I agree there have been a lot of great points raised in this thread! Whenever I write a piece like this I wish I could hear everyone's counterarguments first so I can address them all in the piece. It's hard to think of every counterpoint people might raise in advance. Ah well. I guess that's what comments are for.

I do see where you're coming from (and very well said by the way), but I think Angie is another good reference point here. She's a female ally who is experiencing sexism like Peggy (i.e. that jerk in the diner), but their friendship never weakened Peggy's sense of isolation. That's because even though they're both…

I have to disagree that adding another female supporting character would inherently change the nature of the show. Peggy would still be the only woman at the S.S.R. and would still face daily prejudice from her co-workers. You can still explore Peggy's isolation even if she has a sympathetic, kick-ass female ally.…

Agreed! I find it highly likely that women bonded over their shared office sexism in the past. I know they do today!

I actually don't disagree at all! Sousa is definitely the most sympathetic of the bunch, I just didn't have time to get into all the show's nuances in this piece. I actually wish he had more screentime with Peggy as their office friendship always felt underdeveloped to me.

Iron Man has War Machine, Cap has Falcon, Thor has a whole crew. These allies exist without weakening their main characters. I'm not sure why another cool lady would weaken Peggy's character.

Plus it comes with the risk of sugarcoating the past. I had to double check that the army was still segregated during WWII after watching the film. They could have really easily solved this problem by giving Cap a line about how he rejected that racist segregation policy. They just needed to make it a tad more…

I really wish the first Cap film had noted that the army was segregated at the time. The Cap could have said "That's not the American way!" or something and integrated the unit. That would be a good way to nod at the historical prejudices of the past without letting it limit diversity onscreen.

There's no reason my theoretical female ally couldn't have been British too! And Stark clearly states Peggy is the person he trusts most in the world, why couldn't he be similarly close to a female employee?

I actually really like the historically accurate choice to make the S.S.R. an agency made up almost exclusively white and male. But I think the show could have balanced more perspectives outside of the agency (like Peggy's civilian ally!).

I'd have to respectfully disagree with this. The show has given us tragic backstories/occasional subplots for Stark, Jarvis, Dooley, Sousa, AND Thompson, all without pulling focus from Peggy. I'm not sure how replacing one of those characters with a woman would suddenly throw off the balance of the show.

I'm totally fine to agree to disagree on this issue, but while I'm always in favor of more diverse television, I think there's an
artistic justification for my theoretical casting change as well. Watching two women navigate their divergent post-war experiences could have been a fascinating angle for a show explicitly…

Thank you for this comment!

Marry me.

Not to mention the fact that all wizards and witches stop studying anything besides magic (i.e. math, science, English, etc) at the age of 11.

Oh and since I just realized you said the ones Harry took and not just every course, cross Muggle Studies off that list.

The age old question.

I know this is a joke and there's no way to prove I didn't just Google this but off the top of my head I've got: Charms, Potions, Transfiguration, Defense Against The Dark Arts, History of Magic, Herbology, Astronomy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Muggle Studies, and did they maybe take a broom riding class…

The "Also Noteds" are listed by time, not level of awesomeness. As for dancing, I prefer The Electric Slide.

I don't want to get too cocky here, but I actually do know quite a bit about Harry Potter.