bisteverogers:

i love that when romance is off the table, steve ‘this car ride where i show peggy all the alleys i was beat up in is the longest conversation i’ve had with a woman’ rogers actually has no problem being around women.

there’s peggy, of course, that connection that transcends his death and her memory. but there’s also nat. after their introduction in the avengers, we go from ‘there’s a chance you might be in the wrong business’ to ‘she would follow steve to the ends of the earth if he asked her to’ in the run-up to infinity war; she willingly considers steve a friend and sees him as a reason to have faith in the good of humanity again. yes, they fight well together, and yes, they work well together: but i think they also serve to humanise one another, steve who learns that not everyone can be trusted and natasha who learns that sometimes all it takes is a little trust.

you have maria, who goes from ‘okay, cap’ to ‘but, steve–’ when she realises that he intends to go down with the helicarriers. when it counted, she knew him as steve, not as captain america. did the two of them snark at one another at the triskelion? did they sometimes take their lunch together? when did she meet steve, and not cap? later on, in age of ultron, she’s seen wearing his leather jacket in the party scene. it may have been partially out of politeness, but at the same time, she could’ve declined, or asked anyone else; and i think her choosing neither of those options is a sign of how comfortable maria’s become with him and around the team.

there’s sharon, whose relationship with steve has incredibly polarising in the mcu; but, if you take the romance out of it, sharon is, on her own merits, strong and competent and independent, and damn good at her job. she’s used as a mouthpiece and a plot device in civil war, which is unfortunate and lazy, but sharon as we saw her in winter soldier also stands up to injustice; also stands up to bullies; believes in what is right and what is moral and believes in doing good. sharon didn’t want to be seen as just peggy carter’s niece, she wanted to be seen for herself, her abilities: and who can identify with that better than steve, who, at this point, is beginning to shirk away from captain america?

and then steve meets wanda, both of their strengths the product of german experimentation that they endured in order to fight a war that neither of them wanted, steve on one side of the coin and wanda on the other. steve empathises with how lost she is, how young she is, with how much she has given up, with what has been taken from her: he’s been there, too. and if he and natasha are complements of one another through their differences, what’s to stop him and wanda from being mirrors of one another in their sameness? it was important for captain america to be the one to comfort the scarlet witch after lagos as team leader; but it was more meaningful for steve to be there for wanda – which made it that much more significant that the offer to take vision to wakanda came from steve and not from cap.

like – talking about steve and bucky or steve and sam or steve and thor? all valid! all good! i enjoy reading that meta, too. i just wish people would also talk more about steve’s relationships with the women in his life, because he has such great and interesting dynamics with them, not least because he can understand, to some extent, what it feels like to be seen as less than, or not as important, or weak, or incapable.