The Broad, Inclusive Canvas of Comics

So I spent 2 minutes finishing reading Ta-Nehisi Coates's article "The broad, inclusive canvas of comics". This duration of 2 minutes is relatively long compared to a normal 2 minutes in my daily life. By saying that I mean I do think a lot during the 2 minutes. Coates' article led me to think about the racial diversity and gender inequality in the comical world which I have never thought about before. 

Coates's central argument of this article is that he loves reading comic books more than watching comic books based movies because it's relatively more racial diverse and sexual equal. It's interesting but revealing to know that there is such a huge gap about the racial and sexual inequality between comics and movies. One example that Coates uses in his article is Pepper Potts and in Ironman. Potts's less power and her secretary position has been compared to Iron man, Tony Stark's powerful and dominant role. It again, reminds me of the Avengers that I mentioned in my last entry(I am not a fan of Marvels so the its produced movies I have seen are really limited). I haven't seen any comics books of Marvels so I'll just say what I see from the movie. The women roles in Avengers are, not surprisingly, again more like followers. The Black Widow has been shaped as a female character who always seduce other male characters. She was once with Hawkeye and later they broke up and then she started to play with Captain American. In Avengers 2, she somehow began a relationship with Hulk but at the end of movie, they still weren't together. In speaking of her power, the Black Widow is more easily to get hurt than any other male characters. As more of a assistant, she has never been the first to go against their enemies. To me, such a female role in a blockbuster would more or less influence audiences' perception of women. 

As for the racial problem, well, have you ever seen an Asian hero in a superhero movie? No. Asian characters have always been the minority in Hollywood, let alone being main characters like heroes. So I would say I believe comic book movies will be as diverse or inclusive as the books someday but it's still hard to just be like books for now. Also, I'd say children would be definitely influenced by superheroes always being white. Just like me, they could be potentially brain washed by these blockbusters and would admit the white supremacy one day without even noticing it. When I was little, the Marvels movies have already been universally popular in my home country. We had little our own superheroes movies at that time so the only superheroes I have seen are always white. However, I don't even realize it's unequal for other races until today. I feel like I am desensitized now because of the setting. So will the other children especially they are in an e-age. Though I say I'm kind of desensitized, my friends and I were still excited to see Cho Chang in Harry Potter when we were little because she's the only Asian character in that movie series. But now I think even the only Asian character has been misreiprensted by racial stereotypes. Just as expected, Cho Chang is a top student who is good at study and likes reading books. Not all Asians are "A-straighters". How would those audience who're not good at study reflect themselves on stereotypical image like this? Hope we will see the movie characters be more diverse and sexual equal one day.