Allow me to present the defense case for Peggy Carter.
I don't mean the PC who is in What If BTW. I don't know who she is, but she's not Peggy. I mean the original version from 2011-2014, especially from recently re-watching The First Avenger.
Peggy comes off as being very aloof, detached and rather condascending at times. I argue that's because she had to be. Its very hard for women in the armed forces even today- but back in the 1940s it would have been even more difficult for a woman to hold her own in a male dominated context like the army.
She'd have had to worked many times harder to prove herself and to gain the respect which her male counterparts took for granted purely by virtue of their gender and rank.
If she showed any kind of emotional vulnerability or it seemed like she didn't know what she was doing, the men would have pounced on it and taken it as "evidence" she was just a weak and feeble woman who didn't belong in "thier" world.
Even then... we still see people being insubordinate and talking down to her.
When she punched that soldier who was making lewd remarks (can't remember his name) I don't see her being a bully.
I see a woman having to deal with the type of casual sexism she probably experienced on a daily basis. When men who were far below her in rank treated her with contempt or just saw her as a sex object. No way that soldier would *ever* have spoken to a senior ranking male like that...
She was also dealing with it in a very masculine way. Like another soldier would.
In regards to Steve: again I don't think Peggy is ever intentionally mean or cruel to him. Yes, she's sassy and snarky, but I think she had to learn to be like that to hold her own among men.
Her interactions with him in the movie are actually quite positive overall: she smiles when he uses his ingenuity and jumps on a dummy grenade, she doesn't talk about how weak he was she views him as a proper soldier when a lot of others don't: including Colonel Phillips.
Even after the Serum Philips just sees him as some glorified performer whereas she trusts his judgement: reluctantly at first but willingly afterwards.
For his own part, Steve never talks down to her or views her as inferior. He was probably one of first men who did that only after Howard Stark perhaps.
When she said that Bucky was probably dead: again I don't think she was being uncaring. That line came after just after saying the 107th had been through "more than most" upon seeing an ambulance bringing an injured soldier back from the front.
It seems to me she didn't want to see *another* man die in what she had every reason to think was a suicide mission. I mean, its very likely she'd lost friends before, maybe even had family members killed.
Besides of which, she ended up helping Steve go on that rescue mission by persauding Howard to drop him near the HYDRA facility on his plane. Then didn't apologize for her actions afterwards even though Colonel Philipps basically threatened to basically demote her.
Finally, that scene where she fires her gun at Steve's shield: again I don't see that as bullying. When he kissed that other woman (*who did it very deliberately in front of Peggy*) it was quite obviously an attempt to make her jealous. (Not on Steve's part, but the other woman).
I think in that moment she felt betrayed, because she believed Steve was different to the other men she encountered. Men who just saw her as a conquest or an airhead.
She thought he was behaving "just like the other soldiers"- i.e treating women as objects, and she had an emotional reaction. She was actually wrong, but that proves she's flawed. She's human after all!
So yeah, Peggy in The First Avenger is great. She's sassy and snarky but she does seem to genuinely care for Steve as well. I see them as having a lot in common: both people who struggle to be accepted by others but find their place eventually.
Okay, before I start, I want to say that I did like her mannerisms when I first saw CATFA, because I like no-nonsense female characters. However, movies!Peggy was not a fully formed character â just as movies!Bucky wasnât. One was the token love interest, the other was the token best friend. Hence, there are specific traits embedded in Peggyâs characterisation, or rather her story roles, that are factors of a male author writing a female love interest for a genre about macho superhero men. Which in itself is a product of the misogynistic nature of 2010 MCU.
Firstly, sheâs never actually had her rank or her professional role specified. She introduced herself as an âagent supervising all operations of this divisionâ, but all she does is hover around Howard and Philips in their offices. Sheâs not on the battlefield with Steve (no matter how her own series tried to rewrite it). Sheâs not in the field acting as a spy/agent. We are told sheâs important, because somehow as an agent sheâs giving orders to military trainees â a weird role but we can give her that suspension of disbelief â but we are never shown her doing anything important to contribute to war efforts. More than this being Peggy is a useless person, itâs a symptom of the writer not knowing how to handle a female professional in WW2, to the point of calling her an agent but having her both being in the science division and giving military trainee orders but hanging around looking like a secretary. And why exactly could Philips threaten to demote her? Who does she even work for? He could demote her if sheâs military but sheâs not. So itâs never clear that those soldiers are her subordinates, because theyâre not. Sheâs not in the chain of command! And so why should they respect someone whoâs not in their chain of command telling them that sheâs going to give orders? She does have to earn it.
You and I remember that kissing scene very differently. Firstly, Lorraine pulled him into a kiss, Steve didnât kiss her. We need to get the instigator clear here. We can debate how much of a willing participant Steve was, because that scene can be read anywhere from âSteve was unsure at first but then started to enjoy itâ to âSteve was in shock the whole time and his hands came up to push her awayâ. Secondly, thereâs no suggestion that either Lorraine or Steve knew Peggy was within watching distance, so I donât agree with the interpretation that anyone did it to make Peggy jealous. Thirdly, Peggy and Steve were not an item at that stage, so itâs rather presumptuous of her to âfeel betrayedâ. What did he betray? He said he was waiting for the right partner, he didnât say the right partner was her. Sheâs the one whoâs taken it upon herself to demand his faithfulness. He never indicated he was happy to enter into that social contract. Fourthly, youâve acknowledged that her emotional response to another woman kissing Steve was âflawedâ, but object to that violent retaliation being called âbullyingâ. So letâs call it for what it is: unprofessional, unethical, unromantic, and bloody unhinged.
Iâm sorry, there is no possible justification for discharging a gun at a man (and specifically in this case a man who is not in a relationship with you) over a kiss in an enclosed space at work where other bystanders could get injured.
But you know what? That scene is another symptom of male writers not knowing how to write a strong female love interest. In 2010 everyone knew it would be bad form if a man hit a woman for being kissed by another man, but violent anger from a woman directed at a man? That was seen as cute and funny and sweet. And that view exists because of the infantilisation of women. Female anger is seen as ânot that hurtfulâ and ânot that importantâ, dismissed as a momentary âemotional outburstâ because women are prone to emotional outbursts, itâs a womanly thing to suddenly lose grip on logic over a jilted love. Where in a man that emotional volatility and violence would be a major character flaw that would turn him into a villain, in a woman thatâsâŚcute and harmless.
So you know, Peggy was at the same level of neglect that Bucky-with-two-birthdates was. She was not a character they cared enough about to even give her a proper professional role in the army. Sheâs there because the movie needed a love interest. Sheâs there to show how unwanted Steve was before the serum, and how desirable he became after the serum. She appears, every now and then, to remind the audience she exists, but never in a way that directly affects the plot. @amarriageoftrueminds has multiple excellent metas explaining why the story could have proceeded without Peggy being present. Sheâs a character we are continuously told is important, but the narrative gives her only counselling type dialogues, and while those conversations are placed at narratively important milestones, none of her suggestions make any sway on Steveâs original plans before he started talking to her, making her someone who has minimal impact on Steveâs arc and on the story as a whole.