I Over Think Things, or; why Captain America is squicky but Steve Rogers is awesome.
Let me begin this piece with a few caveats:
I am not a critical theorist.
I am, in fact, a science student who is far more comfortable amongst restriction endonucleases than I am with cultural studies.
My knowledge of Captain America comics canon is sketchy at best.
I have read and enjoyed various strands of the Avenger's verse, particularly the Young Avengers, and have read Captain America: A Man Out of Timre more times than I am really comfortable with. I am relatively familiar with canon, but it's never been my main comics obsession. With that in mind, this post is mostly aimed at the Marvel Movieverse. I realise that in doing so, I am making fanboys sad. Suck it up, luvs.
I have an overwhelming liberal bias.
I assume, in this piece, that we can all agree on basic truths like civil rights are good things and war is shitty. If you have an issue with this, please raise it politely or not at all.
Now, on to the overthinking of Cap
To start, we would be best remembering his origins. Captain America, in his original form, was World War Two Propaganda. The first issue, which featured the Cap punching HItler in the face, was published in 1941.
I would like to take this moment to point out that at this point, for the rest of the world, World War Two had been raging on for 3 years. The Commonwealth nations, which declared war following the invasion of Poland alongside France on the 3rd of September, 1939 (except Canada, because our Parliament was on vacation and it took a week to get it back in session to formally declare war) had suffered over 300 000 deaths, most during the winter war of 1939. The Battle of Stalingrad, considered by many to have been the major turning point of the war, had already taken place, as had numerous other battles. The Russian casualties already numbered in the millions.
America, and other netural nations, continued to prosper off the conflict. Feeling to ties to the war in Europe, it was not until 1941 that they joined the Allied forces. This is just a reminder of a some historical context, and not an attack on Americans. Americans served and served bravely; the troops and supplies they provided the war effort may well have swung the balance of the war. They were the only Allied nation not severely lacking in both money and living troops- because they had managed to avoid the devastation felt by the rest of the world.
It is in this context that America joined the war effort; and it is in this context that Captain America was published. As a propaganda piece, it was brilliant- Steve Rogers, the physical embodiment of truth, justice, and the American way, beating up those evil Krauts.
Except. It is important for us to remember that that is all it was. Switch out the uniform, and Steve Rogers would not be out of place in a Leni Riefenstahl film. As rheasilva pointed out in a comment thread on her LJ , you would have to change absolutely nothing about the Steve Rogers mythos to make him a piece of SS propaganda from the same period. This should give us all pause. We should always be deeply suspicious of propaganda in any form. Steve Rogers is literally wrapped in the flag- this should concern all of us, but particularly Americans. Arguments couched in patriotism are the lowest form of argument.
It is also important to note the idealised nature of the time period Steve Rogers reflects.Total war may have pulled the world out of the Great Depression, but it was by no means an ideal time to be alive. As Losers on the Internet- many of us queer, many of us female, many of us people of colour- we need to be very fucking careful of this. Male homosexuality was punishable by prison time. Female homosexuality was considered a sign of a disordered minds, or otherwise believed to be imaginary. Being trans* in the 1940s- I dare say I don't really need to explain that one, do I? Anti-semitism was rife: in 1938, Time Magazine names Hitler their 'Man of the Year'. Yes, really. Businesses frequently posted signs saying 'No Irish need apply'. The Armed forces in almost every country were brutally segregated; the treatment of Aborginal peoples appalling, and, in many parts of the world (including Québec) women did not yet have the right to vote or own property. This is in living memory, people. Let us not forget it. We do not have to write about these things, but let us at least be conscious of them.
That said, I think Steve Rogers is a fascinating character. His very existence requires one to accept a dark grey morality on the part of the US government and SHIELD that I consider both canonical and fascinating. The ethics of human experimentation and informed consent are interesting matters to debate fictionally (though obviously horrific in real life); why, for example, do we applaud Erskine and Stark for experimenting on a young man who was not told about what the procedure entailed, but condemn the Russians for doing the same thing to the Winter Soldier. Yes, in the case of the Russians, brainwashing was involved- but in both cases, an armed service took a young man and, without informing him of all the variables, crafted them into the ultimate soldier (in WS' case an assassin).
I also enjoy the possible thematic implications of the Steve/Tony relationship: much as I find Tony annoying (and that's another post in itself, I have srz bsnz feels on him as well) the idea of the embodiment of total war fucking the embodiment of American capitalism is inherently hilarious. I feel a great deal of empathy towards Steve, who is the youngest Avenger, who has recently emerged from an incredibly traumatic experience, who is no doubt experiencing some form of combat shock, and who has lost everything that has ever mattered to him. He is is many ways a child being manipulated by forces outside of his ken, while still being a strong and forceful character. I enjoy that.
So, what does this mean? Do I want people to stop writing him? Do I think fanfiction always needs to take into account rl issues? Am I trying to harsh people's squee?
No, of course not. I love Steve. I support more SteveFic in the world. And I am not anyone's mother- it is not up to me to tell people what to write or how to interpret a character. You don't have to address the issues that Cap brings up if you don't want to. You just have to know they exist.
/endrant
I am not a critical theorist.
I am, in fact, a science student who is far more comfortable amongst restriction endonucleases than I am with cultural studies.
My knowledge of Captain America comics canon is sketchy at best.
I have read and enjoyed various strands of the Avenger's verse, particularly the Young Avengers, and have read Captain America: A Man Out of Timre more times than I am really comfortable with. I am relatively familiar with canon, but it's never been my main comics obsession. With that in mind, this post is mostly aimed at the Marvel Movieverse. I realise that in doing so, I am making fanboys sad. Suck it up, luvs.
I have an overwhelming liberal bias.
I assume, in this piece, that we can all agree on basic truths like civil rights are good things and war is shitty. If you have an issue with this, please raise it politely or not at all.
Now, on to the overthinking of Cap
To start, we would be best remembering his origins. Captain America, in his original form, was World War Two Propaganda. The first issue, which featured the Cap punching HItler in the face, was published in 1941.
I would like to take this moment to point out that at this point, for the rest of the world, World War Two had been raging on for 3 years. The Commonwealth nations, which declared war following the invasion of Poland alongside France on the 3rd of September, 1939 (except Canada, because our Parliament was on vacation and it took a week to get it back in session to formally declare war) had suffered over 300 000 deaths, most during the winter war of 1939. The Battle of Stalingrad, considered by many to have been the major turning point of the war, had already taken place, as had numerous other battles. The Russian casualties already numbered in the millions.
America, and other netural nations, continued to prosper off the conflict. Feeling to ties to the war in Europe, it was not until 1941 that they joined the Allied forces. This is just a reminder of a some historical context, and not an attack on Americans. Americans served and served bravely; the troops and supplies they provided the war effort may well have swung the balance of the war. They were the only Allied nation not severely lacking in both money and living troops- because they had managed to avoid the devastation felt by the rest of the world.
It is in this context that America joined the war effort; and it is in this context that Captain America was published. As a propaganda piece, it was brilliant- Steve Rogers, the physical embodiment of truth, justice, and the American way, beating up those evil Krauts.
Except. It is important for us to remember that that is all it was. Switch out the uniform, and Steve Rogers would not be out of place in a Leni Riefenstahl film. As rheasilva pointed out in a comment thread on her LJ , you would have to change absolutely nothing about the Steve Rogers mythos to make him a piece of SS propaganda from the same period. This should give us all pause. We should always be deeply suspicious of propaganda in any form. Steve Rogers is literally wrapped in the flag- this should concern all of us, but particularly Americans. Arguments couched in patriotism are the lowest form of argument.
It is also important to note the idealised nature of the time period Steve Rogers reflects.Total war may have pulled the world out of the Great Depression, but it was by no means an ideal time to be alive. As Losers on the Internet- many of us queer, many of us female, many of us people of colour- we need to be very fucking careful of this. Male homosexuality was punishable by prison time. Female homosexuality was considered a sign of a disordered minds, or otherwise believed to be imaginary. Being trans* in the 1940s- I dare say I don't really need to explain that one, do I? Anti-semitism was rife: in 1938, Time Magazine names Hitler their 'Man of the Year'. Yes, really. Businesses frequently posted signs saying 'No Irish need apply'. The Armed forces in almost every country were brutally segregated; the treatment of Aborginal peoples appalling, and, in many parts of the world (including Québec) women did not yet have the right to vote or own property. This is in living memory, people. Let us not forget it. We do not have to write about these things, but let us at least be conscious of them.
That said, I think Steve Rogers is a fascinating character. His very existence requires one to accept a dark grey morality on the part of the US government and SHIELD that I consider both canonical and fascinating. The ethics of human experimentation and informed consent are interesting matters to debate fictionally (though obviously horrific in real life); why, for example, do we applaud Erskine and Stark for experimenting on a young man who was not told about what the procedure entailed, but condemn the Russians for doing the same thing to the Winter Soldier. Yes, in the case of the Russians, brainwashing was involved- but in both cases, an armed service took a young man and, without informing him of all the variables, crafted them into the ultimate soldier (in WS' case an assassin).
I also enjoy the possible thematic implications of the Steve/Tony relationship: much as I find Tony annoying (and that's another post in itself, I have srz bsnz feels on him as well) the idea of the embodiment of total war fucking the embodiment of American capitalism is inherently hilarious. I feel a great deal of empathy towards Steve, who is the youngest Avenger, who has recently emerged from an incredibly traumatic experience, who is no doubt experiencing some form of combat shock, and who has lost everything that has ever mattered to him. He is is many ways a child being manipulated by forces outside of his ken, while still being a strong and forceful character. I enjoy that.
So, what does this mean? Do I want people to stop writing him? Do I think fanfiction always needs to take into account rl issues? Am I trying to harsh people's squee?
No, of course not. I love Steve. I support more SteveFic in the world. And I am not anyone's mother- it is not up to me to tell people what to write or how to interpret a character. You don't have to address the issues that Cap brings up if you don't want to. You just have to know they exist.
/endrant