Sean, if you can't tell how completely lousy they are from the two-second clips on display during the ads for the completely awesome Lego game, I don't know how to explain it to you.

I think if we could just get him to stroll through the living room while we were in the middle of watching the scene where the bullwhip assassin is displaying all his flair and style until Indy gets bored and shoots him, Emmett will be good and hooked, but it'll take a little finesse because I reacted exactly the way you did and he now has an emotional investment in hanging onto his belief in their lousiness.

...because I reacted exactly the way you did and he now has an emotional investment in hanging onto his belief in their lousiness.

*sniff* They grow up so quickly. He's acting just like a teenager, bless his heart.

I'm just saying that in terms of sexism charges, Alfred doesn't really seem relevant. (Unless Pepper really IS Tony Stark's maid.)

Well, Alfred is a little more than just a butler-as-maid-equivalent.

But my point (as half-assed as it is) was that a lot of the charges of sexism come from the fact that Tony Stark's assistant is a woman; that is, it's demeaning to put a woman in the role of assistant to superhero guy. But I don't see how it's demeaning to have a woman as an assistant, but it's okay to have a man as ån assistant/butler/etc. (Alfred).

t edit I didn't try to type the weird "a" in that last sentence; I don't even know what I typed to make it so, but I'm leaving it in because it looks so cool.

People just shouldn't have assistants, Teppy. We should all be EQUAL.

People just shouldn't have assistants, Teppy. We should all be EQUAL.

Well, *my* Alfred would be a 20-something hotass, not an old British dude, but I wouldn't be objectifying him.

(Stop laughing!)

(It could happen!)

Plus, no women work as assistants anymore. Clearly that's completely false. Oh wait.

I'm not familiar with Iron Man comics but I was pretty upset with the way Mary Jane was portrayed in the Spider-Man movies. I consoled myself by thinking she must be an amalgam of MJ and Gwen Stacy but then they put Gwen in the last one and now I just hate Kirsten Dunst's MJ. In the comics she saves her own ass (and sometimes Peter's) repeatedly. I think movie Pepper is ten times more capable than movie MJ.

If you ever wondered what Jeremy Irons would look like as Snape here he is about 3 mins into this French and Saunders parody.

Jeremy Irons as Snap looks like the father to Chris Faller from the Hush Sound (far right) [link]

For some reason I cannot find any better pictures of him, but he looks remarkably like I would imagine a young Snape to look like, especially if his father were Jeremy Irons!

I've been reading a lot of blogs that find Iron Man to be sexist (at best) or downright misogynist (at worst).

What say you all?

Well, the gratuitous focus on the flight attendants doing their stripper pole routines didn't make me think the movie was entirely free of gender issues.

There was also the reporter who apparently compensated for her incendiary interview technique by wearing short skirts and putting out for the interview subject. Yes, Pepper called her on it but she was still given favor over all the professional journalists that hadn't slept with Stark at the subsequent press conference, implying that being a spokesmodel that sleeps her way into scoops is a surer way to success in that field than professionalism and journalistic integrity.

So, basically every woman except the female lead was presented as little more than a sex object. But Pepper, who represented about 80% of total female screen time in the movie, was handled in a respectable enough manner.