Tag: superheroine

vellichorthecary:

Okay, so, I don’t normally post my
own things, I usually just reblog other people’s wonderful and, frankly,
amazing stuff, but I need to get this out.

I’ve been reading lots on how
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ratings are bad, and to be honest, the second and
third seasons were not the best. But the show needs to be renewed because here’s the thing: girls need heroes too. Not just Captain America or Iron Man – they need female heroes. They need to know that heroes don’t always have
powers. Melinda May never needed powers to become a legend, she honed those skills herself. She became a hero because she chose to be one, and Grant
Ward was not a hero, despite the many chances given to him, because he chose to not be one. Daisy, or Skye, was
a hero before she even got her powers
because despite her past with the Rising Tide and an abusive childhood, she
chose to do some good. 

Girls need to know that being weak and breaking down is alright because it is a
human thing and not a silly, girlish weakness. They need to know that silence
can mean strength and dresses don’t stop you from fighting. They need to know
that being a scientist, a person who loves learning, does not equate to having square glasses and dull
clothes and no friends. They need to know that there are different kinds of
strength and bravery and love. They need to know that you can have accents on
your tongue and colour on your skin but it doesn’t matter because you are more than what men label you. They need to know that they don’t need a man to complete or define them, that they are extraordinary by themselves. They need to know that despite everything, despite the impossible, they can succeed because the only person you need to believe in you is yourself. They need strong
women to look up to so they can learn to become them.

I’m fifteen years old. Asian. A second-year
university student in a developing country. It means everything to me to have an Asian female character to be able to look up to and to have so many other well-rounded female characters. When I feel like I’m too small, too young to be in
university, and people call me a nerd, I think of Jemma Simmons and her two phDs in fields Coulson can’t
pronounce and I smile at them. When I walk through dark alleys filled with shady men on my way home and my mom tells me
to be careful, I think of Melinda May and her fearlessness and I become a
little braver. When people tell me that I can’t possibly be smart enough to
pass a class, that everything I say is only a bravado, I remember Peggy Carter
and tell them I know my own value. I pass by them in three weeks with a
certificate full of A’s. When I feel like I can’t possibly go on I think about
Bobbi Morse unwilling to apologize for what she believed was right and if she can be that strong, I can at least be half as strong. I think
about being different and Daisy Johnson will remind be that being different can
mean making a difference, and as long as I’m showing people that a tiny, little Asian
woman can kick their asses in class, then I’m making a difference because I’m
showing them that we can, that I belong here as much as they do. And that is what Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. shows too. Or
at least, the part I love most about it. The strength, the diversity, the
equality, of women. And that is why, when people ask me what S.H.I.E.L.D. is
about, I say, “protection.” Because S.H.I.E.L.D. protects me from the darkness
of life, it gives me a place to fall back on, a place to remind me that I am
strong enough to go through each day, and when I do go through each day, it is
those ladies who poke my shoulders and nudge my chin up, giving me the
confidence to look at life in the eye and tell it that I am more than whatever
it throws at me.

Since I can’t do much to affect the ratings from where I live, I suppose I’ll just let my fondness and my attachments to these character out and hope that abc realizes how fundamentally important it is to have a show which gives girls the strong women and the representation they need to look up to, and that despite past mistakes, season 4 (especially 4×15) has been incredible.