I can’t get into the MCU universe because of one specific reason

Hi everyone. I recently decided to watch the MCU from the start so I could be more up to date with new releases. I began with Iron Man and was surprised by how difficult it was for me to sit through, mostly because of how women are written and presented.
I was aware of the criticism around early MCU films, but the level of sexualization and gender dynamics made it hard to stay immersed.
I’m curious whether others felt the same when revisiting these movies, and whether the portrayal of female characters meaningfully improves later on.

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Commentaires

Romnonaldao2026-01-02 03:23

It ends pretty quick after Iron Man 2, which is around the time Disney bought Marvel

Thor and First Avenger introduce very strong and intelligent female characters who are not sexualized.

ABC_Dildos_Inc2026-01-02 03:31

Age of Ultron was 5 years later.

Romnonaldao2026-01-02 03:33

5 years later from what?

brycejm19912026-01-02 03:50

It says the oc edited their comment. Guessing they did the dick move of editing not saying anything.

Romnonaldao2026-01-02 03:51

I'm the OC. All I added was the stuff about Thor and First Avenger. Nothing I wrote had anything to do with Age of Ultron

brycejm19912026-01-02 04:08

I really need to late if the weed before going on reddit. My bad dude.

bararumb2026-01-02 22:45

I guess they mean AoU is as bad if not worse than IM2 in that regard and it was 5 years after IM2.

luuvin2026-01-02 03:28

The portrayal of female characters definitely improves (you may want to skip Iron Man 2) as characters like Natasha get more focus -- Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a great outing for her, and then later on someone like Wanda (Scarlet Witch) has a lot of focus and they do some cool things with her character

For more recent films, both Thunderbolts\* and Fantastic Four have incredibly dynamic and powerful female leads who aren't sexualised at all

Educational-Tea-65722026-01-02 03:40

Hmmm... I think *Iron Man* and *Iron Man 2* are the worst culprits in this regard. Natasha Romanoff's introduction in *IM2* is pretty cringey, but her role and skill set is respected a lot more as the story continues over subsequent movies. Peggy Carter stands out in *The First Avenger* as someone who won't cave in to the pressure of completely conforming to 1940s gender roles. Jane Foster is underutilized but also doesn't necessarily fall into the category of objectified/gender stereotypes. And those are the early "main" ladies of the MCU; it definitely gets better and continues improving after *Avengers.*

Now, whether one considers female characters to be *well-written* overall is up for debate and really comes down to personal preference; but the whole "womanizing is cool" thing is pretty much limited to early Tony Stark, and he improves over time.

(Personally, as far as female characters go, I absolutely LOVE Natasha, Yelena Belova, Carol Danvers, Monica Rambeau, Wanda Maximoff, Kamala Khan, Sue Storm, and Kate Bishop. Nebula is also pretty high on my list. I consider all of them to be pretty well written overall.)

JackFuckingReacher2026-01-02 04:05

Either you are going to let the universe grow or not. So make a decision

After_Dig_75792026-01-02 04:05

U ok with it happening to guys?

CuriousExperience2102026-01-02 04:12

Im not. But its not happening to men. At least not in movies I’ve watched.

marvelcomics222026-01-02 04:48

It does but it's not as problematic cough post Serum steve cough.

eagc72026-01-02 04:22

The portrayal of the women on MCU projects does get alot better over time.

marvelcomics222026-01-02 04:47

It gets better in Phase Two, but it's fine by Phase Three.

Caracallademise2026-01-02 06:32

It does get better although it does happen as recently as Thor Love and Thunder. Will warn you, Joss Whedons writing of Natasha Romanoff is so uncomfortable during a lot of scenes in the first two avengers movies. Tbh a lot of those things depends on the writers because in CaTWS which came out in 2014, Nat was an amazing character. Age of Ultron that came out in 2015, it regressed back a bit to being weirdly sexualized because of Joss Whedon

The_Orgin2026-01-02 08:26

I'm an idiot, explain it to me. I don't get it. What was so bad about how women were "written and presented".

P.S.Men were more sexualised than women, it's not even a competition.

ProlapsedShamus2026-01-02 08:43

I have no idea.

There's a type of post that shows up on the internet which is completely vague but it seems like it's making an accusation. It's designed to kind of make people nod and say "yeah it is problematic" without ever really giving any examples or details. I do not know what they mean by gender dynamics or even sexualization.

Was Pepper sexualized at all? Was Jane Foster? Peggy Carter certainly wasn't. I would argue that even Natasha in Iron Man 2 wasn't because she was playing a role which was designed to dupe Tony - a famous poon hound. There's no definition and certainly not one that holds up when the guys are dehydrating themselves for their shirtless scenes in damned near every movie.

Also, if by gender dynamics they mean that women are weak in comparison to men in these movies that's not a great argument to make when the male characters are super soldiers, sorcerer Supremes and a literal god.

Southern_Stage_76632026-01-02 13:38

I jsut watched it and found them good

First_Routine_45292026-01-02 16:09

MCU is very tame what are you talking about?

Were you even alive during the 90' or before that?

If the MCU were to be historically accurate, boy you would be shocked how women were really treated in reality.

bararumb2026-01-03 05:10

As a woman myself it doesn't bother me that much in most of the MCU. Iron Man just starts as a womanizer, it mostly stops as the character grows. If you are struggling, but still want to give it a try, I recommend just skipping the ones you don't like, or even watch it in different order, try finding what interests you the most and then going back (or not) to previous movies.

Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Eternals, The Marvels and Thunderbolts are female-led or directed and have female writers or co-writers. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is female-led.

Out of all other writers/directors, I think Russo brothers and Ryan Coogler are the best at making well-written female characters. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a way better introduction to Natasha (aka Black Widow) than Iron Man 2 and a much better movie too. They also directed Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame and were respectful there too. And all of Black Panther's supporting female characters are great and there's a lot of them!

I personally also greatly enjoyed Thor movies, especially the first two, I think Jane, Darcy and Sif in them are great. Ant-Man is fun, and Ant-Man and The Wasp has a female co-lead technically, though tbh I don't remember if the narrative actually follows her.

Absolutely avoid anything by Joss Whedon and James Gunn though.