Brie Larson can’t blink without Comicsgate making fifty videos about how she hates white men. After Larson made comments about wanting her press tour for Captain Marvel to be more inclusive, trolls began to insult her and her film, claiming she was being racist and sexist against white men. They’ve even spammed Rotten Tomatoes with bad reviews of the film, which has not even come out yet.
Larson has now come forward and clarified her comments in an interview, saying: “What I’m looking for is to bring more seats up to the table. No one is getting their chair taken away. There’s not less seats at the table, there’s just more seats at the table.” You can watch the full clip at the 1:20 minute mark below.
Larson handles it beautifully, but the thing is is that she shouldn’t have to clarify that she isn’t some “man hater.” That was never the point of her original quotes, or other quotes she’s made about diversity in film criticism. Larson is using her position of privilege to uplift other women, especially women of color, because she’s an activist and advocate. She is not trying to take film journalism away from gatekeeping white men, but rather level the playing field.
However, because Captain Marvel seems to have struck a nerve with the toxic fanboys, Larson is now forced to clarify comments that didn’t need clarification in the first place. Her initial comments were, as reported by Vanity Fair: “Am I saying that I hate white dudes? No, I’m not. What I am saying is if you make a movie that is a love letter to a woman of color, there is an insanely low chance that a woman of color will have a chance to see your movie and review your movie. It really sucks that reviews matter, but reviews matter. We are expanding to make films that reflect the people who buy movie tickets . . . I do not need a 40-year-old white dude to tell me what didn’t work for him about A Wrinkle in Time. It wasn’t made for him.”
Larson told journalist Keah Brown in an interview that:
“About a year ago, I started paying attention to what my press days looked like and the critics reviewing movies, and noticed it appeared to be overwhelmingly white males. So, I spoke to Dr Stacy Smith at the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, who put together a study to confirm that. Moving forward, I decided to make sure my press days were more inclusive. After speaking with you, the film critic Valerie Complex and a few other women of color, it sounded like across the board they weren’t getting the same opportunities as others. When I talked to the facilities that weren’t providing it, they all had different excuses. I want to go out of my way to connect the dots. It just took me using the power that I’ve been given now as Captain Marvel. [The role] comes with all these privileges and powers that make me feel uncomfortable because I don’t really need them.”
Nothing in either of her immensely important quotes says “I hate white men and they shouldn’t see movies.” However, because Larson is an outspoken activist, her words are misinterpreted by men who want her to fail and to give them a “legitimate” reason to hate her and her film. After all, Larson not smiling in the trailers can only get your hate train so far.
Captain Marvel is outpacing early ticket sales for properties on both sides of the Marvel/DC aisle, including Aquaman and Wonder Woman. The trolls, as much as they wish, will most likely not negatively impact the final box office for the film, which has been receiving stellar early reviews. But it is important to acknowledge that a lot of what Larson has dealt with is intense sexism because she’s a politically vocal woman and the trolls don’t like that.
(via Comic Book Movie, image: Marvel)
