22. Black Widow, Savior of Women

In this special episode, Janine Engelbrecht discusses the new Black Widow movie, and how the Black Widow is represented as the savior of women. Janine explores topics such as the control of the female body, motherhood and representation.

The Sci-Fi Feminist - A Feminism and Pop Culture Podcast
The Sci-Fi Feminist - A Feminism and Pop Culture Podcast
22. Black Widow, Savior of Women
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What’s in episode 22, “Black Widow, Savior of Women”?

Welcome back

Janine welcomes back listeners and introduces the topic of this episode – the Black Widow. She highlights the three main things she will discuss, which are the control of women’s bodies, motherhood and representation.

First things first

Janine gives a brief opinion on the movie and explains how much she enjoyed it. She also laments Black Widow’s death in Endgame and rejoices over the fact that they made a Black Widow movie.

Main themes

Janine starts exploring one of the main themes of the movie – the control of women’s bodies. She first recaps the movie’s synopsis and then moves onto a discussion of this theme.

Radical feminism and choice

Janine first recaps some radical feminist ideals and briefly refers to Alien. She mentions how Ellen Ripley fights for control over her reproduction and what radical feminists said about this.

Janine then applies this to Black Widow. She first recounts a few scenes that deal with women’s choice of reproduction. Janine then looks at the control of women’s bodies in the film in general. Finally, Janine discusses how the Black Widow regains control of her body and other women’s bodies.

(Janine accidentally refers to David Harbour as Tom Hopper – easy to get confused!)

Janine concludes that the movie is an implicit critique of how patriarchy controls women’s bodies.

Representation

The next topic Janine talks about is the heroines’ outfits and their body types. Janine mentions how the Black Widow’s outfits have changed over the course of Avengers films. She also comments on the outfits and body types of the other female characters.

Sisterhood

The next topic Janine discusses is how the women in the movie help each other. Janine mentions how Disney films always pitt women against each other in Cruella, for example. She then shows how Black Widow embraces the idea of sisterhood and how women work together to help womankind.

Motherhood

This leads Janine to the next topic – motherhood. She discusses how the Black Widow inherited many traits from her biological and adoptive mothers. The emphasis on motherhood is a contemporary trend, Janine explains.

Final thoughts

Janine wraps up with a few final thoughts. She briefly comments on Black Widow as a female hero. Janine also mentions that there is no love story in the film, which is refreshing.

Wrap up

Janine wraps up by reminding listeners of her YouTube channel and blog. She thanks listeners and bids everyone farewell until the next episode.

Episode Credits

Host

  • Janine Engelbrecht

Editor

  • Janine Engelbrecht

Small Print

The theme music is "Dashboard Light" by One Two Feet, and is licenced by Holosuite Media through Epidemic Sound.

This podcast is a fan production. All views made are that of the individual(s), and may not represent that of the podcast, or the Holosuite Media network.

The Sci-Fi Feminist - A Feminism and Pop Culture Podcast
The Sci-Fi Feminist - A Feminism and Pop Culture Podcast
22. Black Widow, Savior of Women
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