If I had a nickel for every time Tom Hiddleston portrayed a character I adore that was clearly abused but most of the audience completely missed it, blamed him for the abuse, or denied that it was abuse, I would have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.
#crimson peak is esp weird bc that was very much the point. and yet. so many ppl missed it (@iamnmbr3)
With Marvel I hate it but I can see how some people missed it. I’m sure a lot of casual fans haven’t even seen the first Thor (or remember much from it), and the narrative is trying to get us to hate Loki. It sucks that they don’t see it, but I’m not all that surprised. As for the Loki “fans” that don’t claim he was abused, I don’t even know what to say other than to stop calling yourself a fan if you hate everything about the character.
But Crimson Peak was literally about abuse! A huge part of the story is Thomas slowly realizing what is happening and fighting against Lucille! How could you possibly not see this?!
tags via @lokigodofaces
yep. you nailed it. at least with the mcu the narrative framing kind of paints loki in a negative light (esp later) and while it’s implied in Avengers that he was tortured they later dropped that plot line, just like they dropped and then tried to drop the familial abuse and internalized xenophobia plot lines.
but that didn’t happen with Crimson Peak. As you say it was a story entirely about abuse. and also societal double standards and gender. if Thomas’s and Lucille’s genders had been reversed everyone would clearly have seen the abuse. the movie flipped it to comment on that. but then ppl just did the very thing the movie was criticizing. and they didn’t even see it. it really shows how deeply embedded the idea of the stigmatization of male victims is.
I think both Loki and Thomas Sharpe fall outside of traditional conceptions of masculinity in a way that makes many audiences want to deny them pity or sympathy or empathy. and I wish ppl would be aware of that more and question those knee jerk reactions. it’s pretty disturbing tbh.
I think this also plays into how MCU!Bucky is talked about as a grey character when he’s really not. I really don’t like how the later installments of the MCU have framed him or how the mainstream conversation about him is structured because people act like he’s lowkey a reformed villain when he isn’t. at all.
in the movies he had no choice in what he did. he was a good person who was a victim of torture plain and simple. and yet his pain and suffering and trauma and disabilities are minimized and mocked. and i don’t like it. he’s not played by tom hiddleston but once again he is a character who doesn’t fit neatly into traditional conceptions of masculinity. and for that crime he must be sidelined and punished.
i hate it.
and we need to start noticing these things and talking about them and changing them. we don’t start confronting this we will never deprogram these toxic attitudes from society.
