Wanda the Villain? How WandaVision Can Aid Discussions About Enslavement and Anti-Black Racism (Poster 6)

• In Event: Teaching Villainification in Social Studies: Pedagogies to Deepen Understanding of Social Evils

Abstract

What makes someone a villain? Whether they are fictional characters or historical figures, the extent to which their portrayal is nuanced and relatable affects what can be learned from them (van Kessel, 2019, 2022; van Kessel & Crowley, 2017). Inspired by our participation in a YouTube livestream panel discussion (Adeniji et al., 2021) about the WandaVision television miniseries (Schaeffer & Shakman, 2021a), we wanted to examine the character of Wanda Maximoff and what the series might offer for social studies curriculum and pedagogy in the context of discussions about enslavement and antiBlack racism. AntiBlackness, as defined by Warren and Cole (2020), is “the socially constructed rendering of [B]lack bodies as inhumane, disposable, and inherently problematic…” (p. 2). AntiBlackness originates from chattel slavery and expands throughout every oppressive construction (Bell, 1992; Dumas, 2014; Warren & Cole, 2020).

A perspective that audience members of WandaVision may not want to see is how our sympathy for Wanda does not negate her evildoing, specifically her enslavement of the town of Westview. However, ordinary, and even at times sympathetic, people (i.e., not psychopaths) are what “evil” really looks like in history and our contemporary situations, and thus Wanda as a character can aid an examination of extensive but quotidian evils like antiBlack racism. This chapter presents the argument that engaging with WandaVision in the classroom presents opportunities for educators to talk about antiBlack racism in their social studies classroom in a helpful way.

This presentation begins with a brief discussion of the value of engaging with popular media like films in social studies classrooms and an introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and WandaVision. Next, we discuss very briefly about enslavement and social studies curriculum in the Albertan context and beyond, and then how Wanda can be read as a villain, particularly in relation to her enslavement of the townsfolk of Westview. The final section outlines how an educator (Melissa, one of the authors of this chapter) used the WandaVision series to address curricular outcomes in a Grade 12 social studies class in rural Alberta.

Authors

• Danelle Adeniji, Dallas Independent School District

• Melissa McQueen, University of Alberta

• Cathryn van Kessel, Texas Christian University