Iron Women

Tony Stark is back, ladies and gentlemen!

Oil up your own personal Iron Man suits and head to the theatres.  You wouldn’t be the first one, that’s for sure.  Iron Man 2 earned $133.6 million in its opening weekend at the box office, and its numbers have only been climbing since then.  That’s no small chunk of change, even for a guy like Tony Stark.

But Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of Tony Stark wasn’t the only thing drawing people to the theater; plenty of people came to see Gwyneth Paltrow’s character duke it out against Scarlett Johansson’s for the top female spot. But both filled their own role in the film. Gwyneth wins in the class and brains category as Stark Corp. CEO Pepper Potts, and Scarlett wins on sex appeal and martial arts skills as secret agent Black Widow.

And while both filled their roles, I found it interesting how blatant the contrast between the two was, and how the studio played up each of the stereotypes throughout the film.

I think this begs the question: Can women only be either Gwyneth or Scarlett?

Is that the choice?  The prim and proper, hardworking and doting woman who waits at home for her man, or the sultry vixen who lures men in and only achieves success with the killer combination of a lack of morals and more curves than a Nissan ad?

Are those the only options?

Because if so, that’s damn depressing.

It reminds me of the scene in the Sex and the City movie where Charlotte discovers that the only two Halloween costumes for women are a witch and a sexy kitten. “Oh, you just said a mouthful there sister,” Carrie responds from atop her Manolos. Indeed, she did.

And so did Iron Man 2.

By blatantly portraying those as the two typical forms of womanhood limits women everywhere to one stereotype or the other, neither of which describe most women at all.  Most women are a little bit Gwyneth and a little bit Scarlett, part Stepford Wife and part Victoria’s Secret model.  They are a balance of sex and smarts.

And I don’t think that is a bad thing at all.  While it might be easier to put women – and people in general – into categories and divisions, I think Hollywood is doing a disservice to our society in doing so, and I think it happens more so with women, particularly in action movies.  In just looking at the variety of comic book heroes made into action stars, one can see a variety of male figures while the female characters fall largely into the aforementioned characters.

You have the cerebral Charles Xavier to lead the X-Men team. There is the brooding millionaire with anger to spare, Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. Batman. In contrast to the dark knight, there is the lovable nerd Clark Kent who moonlights as the equally lovable Superman.  There is even the arrogantly brilliant Tony Stark, or Iron Man.

And yet in almost every case, the women in their lives are either sex symbols (think Storm) or quietly and dotingly smart (think Lois Lane). Why can’t we be both? Or neither? Why can’t we just be natural women with all kinds of qualities?  Why can’t we be ambitious? Or vengeful? Or damaged? Or, God forbid, strong and confident?

Are we really all just a Gwyneth or a Scarlett?  Because I want to be both.  And I don’t think any movie studio, or even Iron Man himself, should be able to imply that I can’t.