Iron Man 2 producer Victoria Alonso, who is now the executive vice president of production at Marvel, says the sexualization of Black Widow in the film has always bothered her. Released in 2010, Iron Man 2 starred Robert Downey Jr. as the titular cocky hero Tony Stark. The film also served as Scarlett Johansson's introduction as Natasha Romanoff AKA Black Widow. First introduced as Natalie Rushman, Tony Stark hires her as his personal assistant after promoting Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) to CEO of Stark Industries.
It is during this introduction that the sexualization of Natasha Romanoff begins. During one scene, Natasha beats Happy (Jon Favreau) in a mock fight. Seeing this, Tony asks Pepper who Natasha is and she says, "Potentially a very expensive sexual harassment lawsuit." Tony then says, "I want one." It is a scene that has never sat right with plenty of MCU fans, but the sexualization didn't really end there. The character of Natasha Romanoff was the lone female hero in the franchise for quite some time and her outfits and characterization stood in contrast to the way the male heroes were portrayed in the films.
Looking back on that moment in Iron Man 2, Alonso told TIME that the scene has never sat well with her. She went on to say that it bothers her to this day and that she remembers thinking "she's not a thing" at the time. Ultimately, Alonso says that the context of the situation shows that, in many ways, the world sees a beautiful woman and thinks that that beauty is all she has to offer. Check out Alonso's full quote:
It bothered me then and it bothers me now. I remember thinking, ‘She’s not a thing.’ But how apropos: the world sees a sexy woman and thinks that because she is beautiful, that’s all she has to give.
Johansson reflected on the sexualization of Black Widow during a set visit in 2019 and, in a post-#MeToo and Time's Up Hollywood, it's clear that conversations around things like this are shifting. There's still plenty of work to be done, though, especially in the MCU. Marvel's first female-led superhero film was released in 2019, eleven years after the debut of Iron Man in 2008. Brie Larson's Captain Marvel went on to gross over $1 billion at the box office, but was still beset by trolls online who hoped to bring down the movie's scores on various review websites.
There's also the fact that it still took so long to actually give Johansson and Black Widow her own solo movie. Even with the movie set to be released this Friday, some early reviews for Black Widow have said that the film is so focused on setting up Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova as the next assassin to take on the mantle that Natasha still doesn't properly get her due. Fortunately, the high-powered assassin has come along way since her introduction in Iron Man 2 and hopefully Pugh's Yelena doesn't experience the same sort of trajectory as she looks to be sticking around in the MCU for quite some time.
Source: TIME
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