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Avengers: Age of Ultron is so deeply sexist, it's blowing my mind.

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Supermanisdead

Supermanisdead

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So I realized that I hadn't seen this movie before so I decided to catch up on it and... wow. I really wish I hadn't. This movie is just incredibly sexist. I've been thinking about this one scene all night and I can't get over it.



Giant green rage monster who has just destroyed a whole city = slut who can't fulfill her womanly duties. Like what the fuck. How was this allowed to film???
 
Platy

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does it really?

edit:beaten
 
Kinthey

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She considers herself a monster because she was an assassin, not because she can't have children
 
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Supermanisdead

Supermanisdead

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neon_dream said:
"There's nowhere I can be at peace. I can't be a normal man or have children."
"I can't have children either. I was sterilized."
Then he expresses empathy and indecision.

I'm not seeing how you parse "slut who can't fulfill her duties" from this.
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She calls herself a monster because she can't have children. Literally comparing being unable to have kids to being a rampaging hulk...
 
Hollywood Duo

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I don't want to say you are willfully misinterpreting that scene but I think you completely missed the point. She considers herself a monster because she was an engineered assassin who had part of her humanity stripped away.
 
Truly Gargantuan

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I think the point was that they're both "monsters" created by man or something like that.
Honestly I had forgotten about this entire subplot..I think I've forgotten about most of that movie except last act by this point.
 
RedStep

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It's just two people talking about the things they've done (killed a LOT of people) and things they've lost (the chance at a family). It's not equating them at all, especially between topics.
 
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Supermanisdead

Supermanisdead

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No, she clearly does the whole sterilized scene because of him perceiving himself as a monster. It's not about her assassin training, otherwise she would have mentioned all the people she's killed and stuff. Why would she explain her sterilization and then say "you're not the only monster"
 
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Supermanisdead

Supermanisdead

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The first movie already dealt with her assassin background and her insecurities about it. This is her calling herself a monster because she can't get pregnant. It's really right there in the text.
 
neon_dream

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Supermanisdead said:
No, she clearly does the whole sterilized scene because of him perceiving himself as a monster. It's not about her assassin training, otherwise she would have mentioned all the people she's killed and stuff. Why would she explain her sterilization and then say "you're not the only monster"
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"It makes everything easier, even killing."

Her humanity was taken from her. She was trained to kill. That's the monstrous part, what was done to her. The scene is her trying to reach out to Bruce to share love, normality, humanity, to reclaim that part of themselves, even if they can't have children and can't be perfectly "normal".
 
opticalmace

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Kinthey said:
She considers herself a monster because she was an assassin, not because she can't have children
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Yep.

neon_dream said:
"It makes everything easier, even killing."

Her humanity was taken from her. She was trained to kill. That's the monstrous part, what was done to her. The scene is her trying to reach out to Bruce to share love, normality, humanity, to reclaim that part of themselves, even if they can't have children and can't be perfectly "normal".
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And this.
 
Neece

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I always understood the scene to mean that she considered herself a monster because she sterilized herself to more efficient kill people. And looking back on it, it makes her feel monstrous.
 
NotLiquid

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It's a clunky sequence of words but it's clear she's just empathizing with him in the moment. She's not a monster because she can't have kids, she's a monster because she was raised and literally physically shaped to be a cold-blooded assassin who wasn't meant to have a future of her own.

Supermanisdead said:
The first movie already dealt with her assassin background and her insecurities about it. This is her calling herself a monster because she can't get pregnant. It's really right there in the text.
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The first movie doesn't openly delve into her personal life and history, it only alludes to the latter. Just because it was hinted doesn't mean the sequel can't expand on that more.
 
CaviarMeths

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I used to think people were deliberately misinterpreting this scene due to the highly publicized scandal Whedon was going through at the time.

4 years removed though, maybe the dialogue really is confusing.

But yeah, she's talking about being sterilized to make her a more effective assassin, because family ties are seen as a weakness in her line of work.
 
Magnus

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Hollywood Duo said:
I don't want to say you are willfully misinterpreting that scene but I think you completely missed the point. She considers herself a monster because she was an engineered assassin who had part of her humanity stripped away.
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That was my read, too. Where is all this coming from? Sometimes I feel like people want to retroactively reinterpret Whedon a lot ever since his issues came to light. but I can't even pretend to be an authority on this subject so I'm not qualified to discuss it.
 
Kinthey

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Here's Whedon himself elaborating on it:
"She said she was a monster because she was an assassin," he wrote. "Being rendered infertile made her feel unnatural, made her feel cut off from the natural world. But it was her actions that defined her. Her murdery actions. That's what 'monster' meant."
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You can criticize the execution but ascribing sexist intentions to Whedon is wrong
 
Strangelove_77

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Yeah you fucked up. It's weird that anyone would arrive at such a conclusion.
Why y'all spend so much time and effort to go back to media and interpret things negatively is something I'll never understand. You do it to yourselves.
 
Yerffej

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It's sloppy writing, but...I'm not sure how you made that leap. She's talking about all the killing she has done.
 
Bradbury

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Neece said:
I always understood the scene to mean that she considered herself a monster because she sterilized herself to more efficient kill people. And looking back on it, it makes her feel monstrous.
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This but I still think the execution was fucked and you can also read the OP way.
It doesn't help the movie have Tony making implied rape joke or Bruce falling in boobs anime joke
 
TheMango55

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Supermanisdead said:
She calls herself a monster because she can't have children. Literally comparing being unable to have kids to being a rampaging hulk...
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She's a monster because she was made to kill people

It's ridiculous to listen to her whole monologue and think she is saying she is a monster because she can't have kids unless you're a goldfish and can only remember the last two lines without applying the context of the whole situation.

Either that or you are willfully misinterpreting the situation solely to be offended.
 
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Dio

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while i agree that Whedon is an asshole, and i'm glad he disappeared, i feel Natasha's point is in trying to reach out to Bruce. he argues because he cant have children, he cant have a future, being what he is. she then empathizes with him, saying she is a monster in the sense that her humanity was taken solely for the objective of killing.
i'm not even sure where you saw the movie, even if we were to argue that it indeed thinks shes a monster because she cant have children, that it means shes a slut.
that said, the movie is sexist, given Tony says that prima nocte bullshit.
 

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Did you go in to watching this movie looking for something to be angry about? There is nothing wrong with that scene and it takes a giant misinterpretation to get where you got.
 
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Supermanisdead

Supermanisdead

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I really don't see how else one could interpret a woman explaining how she was sterilized and then immediately saying she's a monster too.
 
ScoobsJoestar

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The moment I saw that scene I went "Oh man I know this scene is trying to say something else but dialogue is JUST clunky enough to come off like something else" lol
 
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Supermanisdead

Supermanisdead

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The movie really does treat her like a sex object. Captain America tells hulk that she's a real good flirt up close and bruce banner is like "wooah what do u mean up close." Every conversation about her is about whos been with her or who will get with her.
 
Musubi

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Yeah, I don't see it I'm sorry. Seems like she's more regretful of her past as an assassin and being able to kill so easily and the fact that she can't have kids allows her to justify the killing easier.
 
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Supermanisdead

Supermanisdead

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IN THE DAMN INTERVIEWS for this movie, captain america and hawkeye's actors call her a slut and a whore. This is the kind of atmosphere that was on set and in the filming. This movie really is a disgrace.
 
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