I finally got around to watching Captain Marvel over the weekend and it was everything I could have hoped for in a superhero movie. It was nice to see a movie where the woman just saves the day (because real life, women mostly are saving the day every day). And by ‘just’, I mean the story line was just about saving people and aliens. There was no romantic interest or reference to sexual preference at all. Carol Danvers is just a regular woman, serving her country in the Air Force and fighting for justice with superpowers. Carol Danvers is just a woman doing her job. This is an unfortunately rare thing to see in a movie.

I read The Lost World by Michael Crichton when it was released in ‘95 and I remember being so excited when the movie came out. In the book, its lead female character is totally badass and saves everyone. The movie version made me want to punch Stephen Spielburg in the balls. The movie version turned the female lead into a dippy idiot who ran around the island with baby T-rex blood on her jacket and then was confused as to why the mother T-Rex was following them. This was 1997 and women were still being portrayed as helpless nincompoops. The things we read and watch are all part of the stuff that molds and shapes us as individuals. It gets in your head that this how you are supposed to be. Women must be a little bit dumb and helpless. Men must be the brut force and saver of the day. All girls are pretty princesses and all boys are rough and tumble frogs.

Except none of that is true.

That day the tornado hit the campground while we were camping, my Mom did not stand by wringing her hands all Laura Petri like. She jumped into action to do whatever she had to do to protect her children. That day Michael and I could hear a cicada buzzing around in my car? I will remind you it was Michael who ran screaming from that car before I even had a chance to put the car into park. I have also been the one woken up in the middle of the night to remove a giant moth from the kitchen. That time I had my brother and sister-in-law come up to help me buy a new car was not because I thought I needed my big brother to stand up to any dealership salesman. It was because I knew it was my sister-in-law who would be standing up to the salesman and making sure I didn’t get screwed over. I could ask any man I know, and this includes the ultra conservative men, if they think they believe their wife/girlfriend/partner is a badass and I could guarantee that everyone of them would reply “Oh yeah, you don’t want to mess with her.” Because they all know how much work she does to keep everyone fed, warm, safe and on time. The reality is that men and women are equally strong and equally capable of saving the day.

Executives will say that no one wants to pay money to see a woman in a non-romantic movie where she is the hero. These same executives push movies and TV shows that propel the stereotypes that woman must fit a specific mold. You want to know why I never got into The Big Bang Theory? I couldn’t get past the female characters in that sitcom. The pretty, fashionable blond woman was ditzy and uneducated, while the women with pHDs were slouchy and wore glasses and orthopedic shoes. None of those women scientists are representative of me, ALSO A WOMAN IN SCIENCE! The bottom line is that the entertainment industry needs new executives.

Because there is no specific mold.