Avenger's One-shots and Preferences

A Bold Stance Part 3

---------Avengers Compound-------------

"So now you want to take Firestein down?" you say skeptically when you made it to the compound with Maria Hill, "And this has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that the guy is not part of the Avengers anymore?" 

"Pfft, don't be so cynical, (y/n)," Hill scoffs. "I'm cynical?" "Hey, what can I say?" Hill shrugs, "In my quest to see myself succeed as acting director of S.H.I.E.L.D. I got blinded to what was really important. Although, when you stop to think about it, success for me, as a woman, is actually pretty feminist. Only now, since Firestein won't help me succeed, and after that condescending nickname he gave me, I just realize that the MORE feminist thing to would be for us, as women, to work together and not let that horrible man succeed either?" "Uh huh," you deadpan, "And I'M cynical?" "Come on, (y/n), we used to work together, this is me extending an olive branch here," Hill insists.

"Look I want nothing more then to see Firestein fail," you admit, "but this town loves asshats like him, what exactly can we do about it?" "Oh pfft, you know how easily swayed people in this city are, especially when it comes to exposes on problematic people" Hill assures, "And after decades in the workforce myself, the one thing I've learned is that the key to get people to listen to women is with the right voice. More specifically, a MAN'S voice."

"Oh wait," Tony says while casually seated on the sofa, "Is that why I'm here?" "Yep," Hill nods, "I brought you two together so you can collaborate on what to say. With your feminist brain and ideals, (y/n), and Stark's dumbass masculine looks, you'll have the platform you need to say the things that people will listen to."

"That is true," Tony agrees, "In my personal experience people do love a male feminist." "So," you realize, "Through Tony Stark, I can say things to a larger audience that will actually listen to what I have to say without people calling my shrill, nagging, bitchy, or try and silence me with gaslighting rhetoric."
"Guess the problem with feminism all along is that men weren't doing it," Tony quips in, "We are seen as less shrill when it comes to the important matters."

"Yep, this is a truly a great, momentous day for women everywhere," you deadpan, "Alright, guess I have my work cut out for me. Let's do this." "For feminism," Tony agrees.

---------------------------

"Alright, let's start with the basics," you explain to Tony as you pull out a large white board and start drawing the diagram, "As we all know pop culture and social media inherently normalize things in our everyday lives. And that power works both ways.
It can normalize things for good like how Will and Grace and The L Word changed the way people in Midwest America view the LGBTQ community or how Sex and the City started conversations about sexuality from the woman's perspective.
And it can normalize things for the bad such as the toxicity of the Nice Guy Trope and the inherent sexism of the Cool Girl and Manic Pixie Dream Girl Tropes popularized in Rom-Coms and other film genres in the early and mid 2000s."

"So," you continue, "Handing a platform over to known abusers like Will Firestein is an example of...?"  Tony stared intently like he didn't quite have the answer. "Normalizing things for...?" you add hoping he'd get the picture, "Good or bad?" "I think I want to say bad since this is you we're talking to," Tony answers which didn't make you feel any better. "Look I know you're trying here," he says, "but it kinda feels like I'm being lectured to, and what's so wrong with the Cool Girl trope anyway?" "Do I really need to explain that to you?" you ask back, "do I really need to bring up how the 'she's not like other girls' rhetoric is designed to bring other girls down, particularly the ones who love feminine over masculine things? Or the fact that the only way a Cool Girl can enjoy masculine things like eating pizza and drinking canned beer while watching Adam Sandler movies is that above all else she is hot and remains a size 2? What does that say about the girls who also enjoy that stuff but don't meet the hot-size 2 criteria?"