Brutasha Fiesta: The Real Sterility Interpretation

Now Natasha saying she's sterile is possibly one of the biggest controversies of Avengers: Age of Ultron. I believe it stems from a simple misreading of the scene. The thing is, the scene is nuanced so if you just look at what is happening instead of why, you miss out on a much bigger conversation that should be happening.

Let's set up the scene:

Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanov are discussing the state of their relationship. Natasha suggests running away while Bruce thinks that's a crazy idea. Bruce then brings up the fact that he can't have kids which really affects how he sees himself as a monster, the same point he brought up when he first met Natasha in the first Avengers film.

It is after Bruce brings up his own sterility that Natasha brings up her own story. She reveals to him that the final ceremony in her training was to remove her ability to have children. This would give her a much better focus as an assassin. It would make her more machine-like in her ability to kill and complete missions. It would leave her free to not worry about her own offspring.

Did you catch the nuance there?

It is the fact that Natasha brings up her own sterility in response to Bruce's point about his own sterility. Her response shows that she and Bruce don't look at sterility the same. She is telling her own story to say that she isn't able to have children, but that doesn't make her a monster. She is telling him that she isn't able to have children, but she still deserves to love and be loved. She is telling him that being sterile doesn't make you a monster incapable of humanity.

So the conversation everyone is having shouldn't be about whether or not Natasha should consider herself a monster for being sterile, it is a conversation that should be had but not to extent it currently is, but how sterility affects the male population.

Bruce has always wanted kids and feels like less of a man because he's sterile. He feels like he is failing some goal that doesn't really matter in the end. Males have a relationship with their penis such as if it doesn't get up, aka erectile dysfunction, they feel embarrassed. They feel like they have less of a worth to the world because of it.

Natasha proves herself to be the strong one, yet again, in reassuring Bruce that he isn't a monster. That being sterile doesn't make you less of a person.

Everyone should've been cheering Natasha on for revealing more of herself to Bruce, reliving a horrible memory for him, and helping her boyfriend through a difficult situation.

But, instead, it was all 'OMG! HOW DARE JOSS WHEDON DO THIS TO MY FAVE CHARACTER!' because they misread the scene.

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Brutasha Fiesta