Critics Are Slamming Wanda’s Sexist Portrayal In The New ‘Doctor Strange’ Sequel
"It’s 2022: Why are we still being asked to see powerful men as heroes, and powerful women as scary?"
Benedict Cumberbatch is back in his silly cape and twirly hand gestures for Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, and critics are reacting accordingly.
A sequel to the 2016 film Doctor Strange, our titular hero is decisively lovelorn, attending the wedding of old flame Christine (Rachel McAdams) before launching into the streets of NYC to deal with a giant octopus. Sure.
He later bumps into a teenage girl called America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), who happens to possess the power to traverse multiple universes. Then we have Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen), who has gone full-blown evil Scarlet Witch and spends the entire movie desperately trying to get into the universe where she is a suburban housewife with two loud sons, because in the end that’s all women really want, is it not?
As you can imagine, that Wanda plot has come under fire from more than one critic since its premiere last week.
Here’s a recap of the ones that have caught our eye.
Vulture: “Utterly Sexist”
“Dreams are windows into the lives of our multiverses selves, and for Wanda, her dream involves being a suburban housewife,” writes Vulture‘s Anjelica Jade Bastién. “Without Vision, or any inkling of Wanda’s desires beyond her children, this dream comes across as even more claustrophobic.”
She adds: “Apparently Wanda — an immensely powerful witch who can bend reality — only aspires to be a mum. It’s her single, devouring need, and when it’s not met, she loses her mind, leading to death and destruction for everyone around her.”
“Marvel is cunning in how it projects the appearance of meaningful representation in its stories, whether it be the totemic royalty of Black Panther, or the glimmer of queer folks in Eternals. If they’re doing white women so dirty, how can the rest of us expect any better?”
The Daily Dot: “Everything That’s Wrong With The MCU”
The Daily Dot made a particular point of America Chavez’s underwhelming characterisation, who in the comics is meant to be less impressionable and more headstrong. “While Xochitl Gomez is perfectly likeable in herself,” they write, “America spends most of the film unable to use her powers, relying on Doctor Strange for protection and guidance.”
“She’s wide-eyed and vulnerable, a Disneyfied characterisation choice that also desexualises her comic book role. The MCU took a cool, independent, queer Latina superhero, and sanded down all the hard edges that made her interesting.”
The reviewer adds that the sequel does both Wanda and America dirty, writing both characters using the trope of “magical women who are Just Too Powerful For Their Own Good.”
Jezebel: “Serving Game Of Thrones Sexism”
“Wanda’s fate reminds me of Daenerys Targaryen’s in the final season of Game of Thrones writes Kylie Cheung from Jezebel. “Both stories depict power corrupting once-beloved female characters, who are then demonised and ultimately disposed of. It’s 2022: Why are we still being asked to see powerful men as heroes, and powerful women as scary? Why are female characters only likeable when they’re struggling and weak?”
“The plot arc of women becoming psychotic, unable to control their own emotions, serves the same energy of male pundits who frequently warn us that if we have a woman president, she’ll nuke the whole world if she has a bad day or is on her period.”
She adds that both The Scarlet Witch and Daenerys are “female characters in massive, blockbuster fantasy stories who are embraced as likeable, sympathetic protagonists when they’re powerless or struggling. But how they’re presented to audiences changes entirely when they do obtain power; they become the villains, terrifying and ruthless, and are almost immediately, unceremoniously tossed aside as a result.”
The Toronto Star: “The Scarlet Witch In The Multiverse Of Misogyny”
Jaime Weinmann says that in contrast to the critically acclaimed WandaVision, where creator Jac Schaeffer was “able to create a nuanced portrayal of Wanda and her strengths and weaknesses”, her cinematic counterpart (by screenwriter Michael Waldron) has failed dismally, flogging yet another story where a woman with too much power cannot be trusted and is made irrational by her obsession with children.
“It could be that to get inside the head of a powerful woman, you need a woman with power.”