Issue #6: Sandy's Reflections on Marvel's The Avengers (2012)

First, I want to start with one line: The Avengers is, to me, an almost perfect movie. It has heart, and it has everything I love about Joss Whedon’s work. Much like Firefly or Buffy, Whedon can craft a sci-fi realm that is both spectacular and believable, with characters you care about. He can balance multiple characters well, giving each a moment in the sun, and he can craft some of the best lines ever, such as Pepper and Tony’s opening discussion about their newly designed, clean-energy Stark Tower in Manhattan: 

TONY: Give yourself some credit, please. Stark Tower is your baby. Give yourself -- twelve percent of the credit.

 

PEPPER: Twelve percent?

 

TONY: An argument can be made for fifteen.

 

PEPPER: Twelve percent? For my baby?

 

TONY: Well, I did do all the heavy lifting. Literally, I lifted the heavy things. And sorry, but the security snafu? That was on you.

 

PEPPER: Oooooh.

 

TONY: My private elevator --

 

PEPPER: You mean OUR elevator?

 

TONY, CONTINUING, UNFAZED: -- was teeming with sweaty workmen. I'm going to pay for that comment about percentages in some subtle way later, aren't I?

 

PEPPER: Not going to be that subtle.

 

TONY: I'll tell you what. Next building's going to say 'Potts' on the tower.

 

PEPPER, SMILING: On the lease.

 

This exchange is one of my favorites because it shows that Pepper, despite being a normal, non-powered human in a superhuman world, can stand up for herself. She is confident enough of—and proud of—her own contributions to Stark Technologies to want proper credit and recognition. Also, it’s just a great scene that crackles with their on-screen chemistry.

 

So, I believe this film allows even characters that are supporting players to have a moment to shine and grow, and it really is a fun and enjoyable film. It also felt very Whedon-esque to me as a long-time Whedon fan (who can quote Buffy at any moment that might need a good one-liner, or who still says “Shiny!” when something happens that is wonderful, or who has a cat named River).

 

But there is one moment that I have increasing issues with, one line that I dislike: Loki’s cutting remark to Black Widow where he calls her a “mewling quim.” I admit that I was so in love with this film the first time (or the first 20 times) I watched it that I just blew over the line, knowing it was an insult to upset her. I was not concerned at all, and it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of that scene as a whole (I love that she was playing him all along to find out his plan) or the film in general.

 

However, now, post-Justice League fiasco, I have to hold this line to the same mirror that I do the horribly written scene between Martha Kent and Lois Lane. Mourning their loss of Clark Kent (spoiler: Superman dies in Batman v Superman, the previous film), they are having coffee and sharing stories to supposedly cheer each other up. Martha recounts Clark’s pride in Lois’s journalistic skills and says, mistakenly, that Lois “was the thirstiest young woman he had ever met.” After an awkward beat, Martha realizes her mistake and quickly changes it to “hungriest.”

 

The Justice League scene doesn’t just bother me a little—it bothers me quite a bit. And, looking back, I don’t like “mewling quim” either. Joss Whedon can write women very, very well, and other scenes in The Avengers crackle with his view of women as capable, intelligent, and even powerful. Andrew Dyce writes in the article “Which Justice League Lines are Definitely Whedon?” that the “thirsty” scene “may be the area where Whedon's writing has come under the most scrutiny and criticism, and in all honesty, it's easy to see why. The idea of sexualizing any of the women in Man of Steel or Batman v Superman seems odd in hindsight” (https://screenrant.com/justice-league-movie-joss-whedon-jokes-lines/).

 

So, let’s tie this all together, bringing it back to The Avengers. Doing a bit of legwork for this post, I actually found that many other writers in the Twitterverse and bloggers online had something to say about this one mark on the greatness that is one of the best comic book films. Here is a snippet from Cleolinda on LiveJournal, post-Avengers that captures my own thoughts well:

 

I know more about vulgarity through the ages than I probably should, and I immediately recognized the word "quim." My jaw literally dropped, in the literal sense of literally, when I heard it. I mean, not onto the floor or anything, but it genuinely dropped a good inch or so. In less fancy English, Loki called her a "whining c---," a gendered insult in American usage that even I don't like to write out, and I curse a good bit. My understanding is that the word quim dates back to the early 1600s, meaning the female genitalia; in the Victorian era, it meant the female genitalia and/or the fluids therein as well. It is largely British usage, not American. (Supposedly it's not even English slang these days, just Welsh. Brits can confirm or deny this.) Which is, I'm pretty sure, the reason the word was used by the filmmakers and allowed by the MPAA: they didn't expect a whole lot of people to understand it. The American equivalent never would have made it in, particularly because it's pretty much the last expletive in American culture that's genuinely taboo. Coyly archaic or not, "mewling quim" was a really unpleasant thing to say, in a matching tone of voice that gets the spirit across if not the precise meaning, in an otherwise all-demographics PG-13 family-friendly superhero epic, and I don't understand why it was necessary.

So I was surprised when I saw this in Joss Whedon's letter to his fans:

RDA: What do you feel is the greatest achievement of "the Avoiders"?

JW: Getting "mewling quim" out there to the masses. Also, Hulk.  (https://cleolinda.livejournal.com/1022287.html)

 

The blogger analyzed over 400 comments early on after the release of the film, many on both sides of the issue (Loki's insult either didn’t bother them or it did). Many of those who didn’t like it, she concluded, were Thor fans who thought it was not in line with Loki’s character. Most everyone agreed that it has no connection to the comic source material. And why was Whedon proud of that line? That he could get away with a synonym for the c-word in a comic book film? This sounds awful and adolescent just thinking it.

 

I would like to hold Whedon to a higher standard, and I still love his work. But this one line makes me uncomfortable, and knowing that he throws in another unnecessary quip in Justice League makes me sad that one of my favorite auteurs seems to write women well but yet doesn’t see how these unneeded lines undercut the good work that he does crafting wonderful female characters. 

 

Joss, do better. Because I know you can.