Disney Plus’ She Hulk can’t quite meet its feminist ideals yet

She-Hulk: An Attorney at Law makes its thesis statement about 13 minutes into its first episode: When Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) tells his cousin — newly Hulked, thanks to an accident — Jen Walters (Tatiana Maslany) that the triggers are anger and fear, she scoffs. “Those are like the baseline of any woman just Existing.” It’s a point she’ll hit harder later in the episode, after weeks of training to be dexterous and zen so as to not accidentally Hulk out. He reminds her not to get afraid or angry and she responds by giving him the manifesto. She-Hulk:

“Here’s the thing, Bruce: I’m great at controlling my anger. I do it all the time,” Jen says. “When I’m catcalled in the street, when incompetent men explain my own area of expertise to me — I do it pretty much every day because if I don’t I will get called ‘emotional’ or ‘difficult’ or I might just literally get murdered. So I’m an expert in controlling my anger because I do it infinitely more than you.”

She transforms briefly into She-Hulk in order to demonstrate her complete control. Eventually, we’ll see her prove herself right, returning to the regular world and suffering her misogynistic co-worker’s snide comments with aplomb. It’s all a great win for feminism.

The question is: How far will — can — She-HulkThis is a limited version of Feminism.

Image: Marvel Studios

There’s a lot of Feminism 101 shows out in the world already — your Bold TypeOder Supergirl. The four episodes were reviewed by critics. She-Hulk fits in with those shows without much challenge; feminism and the people it covers isn’t one-size-fits-all, and these shows are more of a foundation to inspire younger folks who are just beginning to find what kind of feminist action they want (or need) in their life. The first episode was a success. She-Hulk isn’t revolutionary, and for a certain set of viewers that’s OK. That the show is able to address the undercurrent of anger that comes with feminism is a step toward acknowledging rage as merely a valid response to a world that is broadly inhumane, in ways big and small, to women every day.

It’s a double-edged sword that the creators behind She-HulkWe know all too well. The show centers Jen’s discomfort with heroics as part and parcel with her uneasiness around how people treat her new looks. As She-Hulk she’s respected, defended, applauded — even just seen more.

“In terms of the CGI being critiqued, I do think that has to do with our culture’s belief in their ownership of women’s bodies. I think a lot of the critique comes from feeling like they’re able to tear apart the CGI women,” She-HulkDuring the Television Critics Association panel, Kat Coiro spoke on behalf of the director. “There’s a lot of talk about her body type. And we based her a lot on Olympian athletes, not bodybuilders, but I think if we’d gone the other way we would be facing the same critique. I think it’s very hard to win when you make women’s bodies.”

Image: Marvel Studios

In the very first episode. She-HulkJen, being a woman, makes it clear how Jen is helping to make this transition. But still, it’s frustrating to see a movement be filtered through Marvel Studios, whose general ethos It is like if King Midas sanitized everything he touched. There’s no way the (modern) MCU wants to get as thorny and provocative as feminism actually isFeminism is an ideology in real life.This means some subjects will feel uncomfortable, controversial, or invasive. Marvel Studios will not permit you to do such things. So much of the feminism in Marvel Studios is based on this. She-Hulk feels a little too pat — of Cours the sexist co-worker’s slights are things like “more smiles,” and the bad bros she runs into just a little too clear about how much her femininity is what irks them.

Because here’s the thing about She-HulkThere is a wide variety of Olympians. They’re bodybuilders, swimmers, runners, rowers, skiers, gymnasts, and more. They’re bulky just as often as they are slim. And so when Cairo tells Polygon that the body type they settled on was akin to Misty Copeland, someone who is “strong and powerful, but […] can go to a restaurant and have a date, can work in a regular office and sit in a regular office chair,” it feels like just more Marvel sheen, where edges get sanded off to make for a common denominator. She-Hulk’s muscles have looked different through several decades of comics, and it’s telling that She-Hulk’s iterations fall in line with a more conventionally attractive body type. All She-Hulk feints at being “feminist TV,” it’s still bound up in a specific conception of womanhood and empowerment. The show can only conceive of its heroine as a feminine answer to Hulk, so it can’t fully imagine what it would mean to be free of a comparison at all.