#and nb: she is not exempt from the tedious 'strong female character = punching' just because she wears high heels and lipstick

[amarriageoftrueminds]

The thing about Peggy is, she doesn’t even like Steve? 

She patronises him. She sexually assaults him. She stalks him. She shows him compassion only for as long as it looks like her efforts to attach him will be successful, but the instant it looks like her efforts have failed she violently attacks him and sneers at his dreams.

(How could she be so vicious and so dismissive so easily, if she actually liked him? Shouldn’t she be heartbroken? It’s not the wounded relationship that matters to her; it’s the wounded pride. Steve could’ve dropped down dead, at that moment, and she wouldn’t miss a wink of sleep.) 

She dines out off having slightly known Steve, despite never dating him, and yet is enraged when people point it out. 

(Why is the ass-covering patronage of every other powerful man in her life acceptable, except his?)

She refuses to acknowledge any of his loved ones (shouldn’t they be beloved by her, too?) because she is so desperate to establish herself as the only legitimate connection to him. And yet she colludes with his sworn enemies, across multiple universes, and even lies about it (omits to tell him) to his face, when his life is in danger because of it. 

(How could someone do this, if they actually liked him?) 

Peggy thinks she is ‘not like the other girls’ who throw themselves at Steve, just because while she is throwing herself at him she also talks to him like he is a child (because that’s how she talks to all men.) 

She thinks she is actually better than Steve, since he is a man, and she thinks all men are essentially terrible and that this is feminism. She must be better, even though she acts just like the worst of men, because a thing only counts as bad if a man is doing it (eg. sexual assault) and only counts as good if Peggy is doing it (eg. if actual-feminist Daniel Souza dares to speak up for women in the workplace, she will tell him to shut up. Likewise, her turning a gun on Steve is #Girlbossing but Red Skull and Alexander Pierce doing it is Evil.)  

This is why, despite Steve being an internationally famous decorated war hero, a film-star and a heartthrob and the world’s only supersoldier, while Peggy is an unfulfilled unimportant desk jockey... she still turns up to announce that she will one day allow Steve to dance with her, as if she is doing him a favour. 

It’s because she sees Steve as essentially the same as before serum -- that is, pathetic (in need of help to get female attention.) Still pathetic, in her eyes. 

But since to everyone else Steve has become a prize, she has to take Steve down a peg by reminding him of their little secret -- that despite how great he may seem, she is superior to him -- and she really believes it’s true! 

(This belief is baseless. What If accidentally confirmed that she can only match Steve’s accomplishments if she is given serum... so she is not his equal without serum, let alone his superior, despite being born with considerable advantages over him.) 

And this treatment of Steve as pathetic, before and after serum, we’re supposed to see as her ‘appreciating him’ for who he really is inside. 

But her treatment of Steve is only un-starry-eyed (or so she likes to think) and businesslike because Steve is a man, and she thinks all men are inferior to her. He isn’t special. 

(Just as, she is the only woman in the First Avenger, and their big connection is supposed to be over the allegedly-similar discrimination levelled against women as against disabled men... but this is experienced by all women, so saying she’s ‘The’ woman for Steve amounts to saying that she only qualifies for the job because she’s female, and for no other reason.) 

The fact is, while Steve pays lip service to the idea of wanting a woman, he never actually acts like he wants a woman. 

And does Peggy even want a man? 

She comes across as someone who has remained single because her view of herself is so inflated and her view of men is so dim that they can never match up. 

It’s like she’s got a reluctant mental shopping list of ‘insanely lofty traits a man would need to have to finally be worthy of Her Majesty,’ and she only awkwardly goes about trying to get Steve at all because she has realised that this famous neatly-pressed hunk Captain America has managed to tick all of the boxes, somehow. He’s a trophy she feels she ought to have, but isn’t really bothered about having.

(But then she gets repeatedly annoyed whenever that pesky little ‘Steve Rogers’ twerp keeps getting in the way of her fantasy, wanting to do the right thing instead of just doing what she tells him, and has to be violently attacked to keep him in line.) 

She doesn’t actually like Steve.

#long post #antipeggy #antisteggy #cynthia glass #p*ggy meta #mcu meta #mcu critical #steggy is hydra trash party #meta #CAN YOU IMAGINE if bucky came up to pre-serum steve... #acting like he was DOING STEVE A FAVOUR by being friends with him?? #the absolute ARROGANCE that would connote? the immediate revulsion steve would feel towards any such person? #picture me in a hospital bed imagining steve monologuing all this to bucky in the pub to explain why he doesn't need to worry ^ #and funfact: this only comes across as arrogant and conceited because HA chose to play it that way #she COULD have had peggy offering a dance in a sweet hopeful way... #with an awareness that she is not special for wanting steve to like her #she CHOSE to do it with the air of a governess revealing a treat ('aren't you a lucky boy that I'm showing you attention!') #and nb: she is not exempt from the tedious 'strong female character = punching' just because she wears high heels and lipstick #put her in a modern environment when she can't mine the 40s Aesthetic for points any more #and her only defining characteristic is being a patronising upper class snob #to kevin feige steve is only allowed the dignity of his choice if that choice is a woman #also: look at who she befriends #not the fellow female agents; servants #she doesn't see anyone as her equal and therefore doesn't want any superior people around to burst that bubble