Western media has long denied Asian women humanity by coding us as either passive objects or sinister threats unworthy of empathy or care. Between the infantile, submissive Lotus Blossom or the seductive, calculating Dragon Lady, Asian women have rarely been portrayed beyond these exotified, hypersexualized stereotypes. Upending Orientalist misogynist media tropes has become particularly imperative after the mass violence in Atlanta that took the lives of six women of Asian descent earlier this year. As the first Asian-led story in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings intentionally challenges these gendered stereotypes, portraying compassionate, powerful, and above all, capable women. Asian-American socio-political engagement doesn’t end at Hollywood representation, but the film feels like an affirmation that it’s possible to create a world where Asian femininity is a strength, and not something to fear or otherwise annihilate.