Brie Larson Was Told to Smile, So She Put Smiles onto Marvel Dudes

The Captain Marvel trailer that dropped Tuesday excited fans not just because it showed a badass Brie Larson showing off the usual suite of superpowers—flying, super strength, shooting energy from her fingertips—but because it's the Marvel Cinematic Universe's first film centered around a woman.

But the trailer also brought out the usual sexist trolls. A stew of mostly male social media users prejudged Larson's performance, calling it "wooden" and claiming she ought to "smile more"—a very common form of harassment that objectifies women by implying their emotions and appearance ought to be controlled and that they're for the pleasure of others.

One totally normal, well-adjusted person went so far as to photoshop a smile onto her face on the movie's promotional materials:

Larson responded with an Instagram story that featured Marvel posters with smiles photoshopped onto the (male) heroes, hilariously highlighting the hypocrisy of her sexist critics. They look incredibly creepy and dumb as hell because superheroes tend to look serious when they're at work saving the world:

Other Twitter users quickly followed suit, showering us with numerous creepily photoshopped male smiling faces:

Captain Marvel is a fighter pilot who gets superpowers and spends her time fighting off a band of shape-shifting aliens and whatever else. She doesn't have time for anyone telling her to smile.

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