I started laughing at “tony is a giant penis” , but damn… this is well thought out.
I think that’s why I resonated with him.
Another character I resonate with is T'Challa, who’s also not my gender, so I couldn’t put a finger on it at first.
I think T'Challa is one of the few male combat heroes in the MCU to hardly ever use something like a gun. Even his female guards have more penetrative weapons (I’ll avoid saying ‘masculine’, due to the connotations)
His claws are penetrative in a way, but… he fights in a skin tight suit, twirling acrobatically in the air and landing in a way that we can see his body in almost sensual ways. His new nanotech suit literally rips his clothes apart.
The only times he uses a spear is as a ceremonial weapon, but he still wins the fight by…. choking his opponent with his thighs. He asks some privacy before he stands, half dressed in the cold mountain air before the leader of the Jabari who he had earlier choked with his thighs. He smiles as he invites him to battle.
His first conversation with his male friend (W'Kabi) is about his love life. His scenes with other men are emotionally charged.
He himself, gets emotional. And disoriented because of it. He freezes when he sees his attractive ex. He loses his composure when Zuri is killed.
Wakanda is a healthy place for gender roles. He looks up to feminine figures, and even worships a goddess.
{ The only thing that seems to be contentious in Wakandan society is age (when M'Baku calls T'Challa a ‘boy’ and Shuri and 'child’ to discredit them, the representatives of tribes being the elders, and Shuri explicitly acknowledging the lack of value given to prodigies, in BPWF) }
This is a man, but in historically female tropes. But unlike Steve, he’s dignified in those tropes. He’s the version of masculinity that’s comfortable in the way he just is. He accepts his mistakes, and where he had been violent, he tries to nurture.
The only time he gets sniped for being a cat themed superhero is by Americans. Sam Wilson and Everett Ross. And while I love Sam’s 'so you like cats?’, it occurred to me that cats are often associated with femininity in the West. Ironic of the Falcon to say this: but he may have not considered the gritty bird of prey to be something worth being teased about. So T'Challa explains what the suit means, in one of the few times he ever has to defend his strength and validity.
But he still doesn’t care. Western values of masculine superheroes are not relevant to him because he’s the King of an uncolonized nation. He’s fine with smiling at Ross and ignoring the snide remarks about Wakanda’s lack of relevance, because he knows Wakanda’s worth as well as his own.
Even if he was to somehow read this very essay, he wouldn’t react much to my interpretation. He’s the type to know in his heart the difference between how we see him vs how he sees himself.
Steve might cry if he read yours. Because it matters way too much to him. Because the way the world saw him was sometimes the only thing he could define himself with.
“I can do this all day” Steve spits blood out and raggedly affirms his own strength because noone believes in it. He knows he may not survive war, but he never admits it to Bucky that he wants to prove something.
“I never freeze”. T'Challa rolls his eyes at his friends as he jokingly affirms his stoicism around his ex lover. He knows he looks dumb when he freezes, but he’ll never admit it to his sister.
