The Avengers - How Fan Reaction Changed Black Widow's Marketing.

I admit it. I've been totally psyched about The Avengers as a movie for some time now. Firstly, because it is directed by one of my favourite writer/director/creators for some time: Mr Joss Whedon. He is pretty much geek catnip as far as I'm concerned. Anyone reading this blog knows that I've been a Whedonverse fan for many years - Buffy, Angel, Firefly, even Dollhouse. If he's involved, I'm there. Why? Because he's not just there to make things blow up for no reason (I'm looking at you Michael Bay!) - although Joss has teased in interviews that he's keen to get to blow up stuff - No.

The reason I'm excited is because Joss Whedon understands characters, he understands character development and he has the ability to mix lighthearted funny moments with intense, gut-wrenching pathos. He can make you laugh one minute, then have you sobbing your eyes out the next and you never know how things are going to play out. You just know he's going to both make and break your heart at the very same time and that's what I look for in a storyteller. A blockbuster can be a big spectacle, but if you don't care about the plot or characters, it's just one big fancy light show with no substance. I'm excited because I know Joss can deliver so much more than that and I know it's going to be great. I have faith!

Secondly, IT'S THE AVENGERS!!  Marvel comics' greatest heroes are teaming up...or dare I say it, assembling! It's a huge marketing gamble for Marvel, as we saw many films in 2011 - Thor, Captain America and 2010 - Iron Man 2 - paving the way for The Avengers. They've invested a lot in getting the audience to this point. Do I worry that there might not be anything there for the casual viewer or non-comics reader? Slightly - but I think even if you managed to see at least one or none of those movies you won't feel lost. There's going to be plenty of action and great quip-y dialog and who doesn't want to see Iron Man, Thor,  Hulk,  Hawkeye,  Black Widow and Captain America square up to each other and team-up?  I sure do!

Finally, I have to say how much I adored Thor as a movie last year, it was definitely up there as one of my faves of 2011. I'm a total comics and mythology geek and I wasn't sure how Thor would translate to the big screen, but Kenneth Brannagh did a superb job of balancing the lofty "mythic" elements of the story with a lot of fun and humour. The tone was pitched just right, the special effects for Asgard were just out of this world stunning and can I get a round of applause for Tom Hiddleston and Chris Hemsworth who were just perfectly cast as Loki and Thor. I'm so excited to see the plot threads seeded in Thor weave their way into The Avengers - and see more of Loki as a great Machiavellian villain. It's going to rock. If you don't believe me check out the teaser trailer below:

I honestly adore this teaser trailer - nothing gives this girl a shot of adrenalin more than watching epic comic book action to a Nine Inch Nails soundtrack. Iron Man, Thor AND Trent Reznor singing? Awesome sauce. It definitely promises a lot of fun come 27th April when The Avengers opens in the UK. I can't wait.

So why my post? Well...I wanted to talk about the awesome female Avenger - Black Widow and how her character was treated in Iron Man 2 and how she was originally marketed for The Avengers.


The Portrayal of Black Widow In Iron Man 2:

I really wanted to like Black Widow in Iron Man 2 and I did - but it could have been so much more. On a shallow level it helps that she is played by Scarlett Johannson, an actress I admire a lot (She was amazing in Lost In Translation) and let's face it most of the male (and female) population think is damned gorgeous (and she is - but she is so much more than just a pretty face). So what didn't I like about the way Black Widow was portrayed in Iron Man 2?  She was barely in it for a start. Whilst, I realise Iron Man 2 was very much Tony Stark's movie and things were being laid in place for The Avengers - it was made very obvious in the script and in the way scenes were filmed, that she was there to be an undercover "secretary" and her role was to stand there and look pretty for most of the film. She was there to be the male eye candy and that bugged the hell out of me.

Secretary mode Black Widow.

Black Widow or Natasha Romanoff is a Marvel comics heroine, who is a Russian super-spy. She's a flame-haired martial-arts trained livewire, who can kick your ass sideways and take out a target with a sniper rifle fairly efficiently. She usually was equipped with plenty of high-tech weaponry and her trademark skin-tight black leather jumpsuit. She was originally portrayed in comics as working for the Soviet Union, but later joined S.H.I.E.L.D. (Marvel's fictional secret American defence organisation) and became a member of the Avengers. In many ways, Black Widow is much like a Russian Bond girl/femme fatale that would sooner shoot Bond than kiss him.

In many ways, the movie Black Widow doesn't stray too far from that concept, the red hair and the catsuit is there along with her proficiency at espionage, computer hacking, weaponry and martial arts. So what was missing for me? Apart from the fact we never see Scarlett speak in a Russian accent? The fact that she spent most of the film simpering around Tony Stark and Pepper Potts and having Tony perv on her slightly. She was there purely as a perceived threat to Tony and Pepper's romantic relationship and wore a dress/tiny pencil skirt and heels for the most of it. It was so annoying! Again, I realise that she's meant to be undercover, but could we please have a little dignity and subtlety in portraying the character maturely. Please? Having Stark leer at an underwear shoot photo of her, putting her in that little skirt, followed by the lingering shots of her butt is NOT IT. I think my point can be illustrated best by this clip from the film:

 

*sigh* Oh Marvel movies how you disappoint me with your unthinking sexism. I fully realise that Black Widow is meant to be a femme-fatale character, but there are ways to make a character attractive and sexy where it's clear the character has ownership of that sexuality and is not defined by it. It honestly can be done. Admittedly it probably doesn't help that Black Widow's catsuit is utterly ridiculous. It took me ages to find a comic book portrayal/image of her that didn't make her look like her boobs were about to fall out of her outfit. Pretty sure you don't want to be that exposed in a life or death fight situation Miss Romanoff!

Black Widow in her own Marvel comic. Kremlin-a'licious.

Having said that - after the film teasing us for ages - finally seeing Natalie in action as Black Widow was worth the wait and a lot of fun. Plus she uses what I'm now going to patent as her "trademark killer vagina move." What is that exactly? Well, her fighting style in the films seems to involve her jumping onto a guy's head, scissoring her legs around him and flipping the poor schlub's ass to the ground. But mostly it looks like she's taking people out with her vagina. Do I find this amusing as a style choice? Yes. Am I going to stop typing vagina? No! Because it's funny and I can. Not only that, but one of the sole clips of her in The Avengers has her doing the exact same thing. So yeah - Black Widow kills people with her vagina. You heard it here first. I don't really know how to feel about it. Is it sexist? Maybe. Does it amuse me. Yes. So I'm going to go with amusement for the time being. Feel free to judge for yourself by watching the clip below:

 See? I told you! She's a total ninja. With her vagina. A vagina ninja, if you will. I'll stop now before I completely lose the point I was trying to make. Right. Black Widow and my concerns about her portrayal. Right. Well, I had my concerns about whether the character would be just as sidelined in The Avengers. I knew Joss Whedon, champion of multi-faceted strong female characters was involved, so I had a lot more confidence that Natasha wasn't going to end up being a piece of throwaway eye candy again. Joss has even gone on record saying that he'd have liked to use more female characters in his film, namely founder Avenger "Wasp" a.k.a Janet Van Dyne, who was the original female Avenger. Someone really should have sold that idea of pro-female empowerment to the film's marketing team though.


The Marketing of Black Widow for The Avengers and The Amusing Fan Backlash:

The original teaser posters for The Avengers did not fill me - a female comics fan - with joy. Why do you ask? Because this is what they originally came up with:

Can you spot the difference? Apparently Black Widow's super-heroine power is flashing her arse, whilst her male comrades stand around looking cool and not at all flashing their bums in a derogatory fashion. Seriously what is this? 

The sheer gender difference in portrayal is so obvious that once you see it, you can't unsee it. Yes, if you are feeling particularly boorish you could say: "Well, it's Scarlett Johannson. She's an attractive woman. Why can't we show a shot of her bum?" That's all well and good, but every single male character in this promotional banner isn't being treated in the same flippant manner. They're allowed to stand there looking cool and not flashing their back-side for no apparent reason. I think sci-fi journalist Jayne Nelson said it best on the SFX website: "I can't believe the only bottom on display is Scarlett's. It's bloody sexist, is what it is! I demand pert man-bottoms to even the balance!" And she's not the only one besides me who cottoned onto this discrepancy, the Mary Sue covered it too here. 

One artist decided to reverse the trend, Kevin Bolk - who decided to portray all the Male Avengers in a rather "manly" fashion in the same pose. His reasoning was: "I couldn’t help but notice that in most of the ad material, the guys are all in heroic stances but Black Widow is almost always in an impractical, curved-spine ‘booty shot’ pose. Figured I’d flip it around for my lady friends out there. Seemed only fair.”

So yeah. I can't try to caption this without giggling. I really can't!

I admit. It's pretty funny and only serves to highlight the often ridiculous poses many women are drawn or depicted in in the media.  We're not all uber-boobed contortionists dudes. Lay off already! But personally, I loved the positive response to Bolk's artwork and the annoyed reaction of the geek community to the naff marketing the Avengers marketing team originally came up with. Many of us were annoyed by it, but dammit, we were going to have a sense of humour about it too. It was refreshing to see this reaction in a jaded internet world where casual sexism in advertising seems to be brushed off as quickly as blinking these days. So when it was time for them to unveil the UK "Avengers" promo banners I had a not-so-small amount of trepidation. Were we going to see more of the same? Thankfully someone seemed to have seen the light-hearted backlash online and this was what they changed Black Widow's UK poster to this:

Much cooler and more balanced don't you think?

 This change definitely left me feeling a lot happier and having seen a second equally gorgeous, non-gratuitous poster, also posted below, I'm doubly pleased. Here we have Black Widow being kick-ass and gorgeous and tough without flashing her bum. HURRAY! See film marketers, here's how you promote a movie without alienating and annoying your potential female audience. Bravo. Let's hope the film continues that trend!

Even more awesome is the news we Brits might be getting to see the film first for a change. The UK release date is set for April 27th , whereas the US release date has been promoted as May 4th (Star Wars Day!).

Let's be clear: I don't want my heroines to be stone-faced butt-kicking automatons, but at the same time I don't want them to be scantily-clad brainless eye candy either. Where do we draw the line? How about giving us a beautiful (or rocking the boat further - less anatomically perfect and/or physically implausible) heroine who is emotionally relatible; who is flawed; who has problems, but solves them. Who can be fragile and strong at the same time? If anyone can write and portray that it's Joss Whedon. He created Buffy Summers, who was very much all those things. So do I hope that Black Widow can be a fully realised member of the Avengers, rather than being perceived as the "token female?" Absolutely. There are so many characters being carried into this movie and screen time is precious, but I have faith that Joss and his writing/production team will be able to show Black Widow as a worthy and equally important member of The Avengers team.

 Although I'm still sad to discover the complete lack of Black Widow merchandise tie-ins announced so far. I guess they are going for the more recognisable characters, but still. Such a missed opportunity. I want there to be Black Widow action figure dammit!   

**AWESOME NEWS UPDATE**: There IS going to be a Black Widow action figure.
SFX Magazine have just posted shots of Hasbro's announced action figure range and Black Widow is included. HURRAY! Check them out here

**FURTHER AWESOME NEWS**: Marvel have also announced Black Widow will get a three issue comics mini-series tie-in with The Avengers film (recently renamed 'Avengers Assemble' in the UK to avoid being mistaken with the 60's spy franchise with the same name) called 'Black Widow Strikes.' The Black Widow comic series will see Natasha team up with fan favourite Agent Coulson in Russia. Sounds fab! Find out more here

Gorgeous new poster art for Black Widow.

But if anything positive can be gleaned from all of this, the fact that the marketing was changed to reflect fan reaction to the sexism gives me hope for humanity!  So as an additional thank you to all of you who have read this far, here's the all-new Avengers Super Bowl Trailer than premiered yesterday. Apparently they have a Hulk:

SF Girl Magazine - Our Mission, If You Choose To Accept It.

SF Girl Magazine is a magazine dedicated directly to female SF and Fantasy fans (or girl geeks...as some might call us) of all ages and persuasions.It is written for and by smart, feisty women who are passionate and proud to be SF fans and who are keen to debunk the old stereotype that all SF fans are spotty, introverted men who live with their parents and fantasise about Seven of Nine/Cylon Six/and any other sexed-up and boobed up SF robot girl you can think of.

It aims not only to challenge these stereotypes, but to give women a greater voice in a genre where they are often marginalised and forced to accept the views of a media that often panders too greatly to the male gaze.

SOUNDS A BIT SCARY:

I know! BUT we also aim to please and we're not without a sense of humour. Within our pages you'll not only find serious and thought-provoking essays and articles BUT geek humour; fan girls sharing their secret and not-so secret obsessions; collectors pages; convention reports; interviews with female SF journalists and writers; reviews of films, novels and TV shows - both old and new and articles about your favourite SF heroines.

ALL WRITTEN FOR WOMEN BY WOMEN.

Okay....I'm with you so far BUT:

I'M A GUY! CAN I WRITE FOR YOU?

Of course you can! The more the merrier and well done for asking! Whilst SF Girl is written for women by women, we are not exclusivist and always welcome a translator from the Y side of things. Just don't forget who your audience is!

One Girl Revolution - One Woman At A Time.

I started this blog and this magazine because I knew there were lots of women out there who felt the same. I want to give them a real voice within the SF community and a unique place where they can express their views on what excites and inspires them within the genre. It definitely wouldn’t hurt to bring some female voices to the table, seeing as there are so many of them crying out to begin with. More women are reading and watching SF and Fantasy than ever before, the more I speak to and meet fellow female fans, the more I see this is true; and whilst there are some fabulously written titles out there on the shelves, such as the: SFX, Death Ray and Sci-Fi Now magazines. I still feel none of them are truly acknowledging and embracing their female audience.Mainly because their writing staff is made up almost predominantly of men. Having worked at SFX Magazine, for a week of work experience, I got used to the blokey banter, but there were times where, being the one of only three girls in an office of men, I felt a bit set apart and lonely, despite throughly enjoying the work and the company. There are great female SF journalists out there such as Tara DiLullo Bennett and Jayne Nelson, but they are as rare as stardust. I know I want to be one of them and make a real difference. I also firmly believe female readers are settling for male-orientated SF mags simply because there are no other outlets available to them. SF Girl's mission is to provide that outlet, that elusive missing piece in the intergalactic female puzzle.

Challenging the Male Gaze

Don’t get me wrong, I know sometimes it’s the women that make up the audience minority, often accounting for only a quarter of a SF magazine’s reader demographic. Although, I wonder whether this might be because some women are put off by the general male-orientated tone of the writing. Personally, I get fed up with the occasional captions that explicitly put a hot, scantily-clad, SF woman in the foreground with a deliberately ogling comment. It makes me feel as if the writer’s assume so few women read the magazine, no one’s likely to be offended by the gesture. Well, sorry lads, but I am and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Of course, many magazines are slaves to their readership in a constant cycle of supply and demand, so if the male readers want to stare longingly up Hayden Panettiere’s increasingly short cheerleading skirts, than that’s what gets spread across the front page (considering how young Hayden is, I find this a little disturbing). Yes, I realise not all fan boys are slavering cavemen, but it irritates me how often women in SF have to wear ridiculously tight and fetishised costumes just to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

There's more to a woman than the shortness of her skirt.

“Sex sells” as any advertising company would tell you. But, it is truly fair when that selling seems to aim itself in only one direction? Let’s be clear: most female fans often have shallow needs too. I’m not adverse to staring wistfully at the sublimely gorgeous and talented David Tennant every Saturday evening (along –it seems-with every other girl in Britain) and the sheer number of times Angel and Spike appeared with their shirts off on Buffy the Vampire Slayer did get a tad ridiculous sometimes. So, let’s not rule out own ogling tendencies, girls. But why, I must ask, should we settle for accepting that “boys will be boys”, without questioning whether we are just settling for second best in the reader and audience stakes? This leads me to the following question:

Why is there no magazine catering specifically for female SF fans?

Admittedly there are some great blogs, webzines and fan campaigns out there for female fans, such as Pink Raygun and Fan Girl Magazine. But, they’re very rarely updated and appear, despite the quality of their reviews, to be simply a collection of links and fragments of female fan commentary. I feel, from my own perspective as a fellow female SF fan, that we need a real, tangible magazine to call our own. My mission is to work seriously hard to make this dream a printed reality. I do it because I know what it would have meant to me to have a magazine appear on my doorstep that let me know I wasn’t alone in my interests. That there were other women out there like me, who loved science fiction. I do it because I’m one of you too and it’s that passion and commitment that keeps me writing.

What do people think women want from genre programming?

Often it’s incorrectly assumed that women want very different things from their SF than men. Even the Sci-Fi Channel occasionally falls prone to this thinking. Hence, the reason why script writers often shove the occasional sickeningly sweet, angst-ridden or implausible love triangle into a perfectly good quality show or film, in order to draw in more female viewers. I’m sorry, but since when did female SF fans only watch these shows for the romance? I find it insulting some entertainment execs think this is the only way to get women to watch anything. To be honest, sometimes I blame the popularity of “Charmed”. I know it’s not the sole reason for bad genre programming, but here me out:

“Charmed” (1998-2006) was a highly successful teen supernatural show about three witches and it became hugely popular with young girls and women who did not normally watch genre shows. Essentially, it was an endearing, but often lazily written chick flick with skimpy costumes, demons and magic. I do watch it and enjoy it for what it is, but I’m not immune to how poorly scripted and acted it is in places. The show’s focus was often more on the girls’ love lives than their supernatural dilemmas. It is often mocked by male SF fans as “that awful programme the girlfriend watches,” when they can’t persuade their other half to watch anything else. If this is what most SF fans think women prefer to watch within the genre, then I’m very afraid for our chances at being taken seriously as real fans.

So what do SF Women really want?

The same things you do! I (and I’m sure many other women) adore traditional science fiction shows like Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica for many reasons, from the quality of the acting, the writing and the storytelling, as well as the kick-ass fight scenes, the snappy dialogue, big explosions and amazing space battles. If the romances and sex scenes are tasteful and genuinely fit the story then I’m happy to have them there, otherwise leave it out, it serves no real purpose other than titillation. Also, please, for the love of God, SF writers don’t assume that all women want is a romantic comedy in space. The fact that I know what a Viper and a FTL drive is, as well as being able to point out the difference between an A-Wing and Y-Wing star-fighter often gives me serious nerd kudos among my male friends, and why not? Who says a girl can’t feel a huge surge of adrenalin as Starbuck and co. come blasting into a war zone with all guns blazing. Sometimes it’s all I live for. *grins*

All I, and many other female fans, ask for is for strong female characters that are well written (or realistically drawn, if we’re talking about graphic novels) and portrayed as real, strong, but emotionally complex women, rather than cardboard sex objects. I want characters and heroines I can believe in and relate to, as well as cheer for, and that goes for the male characters too. So whilst, I’m not advocating aggressive, macho personas nor at the other end of the spectrum, oversensitive metro-sexual men, I do feel that male SF characters deserve the same well-rounded treatment.

Virginia Woolf may never have written any science fiction during her lifetime, but she got it right when she said: “A woman needs a room of her own, if she is to write.” We need a magazine of our own. An inner space within outer space, if you will, that is uniquely ours. SF Girl Magazine hopes to not only fulfil that goal, but provide readers with red-hot reviews, features and debates on everything from your favourite SF heroines and classic films to the latest news and releases, all with women firmly in mind. Always boldly going where no man has gone before.

I hope you’ll come along for the ride.

How do I get involved?

We are always looking for new ideas and material. If you would like to write something, (an article or review), for the magazine or send in any fiction or artwork., please e-mail me at the following address and get our submission guidelines: editor@sfgirlmagazine.com. While you are there, you can also sign up for our mailing list, which will give regular updates on the magazine’s progress and extra insider info. Just e-mail the above address and leave a contact name.

We have a website that is currently under construction. This will boast an exciting on-line forum and plenty of exciting features. The site will hopefully be launched over Summer 2008. We can be found at www.sfgirlmagazine.com. At this stage you can get involved by staying tuned to this very blog. If you have a Facebook profile, you can search for and join the SF Girl Magazine group on the social networking site and get stuck in with our debates on our growing discussion board here

Whatever you choose, stick with SF Girl and you’ll be sure of an exciting and illuminating journey. Prepare for a great adventure!

 

Kelly Sorbie – SF Girl Editor Extraordinaire