There’s a lot of great commentary going around right now about Natasha/Black Widow in Age of Ultron, and a broader discussion ongoing about women’s role in the MCU. But I want to focus on a particular moment in Age of Ultron that has been gnawing at me: the revelation that Natasha was forcibly sterilized in the Red Room.

Domesticity and children were a surprisingly prominent theme in Age of Ultron. In some way, all of our protagonists are looking for a way to “go home,” wherever and whatever that may be. The Maximoff twins are looking for revenge for the home they lost. Tony Stark/Iron Man wants relief from the constant battle to protect the Earth. Steve Rogers/Captain America is mourning the domestic life he could’ve had with Peggy Carter after WWII ended. And we get an extended look at Clint Barton/Hawkeye’s home life, where he has a wife and two kids (with a third on the way).

And then there’s Natasha and Bruce Banner/Hulk. Natasha has in some way been paired flirtatiously and/or romantically with multiple members of the Avengers, but her relationship with Bruce is arguably the most intimate. She is the only one trusted to bring him back when he is the Hulk, calming him down with soothing touches and a calming story the team has nicknamed “the Lullaby.” While Natasha was the lynchpin in previous movies, constantly pulling the team back together when they were fraying at the edges and encouraging others to keep up the fight, in Age of Ultron she expresses a willingness to leave the Avengers in order to maintain her relationship with Bruce. 

But Bruce is adamant that he and Natasha could never have a normal domestic life. This, too, is a challenge that many of the Avengers are also facing. Clint and his wife are concerned that his involvement with the Avengers could pull him too far from his family, even possibly killing him. Tony is afraid that he will never be able to stop fighting to protect the Earth and never have a moment of peace. Steve is still mourning his lost relationship with Peggy, and unwilling to give up fighting to defend the Earth. 

And Bruce is concerned about the Hulk. He is concerned about losing control and hurting those he loves. He points to himself and says he obviously can’t have children and it’s self-explanatory; how could he ensure that they would be safe from him?

But Natasha needs an entirely different explanation for being unwilling or unable to have children.

Natasha can’t have children because she was forcibly sterilized.

Speculative fiction is generally a scary place for women. Rape and violations of a woman’s reproductive autonomy are so commonplace they’ve become a standard part of a woman’s narrative arc. If you’re a woman in a sci-fi, fantasy, or superhero genre, chances are you’ll be raped, forcibly sterilized, or forced to bear a child against your will at some point. 

Most speculative fiction also addresses these violations pretty terribly. There are outliers like The Handmaid’s Tale, which meaningfully examines these violations and how they operate as a way to control women in a patriarchal society. But in most popular culture since The Handmaid’s Tale was published in 1985, meaningful discussions of these violations are few and far between. Off of the top of my head, most of my favorite sci-fi franchises are actually pretty shitty when it comes to addressing women’s reproductive freedom. 

Battlestar Galactica tended to be reductive or sensationalistic. The 100 sidestepped the incredibly restrictive and punitive way women’s reproduction was controlled on the Ark. And Doctor Who had Amy’s incredibly disturbing Mystical Pregnancy, where Amy became pregnant without her knowledge, was kidnapped and forced to carry the pregnancy to term, had her child kidnapped, and then was forcibly sterilized. And when Doctor Who finally examined the impact such a horrible violation must have had on her, Amy’s only concern is that she can no longer be a suitable wife for Rory because she can’t have his children. Only Orphan Black seems to be meaningfully examining the way women’s reproductive freedom is violated and exploited in the full context of patriarchal systems, and how such violations personally impact the women involved.

So when Natasha revealed she was forcibly sterilized, it didn’t really register with me for a moment. Of course she was, she was a woman in a speculative fiction genre. It wasn’t until she described herself as a “monster” because she was forcibly sterilized that alarm bells started ringing in my head.

What was done to her was monstrous. That does not make Natasha a monster.

Had Natasha revealed the torturous vision Scarlet Witch gave her separate from any discussion about her relationship with Bruce, I might have tolerated the revelation, even if I still wouldn’t necessarily have approved of it. Any number of things could’ve been done to impress upon the audience just how terrible the Red Room was; Agent Carter managed to show us how horrific it was without any mention that girls were routinely sterilized. Too often women’s bodies are violated to add dramatic flair without any real discussion of the impact that violation has on those women, or any real discussion about how such violations are permitted and even condoned by patriarchal systems.

But including this revelation in the context of Bruce and Natasha’s discussion about what type of domestic life they could have makes this revelation especially problematic. Natasha’s sterilization then becomes something besides a horrific violation, a traumatic backstory, or a personal tragedy. It becomes a failure of femininity. It becomes particularly disturbing when Natasha describes her sterilization as something that makes her equally as monstrous as Bruce, a man who turns into a giant green rage monster when provoked. Her sterilization becomes something which makes her ugly and dangerous, as if she would be any less deadly or dangerous as Black Widow if she was also capable of having children.

Sam Maggs has written quite possibly the most compelling defense of this scene that is available, arguing that this line reflects a personal anger and regret over how her sterility was involved in making her the Black Widow:

But where some viewers read that moment as a devaluing of her self-worth because of her inability to have children, I interpreted it more to mean that Nat felt an anger and a moroseness over having her ability to make those choices taken from her at such a young age – an age when you shouldn’t be able to voluntarily consent to such a procedure. Nat’s experiences in the Red Room left her without agency; brainwashed, coerced, and made, out of necessity for survival, into the weapon she is today – and part of that involves her sterility, and part of that involves her lack of remorse for killing. I think a moment of vulnerability for Nat doesn’t make her any less of a Strong Female Character, but instead helps shape her into what we’re all constantly demanding anyways: a complex and nuanced female character, with emotions and a traumatic past and an imperfect reaction to present circumstances.

I’m not sure I agree with this interpretation, and I’d have to watch the scene again to be sure. But that wasn’t my understanding of the scene when I first saw it.

Assuming that I accepted Sam’s interpretation, I would still have a major issue with Natasha describing her sterility as something that makes her a “monster.” In isolation, as a way to describe what was done to turn her into Black Widow, it might be acceptable. But we cannot view Age of Ultron separately from the larger cultural context in which women who are unable or unwilling to bear children are portrayed as being failures as women, and monstrous for that fact alone.

And again, even if I agreed with Sam about this interpretation, I still have major objections about including forced sterilization as window dressing, just one more violation on top of heaps of abuse and manipulation inflicted upon a woman for dramatic effect.

The male Avengers each are allowed a choice about whether or not they will have children. Clint has kids and struggles to make it work, Tony’s lack of children is never discussed, Steve is still moving on after Peggy, and Bruce can’t trust himself with children. But Natasha has this choice forcibly taken from her. She doesn’t choose to avoid having children because her life is dangerous, because she has a job to do, or because she simply doesn’t want to have children. It is assumed that the only plausible reason Natasha doesn’t have children is that she was physically incapable of having children. As a narrative choice, it’s lazy. 

We cannot deny that abuse, manipulation, and repeated personal violations are an important part of Black Widow’s story. I do not think these elements should be glossed over or ignored, and I do not think that we should avoid any story lines revolving around women’s reproductive freedom being violated. But if Joss Whedon/Marvel/whoever was determined to make forced sterilization a part of Natasha’s story, it would’ve been better addressed in a full length Black Widow movie, where there was time to make the story about Natasha. Make the story about how a patriarchal, misogynistic organization made this a routine part of their manipulation of young girls because they were convinced women could only be dangerous when the decision about whether they could bear children was taken from them. Make the story about how Natasha coped with this aspect of her abuse. Make the story about how she worked to regain her agency and autonomy.

And if we were still planning on having Black Widow romantically involved with Bruce, make the revelation about Natasha. Allow her to open up about what was done to her in a way that allows the focus to be on how she was violated, not as part of a pissing contest to see whose damage makes them the most monstrous.

People do terrible things to women, and women react to those traumas in ways that aren’t always perfect. But there are too many stories where women are repeatedly violated for dramatic effect. There are too many stories where women’s reproductive autonomy is violated, exploited, and abused as window dressing rather than being central to the story. There are too many stories where we focus on how trauma makes women monsters, rather than on the monstrous systems that traumatized them.

It wasn’t necessary in Age of Ultron, and Natasha deserved so much better.

you know what, forget a black widow movie, i don’t want a fucking black widow movie, what a want is a R Rated Black Widow Netflix series. that’s what i want

Scarlett Johansson hopes for a Black Widow prequel movie. Click to read the full story

YES, I hope it comes true! However, the sequel is NOT confirmed by Disney and Marvel yet, as some rumors around the web say. Marvel stated they have big plans for the character and that’s it.

I hope it comes true! A Black Widow solo movie would be all kinds of awesome… especially if Joss is involved somehow.

Marvel releases Avengers Ultron toys to Target and there’s no Black Widow

(via @MizCaramelVixen twitter)