The M-She-U Label

SPOILER WARNING.

Captain Marvel was not a great film. It felt more like blatant military propaganda. There was so much time dedicated to the military flashbacks that looked like they could be used in a commercial (and I’m pretty sure they were). It’s always been an open secret that showrunners behind the MCU were in bed with the military since Iron Man. It’s just never been this obvious. But it still doesn’t deserve as much hate as it gets.

And Brie Larson? While her character could have been written better, Captain Marvel the film basically has the same premise as Thor. Right down to Shield already being on the case.

But for people like the Drinker (the biggest cinema sinner), that couldn’t be it. It had be about her gender. According to him, only men can be strong, buff and powerful. Because Realism™. Even though the Alien and Terminator franchises have had female leads doing manly man things like getting a workout, being buff, wearing pants, and using a gun way before the MCU. But even if we go by that standard, it still wouldn’t make any sense for superheroes. Their powers usually make up or improve whatever they would have physically lacked before the transformation.

So Captain Marvel being able to take down Yon-Rogg in one shot is completely inline with her power set. Little anti-climatic but funny. I mean, she basically used her hand like a gun. Guns always have an unfair advantage, both in real life and fiction. That’s why they’re rarely used unless the plot demands it. Nothing to do with her private parts.

The “M-She-U” name is just a derogatory label used to destroy women’s acting careers.

The Reality

So that pops that bubble. What else is there?

Well, Marvel does have plenty of female superheroes in the comics that do go on to have their own standalone comics. But I can’t really personally speak for Marvel’s comic book history because I only recently got into them. That being said, they are owned by Disney now and I can provide my two cents about them.

The western world (USA specifically) was never that progressive until fairly recently, at least in the grand scheme of things. It didn’t really kick into high gear until the turn of the millennium and into the 2000s. Both movies and TV shows saw a huge uptick in diverse casts and female leads before the 2008 Recession. Disney played a huge role in this with Kim Possible, Proud Family, the Zenon trilogy, That’s So Raven, Hanna Montana and that’s just scratching the surface. Women shined in that era and no one batted an eye. Funny that.

Disney prior to 2025 (no idea what their agenda is now) was rumoured to have been going off a mandatory diversity checklist. A PDF was shown to be proof of that but I’m not aware of any studio ever admitting to actually following it.

Chances are they were just responding to growing customer demand in the MCU films in this ever-connected world and didn’t know how to adapt. Even if the checklist was real, the growing demand feels more plausible.