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Brie Larson Was Told to Smile More As Captain Marvel. She Had the Absolute Best Response.

2 minute read

Captain Marvel may be an action movie, but that hasn’t stopped Internet trolls from telling star Brie Larson that she should smile more.

After the trailer for Marvel’s forthcoming superhero flick dropped on Tuesday, trolls began posting their unsolicited opinions on Larson’s facial expression. One Twitter user even went so far as to photoshop a smile onto photos of Larson in character for the role.

Fortunately, being the absolute badass that she is, Larson had the perfect response to the sexist feedback. The Oscar winner took to her Instagram story to share some shots of Marvel’s male superheroes with smiles edited onto their faces. The resulting images were, of course, creepy and clearly illustrated the gender-based double standard of the “smile more” complaint.

“Breaking news: You can be you. That means you can smile or not,” Larson wrote on Instagram, according to Uproxx. “You can be strong in the ways you want to be. You can own who you are. If anyone tells you different don’t trust them.”

See the images—which appear to have been originally posted by Twitter user Jane Ritt—below.

 

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Write to Megan McCluskey at megan.mccluskey@time.com