Into the Spiderverse Poses a Problematic View About Consent
By: Erinn Says
Tags: Marvel, Consent

I’m a big Spideyverse fan. I’ve cosplayed Gwen Stacy and Venom. My best friend is a kickass Miles Morales, and my boyfriend is an incredible Scarlet Spider. Theoretically, Into the Spiderverse should have been a perfect movie for me — gorgeous animation mixed with an interesting comic book feel, one of my favorite characters (Miles Morales!) as the star, PLUS Nic Cage as Spiderman Noir (okay, that one makes me really feel like this movie was made for me). Only it wasn’t.

The movie opened up strong. Peter Parker died. I mean, hello, that’s kiiiiiiind of a big deal.

But it all starts to spiral when Miles Morales tells his Uncle Aaron that he likes a girl. Naturally, cool Uncle Aaron has some advice for that. “Put your hand on her shoulder and say hey,” he says.

Miles is a little uneasy with this advice. But the next time he sees the girl he likes, he does it anyway.

All this girl wants to do is say hello to Miles. And Miles, who wants to show that he likes her, touches her shoulder and says “hey.”

I’ve frequented a lot of bars in my time as a New Yorker. I’ve had men slide their arms around my waist before asking if it was okay; I’ve had men put their arms around me while I’m ordering a drink; I’ve had men touch my shoulder just like Miles did. And you know how many times I’ve wanted them to do that? Zero.

If you want to talk to me . . . just talk to me. And if I don’t want to talk to you or I’m not interested, respect that. Your person will come.

Back to Miles. The adult figure that he looks up to tells him to put his hand on a girl’s shoulder, so he does. Only it backfires because Miles has been bitten by a radioactive spider and he’s sticking to everything. Miles’s hand gets caught in Gwen’s hair. And the only way to unstick them is for Gwen to shave her head.

Yeah, that all sucks for Miles. We’ve all embarrassed ourselves in front of crushes at some point or another, and you’re meant to feel that awkwardness, but you know whose POV the movie conveniently glosses over? Gwen’s.

Gwen approaches Miles. She’s excited to talk to him. But then he touches her. She never told him that’s okay — he just LIKES her, so he goes out and touches her shoulder. Now Miles won’t stop touching her and Gwen is VISIBLY uncomfortable. She tries to swat him off but he’s sticking to her so he won’t.

The ordeal ends with Gwen needing to shave half her hair off. She never consented to being touched, she didn’t want to be touched, and now she’s suffering for it. It’s extremely common for rape victims to shave their heads. Don’t believe me? Here’s a Duke University article all about it.

Later in the film, when Miles needs to defeat Kingpin, he remembers something important his Uncle Aaron told him — touch someone on the shoulder and say “hey!”

So Miles does and the world is saved. Woooooooo.

I saw the movie with three dudes. I expected them to like it, but I was shocked that not a single person seemed to notice that consent was . . . well, ignored. I even did a cursory search on the Internet and amidst the 100% Rotten Tomatoes score, I couldn’t find anything. And the fact that men don’t see this behavior as problematic . . . is problematic in and of itself.

Men — real men, not just fictional men like Miles — need to understand that not only is touching a woman a “not a good way” to say you like her, it’s just NOT an option.

Touch her when and only when you have ENTHUSIASTIC CONSENT. ENTHUSIASTIC CONSENT. And yes, this goes for shoulder touches as well as anything “further.” You won’t defeat any enemies in the real world by touching their shoulder, sorry to tell you.

I don’t mean to be a buzzkill, though; I did find aspects enjoyable. I really liked Miles’s dad, for example. And Aunt May. And I was a big fan of the animation. But yeah. Mostly, I wish it was something we talked about. Talk to the kids in your life about consent, talk to the adults in your life about consent, talk about consent. Let’s talk about it again and again and again.

Into the Spiderverse: 5.5./10