![valkyrie thor valkyrie thor](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/f4/c8/19/f4c819d12aec1543ae3d85f7b894ab58.jpg)
Those films or characters that buck that gaze are often met with criticism for being too feminine or too preoccupied with that gaze to start with. While the movies themselves are loved and enjoyed by people of all genders, they are often filmed from a male point of view (the male gaze). One can then apply this logic mechanism to superhero movies in general. Until we also refer to a group of differently gendered people as 'gals', the term 'guys' is not gender-neutral.
![valkyrie thor valkyrie thor](https://www.quirkybyte.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/thor-4.jpg)
This tool, however, still presupposes that the default and power-having class is masculine. Making Valkryie 'King' makes use of the same logic as gender-neutralising of the word 'guys' to reference a group of people of any gender. Everything is twisted into an indecipherable mess, and to pull out one thread invariably snags another one. (In case you were wondering, no, we don't count that cameo.)ĭiscussing gender and superheroes is like trying to untangle a ball of yarn previously rolled up by a child on a sugar rush. While Thompson has said she always played Valkyrie as bi, this wasn't canon confirmed until recently, and her on-screen coming out takes place after Eternals, which technically claimed the mantle for having the first openly LGTBQ+ characters. We are, of course, super-stoked to see Valkyrie in both a powerful and authoritative role and also as one of the first out LGBTQ+ characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Secondly, it establishes her as canonically bisexual – she is looking for a queen, after all. This statement and her new mantle are meant to do two things: first, establish Valkyrie not only as ruler of Asgard but also as someone whose attitude towards gender strictures is laissez-faire.