in the middle of the movie, Tony Stark goes to an event.  Pepper Pots is there in a pretty dress and everything, he asks her to dance, they go to the balcony and she tries to initiate a kiss.  He does not reciprocate and goes to get her a drink.  While below, he finds out that his company is actually double-dealing and selling weapons to terrorists.  He leaves the party without telling her, and puts on his armor to go stop those terrorists who are using his weapons to terrorize a village.

At the end of the movie, he mentions he could use a girlfriend who is proud but also very worried and anxious for him every time that he goes out as a superhero, then mentions 'that night'.  She responds, "Oh, you mean the night where you went to get me a drink and left me standing on the roof?  All alone, all night?"

I love that part.  She is essentially telling him that she is not an object, not just some poseable doll for him to fit into his life.  She is a person and expects to be treated as such; when he hurts her, she will remember and react accordingly.  Normally I'm very down on Marvel's stance on women, and I think that most of their work needs a lot of improvement from a feminist and equal rights viewpoint.  But I'm incredibly happy over the relationship angle in this movie.  So bravo, Marvel.