Why Everyone Needs To Watch Marvel Movies

Let me ask you a basic question, how do you get to know about things? News, books, music, movies, shows, the internet, and people, right? Now tell me how often does a topic about nanobiotechnology comes up in an everyday conversation? If I am remembering right, the first time I heard of this term was in a movie, 'AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON'. Maybe it came up in school in science class which got dismissed very easily, but when it came up in this movie then was when I googled about it.

Unfortunately, I started watching Marvel movies very late, like in the last months of 2017, I started with Iron man and my life was changed. You see the problem was I had misjudged these movies very quickly I had this prejudice against them and used to think of them as very fictional superhero movies but this was pure science and all the technology and especially the AI Jarvis blew my mind. I watched all the movies in the proper order of the Marvel timeline and was so impressed and totally in love with them.

It got me thinking, the first Iron man movie was released in 2008, all my male friends had already seen these movies. And here I was watching them in 2018. It was kind of typical, maybe you are familiar with this the stereotypes of movies; boys watch these movies, terminator, predator, superhero movies, Marvel, D.C., etc. If you have some trouble with computers go ask some guy, do you have questions about some car or mobile phone ask a guy. So I talked with some of my female friends and many of them had not watched these movies, and the few who had were not really curious about the science stuff shown in the movies. I couldn't understand why was this happening, I could talk with boys about the details of the movies related to science and technology but not with girls. A year before all this, I had started watching BBC Sherlock and was attracted to chemistry and logical reasoning and some movies like Theory of everything, the Imitation game, and some others, got me attracted to science fields some more.

Now I was reassessing why I used to think science and math are not my cup of tea when I was in school because even though I used to state I hate these subjects I had pretty good marks in them. Even when I was in the 12th standard I had maths and though I wasn't a big fan of it even then I could solve big divisions very easily. Now the question was why did I use to think I hate them, I guess that was because everyone said they hated them too. I am embarrassed to say this but maybe I was just following a trend. But that's not the point, the point is there are many students especially girls who say they hate math and science, I am worried that's them following the trend. I also think this is because there is almost no female representation in these fields. I just can't remember any female scientist or mathematician about whom I studied in school. I asked my friends and they said even they can't remember anyone, apart from Madame Curie (thanks to Sheldon). So maybe young girls aren't just able to relate with any people of their sex since there is an almost negligible representation of women in science. And this can be a reason why many girls do not opt for STEM subjects, of course, they opt for medical sciences but then again it's gender conforming.

The reason I am saying everyone especially girls should watch Marvel movies is because they have women in very non-conforming roles. The first in the list should be princess Shuri, her special abilities are genius-level intelligence, combat, engineering skills. Then there's Black Widow who is an assassin, her skills are top-level combat training, acrobatics, computer hacking, piloting, she is very perceptive with a skill set to kill a group of trained professionals within minutes. There's Dr.Jane Foster, who is a very accomplished astrophysicist. Agent Peggy Carter (god is a woman and her name is Peggy Carter) Specialties- code-breaking, leadership, marksmanship, scientific study. Nakia, special abilities: Stealth, intelligence-gathering, combat, speaking multiple languages. Valkyrie, special abilities: Super-strength, piloting craft, fast healing. Gamora, special abilities: Super-strength and reflexes, fast-healing, keen vision, combat skills. Okoye, she is someone I personally respect a lot and why not, she is the commander of the Dora Milaje, the elite, all-female bodyguards of Wakandan royalty, and she is general of Wakanda's armed forces. She holds the moral high ground, serving the nation as her top priority by protecting the throne but also knowing when to challenge authority. There’s Dr.Helen Cho, she is a geneticist and she can do stuff previously unimaginable to the human race, and there’s Captain Marvel, just the name of this woman gives me chills. This is a very small list there are many more other women like Pepper Potts, Hope and her mother, Frigga, Wanda, Maria Hill, and so many more!

Apart from great female representation, there are some lead people in Marvel movies who should really be seen as role models. Take Tony Stark, he was born genius, apart from being Iron Man he also created JARVIS and many other fully functional artificial intelligence, I am sure if more people understand what AI can do, there would be many girls who would really want to learn programming and related other stuff. Dr. Bruce Banner, Hulk, he is like Stephan Hawking, he and Tony (the science bros) both are great inventors. Dr. Stephen Strange, Peter Parker, Ned, T’Challa, are also people to look up to. What I feel is, if it is known what the end results, the jobs, the career can be like, what can chemistry and biochemistry, physics and all STEM subjects and sciences can lead to, the possibilities,then is when more people would be attracted to these fields, and only when people would know about all what options are available to them,only then they can select something that they want to do. I realise these are fictional movies and most things aren't real but many of the things are futuristic and not really impossible. So there is a lot of room for research and development. Yes, everyone should always choose what they like, the only thing I am trying to say is they should not be discouraged in any manner to learn about their full potentials. And it's not just being discouraged that's the problem, it's also not being able to have an environment which is full of opportunities to learn and do new things. The sheer exposure is a privilege most people do not have.

Now building up on the point I started with, most people would know about different aspects of science and technology through such movies, these movies are entertainment plus education. Take sci-fi movies which show Cryo sleep chambers/incubators, wasn't it a fictitious idea some time ago? Now they are actually making one. We should not underestimate the influence of movies, creative minds that come up with science fiction have always inspired science in the real world.