Moonage Daydream ◦ Misc

⸺ the maximoff problem

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I'VE REWRITTEN THIS AT LEAST A HUNDRED TIMES, TRYING TO FIND A GOOD WAY TO GET ACROSS WHAT I MEAN. Because I already know from experience that some of you are gonna get defensive and, I'm just gonna be brutally honest here, I will fucking kill you if it came down to it. Do not test me. This is an issue that infuriates me on a daily basis and I can and will direct that energy into mercilessly ripping somebody apart through a phone screen.

And what, I hear you ask, could possibly make you that angry, Maeve? I am so glad you asked, random internet stranger! The answer is so, so simple: the entire existence of MCU Wanda Maximoff.

So, a little backstory here: I love 616 Scarlet Witch. She's one of my all-time favourite comic book characters and at this point, I must've read literally hundreds of issues with her in them. But, well, here's the thing... even if I thought that comic book Wanda Maximoff was the scum of the earth, I'd still be pissed at the MCU for what they did.

Wanda Maximoff was the Roma-Jewish daughter of two Holocaust survivors for the majority of her comic book history. Recently, her being Magneto and Magda's daughter was retconned away, but she's still Roma. She's still Jewish.

And at the time that Age of Ultron was being developed, at the time that the MCU was planning on introducing Wanda and Pietro ━━ they were the Roma Jewish children of two Holocaust survivors. You may notice that I'm repeating those three facts a lot. It's because they're important.

While Aaron Taylor Johnson may be Jewish, he isn't Roma. Elizabeth Olsen isn't Roma or Jewish. They're both white, too, which comic book Wanda and Pietro tend to not be. 

No matter what way you look at it, there's one basic fact here: the MCU white-washed these characters. But, hey, that's not something new for them; the Ancient One in Doctor Strange is portrayed by a white woman; Peter Parker is a glorified white-washed Miles Morales.

Wanda and Pietro only get worse from here. That's the biggest problem I have, and I'm already pissed off at the white-washing; it gets worse than that.

In Age of Ultron, Pietro and Wanda, who are based off the Roma-Jewish children of Holocaust survivors, willing sign up to work with HYDRA, a neo-Nazi organization. 

I want you to read that sentence again. I want you to take it in.

There's no version of this where that's okay. I know that Age of Ultron makes it clear that they didn't know what they were getting into... but the writers did. The director did. MARVEL did. Everyone on that movie knew that these characters, these Jewish, Roma, characters, were joining a Nazi organization. 

I should not have to explain how overwhelmingly anti-Semitic that is. I should not have to tell a single one of you why that should make you sick to your stomach.

And, god, it doesn't stop there. You might have noticed that I specified Wanda up above and that's not because the portrayal of Pietro is in the clear; it's just because one of these characters is still alive. One of them is still being an absolutely disgusting example of blatant anti-Semitism.

The MCU has used set design to imply that Wanda is a Christian. There hasn't been a single mention to her Jewish heritage, not one hint of that, but we still can manage to put a few crosses in her room? What the actual fuck, MARVEL?

I do want to get ahead of one thing before I see somebody start in the comments: Elizabeth Olsen is not innocent in this. Repeat after me: Elizabeth Olsen is not innocent in this.

It doesn't matter if she didn't know she was taking on a white-washed role in Age of Ultron, but she sure as hell knows it now. She's profiting off of this. There was no contractual obligation for her to do Wandavision; that was her choice to continue this character.

This woman has used slurs, as well, to describe Wanda. She, Renner and Ruffolo chanted a slur. Stop defending Olsen and start accepting that your favourite white girl is a terrible person.

There's still more to this. Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor Johnson have, in an official interview, said that they played Wanda and Pietro's relationship has incestuous 'just for them'. If literally, everything else that's been said here hasn't hit you that this woman is the worst, maybe that'll finally do it for you.

Wandavision comes out in just over a month from when I've posted this. It's set to introduce Tommy and Billy Maximoff, two more Jewish characters and unsurprisingly, my faith in this show is already in hell, but there's one last thing that I need to make perfectly clear.

If you support MCU Wanda, you're anti-Semitic. If you support Elizabeth Olsen, you're anti-Semitic. If you support Wandavision, you're anti-Semitic. You don't get a way out of this.

And, before anyone says anything, yeah, the XMCU is also guilty of major anti-Semitism and anti-Roma racism. DC is too. The MCU's got some anti-Semitism in some other places too and I'm not ignoring that.

The matter of the fact is, in January, Disney is putting out a show focusing on an anti-Semitic, anti-Roma racist version of a character and I think we all know that people are gonna watch it. I'm pretty sure there's at least one person who's gonna read this and continue to love MCU Wanda anyway.

And that person is awful. That person is fucking disgusting.

Don't be that person, okay?

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