The Word "Badass"

If you aren’t sure where I got the title for this blog, it came from my intense love of Marvel’s Agents of Shield. I saw the series premiere at Comic Con two years ago and I was sold. I’m a Marvel fan (if you prefer DC over Marvel, I don’t trust you) and it has been so fun to watch a show and characters that feel like they belong to my generation. If you don’t watch the show, I hope you don’t get too lost. Basically the show follows Agents of Shield, the agents who work with the Avengers and related things, such as advanced technology the government could use.

I could go on for days about how much I love this show but I’m guessing you don’t want to read that rant. Women in the show is one of the most fascinating aspects of the show. Marvel has been knocking it out of the park lately when it comes to women being represented and this show is not disappointing. The show started off with three women (out of six main characters) in the cast and now a Bobbi (aka Mockingbird) has been added. And seriously, she’s a badass. If you don’t watch the show, just look up Mockingbird suit. She has one of the most amazing costumes in the Marvel universe and I’m not saying I need it, but I do. And it’s not just the number of women in the show but the quality that is so amazing.

The women can certainly take care of themselves. The women are not left out of intense fight scenes in the show and they can certainly kick some ass. I think the most satisfying fight moment for me was when Agent May got to nail gun Agent Ward in the foot after he betrayed Shield. Mockingbird (aka Agent Morse) has certainly put that amazing suit to use. One of my favorite episodes was when Lady Sif from Thor worked with the team for a bit and the entire team, including the men, were in awe of how strong she is and were impressed with her skills as a fighter. When she comes to meet the team, Agent Coulson tells Agent May “she’s a warrior. I saw her fight in New Mexico with Thor. Climbed a giant metal killing machine, speared it with her double bladed sword. It was pretty badass.”

The men in the show don’t just recognize the strength of the women but love it. Not to mention one of the founders of Shield, Agent Peggy Carter, is getting her own show and has been featured in flashbacks on Agents of Shield. They way everyone talks about her, both the male and female agents, show she is someone they all respect. When I think of the young boys watching this show, it’s really cool to think that they are growing up with a show that tells them women are to be respected. And then there are the young girls watching the show who are being shown it’s okay to be self sufficient and you don’t have to pretend to be weak around men.

The women are not devoid of emotions in the show despite their strength, and I think this is the best thing about how Marvel portrays women. Marvel has shown women can be strong and in love at the same time, with other characters such as Agent Carter (a huge post about her is coming soon, but I want to wait for the Agent Carter show to start before I write it). The worst thing we can tell the world is that by being a strong woman, you don’t have emotions. We’re strong, not robots. In the show, Agent Ward is the love interest of Skye and Agent May. When he betrays Shield, this impacts these two women especially because of the emotional attachments they had with him. They didn’t just forget about him once he was revealed to be a traitor. They were mad and embarrassed for trusting him, but they did not let these emotions get in the way of taking him down.

They are certainly smart as well. It’s not like the men are making all the plans and the women are dutifully following behind. Women are a central part of the team and making plans to save the world. It is even revealed that the team that the show follows was not actually created by the male Agent Coulson as he thought but secretly by Agent May without him realizing it. The women are part of the process and the men listen to them. They’re not just equals but respected by the men in the team as well. Agent Ward and Fitz have a look of awe in their eyes as they tell Skye the legendary story of how Agent May (aka the Calvary) once defeated a team of men all on her own. She is something of a legend to them.

Out of all the female characters, I would have to say Agent May is my favorite. I don’t know what other words sum her up better than badass and cool. The actress who plays her, Ming-Na Wen, has commented “A lot of my Twitter fans love using the word ‘badass’, which I love. I don’t think I’ve played many characters where that is the constant description.” I think a lot of people like Agent May so much because as much of as a complex character she is in the show, she’s still pretty relatable. She reminds me a lot of myself in a lot of ways.She has trouble socializing and making friends. She has friends (there was a little easter egg in the show that showed Black Widow is her friend) but she’s an agent that has traveled so much in her life it has probably become hard for her to grow attached to the people around her. She is fiercely loyal to the ones she does let herself grow attached to and she’s willing to do whatever she needs to do to save Sheild. Plus, her fight scenes are awesome. It’s pretty cool to see a petite women on tv kicking ass and people loving it. TV impacts our culture because it essentially tells our culture what we approve of and want in our culture. With all these women kicking ass, it’s telling the world we want strong women in our society.

Being Seen

My inspiration for writing these post always seems to happen when I have a lot of studying to do and right now I don’t think I could cram one more New Testament fact in my head.

I wasn’t planning on watching Brooklyn Nine Nine. I didn’t think I could buy Andy Samberg, the goofy guy I watched on SNL growing up, as a detective. I decided to give it a try when I saw Stephanie Beatriz, an actress I saw perform in Ashland’s Shakespeare festival twice, was in it. (So yes Mom, you were right about this show.) I liked it immediately for obvious reasons, like the good writing and sense of humor it has in its storylines. As someone who wants to be a cop and has spent a lot of time with cops, cop shows can be a little painful to watch sometimes. Bad stances and not clearing corners usually leads me to rolling my eyes. But this show is not trying to be a serious cop show, so I can let the little stuff go. And actually, their stances aren't that bad.

But what I really have grown to love about the show is the diversity. It’s a diverse cast that the media is slowly but surely starting to recognize. There are two female Hispanic detectives (Rosa and Amy are the two characters I’ll be focusing most this post), one African American Sergeant, and an African American captain who is gay. Is diversity on tv my top priority in life? Probably not, I think they’re are a lot more important things that face minorities, but what I’ll touch on this post and others is the little impacts having diversity have on our culture. Before I get to that whole spiel, I’ll introduce Amy and Rosa.

At first I really just liked these two characters because I can see myself becoming a perfect mix of them both when I become a cop. Rosa is on the antisocial side and can be snarky, and Amy is an authority pleaser (to a fault sometimes). Both are smart and effective detectives. It’s really nice to hear that neither of these characters where written to be Hispanic. They were blank slates in a way and when the actresses were cast, their characters were adapted a little to fit the actresses ethnicities.

I also identify with these characters because of how being Hispanic is part of their identity. It’s a part of their identity, but it doesn’t completely define them. It’s only one small part of what makes up them as a person. There are small references that make up this Hispanic identity, such as referencing Rosa’s catholic school upbringing, but being Hispanic is certainly not brought up every episode.

I don’t mind having Hispanic characters on tv, such as Gloria on Modern Family, that have an identity that is made up much larger of being Hispanic because this is certainly how some Hispanic women in everyday life identify. The problem is when we only have characters like that on tv because it puts this idea out in society that in order to be really Hispanic, it has to be a huge part of your identity.

I’m at a point in my life where I’m trying to figure out for myself how much being Hispanic is part of my identity. To be honest, right now I’m unsure. There are times I feel completely distant from Hispanic culture (a lot of this comes from the fact I can’t speak Spanish) but I do recognize it’s at least part of my identity. I can’t deny it when the one thing I can cook well is breakfast tacos I learned from my dad.

I feel like these two women perfectly depict how I identity as a Hispanic. I’m someone who looks a little Hispanic, has some Hispanic aspects of culture that make up my identity, but not someone who is completely identifying as Hispanic. That isn’t something I will feel badly about and it doesn’t make me a bad Mexican or person. I don’t have to prove my Mexican identity to anyone. It’s my identity and no one can tell me it is wrong. Although my identity is something I’m still struggling with, ultimately I think I see myself as an American who has some other cultures that make up my identity.