This has been said before by people better at articulating their opinions than me, but the bad reception Black Widow got from male MCU fans is about so much more than just the simple concept that it's a superhero movie starring a woman, but the fact that it's so clearly a film by women for women. It's in all the little things, like all the amazing braids sported by the female characters instead of having them constantly fight with their hair down, Yelena and Natasha being excited about the vest and all its pockets, zero sexualisation of any of the Widows, the forced hysterectomy being discussed matter-of-factly, and the women getting to wear minimal to no make-up in settings where that makes sense. But it's also in the big things, like the story centred around the epidemic of girls being subjected to human trafficking with a theme of reclaiming your anatomy and freeing other female victims, both others and your own.
Obviously this doesn't mean that every single woman on earth is automatically gonna identify with and like the movie, that's an impossible achievement. But it is a movie that's so much more than pandering, and these geeks are just completely incapable of inserting themselves into a point of view different from their own.
Yeah, when the menz get all whiny and butthurt that a movie isn’t catering directly to them, I just sit back and drink a nice hot cup of tea brewed with male tears.
the joy Yelena has for her pockets (which is so cute and tragically heartbreaking) alone shows this cos lord knows women's stuff lacks pockets and a brainwashed spy knowing this speaks volumes.
plus the piercings being objectively a hinderence to their fighting but still kept- honestly cherry on the top and not just because it highlights their desire for bodily autonomy; general desire to control their inner and outer perceptions (plus it looks cool).
