It’s amusing the way nominally inflammatory accusations of misogyny and racism have now become a sort of elevator music to lefty writers. The accusations just hum along in the background of everything they say, do, and think. “Oh, here’s my take on the new Marvel movie, would you like to hear how it’s an outrage to progressive orthodoxy?” “Mmm-hmm. Whatever you say, honey. Keep talking.”
Take this piece from the Guardian on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, in which Wanda Maximoff turns into the villainous Scarlet Witch because she longs to force an alternate universe in which she can be an ordinary suburban stay-at-home mom. Wanda would really like to quit her taxing and stressful high-powered career of hurling orange fireballs at supernatural armies. The headline is “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: tonal shifts, misogyny and new superheroes — discuss with spoilers.” Note that you can’t just accuse someone of sexism in a headline anymore because it’s not hysterical enough. No, it’s all accusations of misogyny, all the time, even when . . . you’re not actually angry and don’t really mean it and are just filling up space.
In the body of the piece, the writer half-heartedly explains the feeble basis for the misogyny claim: Wanda’s
only mission is to reunite herself with the twin sons she discovered during Wandavision, Wiccan and Speed, having worked out that numerous alternative realities exist in which she and they live contented lives together. And yes, it’s a pity this ties into the sexist “mad mom” narrative that sees mothers as over-emotional creatures who make bad decisions because they love their children. Fortunately Olsen makes a wickedly evil protagonist . . .
Phew! At least she’s wickedly evil, not just emotionally attached to motherhood. Anyway, this is the only allusion to supposed misogyny in the piece, which is more or less the Diet Coke of progressive outrage: one calorie, not very outraged at all. Or maybe “that’s misogynist and/or racist” is the new Carthago Delenda Est. You just have to throw it into every cultural essay, whether you’re feeling it or not. It’s what the suckers who read the Guardian expect to hear.
PHOTOS: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Premiere