MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

While Captain Marvel grossed over $1 billion at the box office, some critics were less than impressed. In addition to critiques that compared the film unfavorably to Black Panther and Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel was also criticized for having lackluster villains, a predicable plot, and an unlikeable lead character.

That last critique—that Carol Danvers is unlikeable—began prior to the release of the film. After the trailer dropped the conversation about Danvers smiling, or rather not smiling, was so typical it made participants seem like they were engaging in a parody of everyday sexism. Critics and movie-goers also criticized the character for lacking a sense of humor and playing potentially humorous moments straight. These complaints rest on a similar expectation: female characters (and real-life women) will mediate emotions, put others at ease, and please people. The characterization of Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel pushes back against these expectations. She doesn’t particularly care if people like her or not, and she certainly doesn’t go to any lengths to put others at ease.

The setting of the film is integral to this aspect of her character. Set in 1995, Captain Marvel offers plenty of opportunities to feel nostalgic for the 90s, including the cloths, the music, and—I’ll argue—the grunge-era feminism of a pre-9/11 world. At its heart, the grunge aesthetic required a resistance to what was pleasing to the “mainstream”, even—and maybe especially—from women. This paper will reflect and analyze on the ways the film employs the grunge aesthetic to communicate feminist ideals and positions the past not as part of a march to a more liberated future but as representation of a liberation we’ve lost.