⍟✪ Drew ⧗𖤍

When he first joins the Avengers, he's given his garish little outfit, the cowl, the bright red gloves and boots, and his signature shield of course, because that's what people recognize him by. Everybody else in the group has some kind of weapon (Nat's got her guns and probably a stash of knives, Clint's got his arrows, Tony can shoot laser blast thingies with his suit, and so on), but Steve's only given the shield. Which, I get it, he can absolutely use it to attack as well as to protect himself - but that's not quite the same, is it?

And I mean, this guy fought in actual WWII, he was on the front lines for close to two years! He's no stranger to guns,

he was storming HYDRA bases and blowing up buildings and tanks, with nazi soldiers still inside them, for god's sake!

And he looked pretty smug about it, too:

I mean, he's not actively looking for people to kill, and it's not like he immediately goes for the kill when he fights (he seems to tend more towards incapacitating first, though it depends on the situation), but the thing is, he is willing to kill if need be.

BUT. But it's like they just don't want people to see him with a gun in his hand. Definitely not when he's fighting aliens on national tv, and apparently neither is he issued any firearms when he's going on secret spy missions for SHIELD, either - not that I remember anyway, but obviously I could be wrong.

I'm just. Just thinking about Steve, especially during his first year or so in the 21st century, realizing more and more how his image has been twisted to serve whatever purpose was more convenient at the time, and how it's being twisted even further now that he's back.

There's this undeniable, concerted effort being poured into making him more palatable to the public.

They want him polished. They want him as an ideal to sell. They want Captain America the war hero, but he can't be directly associated with violence or with the brutal, blood-soaked, dirty-handed reality of war; so he's a soldier who fought in the war, but somehow he's never killed anyone (such a preposterous idea! Captain America? Kill someone? Perish the thought!), and the war itself is a vague, distant kind of war that belongs in the past, or possibly, occasionally, in a Hollywood movie that will gloss over the worst parts of it.

They don't want Steve the war veteran who's plagued by a severe case of survivor's guilt (not to mention all the other glaring PTSD symptoms). They want to sell Cap the goody-two-shoes who spends his time helping doddery old grannies cross the street, Cap the pedantic good little soldier who does cringe-worthy PSAs and Always Follows The Rules, and fights the bad guys in the Right Way because he's a Good Hero who Doesn't Enjoy Violence and has a strict no-killing policy, obviously.

So he can't be seen wielding a gun, because uhhh that would kinda ruin the vision they're going for here.

Besides, getting your gob smacked by the shield is definitely way more brutal than they show in the movies. It does have a range of injuries it can inflict but since Chris Evans puts his pussy into throwing that thing, I'm left to also assume that thing has definitely gotten brains all over it at one point.

The only reason it's different from John Walker is the principle by which it was bloodied, DEFINITELY not because it's the first time it's seen blood.

I am however wondering if it was a propaganda thing for SHIELD to leave him gunless in 2012... because it's strange to let only the 'blood in my ledger' and 'mind controlled' people fight aliens with a gun.

:(

I have so many feelings about the concept of Steve not being able to acknowledge his reality as a veteran because people are busy painting him as a family friendly spandex wearing fella from the reels.

that being said. can we not erase the fact the entire conversation began with disabled people talking about being medically abused pretty please. & also, iirc the post that first really blew up about "mean girl nurses" never said "ALL nurses are evil bitches who hate everyone and they deserve to be mistreated" it was saying "women who sought power over other people in high school go into careers where they can wield power over other people, same as men, and there are women who go into nursing and present themselves as kind and caring and maternal, who are motivated by a desire to have unquestioned authority over other people's bodies to make themselves feel powerful, again, same as men who do the same things in masculinized careers." & i just find it "interesting" how all that has been reduced down to "all nurses are mean girls")

i think nuance is always important & doctors and nurses do need better treatment and society frequently praises them while also supporting their abuse. and yet they are also universally recognized as vital important members of society & empowered to have immense control over the lives of people who are systemically vulnerable and seen as leeches who add nothing to society. and yet who has to deal with the impacts of their stress and their trauma and their anger and their burnout? the disabled people under their care.

again. Nuance! but i just cannot help but Side Eye In Cripple some things people say on this topic. it can both be true that nurses (& doctors) experience horrible working conditions and that, in my opinion, that any conversation about burnout and abuse of medical professionals needs to also criticize the authoritarianism of the medical field and how widespread medical neglect and abuse is, lest we simply fall back into "the poor beleagured doctor who is Jesus Christ On The Cross Himself, all-wise and all-knowing and forced to tolerate all these entitled know-it-all ungrateful patients!" which changes nothing for anyone.

like. look at this article. the actual context for the "mean girl to nurse pipeline" (that some women seek out power over people to control them and make themselves feel bigger, and women are likely to do this through caretaking in the role of nurse, teacher, mother, etc.) is not brought up at all. the fixation is entirely on "its mean to call nurses mean girls! they experience a lot of bullying! you don't REALLY know any mean nurses, just poor tired bullied ones!"

First, the phrase itself is unfair to women. Although nursing is a female-dominated field, this phrase focuses on women as being the “mean” ones to worry about.

like. do youuuu fucking see the erasure of medical abuse. the actual bullshit nurses do to real living human beings, which goes massively under-reported. & not just disabled people but people of color as well. god fucking forbid medical professionals are treated as anything but literal saints descended from heaven. god forbid white cisgender women are recognized to have the ability to be cruel and power-hungry and to hurt other people through traditionally feminine roles based on caretaking. like I genuinely do understand that nurses are subject to immense stress, bullying, and violence, and that providing better working conditions for nurses is vital to improving medical treatment for all patients.

but when the actual neglect and abuse nurses can do to their patients is ignored and drops out of the conversation entirely, in the name of complaining about nurses being called "mean"? sorry but it pisses me the fuck off.

(links to some sources on patient abuse under the cut since this is long enough as is)

#m.#reminds me of how the pitt has several scenes i remember being like.#whyyyy are we making so many jokes about drug addicts and mentally ill people and their distress guys 😀#like that one fucking scene of the one doctor berating a drug user for no goddamn reason but it portrays her as#righteous because He Lied For Drugs (literally no way for him to be honest with you)#lying to HIM about giving him a drug that CAN MAKE YOU GO INTO WITHDRAWAL IF YOU TAKE ANY OTHER OPIATES WITH IT (suboxone i think)#WITHOUT TELLING HIM!!!!!!!!!! MASSIVE massive violation of patient autonomy and SAFETY. since she LIED about what drug it was#and the man HIMSELF clearly wanted opiates so he wouldnt be in withdrawal for his daughters wedding#and then she. berates him? for not caring about his daughter???????#and no one seems to be annoyed at this scene but me a fucking pparently#because it was the sweet nice doctor and its her fucking character development to be cruel towards a drug user for doing literally nothing#except trying to seek the care he needed to live his life in the way he knew how#and ofc they presented it as ''well maybe when hes ready he'll get clean now that you were a jerk to him :)''#she shouldve been fucking berated for that. they shouldve had a whole scene telling her how big of a fuckup that was#but nooooo its her cute little character development moment#idc get that poor man some methadone and TELL HIM HOW IT WORKS

It is shocking how recent the idea that "people have the right to decide what medical care they do or don't want" is. The whole modern medical system in the US, for example, was built with the presupposition that doctors give instructions to nurses and patients, nurses follow those instructions and give instructions to patients, and patients do exactly what they're told and be thankful for it. Hell, the Tuskegee "Experiment" didn't officially end until 1972 and the ADA was only passed in 1990. The present day system is the culmination of literal centuries of medical abuse of vulnerable people, and the ways in which the system has improved has been through the ongoing struggles against it by those it abuses. And this is not unique to the US by any measure, just the one whose history I know best.

Lying to patients? It's for their own good.

Giving them a medication without telling them what it is? It's for their own good.

Having a patient imprisoned committed institutionalized against their will? It's for their own good.

Berating a fat patient for existing? Drug users for using drugs? Patients with disabilities needing (legally mandated) accommodations? It's for their own good.

We're only just now starting to grapple with the vast number of people who have been traumatized by the medical system. The last estimates I saw we're around 12% of patients exhibit symptoms consistent with PTSD related to experiences with the medical system, and that number rises sharply for patients of color (especially black patients), disabled and chronically ill patients, fat patients, LGBTQ+ patients, and basically any other marginalized group. Some doctors and nurses have worked intentionally to try to address and mitigate their biases, in many places the number of medical professionals who are themselves members of these groups has been increasing, but the vast majority just never even consider that they could be harming their patients. Like, for fucks sakes, it's 2026 and research is still finding that a substantial portion of graduating medical students still believe that black people have thicker skin and higher pain tolerance (or even can't experience pain at all!?!) and that women are more likely to exaggerate their pain and other symptoms.