an actual Peggy Carter starter pack (x)im getting that
That’s all very nice, but frankly, I find it annoying as fuck that Marvel is launching a Peggy Carter series, which will feature a woman in the mid-20th Century taking charge of an international intelligence agency in its formative stages and personally participating in highly dangerous missions — and wildly succeeding, thus becoming an unsung hero of the Marvel Universe — and here we are, obsessing about her make-up.
Get back to me when we start gushing over her preferred firearms or which martial art move she uses to break a man’s arm in a fist fight.
Because lord knows we’re not allowed to be excited about items that we, female fans, who frequently get shafted when it comes to Marvel merchandise, can actually own and enjoy ourselves, because it’s not the “right” way to be expressing our excitement for the Agent Carter show.
Fuck off.
What I find most amazing about this is the assumption- all but explicit- that because we’re excited about the makeup, we AREN’T excited about the fighting as well.
The boxes they keep trying to fit us into get narrower and narrower, like if it’s claustrophobic enough we’ll turn into what they want.
We already know what her preferred firearms are; we have screencaps and weapons designers like datura-riot who can tell you on sight what her preferred firearms are. We have martial arts aficionados who can watch clips and tell us what her favorite moves are. We can’t tell what perfume she wears from a video clip. Unless I missed a memo somewhere and the world has smellovision now.
Ah, gatekeepers. Here to tell us what we can and cannot enjoy about a media property.
My mom never wore makeup. Like, ever.
But when she went for chemo, she painted her nails, she painted her lips. Maybe it was because her hair was falling out. Maybe because she couldn’t keep anything down, and she was living on a diet of Pretzel goldfish crackers and Capri Sun juice boxes.
Maybe because she’d undergone a mastectomy, and was faced with being labeled ‘less of a woman’ because she’d lost a breast. Because before she was even in remission, people would ask if she was going to have reconstruction. Like her boob mattered more than her survival.
Maybe she wanted to put her best face forward, or arm herself with lips like blood, I don’t know.
I don’t know. But you know what? She got strength from that lipstick. She held her head up a bit higher, she was a little stronger, a little fiercer, a little more willing to face the world with one breast and no hair and a body that had betrayed her.
Maybe some girl out there will be afraid, will be down, will be feeling weak or depressed or afraid, and HAVING PEGGY CARTER’S LIPSTICK will make a difference in if she’s able to get up and face another day. Maybe that TWENTY TWO DOLLAR lipstick will be what she reaches for when she needs her own personal hero to have her back.
Maybe some woman will look in the mirror and think, I’ve got a little bit of Peggy Carter with me, and she could do it so I can do it, and this is how I carry her with me. With her lipstick or her perfume or the subtle, FEMININE things that woman can do to honor their fav characters.
I wear my Captain Marvel dogtags beneath my shirt on bad days. I carry my fandom against my heart, and when I need them, they are THERE, warm against my skin, to remind me of a woman who I respect and admire. Others have tattoos and necklaces and t-shirts under business attire. They have Princess Zelda’s lullaby and Natasha’s hourglass and Katniss’ mockingjay.
And now, for the woman who WANTS it, Haley is providing, on her personal twitter feed, information about what makeup her character is wearing. It’s not a Marvel push, but you know what? I’d be glad if it was. Give me Peggy’s makeup and Natasha’s workout wear and Darcy’s glasses and a line of Jane Foster/Betty Ross labcoats for the doctors and scientists and pharmacists and nurses among us. Give us a full line of Monica shirts and a Misty Knight jacket, cyborg arm optional.
GIVE US THINGS WOMEN WANT, AND TO HELL WITH THE GATEKEEPERS WHO WHINE ABOUT HOW WE’RE ALL UP IN THEIR HOBBY RUINING THINGS.
And Michael Bailey, writer I’m looking forward to avoiding in the future, my mother and her war paint says you can very kindly go to hell.
You know what my favorite part of this interchange is now that we’ve seen a couple episodes? PEGGY USED LIPSTICK TO KNOCKOUT A GUY. Her fucking lipstick was a weapon twice over, first to disarm the man with charm then to knock him unconscious.
And her “martial arts style” is literally hit-with-heavy-object-til-incapscitated.
I hope that lives up to your standards, Michael Bailey, writer.
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