Read on Twitter
this thread makes really clear how crenshaw styles himself after captain america as portrayed in the MCU, specifically captain america in the winter soldier, and just how dangerous chris evans tacitly co-signing that fantasy by giving free PR was. that helped build the fantasy. https://twitter.com/mikeduncan/status/1349711147025489921
crenshaw’s self-insert captain america fantasy & the shared fantastical notions of being supersoldiers off to “fight a corrupt government” we saw with so many other maga chodes on jan. 6th can’t be divorced from a) the role of the cap films in our collective cultural landscape—
—how did the cap films normalize paramilitary intervention, how did the cap films valorize the military-industrial complex, how did the cap films (in not using the full critique of the original nomad storyline) become a litmus test for anyone to project their ideologies into?
and b) the danger of chris evans’s little “both sidesism” in meeting with crenshaw. this has been spoken to bits, but evans gave crenshaw a platform boost when he met with him. he validated the fatal “take back this country” daydream of the right by doing so—
—and we as fandom were complicit in shouting down critiques when the press photos came out & we are STILL complicit in not holding evans accountable to what his cowardly political machinations helped to empower, whose narratives he’s helped to boost, what ideas he “both sides”ed.
for all that stevebucky fandom parrots the “punch a nazi!!” line, we were devastatingly uncritical when evans started to go down this path of political cowardice, as it is becoming more & more clear he has some vested interest in his “standing” among “both sides” of politicians.
wealthy white folks, especially “allies,” never face accountability for how their actions have done irreparable harm, especially when the people on the front line of that harm are BIPOC. i’m tired of fandom‘s “let people enjoy things” when the stakes are literal life & death.
related thread, now that chip is gonna resume the cap mantle (i guess????): https://twitter.com/aka_spacedog/status/1347251830783311873
i’m tired of the “fandom reclaimation of this character to make him in a [white] queer relationship is actually the most radical!!” line that we as stevebucky fandom parrot. it obscures our complicity in letting this fester under the guise of “MAGAs don’t ACTUALLY understand cap”
when evans eventually runs for office with a platform of “bringing this country together” & “being the captain america the country needs” i hope that fandom remembers how we let him saddle up to fascism & how we shouted down the critical BIPOC & white leftists sounding the alarm
