WandaVision: A crash course of gender expectations and norms

WandaVision is a TV show created by Jac Schaeffer currently streaming on Disney+. It follows two Avengers, Wanda Maximoff and Vision, who fans may be familiar with from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which started all the way back in 2008. Both Wanda and Vision’s characters were introduced in the 2015 film Avengers: Age of Ultron. They are known to have had various relationships in the series of comics that inspired the movie franchise. WandaVision follows the few related plotlines initially packaged within a sitcom fantasyland of Wanda’s creation. The show is about Wanda running away from and trying to deal with all her past traumas, which are at first referred to only through adverts and veiled references. The earlier the sitcoms take place, the further detached she is from her grief and reality. The sitcom fantasy starts in the 1950s and continues up until the 2010s. I will be discussing how WandaVision represents gender and family expectations and norms in these decades.

1950s

The first episode, Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience, opens to an idyllic American suburb that Wanda and Vision have just moved to. They wave to their neighbours and enter their house, with Vision carrying Wanda in the bridal hold over the threshold of the house as the opening titles roll, showing that they are happy and completely in love. This love blinds them to the truth of where they are: the hex. Inside the house, they can be themselves: Wanda can use her magic and Vision can phase through walls and show his android face.

Their only worry in this episode is fitting in with the neighbours. In this episode, Wanda wants the perfect newlywed life for her and Vision. With the help of their neighbour Agnes, Wanda hatches a plan to make the perfect romantic meal for her husband. However the meal is actually meant for Vision’s boss, Mr Hart because Vision is up for a promotion and the newlyweds must impress. The set and costumes are period-accurate and Wanda is dressed to perfection in the New Look in practically every scene just as was popular with the women of the 1950s. Agnes also refers to Wanda pleasing Vision with domestic tasks and implied sexual performance in the bedroom which was a common expectation. The wife’s happiness came exclusively from pleasing the husband.

The advert in this episode features a salesman selling a toaster talking directly to the consumer—which would have been the wife, since she would have had access to the TV for most of the day. The salesman says, “Is your husband tired of you burning his toast?” Homeware goods of the time were sneakily addressed to women to make daily domestic tasks easier or quicker. However, it was the husband that kept hold of the purse strings, so adverts also had to appeal to him. In this case, the advert both infantilizes the wife and assumes her relative incompetency, both of which were prevailing attitudes towards women at the time.

Wanda and women of the time were trapped in female conventions of femininity that were tied to the household and family. The woman in the advert has one line and only refers to how the new toaster shines. She then places slices of bread in the toaster for the demonstration. The advert clearly shows that the woman is ‘characteristically’ interested in the aesthetics (a feminine attribute) of the machine and not its function (a masculine attribute). The woman acts as a prop next to the salesman.

1960s

The second episode, Don’t Touch That Dial, is set in the 1960s. The pressure of wanting to fit in continues to mount as the couple sign up to take part in the talent show. In this decade, there are a couple more social freedoms appearing in the episode. Wanda wears trousers throughout most of the run, emulating the Mary Tyler Moore Show, which moves away from the restrictive New Look dresses from the previous decade.

Another additional ‘freedom’ is when Wanda changes the couple’s two twin beds into a single double bed. In the 1960s, double beds in sitcoms became more of a common occurrence, making sex a more implicit suggestion to the viewer. They openly flirt with each other and coyly get under the covers, implying sexual engagement.

However, the expectations of the time are still reinforced. In the opening titles, Wanda continues doing domestic tasks like going grocery shopping. Femininity standards are further policed by Dottie, a housewife character we meet at the country club. Dottie is the head of the committee and could represent the ideal. She enforces the speak only when spoken to rule and reprimands Wanda and Geraldine for talking. She then punishes Wanda by making her clean up after the meeting is over. The controlling presence of Dottie in this supposedly social setting could speak to the fact that housewives were unable to access freedoms younger women had at the time, i.e. the sexual revolution. But this meeting also allows Dottie to control the women in the town, urging them to focus on helping the children. Prior to Wanda’s pregnancy, there are no children at all in the town. It’s to subliminally tell Wanda to have children in the hex. Women of the time were expected to have children as it was seen as their purpose.

When the glass Dottie is holding breaks and cuts her hand, she then asks Wanda how to get blood out of linen. Women of the time would have had to be versed in tricks and methods to lift stains from clothing; this is a test for Wanda’s 1960s femininity. Ultimately, Dottie tells her she has to do it herself for it to be effective.

In the advert for this episode, the imbalanced male/female dynamic remains prevalent., This time a Hydra watch is being advertised. A man looks in the mirror, putting it on as he gets ready for a night out. The woman, dressed as glamorous and formal as the man, appears behind him. She presses his lapel down, perfecting it. She has no lines, though she initiates their leaving, looping her arm in his as they leave the shot to go to their night out. Her lack of lines shows that she is merely an accessory on his arm. The advert perpetuates the restriction of women’s social movement unless with a man.

1970s

The third episode, Now In Colour, is set in the 1970s. The opening to this episode gives off the aura of rampant consumerism. Throughout the titles Vision and Wanda are seen buying lots of things. This is indeed to prepare for when the baby arrives! (The previous episode ended with Wanda becoming visibly pregnant). I just found this consumerism tied in with the decade change as interesting, because after the war, when industry was given a new lease of life and the public gradually grew their disposable income, people were willing to spend more on stuff. The period of the mid-1940s to the 1970s was dubbed the consumer era. This is keenly felt in all of the early episodes.

In the opening of the episode, Wanda performs housework while still being able to indulge in reading a superficial women’s magazine. This perpetuates the role of women in the household and society, being able to do only menial tasks. When the episode starts, Wanda is already in her second trimester and is being visited by the town’s doctor, who belittles Wanda’s intelligence by describing her bump as increasingly various types of fruit to symbolise her growing belly. She makes a knowing smile and nothing is said beyond that. It wouldn’t be a classic sitcom without the casual sexism. Am I right, ladies?

Throughout this episode, Vision is obsessed with being prepared for when the baby arrives—as endearing tv husbands of the era often were, since any domesticity was such a foreign concept to them. This prepared-ness comes out as Vision grips a pregnancy book to guide them both through until labour. The comedic problem is that Wanda progresses through pregnancy rapidly and chaos inevitably ensues.

The only conflict Wanda and Vision really face in the episode is that they can’t seem to agree on a name for the baby. Vision wants Billy, after William Shakespeare. This choice shows off his love for knowledge and attachment to his own intellect. On the other hand, Wanda chooses Tommy and dubs it an all-around-American name. This is significant because the sitcom world she’s created is the perfect, all-American escape from the grief and trauma she’s suffered. She’s living out her American Dream through sitcoms. Wanda ends up giving birth to twins and the pressure of picking a name disappears.

The advert for this episode is for Hydra Soak. The reference to Hydra links back to when Wanda volunteered for Hydra to experiment on her thus giving her her powers. The advert starts with the woman, apparently a single mother trying to keep on top of all the mess and chaos in the house. Her children are spilling things, the pet dog is urinating by the kitchen counter and a blender making a mess. There’s a pause and then a voiceover asks the woman if she needs a break. She agrees that she does, and the ad cuts to her bathing in a Greek-inspired bathroom complete with a male attendant fanning her with a big leaf. This kitch escapism directly relates to Wanda creating the sitcom fantasy, but also to the opening titles of Wanda reading the magazine, taking time out for herself away from others’ expectations. It’s highly ironic that Wanda’s idea of escapism is exactly what women of the time were trying to escape from, but due to her trauma she makes it the hyper-idealized version of American life. It's a very white, privileged experience and therefore not the reality of the time.

1980s

In the fourth sitcom episode, set in the 1980s, On A Very Special Episode…, Wanda and Vision feel a push and pull between being honest parents and perfect parents. Wanda is still expected to be the perfect mum. This is evident in the still highly domestic advert: instead of an ineffective unbranded paper towel, the woman gives her husband the in-show branded kitchen paper towel to clean up his spilt drink. Vision is still the breadwinner at a computer company and Wanda remains a homemaker, caring for the twins to whom she gave birth in the previous sitcom episode. The twins are autonomous in the hex Wanda created, and as a result, Wanda can't control them with her magic. When the aged-five Tommy and Billy want a dog, they age themselves up to ten to justify having it. The dog dies in the same episode and the boys try to age themselves again to escape the pain. During this decade, children grew up during the adult fears of the bomb, gratuitous violence in the media, and panic over the AIDS virus. Parents grew increasingly concerned and tried to protect their kids from the realities of the time. This was intensified by sudden efforts in political policy to protect the children, but as we know, the kids and growing teens were probably exposed to it regardless. Media of the era satirized violence and horror which was a mainstay of the decade. Though this isn’t directly addressed in WandaVision, there is safety in her largely white, privileged suburb.

Though their ageing-up narratively mirrored Wanda running away from all the traumas in her life, Wanda was also ultimately able to teach her sons a valuable lesson—a common trope in 80s sitcoms. However, when the kids have gone to bed, the perfection Wanda has tried to maintain begins to crumble. Vision is actively trying to figure out the mystery of where they call home and cannot remember who he is. Throughout the episode, the couple isn't on the same page, particularly when showing their powers in front of guests, like Agnes. The friction builds and bubbles over into the couple's first fight, which feels like a fracture in the perfection Wanda has created. This is equally exacerbated and hidden by the arrival of Wanda’s so-called brother, Peitro. A turbulent episode for a turbulent decade.

1990s/2000s

The eighth episode, All-New Halloween Spooktacular!, is more similar to what we’d currently recognise as the beginnings of the modern era. The sitcom fantasy straddles the late 1990s and early 2000s, taking inspiration from Malcolm in the Middle. The parental and social expectations of the time were quite similar between the 1990s and 2000s, where women were no longer confined to their homes, and taking positions of becoming the breadwinner. However the Perfection that Wanda was trying to hold on to from previous decades continues to break down as the kids are noticing their parents disagreeing, and Vision is largely away from the family dynamic, busy investigating the mystery of the hex. The theme of the episode is Halloween, so that is the main focus and societal norms of families is less of a focal point in this episode. The advert is a kid’s one that alludes to more of Wanda’s magic than it does about her position in the home.

2010s

The final sitcom episode, Breaking the Fourth Wall, is set in the 2010s and takes its cues from shows like Modern Family. Perfection is out the window. The episode starts with Wanda oversleeping and the boys coming to wake her; in her fourth-wall-breaking character interview, she mentions needing a break from the stresses of family life and the breakdown of her marriage. This is a common trope in recent sitcoms. She even calls it quarantine, which is a little on the nose given recent events. Wanda appears dishevelled in front of her children and guest, Agnes, which is a far cry from the put-together-ness of the 1950s. She's brutally honest with her kids about how she's feeling, confessing to them that she doesn't have all the answers even though it is a child's expectation of their parents that they do.

The advert in this episode mentions depression—which Wanda may very well have after everything she’s been through. The episode is about honesty with the audience regarding mental states and mental illness following more liberalization of mass media and therefore mirrors the reality of our real world. Wanda and Vision are apart for the whole episode, implying their estrangement and the further breakdown of their marriage. This type of honesty would have not appeared in earlier sitcoms, as many of these subjects were taboo until very recently.

In the final episode, aptly titled The Series Finale, we’re still in the fantasy—just one in the modern era. Narratively, Wanda is face to face with her trauma and must confront it in order to move on. Although conversations about depression in our world are beginning to become less stigmatized, grief is harder to pin down. The pressure for the show to go on is still very prevalent in society. The expectation to carry on is palpable, capitalism is to blame.

The writers of WandaVision gave Wanda the space to grieve the loss of her parents, brother, and lover, which is refreshing to me as grief still feels like so much of a taboo. It tends to be a silent burden that then can trigger depression. Allowing a woman to grieve on screen is incredibly empowering.

Throughout every decade, women have had to appear strong in order to survive and to be taken seriously. The latter part of the episode proves Wanda is a strong female character anyway, with her natural ability for magic. Magic tends to be a female identified thing in media, but Wanda’s grief isn't watered down, it's destructive, the way grief rips through everything and doesn't leave much else in its wake. Wanda makes a sitcom bubble for her and her family but imprisons her neighbours and they suffer with her. She unknowingly gives them telepathic images and feelings from her traumas. She doesn't shoulder the pain and take it on the chin. It consumes her. Yes, it's more dramatic than real life really is, but it's relatable.

I've never related more to a character before.