More fic I am not writing:

[azurelunatic]

(Sometimes) A Moving Target is Good for You

in which Tony Stark exhibits various sexist behaviors, including:

* making a really degrading remark on purpose
* making a really degrading remark by accident
* various mildly degrading and/or objectifying things
* what he dearly thought was a compliment
* protecting someone who (really) didn't need to be protected
* automatically excluding women from a thing that some of them ought to have been included in
* not thinking to invite some women whose skills suggest that they should be included, because they were women
* god knows what else, Tony's just being Tony

I like Tony. I think some of this is actually out of character for how I see him regularly, because I think he usually does see people by their aptitudes before he thinks of gender, unless some of the aptitudes are an itty bitty waist and a round thing in [his] face. (Also the Tony I think of is cheerfully bisexual, so it's an equal-opportunity lech zone.) But due to the chain of screaming, I get to scream about men in power and sexist comments that they didn't even realize were sexist today. And I'd rather think about someone who has his head up his ass, but means well, and can be taught if Cap and/or Pepper look disappointed in him, than someone whose good intent I jolly well don't trust.

Comments

[vass]

And suddenly, right out of nowhere, I want female!Cap fic in which Steph Rogers is ENRAGED at how little society has changed while she was frozen. And really grossed out at the media's 'ice queen' jokes about her.

[azurelunatic]

...Yes.

Though the Tony in my head has yet to see her as an equal. Which is a good bit of the problem.

[azurelunatic]

Tony sees Pepper as an equal. Tony refers to Pepper as his "better half" because she saves his ass but also because his self esteem is pretty low sometimes. Which is itself a problem.

Tony has yet to earn the same respect for Captain Steph, and he feels guilty when she compares his sexist posturing unfavourably to Howard's.

[vass]

Also, the women around Tony are ubercompetent at EVERYTHING - at their jobs, at their love life, at fighting, at social skills, and at conventional performative femininity.

It's not that I want there to be a token fat, hairy, awkward, kluzty, slobby Mary Sue with bad joints somewhere in Tony's life, who he totes respects, honest! ...but isn't it nice for him how he lives in this filtered world where there are no fat, hairy, awkward, klutzy, slobby, or creaky women?

The exceptionally successful are the only ones allowed to be present. It's like a whole WORLD of Lean In 'feminism'. (Having said that, one of these days I'm going to start writing again on my Tony's code clean up crew fic, and I'll have one of them (the genderqueer one) see Pepper walking past holding a copy of that fucking book, and almost have a rage migraine.)

[azurelunatic]

It's not an intersectional world. Women in his life are not "and". Not disabled AND fat. Not plain AND whatever.

[pauamma]

That sounds like Heinlein women...

[azurelunatic]

Except more of those are redheads.

[pauamma]

Hmm, yes. (I don't remember what hair color Pepper had in the comics.)