Title: Don't tell me what to do, and don't tell me what to say.
Author: Sgt. Pepperony
Fandom: Avengers (MCU)
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers Property of Marvel and Disney.

Happy International Women's Day to all my readers. To celebrate this and the release of Captain Marvel (which I am seeing tonight!), I have a fic where it is just Wanda and Natasha talking about the struggles of what they face as women.

I don't tell you what to say;
I don't tell you what to do.
So just let me be myself,
That's all I ask of you.
I'm young and I love to be young,
I'm free and I love to be free.
To live my life the way I want,
To say and do whatever I please.

January 2017

It was such a dangerous idea for them to be going to a protest while they were meant to be fugitives of the law, but there was no way that Natasha and Wanda were sitting back at not let their voices be heard. They had been hiding out in London for the best part of three months, and the protest was due to start in Grosvenor Square, pass the United States embassy and onto Trafalgar Square. Steve and Sam would have been concerned given the number of people, but they were fully in support of them and wanted to join in.

Wanda could not believe how many people turned up to the protest, and they were armed with decorated cards. Wanda's stated, 'We are stronger than fear' while Natasha's stated, 'Feminism is the notion that women are equal'. The boys came with their own signs as well. They joined the march and joined in with the call and responses. They laughed along with some of the other protestors - Wanda trying to disguise her accent - and listened to the stories by other women. It was a slow two-mile walk but Wanda had never felt more like she had belonged somewhere than with these groups of women. She had been in protests before, but this one felt so much more personal to her identity as a woman. She always knew that people treated her differently because she was a woman. Her parents had different expectations for what she would become compared to Pietro. The way Strucker and the other HYDRA scientists looked at her like she was some meat to pass around. The way Ross had targeted specifically her because she was not just enhanced, but an enhanced woman.

Natasha had found some solidarity with the other women on the march. She had known since she was six that she was going to be treated differently because of her sex. The Red Room had taught her to play up the femme fatale stereotype and use her feminine wiles to seduce men and kill them: like a Black Widow. That was not even the worst of it: they had violated her body during the Graduation Ceremony. They took her right to chose. She remembered after the Battle of New York how the media were more interested in asking her questions that the men never got, and worse still, she was asked to promote a makeup brand. After exposing S.H.I.E. secrets, she found it interesting how the congressmen were more interested in her ledger compared to someone like Clint, who had just as much red on his ledger as she did.

After the march had dissipated, the four of them went to a diner for something to eat. Sam and Steve had gone to the counter to get some drinks in while Wanda and Natasha pondered the menu.

"I will admit it was a big risk but I am glad that we did come out today," Wanda said.

"I think we need it," Natasha replied. "It's also quite cool that we were in the same protest circles as Gillian Anderson. The X-Files was the first show that Clint exposed me to when I arrived in the US. It was great to see a woman with red hair who was a badass but still in control of herself - until the end when it got really weird."

"I wish I had that. I never had any role models to look up to. Today has been making me think a lot; I don't understand this world. Just as you think it gets better, it gets worse."

"I know. It was like that in the Red Room. It was like Gilead in a way: they stole all the autonomy for our reproductive systems but instead of forcing us to make a child they prevented us from having children. How messed up is that? And it was not just the men that were involved."

"Other women were?"

"The Red Room has been around for decades. Some of those women had never known any different. Not a lot of women will want to progress beyond the role that men tell them, hence why there are a lot of women who voted that way."

"You mentioned something called Gilead; is that an actual place?"

"No - thank God. Have you ever read The Handmaid's Tale?" Wanda shook her head. "It's a good book. Dark and grim but good. It may be a little too relevant at the moment given how there are members of Congress who want to send women's reproductive laws back to the 1950s."

Wanda grimaced. There was a time when she wanted children but on her own terms. Granted she could not think of having a child now, but she wanted to be able to make the choice, not a bunch of people who do not even possess uteruses. "Maybe I should start with something softer."

"That's the thing, Wanda, feminism has never been about taking the soft route. There have been women who have died so women can get the vote. There have been women who have been pushed to the ground because they want to have the right to contraception. And that is not even covering those struggles that women of colour, transgender women, and gay women face."

"Well, what can we do Natasha? We're fugitives so we can't really make a great stink."

"It's little actions that can make a big difference. Little girls loved us. Don't you remember when you were in a Barnes and Noble and that little girl came up to you with a picture to sign? She was showing you the moves she had practised and how she wanted to be just like you."

Wanda smiled. That was incredibly sweet, though the idea of being a role model had scared her. Role model was such a big word and a big responsibility. "Did you ever get scared that you were too flawed to be a role model?" she asked.

"No, because here is the thing: giving young girls the perception that they have to be perfect a hundred per cent of the time will set them up for failure and bring too much pressure on them, and yourself. Being good role models is not being perfect. It's being someone that a young girl can rely on. We need someone to say that being flawed is okay." Natasha glanced over at Steve and Sam, who were still waiting to be served. "We have - had the hardest job. We were always going to be scrutinised more, not just because we are women but because of our history. And some days it is easier to ignore it when you know it is pure nonsense, but other days you have to make a stand. I hated whenever someone said that I never smiled, and one day I snapped and it never happened again."

"I still remember when we did the press interviews back in 2015. I just remember being asked how I got my eyeliner so perfect while Sam was asked how his abilities could contribute to the team. I remember looking at Steve's face and he was horrified at the question, especially since it was obvious that it would not have been asked if I was a woman. I should have made a stink about it, but then I would not have been seen as likeable because I had an opinion - or that is at least what the PR woman from Stark Industries said." Wanda remembered that briefing too. The woman had picked a dress that was not very Wanda - too fitted, too stiff, too cold. She had been ordered to try to smile for the cameras because that would make her more likeable - never mind that she had just lost her brother. Worst still, she was ordered to let the men talk, because they had American and British accents and her Eastern European would have been off-putting. "You know what, screw them. I should be able to express my own opinions without caring whom I offend."

"And to be honest, who are you really offending? Old guys in Congress who have more power than sense? Incels who have an entitlement complex? If they get upset, that is their problem: not yours or mine."

"We're so much better and stronger than that."

"That we are."

Later that night, Wanda and Natasha stuck their signs up on the wall and smiled. They were stronger than fear. So long as they had one another, they could take on the world and whatever it threw at them.

The End