On Rage and She-Hulk

The Fourth Age recently released a video discussing an article about the She-Hulk series on Disney+. He admits that he had not seen the show, due to lack of interest, but the article really got under his skin. His video gave me a lot to think about and inspired me to write this article so thanks RJ!

I’ll take this opportunity to disclose that I also have never seen the She-Hulk show. The advertisements didn’t entice me and when I saw the clips of Jennifer Walters shouting that she can control her anger “infinitely more” than Bruce Banner (a man who had been hunted down by the government and was shot into space to fend for himself, mind you) and her twerking with Megan Thee Stallion, I was absolutely turned off. Instead, I paid attention to the poor YouTubers who did watch the show and reported on it. From what I can tell, She-Hulk is a very boring show with cringy moments sprinkled in. Not the worst but nothing to write home about.

I did read the article written by Rachel Paige and I have some thoughts.

The article is mostly about episode 8 where Jen goes to a gala as She-Hulk to accept an award, but the evening’s ruined when a supervillain shows pictures of her personal life on the big television screen. She flies into a rage destroying the screen and scaring people away then spends the rest of the episode dealing with the aftermath. Since I haven’t seen the show and don’t know that much about the character, so I’m going to skip over the show writer’s comments about the She-Hulk character (though the die-hard fans claim they completely misunderstood her). Instead, I’m going to focus on what I found insidious.

You see, the writers wanted to spin Jen’s inevitable Hulk-out moment in episode 8 as “justified” so that it could be more “relatable” to the female audience. According to actress Ginger Gonzaga, women in general are forced to contain their emotions, including anger, by the patriarchy “which is not healthy and not fun”. The star of the show, Tatiana Maslany, commented that Jen’s rage-fueled outburst “felt so right to me”. There’s an overall vibe that both the actors and writers feel that not only is female rage justifiable, but women should find empowerment in rage.

I honestly can’t believe that a group of women who are older than me fail to understand why people in general control…