Hey all, I just watched Captain America: Civil War, which bears very little resemblance to Marvel: Civil War the comic book series. It is, however, the third in a movie series including Captain America (origin story) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. There's also some continuity from Avengers 1 & 2, the Iron Man movies, and the recent Ant-Man movie. The movie introduced Black Panther and made him look like the coolest badass who ever superheroed.
Anyway, after digesting this movie I wanted to bring up two things. One that is of interest to those of us who suffer from dysphoria is that Steve Rogers (Captain America) is consistently portrayed in the movie as being dysphoric. It's not gender dysphoria; we could call it time dysphoria. Almost everyone who was close to him in the past is dead when he wakes up and the world has entirely changed. He's frequently shown with a flat affect, staring into space. While he's a very warm person, he has trouble connecting to new people. He is conscious of being out of place. He's also disconnected from his body in a way we might recognize because he was hyper-masculinized by the super soldier serum and is conscious of taking up space that his original body didn't. The only time he's not spacing out is when he's working, doing something he is passionate about, which is also something I think we can relate to. As a TRANS-TEMPORAL character, I wonder if he could he better explains to a cis audience what dysphoria is about than a stack of supposedly trans-themed movies (written by cis people).
The other thing I want to bring up is some celluloid closet stuff. If you are familiar with the Marvel movie fandom a lot of people are convinced that Steve is bi. I'm not referring to the tendency to slash any and all characters, but an idea that Steve really is bi on screen. But why would they think that? I think they are responding to the fact that he is being coded queer in these movies. Why? Here's my rundown:
1. Men notice his body in an erotically charged way (including in the most recent movie, where a straight cis guy character runs his hands over Cap's biceps). Generally, only women take notice of straight guys' bodies in movies, and only in certain circumstances
2. Steve has an emotional neediness towards other men that is highly unusual, especially towards Bucky
3. His interest in--even worship of--Bucky is not requited. Bucky IS Steve's friend, but from the first movie treats Steve like a mildly annoying, exasperating little brother/hanger-on. Steve, OTOH, is obsessed with Bucky. So this isn't a bro-mance between two manly guys, it's a very one-sided passion.
4. Steve quickly settles into a relationship with Natasha that reads like Kathy Griffin and Anderson Cooper
5. Steve treats Natasha like an equal, instead of acting like a douche to her. This is extremely rare in American movies (I shouldn't have to dredge up examples--American movies just don't think men and women are equals). So in effect he treats Black Widow like a woman treats a woman colleague, not like a man would
6. Steve is shy, soft-spoken, gets easily silenced in group situations and basically comes off as the opposite of macho. Yes, he is a fighter with strong principles, but it's hard to push him into defending his ego (to be fair, Whedon wrote him as a little more prickly, but not much)
7. Steve can barely find the male role when interacting with Sharon. He's definitely into her body, but waits for her to make her interest obvious. Not that this is a bad thing, but it's that inverted, Captain Kirk lets the chicks come to him thing that is again, opposite of butch/macho.
8. Steve keeps coming off like he's demisexual. Yes, the tumblr self-identification of the moment. All that means is someone who isn't sexually attracted to someone until they're in love with them. Sharon flirted shamelessly with Cap while he was doing his best impression of emotionally closed off, but when he's emotionally ripped up over losing a loved one he finally notices that Sharon has a body. And then there's his obsessive attitude towards Bucky. He also never initiates flirting, and acts like he doesn't notice someone is flirting with him until they knock him over the head.
9. On how he treats women, I find it very interesting that when Steve is dithering over what he should do, it takes the advice of a woman to set him on the right course. You know, when Superman was dithering, he heard a recording from his father ... just saying! When movies zig where they usually zag something's being communicated here. Male heroes ALWAYS take direction from some older, wiser father figure, but Steve is hanging on every word from his ex girlfriend. Now, you and I both know guys like that in real life, but this is the movies we're talking about.
10. Steve seems to feel uncomfortable with his body. I'm not sure what I'm saying, but I'm just saying.
11. Steve and Sam were pretty flirty in the 2nd movie, but not to a point where it was a foregone conclusion. The door was kicked pretty wide open, though. In a lot of movies there would be a scene where characters clarify for the audience that they're not gay. That scene never happened.
12. Actually, Sam is jealous of the role Bucky has in Steve's head, as shown in a very subtle but very deliberate moment in Civil War. Just one of those things that makes you go hmmm. Why are men fighting over the personal attention of a male character?
13. Steve's consistently shown as not really sure how to hetero right. He almost gives off virgin vibes.
How much of this list is valid, I don't know. But it adds up to a queer coded character, much more so than any other character I can think of in the franchise (except for Deadpool who is out as pansexual and just about the opposite of Cap in every way). I find it an interesting choice and not much at all like Cap in the comics. In fact, as far as comics are concerned, he reminds me a bit of Wonder Woman's submissive partner, the perpetually in need of rescuing Steve Trevor. Steve T is also blond, built, and fights the Nazis in a US uniform. He's a not-so-sub-textual sub to WW's domina. By contrast, Steve R in the comics was a liberal lecturing loudmouth anti-fascist who also favored punching his way out of problems*, had adjusted well to life in the future and was dating a nice African American lady TYVM. Well, before he got killed off.
*In a classic storyline, Steve Rogers defeats an evil jingoistic and racist Uncle Sam with a ragtag preview of the Obama coalition. Comics Steve, unlike movie Steve, was a deeply political character.
Well, what do you think? I might work on this thesis some more....
