Photo by Erik McLean
I first watched “Iron Man” in March of 2020. Lockdown had just begun, and my family had decided to watch all the Marvel movies in chronological order — even the boring ones (looking at you, “The Incredible Hulk”). With every movie, my obsession grew. I loved the characters; I grew attached to their stories, laughed at their jokes and cried at their deaths. Towards the beginning of “Iron Man,” several characters converse in Urdu. As a child of immigrants who doesn’t speak my mother tongue, watching it with my family gave me the perfect chance to prove my Urdu skills to my parents. “I can understand what they’re saying!” I immediately pointed out.
But my excitement about the Urdu-speaking characters in “Iron Man” fizzled out quickly. The movie starts with Tony Stark — the billionaire in charge of Stark Industries — being kidnapped in Afghanistan. As exciting as it was to hear characters speaking Urdu, the fact that they were terrorists forcing someone to build weapons really put a damper on the moment.
Marginalized communities are starved for portrayal on-screen, making any sliver of representation feel exciting. In an analysis of the top 100 movies of 2019, nearly two-thirds (65.7 percent) of all speaking or named characters were white. The remaining third accounts for all Black, Asian, Hispanic/Latino, Middle Eastern/North African, Native American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and multiracial characters. The scarcity of stories like mine depicted in the media made hearing Urdu in one of the largest movie franchises in the world feel wonderful and made the realization that it was not the positive representation I thought it was all the more hurtful.
As I made my way through the movies, I noticed more problematic elements in them: Namely, Marvel’s depictions of female characters and characters of color — especially in earlier movies. The core six Avengers consisted of an all-white cast with only one woman. When present, depictions of marginalized characters are often stereotypical. Scarlett Johansson, who plays Black Widow, has commented on the fact that her character has been treated “like a possession,” and “talked about like she’s a piece of something.” Black characters, such as James Rhodes (War Machine), and Sam Wilson (Falcon), are often treated as extensions of their white friend’s storyline, leaning into the stereotype of “the Black best friend;” Marvel’s main protagonist is a billionaire war profiteer — not to mention the funds Marvel receives from the Pentagon have led to copious amounts of imperialist propaganda in the films. Script notes from “The Incredible Hulk” show “pretty radical” changes made by the Marine Corps, including removal of dialogue referencing military experiments on humans, and Operation Ranch Hand — in which the U.S. Military sprayed herbicides on Southeast Asian countries during the Vietnam War. The first two “Iron Man” movies received access to Edwards Air Force Base and over 1 billion dollars worth of weaponry, machinery, and vehicles used as props and set dressing as a result of the film’s ties to the Pentagon. Considering the U.S’s involvement in Afghanistan at the time of the release of “Iron Man,” the portrayal of Urdu-speaking characters was likely influenced by these ties to the Pentagon.
Yet, despite Marvel’s reprehensibility, I continuously find myself perched on the edge of my couch at 3:00 a.m., shoveling popcorn into my mouth, flicking through Disney+ to rewatch yet another Marvel movie.
So how do I reconcile that? How do I simultaneously look forward to each new Marvel release, rewatch every MCU movie and spend hours at a time discussing the franchise while disagreeing with so much of its political messaging?
The phrase “no ethical consumption under capitalism” describes how the exploitative nature of production, inherent to our economic system today, makes purely ethical shopping impossible. Whether it be fast fashion, child labor or corrupt business practices, the corporations that control the market all engage in an exploitative system, and the ethical alternatives are often more expensive, rendering them out of reach for the vast majority of people. The same holds true of the media we consume; It would be impossible to only interact with things that reflect our own moral standpoint, especially when major studios hold a monopoly over the industry. That said, it’s important to know where our time, money, and attention are spent. Just as the phrase “no ethical consumption under capitalism” shouldn’t be used to justify a lack of attempt towards ethical shopping, it shouldn’t be used as an excuse to unquestionably support problematic art; but at the same time, needlessly robbing ourselves of joy isn’t activism.
I’ve found that being able to watch Marvel movies and articulate exactly what I dislike about them has strengthened my anti-imperialist beliefs, despite the opposing messages displayed in the films. Understanding how people who hold views contrary to yours propagandize is essential to knowing how to counter them. In this way, consuming problematic media, identifying its issues and being cognizant of the way harmful messages are spread increases analytical ability. The key is to not just watch mindlessly, but consume critically. Critically consuming media can be thought of as “being aware of the media you consume by asking questions, checking facts and being wary of different outlets.” It’s often used in reference to news media, but it’s just as important with fiction. Being aware of what’s present in the media we’re consuming (and not immediately jumping on Twitter to defend every criticism of it) is always important, especially when it comes to media we enjoy. Sometimes this is intuitive — like when I watched “Iron Man” and immediately felt discomfort at seeing terrorists speaking Urdu —but we don’t always pick up on problematic themes immediately. This is why critically engaging with this media requires education on oppressive systems, an understanding of how weaved into the fabric of our culture they are and the ability to listen to marginalized people who provide criticism, even when it’s of art we hold close to our hearts.
Critically consuming media doesn’t mean it’s necessary to interact with every piece of problematic media, or that people who prefer to avoid it are wrong. I understand people not wanting to watch Marvel movies because of their problematic elements. There are shows I won’t watch, books I won’t read; people whose work I won’t support because I don’t agree with harmful themes in them. Everyone draws the line at different places, and I’m not at all done figuring out where I draw mine. Of course, the ideal solution to this problem would be to have no problematic media — but until we live in a more equitable society, coming across art we enjoy that doesn’t reflect our values will be a common occurrence. As long as problematic media exist, we’re going to have to figure out what we do with it.