Tw: Violence Aganist Women
Damn. Marvel’s track record of domestic violence is…….even worse than I thought.
abuse cw
drst:
I just thought this set of tweets was really important.
Reminder that in the early European version of the tale, Cinderella is blessed with the gown and slippers because she keeps her promise to her dead parents and her heart remains good.
Memory of a Memory is such a good episode. Not even just because of the ending (where everyone joins in beating Marceline’s
awful ex Ash up) although that’s a reeeeally satisfying scene.
But my FAVOURITE THING about Memory of a Memory
is the really important lesson contained therein. Marceline doesn’t
decide to beat Ash up straight away, you see. She spends a fair amount
of time with him, because he seemed so nice (to the audience as well) at
first. And there’s a scene of him being the perfect boyfriend to her,
magic-ing up some flowers that say “I love you!” and so on.
But then there’s lines like the above, where you can see how Marceline –
an incredibly powerful vampire chick who can shapeshift into a monster
whenever she feels like it – is completely under the thumb of this guy.
Who is actually an abusive misogynistic arsehole who sells Marcy’s most
treasured possession and then wipes her memory of the resulting breakup.
Marceline, daughter of the Nightosphere, survivor of the Mushroom War,
ageless and mischievous vampire queen, acts totally out of character around Ash-
-and I think that’s a really good decision on the part of the writers? Because this episode showed that anyone
can fall into an abusive relationship. It’s not a thing
that ‘tough/strong/badass’ women are immune to, nor is it a character
flaw. And it’s not a character flaw if you don’t instantly twig onto
what’s happening, either. Finn and Jake clearly don’t think so at any point
during the episode and neither should the audience, neither should
anyone. It’s such a good lesson for kids to learn and it was executed so
well.
Kam Brock says she is definitely not crazy, but eight days in the Harlem Hospital psych ward being treated for delusions and bipolar disorder make it look otherwise.
According to the New York Daily News, the whole ordeal started when Brock’s car was seized by the NYPD, who suspected she was high on weed and confiscated her car even though they found no marijuana. When Brock returned to claim her car, she was understandably upset, but not upset enough to justify what happened next.
“Next thing you know, the police held onto me, the doctor stuck me with a needle, and I was knocked out,” Brock said told the Daily News. “I woke up to them taking off my underwear and then went out again. I woke up the next day in a hospital robe.”
In an attempt to explain her situation to the hospital workers, Brock tried a character reference that epically backfired. “I told (the doctor) Obama follows me on Twitter to show her the type of person I am. I’m a good person, a positive person. Obama follows positive people!” she said.
But apparently, the hospital didn’t believe her. Nor did they believe that she worked at a bank. As hospital records show, her treatment was intended to get her to face the “reality” that she was unemployed and that Obama was not following her.
After eight days of group therapy and sedatives, as well as doses of lorazepam and lithium, she was released without explanation.
Then, on top of everything else, Brock received a bill for $13,637.10 from the hospital.
Since then, she has filed suit for unspecified damages. As she continues her crusade for justice, she has one wish: “Follow me on Twitter! Like Obama does!”
What really kills me about this is a few things
False drug charges
Took someone’s property
Respectability politics fell through
Wasted this woman’s time
Racist belief that black people can’t be wealthy/powerful/connected landed this woman in a hospital
She is deemed bipolar and delusional
She is deemed BIPOLAR AND DELUSIONAL
SHE IS DEEMED BIPOLAR AND DELUSIONAL IN THE EYES OF WHITE SUPREMACY BECAUSE SHE KNOWS THAT SHE IS A BANKER AND WEALTHY
She has her clothes removed without her consent, which I’m sure violates a couple medical standards
She is then charged extreme amounts of money for services she got AGAINST her will
You can basically outright say that the cops were working in tandem with the hospital, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they had it out for her by the virtue of her money.
There’s so many levels to this fuckery it makes my head spin, the fact that people STILL don’t think institutional racism is a thing kills me. This is such a far gone example of it, yet it’s still so close to reality that no one is surprised. From the ground up this system will game the fuck out of you and I hope it burns to ashes someday.
The Mary Jane Watson of the original Spider-Man films gets a hell of a lot of flak. She’s usually labelled a ‘no-personality damsel in distress’, before then being called some variation of ‘a clingy, whiny, self-centered two-timer’. Quite aside from the fact that her detractors accuse her of having no personality before immediately going on to describe her personality (well, a small part of it), they’ve somehow managed to miss why she’s ‘clingy, whiny and self-centered’:
Because she was abused!
This isn’t a minor detail, either: it’s very clearly shown that MJ’s abusive father affected her self-esteem massively. In a scene between Peter and MJ in Spider-Man 3, she’s upset – really upset – because of a mildly critical review. Like, really mildly critical. Peter can’t understand why. “That’s a critic, that’s just something you’ll have to get used to.” But MJ can’t understand why he can’t understand. “I look at these words and it’s like my father wrote them.” She’s been told her whole life she’s worthless, why should it stop now? It’s an overreaction, but it makes perfect sense.
Know what else makes perfect sense? MJ’s tangled relationships with men, especially Peter and Harry. She dates Harry straight out of high school, and hey, I love Harry, I really do – but he wants a say in how she dresses, for God’s sake. He loves her but (probably due to coming from a loveless household himself) he’s a terrible boyfriend. And MJ’s doesn’t even quite trust him to accept her- she’s sensitive about the social divide between them, between ‘trash’ and people like the Osborns, but she sticks around anyway, because, like I said, Harry loves her, he thinks she’s beautiful, and he’s rich and good-looking and if someone like that (or John Jameson, another rich and successful young man) wants her how worthless can she be? MJ wants a man in her life, she wants to prove her father wrong, prove she is loveable – if one man lets her down, maybe another one won’t. As soon as Harry fails her she turns to Peter; as soon as Peter fails her a movie or two later she turns back to the now more grown-up Harry. And before you ask, yes, I’ve lost count of the amount of times she’s called ‘slut’ or ‘skank’ for this by fandom, whereas the boys get away with virtually every instance of unpleasant behaviour towards her.
I’m not saying MJ is a saint, mind. Actually, that’s pretty much the point: she isn’t. Leaving John Jameson at the altar with a note was really quite cruel; when she lost her job she should have told Peter about it; she should also have had a proper conversation with him about the Gwen situation; and she shouldn’t have prejudged Gwen herself (a totally innocent party throughout all of Spider-Man 3) so harshly. MJ fucks up, you know, she really does – but that’s okay. The movies don’t judge her for her sex life, her rough patches, her frequent need for reassurance, or her ambition. When Norman behaves in a downright misogynist way to her (remember him leering at her chest mere minutes before he calls her a gold-digger? She’s nineteen at most at that point. I think he deserved that stab in the dick) we aren’t meant to think he’s right, we’re meant to think he’s horrible. Yet I’ve seen an unnerving amount of people agree with him. Which is absolutely endemic of a wider problem, but anyway – back to MJ as a person –
There’s more than one kind of female character, and I am absolutely, absolutely here for the flawed, messed up, not-really-all-that-kickass ones. MJ’s clingy because she wants to be loved, she’s ‘whiny’ (sigh) because people treat or have treated her actually really badly, and she’s self-centered because you know what abusers try to do? Deny their victims a sense of self. Almost every part of MJ’s life is trying to prove her father wrong, trying to fight back against her abuser by succeeding in life and loving others (and herself) the best that she can, and I think that makes her easily as good a role model as Spider-Man. The movies themselves seem to agree with me. How about you?
The Mary Jane Watson of the original Spider-Man films gets a hell of a lot of flak. She’s usually labelled a ‘no-personality damsel in distress’, before then being called some variation of ‘a clingy, whiny, self-centered two-timer’. Quite aside from the fact that her detractors accuse her of having no personality before immediately going on to describe her personality (well, a small part of it), they’ve somehow managed to miss why she’s ‘clingy, whiny and self-centered’:
Because she was abused!
This isn’t a minor detail, either: it’s very clearly shown that MJ’s abusive father affected her self-esteem massively. In a scene between Peter and MJ in Spider-Man 3, she’s upset – really upset – because of a mildly critical review. Like, really mildly critical. Peter can’t understand why. “That’s a critic, that’s just something you’ll have to get used to.” But MJ can’t understand why he can’t understand. “I look at these words and it’s like my father wrote them.” She’s been told her whole life she’s worthless, why should it stop now? It’s an overreaction, but it makes perfect sense.
Know what else makes perfect sense? MJ’s tangled relationships with men, especially Peter and Harry. She dates Harry straight out of high school, and hey, I love Harry, I really do – but he wants a say in how she dresses, for God’s sake. He loves her but (probably due to coming from a loveless household himself) he’s a terrible boyfriend. And MJ’s doesn’t even quite trust him to accept her- she’s sensitive about the social divide between them, between ‘trash’ and people like the Osborns, but she sticks around anyway, because, like I said, Harry loves her, he thinks she’s beautiful, and he’s rich and good-looking and if someone like that (or John Jameson, another rich and successful young man) wants her how worthless can she be? MJ wants a man in her life, she wants to prove her father wrong, prove she is loveable – if one man lets her down, maybe another one won’t. As soon as Harry fails her she turns to Peter; as soon as Peter fails her a movie or two later she turns back to the now more grown-up Harry. And before you ask, yes, I’ve lost count of the amount of times she’s called ‘slut’ or ‘skank’ for this by fandom, whereas the boys get away with virtually every instance of unpleasant behaviour towards her.
I’m not saying MJ is a saint, mind. Actually, that’s pretty much the point: she isn’t. Leaving John Jameson at the altar with a note was really quite cruel; when she lost her job she should have told Peter about it; she should also have had a proper conversation with him about the Gwen situation; and she shouldn’t have prejudged Gwen herself (a totally innocent party throughout all of Spider-Man 3) so harshly. MJ fucks up, you know, she really does – but that’s okay. The movies don’t judge her for her sex life, her rough patches, her frequent need for reassurance, or her ambition. When Norman behaves in a downright misogynist way to her (remember him leering at her chest mere minutes before he calls her a gold-digger? She’s nineteen at most at that point. I think he deserved that stab in the dick) we aren’t meant to think he’s right, we’re meant to think he’s horrible. Yet I’ve seen an unnerving amount of people agree with him. Which is absolutely endemic of a wider problem, but anyway – back to MJ as a person –
There’s more than one kind of female character, and I am absolutely, absolutely here for the flawed, messed up, not-really-all-that-kickass ones. MJ’s clingy because she wants to be loved, she’s ‘whiny’ (sigh) because people treat or have treated her actually really badly, and she’s self-centered because you know what abusers try to do? Deny their victims a sense of self. Almost every part of MJ’s life is trying to prove her father wrong, trying to fight back against her abuser by succeeding in life and loving others (and herself) the best that she can, and I think that makes her easily as good a role model as Spider-Man. The movies themselves seem to agree with me. How about you?
OKAY I’M SORRY JUST ONE MORE I PROMISE
Cycles and Circles was the second Spider-Man story about the Osborns and their cycle of child abuse. (The first was The Child Within, which is one HELL of a heavy story.) Thanks to some sciency mumbojumbo, Peter finds himself witnessing/feeling everything Harry and Norman before him witnessed/felt as children. So Peter sees Norman’s father turn on him and his mother, and then sees Norman grow up to neglect and abuse Harry, and then sees Harry raise his hand to his own son. (Although, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m 99% sure Harry never actually hit Normie, never in any of the Osborn comics- heck, they made a point of it. So I’m glad they didn’t show him actually doing that). Peter saves a little boy from a fire and keeps referring to him as ‘Harry’ (who is dead by this point) which makes me cry. Anyway, by the end of the story Peter’s decided to try and forgive Harry for the terrible things Harry did to him, and he goes to see Normie and try and steer him on the right path, and YOU KNOW YOU SHOULD REALLY READ THIS ONE AND TCW SPIDER-MAN IS ACTUALLY ALMOST ALWAYS AT ITS BEST WHEN DEALING WITH REAL-LIFE ISSUES