january blogmeme (slightly late)
22nd Jan- why should we all love Maria Hill? requested by 
justhuman
Maria Hill is the character in the MCU who does her job.
She does the job that needs to be done, she questions the decisions that nobody else is going to question, she generally does things in the background, and she doesn't get to crack jokes in the middle of briefings because otherwise no-one will take her seriously.
When hijacking the Tesseract, Loki heartwashed Clint Barton, Erik Selvig, and a nameless agent. He got Barton to shoot Fury down, but Maria was beneath his notice. She wasn't even considered a vagina suitable for despoiling: a 'mewling quim' as Loki flings at Natasha during the interrogation scene. Maria is a non-entity, a piece of the woodwork.
And when she starts shooting back at Barton, Loki is startled. Because he didn't notice her any more than fandom did.
I know that fandom is an escape for most people; we come here to be all the things we're not out in the internet world - popular, socially clever, brilliant, snarky, appreciated by the madding crowds. For many women, it can also include being somewhere where sex and gender matters less, even if it can never be escaped.
Frequently, though, this 'escape from the real world' tends to involve copying the patterns that we hate outside: focusing on the brilliant, snarky male protagonists that we're fed ("because only the white male characters are properly developed") and the females who buck the trope of the 'dutiful woman' ("because women who rebel are the interesting ones").
Natasha is a cool character: the kickass female agent who's beautiful and appreciated and noticeable. Pepper and Jane managed to attract the interest of Tony Stark and Thor respectively. Peggy sits somewhere between Natasha and Pepper&Jane. And Darcy is, well, to put it plainly she's the Bella Swan equivalent of the Marvel Universe with just a little more template: insert your liberally-educated twenty-something US woman's wish fulfilment here.
In both comics canon and (so far) the MCU, Maria is the woman who does what needs to be done. And doesn't get thanks or appreciation for it. It's only what she's supposed to do...and there's nothing heroic about it, because female duty is BORING.
And yet someone has to do the job, and do it right, and even when the job entails no thanks, no appreciation, no love or adoration or notice, it still needs to be done.
When dirty, boring, thankless work needs doing, it's almost always a woman doing it.
Men's work - work that is associated with men - is glamourous, well-paid, well-acknowledged. Women's work is generally considered drudgery.
Which means the work that women do - when it's not 'men's work' - is seen as drudgery, too. And something in us - the same kernel of thing that causes other people to dismiss a woman's opinions or rights or to sneer that there are no well-written women in any stories anywhere - says it's not worthy of acknowledgement because it's just a woman doing it.
Something else to consider with Peggy, Natasha, Pepper, and Jane: they're all very clearly doing work that is traditionally 'men's work' - spy agent, CEO, scientist.
Maria - while in a position of power that wouldn't normally be considered feminine - is...cleaning up. Organising things. Answering the nasty questions left after the heroes have saved the day and gone their separate ways.
Women's work.
Maria is the history of women everywhere since the beginning of time. Taken for granted, unnoticed, doing the duty. and yet doing it well because the job needs to be done well. The fact that she's the ostensible Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D is secondary to the fact that when compared with all the other female characters in the MCU so far, she's still doing the unglamourous things that need to be done.
Yes, Pepper (and briefly Natasha) clean up after Tony Stark. Yes, Peggy suffers sexism for what she does and wants to do. But all the other women in the MCU so far have been shown in a form of rebellion or protest at the jobs they are expected to do - and then they go on and do 'man's work' in traditionally 'male roles'. Pepper becomes CEO of Stark Enterprises and gets to take out the Extremis guy herself, Natasha turns out to be Black Widow and a major pivot of the Avengers movie, and Peggy goes out and kicks bad guy ass without the approval of her superiors.
Maria...holds her position and does her job. Because that's what she has to do. Because she has to hold the fort or nobody will be left to pick up the pieces.
And that, in and of itself, is why people should love her.
We (the people in and out of fandom) divide the world up into 'women's work' and 'men's work'.
Men's work is glamourous and interesting, and done by 'strong' women, 'interesting' women, 'good female characters', etc.
And women's work is boring and unheroic - unless men are doing it, in which case, they should be petted and praised and made much of. (Example: the number of men who are praised for being "good dads" when really all they're doing is spending their time looking after the fruit of their loins instead of doing 'manly' things that aren't usually seen as 'women's work'.)
Cleaning up after a bunch of superheroes? Holding everything together when the shitstorm is going down? Backing up your boss even when you don't fully agree with his take on the matter?
Unglamourous, dirty, thankless work. Women's work.
Maria Hill does it - she doesn't like it, but she does it, because someone has to.
'Doing the job because nobody else will do it' is a far cry from the glamour and 'Chosen One'ness of 'Doing the job because nobody else can do it' (as is the case for the Avengers), but I think it's something that we need to appreciate more.
Particularly in female characters.
And that's why I think everyone should love Maria Hill.
-
Note: this was started back in January and modified a bunch of times. Given that Maria's in Cap2 (which I'm going to see tomorrow) and is apparently pretty awesome, it may not be accurate anymore, and even so, it was cobbled together from a bunch of reactions to Maria all over Tumblr, the intarwebs, and from hardcore comics fans.
justhuman
Maria Hill is the character in the MCU who does her job.
She does the job that needs to be done, she questions the decisions that nobody else is going to question, she generally does things in the background, and she doesn't get to crack jokes in the middle of briefings because otherwise no-one will take her seriously.
When hijacking the Tesseract, Loki heartwashed Clint Barton, Erik Selvig, and a nameless agent. He got Barton to shoot Fury down, but Maria was beneath his notice. She wasn't even considered a vagina suitable for despoiling: a 'mewling quim' as Loki flings at Natasha during the interrogation scene. Maria is a non-entity, a piece of the woodwork.
And when she starts shooting back at Barton, Loki is startled. Because he didn't notice her any more than fandom did.
I know that fandom is an escape for most people; we come here to be all the things we're not out in the internet world - popular, socially clever, brilliant, snarky, appreciated by the madding crowds. For many women, it can also include being somewhere where sex and gender matters less, even if it can never be escaped.
Frequently, though, this 'escape from the real world' tends to involve copying the patterns that we hate outside: focusing on the brilliant, snarky male protagonists that we're fed ("because only the white male characters are properly developed") and the females who buck the trope of the 'dutiful woman' ("because women who rebel are the interesting ones").
Natasha is a cool character: the kickass female agent who's beautiful and appreciated and noticeable. Pepper and Jane managed to attract the interest of Tony Stark and Thor respectively. Peggy sits somewhere between Natasha and Pepper&Jane. And Darcy is, well, to put it plainly she's the Bella Swan equivalent of the Marvel Universe with just a little more template: insert your liberally-educated twenty-something US woman's wish fulfilment here.
In both comics canon and (so far) the MCU, Maria is the woman who does what needs to be done. And doesn't get thanks or appreciation for it. It's only what she's supposed to do...and there's nothing heroic about it, because female duty is BORING.
And yet someone has to do the job, and do it right, and even when the job entails no thanks, no appreciation, no love or adoration or notice, it still needs to be done.
When dirty, boring, thankless work needs doing, it's almost always a woman doing it.
Men's work - work that is associated with men - is glamourous, well-paid, well-acknowledged. Women's work is generally considered drudgery.
Which means the work that women do - when it's not 'men's work' - is seen as drudgery, too. And something in us - the same kernel of thing that causes other people to dismiss a woman's opinions or rights or to sneer that there are no well-written women in any stories anywhere - says it's not worthy of acknowledgement because it's just a woman doing it.
Something else to consider with Peggy, Natasha, Pepper, and Jane: they're all very clearly doing work that is traditionally 'men's work' - spy agent, CEO, scientist.
Maria - while in a position of power that wouldn't normally be considered feminine - is...cleaning up. Organising things. Answering the nasty questions left after the heroes have saved the day and gone their separate ways.
Women's work.
Maria is the history of women everywhere since the beginning of time. Taken for granted, unnoticed, doing the duty. and yet doing it well because the job needs to be done well. The fact that she's the ostensible Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D is secondary to the fact that when compared with all the other female characters in the MCU so far, she's still doing the unglamourous things that need to be done.
Yes, Pepper (and briefly Natasha) clean up after Tony Stark. Yes, Peggy suffers sexism for what she does and wants to do. But all the other women in the MCU so far have been shown in a form of rebellion or protest at the jobs they are expected to do - and then they go on and do 'man's work' in traditionally 'male roles'. Pepper becomes CEO of Stark Enterprises and gets to take out the Extremis guy herself, Natasha turns out to be Black Widow and a major pivot of the Avengers movie, and Peggy goes out and kicks bad guy ass without the approval of her superiors.
Maria...holds her position and does her job. Because that's what she has to do. Because she has to hold the fort or nobody will be left to pick up the pieces.
And that, in and of itself, is why people should love her.
We (the people in and out of fandom) divide the world up into 'women's work' and 'men's work'.
Men's work is glamourous and interesting, and done by 'strong' women, 'interesting' women, 'good female characters', etc.
And women's work is boring and unheroic - unless men are doing it, in which case, they should be petted and praised and made much of. (Example: the number of men who are praised for being "good dads" when really all they're doing is spending their time looking after the fruit of their loins instead of doing 'manly' things that aren't usually seen as 'women's work'.)
Cleaning up after a bunch of superheroes? Holding everything together when the shitstorm is going down? Backing up your boss even when you don't fully agree with his take on the matter?
Unglamourous, dirty, thankless work. Women's work.
Maria Hill does it - she doesn't like it, but she does it, because someone has to.
'Doing the job because nobody else will do it' is a far cry from the glamour and 'Chosen One'ness of 'Doing the job because nobody else can do it' (as is the case for the Avengers), but I think it's something that we need to appreciate more.
Particularly in female characters.
And that's why I think everyone should love Maria Hill.
-
Note: this was started back in January and modified a bunch of times. Given that Maria's in Cap2 (which I'm going to see tomorrow) and is apparently pretty awesome, it may not be accurate anymore, and even so, it was cobbled together from a bunch of reactions to Maria all over Tumblr, the intarwebs, and from hardcore comics fans.