With the release of WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the MCU has established that the Scarlet Witch’s turn to evil will, in part, share a very similar motivation as Black Widow. The MCU has always had a complicated relationship with the storylines of its female superheroes. But it has established a troubling pattern regarding the motivations behind their actions and the way these women see themselves.
Both Black Widow and Scarlet Witch’s storylines have dealt with not being able to have children in one form or another. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Black Widow and Hulk consider running away together to leave their superhero life behind, hoping to emulate what Hawkeye has with his own family. Bruce quickly rejects the idea, insisting that to be a Hulk means he can never consider having children for their own safety. Natasha confirms that she is also unable to have kids, after having been sterilized following her graduation from the Red Room, the Soviet Black Widow program responsible for training her to be a spy. With the revelation that she can never be a mother, Natasha also reveals she considers herself a monster.
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In WandaVision, the hex that Wanda inadvertently puts on the town of Westview also resurrects Vision. Later, Wanda's magic unknowingly creates twin boys, Tommy and Billy, as they enjoy suburban family bliss. Eventually, to save the people of Westview, Wanda removes her hex, losing Vision and her sons in the process. She soon secludes herself and begins using the Darkhold, a book of dark magical spells, to learn about alternate universes where she can be with a version of her sons. After killing numbers of people throughout the multiverse, she eventually makes it to another Wanda, Tommy, and Billy and attempts to take out her counterpart. This causes alternate Tommy and Billy to grow scared of her. She asserts to them that she isn’t a monster, but realizes she has felt like one ever since the loss of her own children, reluctantly leaving them with their own mother in their universe.
Black Widow and Scarlet Witch Are Not Monstrous for Their Infertility
By making Scarlet Witch and Black Widow believe they are monsters because they are unable to be mothers, the MCU is sending a dangerous and inaccurate message that women who are unable to have children are monsters–or at least see themselves as such. In Age of Ultron, Black Widow’s comparison of herself to Hulk (a literal monster), due only to the fact that she is barren, can be seen as an alarming conclusion for a woman to come to about her own self-worth. Pairing that with the Scarlet Witch’s turn to villainy following the revelation that she could not keep her twin boys is a grim precedent that the MCU has set for its leading women.
Having Natasha and Wanda both believe they are monsters due to their infertility is not only wrong, but dangerous, given the role models they have become. The MCU should look closely at the message it is sending about the way women process their views of themselves. This repeated pattern of having women feel less than for their inability to have children is an unfortunate storyline that should be avoided in the future.
These women shouldn’t see themselves as monsters because they are far from it. Black Widow has taken on countless villains of her own and frequently saved the universe. Additionally, despite her recent turn down a villainous path, Scarlet Witch is also no monster for the reasons she thinks. She is processing the loss of her entire family and suffering from relatable, human emotions of grief. It would be best if the word “monster” is kept away from this context in the future and limited to the terminology of literal monsters that these heroes face.