Movie review
July 7, 2021 · 134 min · PG-13
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Black Widow is a Marvel Studios action-adventure film set between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. Natasha Romanoff reunites with her fake Russian spy family to confront her past and destroy the Red Room, the program that trained her as an assassin. The narrative centers on female sisterhood, trauma from gendered exploitation, and empowerment against a male-run system of control.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Black Widow.
Woke representation / casting
moderate emphasis on hyper-competent female assassins dominating action with one visible gender swap for Taskmaster.
Woke political dialogue
occasional lines mocking the male gaze pose and highlighting forced female sterilization and bodily control.
Identity-driven story themes
recurring focus on female sisterhood, trauma, and empowerment as key narrative drivers.
Western institutional / cultural critique
modern activist-style portrayal of the male-run Red Room as patriarchal exploitation and abuse of women, explicitly tied to #MeToo by creators.
Woke character or canon changes
Taskmaster gender-swapped from male comics character to female Dreykov's daughter.
Production
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
measurable but not dominant backlash over feminist messaging, girl power, and the gender swap.
Creator track record context
director's history of female-centered trauma stories plus explicit feminist framing of this title.
