Tony Stark as the most female-coded superhero

Meta
Title:	Note: This essay is untitled and is referred to here by a phrase from the introductory paragraph
Creator:	f-ckyeahfutbol
Date(s):	August 7, 2016
Medium:	Posted to tumblr
Fandom:	Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man Movieverse (with mentions of Marvel Comics)
Topic:	Tony Stark as female-coded, gender, agency.
External Links:	on tumblr, archive link
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Tony Stark as the most female-coded superhero is an untitled meta essay by f-ckyeahfutbol. It was posted to tumblr and as of August 2020, has over 11,000 notes. Initially, the reception to the meta was mixed, but over time negative commentary seem to be more common on tumblr. As mentioned in the introductory paragraph of the meta, this isn't the first conversation on feminine or queer aspects of the character, but it is probably the post that popularized the idea for MCU fandom on tumblr.

Some Arguments Presented:

• Agency is a major theme in Iron Man films
• Tony Stark has a wide range of characteristics often stereotyped as female, from talking fast to "his obsessive-compulsive behavior"
• Three distinct personas of Tony Stark
• Tony Stark plays the Damsel in Distress more often than Pepper Potts
• Parallels between Natasha Romanoff and Tony
• Contrast with Bucky Barnes
• Subtext of being victimized by erotic violence by both Obadiah Stane and the final battle from Captain America: Civil War

Excerpts

"For years I have read Tony Stark as subtextually bisexual in the comics, which hasn’t really translated to the films – at least not to the extent that the character of Captain America has been coded as bisexual in them. There has always been a borderline homoerotic relationship between Tony and his armor especially. But adjacent to this conversation, there was also an interesting thread in which Tony Stark as the most female-coded superhero was discussed that I found fascinating.

Someone commented on the concept stating that while it may be true for the comics, movie-verse Tony Stark is certainly not female-coded.

But isn’t he, though?"

"We’ve discussed before how hypermasculinity sometimes seems to go so over-the-top that it does a full 360, coming out the other side seeming rather feminized, the hypermasculine male presented as a sexual object with assets on display (slim waist, thick thighs, full chest) for the consumption of the male gaze. But that’s not the case with Tony Stark; it isn’t his hypermasculinity that makes him seem female-coded, it’s the question of agency."

"Most of his stories seem to revolve around the stripping of his agency and his struggle to regain it. This character – a genius, billionaire, playboy, philantropist – who ought to be the ultimate male power fantasy has all of his stories constructed around his lack of agency and his need of a prosthetic to claim agency for himself."

"And it is Tony that we see as the damsel in distress, particularly again in the first and the third films. The first film contains the iconic scene of Obadiah Stane literally removing Tony’s agency in a scene that is filmed like a sexual violation, a none-too-subtle air of erotic violence in the air as he uses his date rape technology to incapacitate Tony."

"I think one of the most telling aspects of his character vis-à-vis Civil War is that, convinced that it is too dangerous for him to attempt to influence the outside world and other people in it, Tony Stark instead turned within and attempted to modify his own internal world, to (literally) influence his own internal state instead – to accept what he can’t change. This is a classic strategy of the disenfranchised."

Responses and Reactions

Positive Responses

[whereveryouwant]
"Ok, the first paragraph started to sound total bullshit to me. Bullshit like womans are small, petite, delicate and dumb because their inferior and everyone knows that; woman’s like to wear dresses and pink because that’s woman’s things. But then… The rest happened arguing convincingly about gender roles and objectfication of woman in fictional pieces and its parallel with Rony narrative in MCU and…

Damm.

That’s sounds neat, indeed.

I never thought about it like that but know… It’s sounds perfect reasonable."

[xythiatales]
"Yes, yes and yes! Especially the Siberia scene. It read to me like the MCU super hero verison of brutal domestic and sexual violence. It is partially hidden by Tony Stark being male, but if you substitute Iron Man with an Iron Maiden in your head - well, I did and nearly had to throw up. Cap, at the end is brutally dominating and yes, penetrating Tony’s defenses by destroying the representation of his heart and by taking the power of the suit away, his agency. Rogers made him vulnerable and then left him behind, helpless.

I wonder if the directors were uncosciously playing out their own power fantasies with that scene?"

Similar Metas

• "The reason why NBC’s Hannibal found such a huge female audience is because Fuller’s/Mads’ Lecter is not a male power fantasy: he’s a female power fantasy.", ^{Archived version}, a Hannibal essay by axmxz (Feb 2017)
• Why so many people hate the thought of Kylo Ren’s redemption by byronikylo. The meta purports that the reason Kylo Ren became such a divisive figure in fandom is because he is a villain who shows "vulnerability and [...] non conformity to traditional portrayals of masculinity." (Jan 5, 2018)