An unfortunate thing that happened during the lead up to Captain Marvel‘s release were the trolls bombarding the movie with awful comments because of ridiculous, misogynistic reasons that range from hating on Brie Larson to being mad that the protagonist is female.
After a period of silence from the loud, puffy-chested bros, it seems like they’re rearing their heads and misogyny again, this time for Birds of Prey.
Despite having not seen Birds Of Prey yet – the movie isn’t even out at the time of writing – some bloke on Twitter boldly predicted that the movie will bomb like Charlie’s Angels because the movie *checks notes* “removed any sex appeal these characters had to appeal to a female “girl power” audience instead of the core male comic book audience” before doubling down on his position by saying “even women want to see attractive women on screen.”
Okay then.
One has to assume that the Twitter dude’s definition of sex appeal is “super revealing costumes that show off a ridiculous amount of cleavage and arse” because going off the Birds Of Prey footage that’s been released so far, the leading women are oozing in sex appeal.
Presumably he was hoping for more of Harley Quinn’s gratuitous Suicide Squad outfit and was disappointed that Birds Of Prey had her rocking a decidedly unrevealing janitor’s outfit. Or perhaps we wasn’t too happy seeing Harley telling the Joker to “f**k off.”
It’s frustrating to see how some people still hold such outdated views on sexual desirability, especially when you consider that the female cast are all objectively very attractive. Are outfits like skintight short-shorts and unrealistic body standards really needed for “sex appeal?”
Beyond dudebros being unhappy about the lack of skin on display in Birds Of Prey, trolls are also out in force decrying the movie because of, uh, reasons. One just needs to look up the movie title on YouTube or Twitter to find a heap of trolls piling on the film, which, again, hasn’t even been released yet.
Between Captain Marvel and now Birds Of Prey, one has to wonder what it’ll take for all this discourse to stop. You’d think that the massive success of female-led comic book movies – that are aimed at the “core male comic book audience” – like the aforementioned Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman would shift the conversation into a more positive space but it seems like there will always be some people out there who want to complain for the sake of complaining.
I guess the best way to fight fire is with fire, and in this case that means going to watch Birds Of Prey at least three times and making sure it becomes the big hit the trolls don’t want it to be.
Always be in the loop with our snackable podcast breaking the biggest story of the day. Subscribe to It’s Been A Big Day For… on your favourite podcast app.