, rather than the less protected vital organs (Punisher actually uses this tactic in his outfit.)

Why should we care?

So it would seem that Captain Marvel, as a character, has given audiences:

1. No healthy male romantic interest
2. No interactions with protagonist males that seem to indicate romantic attration upon knowing them for two days
3. An outfit that is not designed to accentuate her sexual appeal, but to actually do it's job fairly well and draw attention up to her shoulders and face (where it belongs.)

And thus the internet took it upon itself to state that she's lesbian, simply because she doesn't fit in the cliche criteria of her predecessors.

Sometimes people are so desperate to see their politics represented, they invent them where they don't exist. I could give a list of dangerous, unethical, and plain disgusting examples, but I've probably already pushed a lot of family-friendly boundaries in this post and I think I'll leave it there.

In closing, if you haven't seen the film and have heard rumors about this, don't worry, they're all rumors and lies. If you have seen the film, let me know your thoughts, particularly if you saw something I didn't to prove the contrary. I have this problem of hyperbole and sometimes forget gaping holes in my theories (ask my writing partner.)

That's all for now, so onward and goodnight!