The reveal that Black Widow was playing Loki for information the entire scene turns it all upside-down. I’m not sure people are quite getting that. She tricked Loki. She used his very perception of her as weak (mewling) and vulnerable (woman) to lure him into an arrogant display of critical information. She has the guy’s number. She’s a superspy, this is what she does. The entire conversation with Loki is a direct callback to her first scene, where she quite handily collected information from a group of Russian thugs who were interrogating her. Loki will tell her what she needs to know, but only when he thinks he’s facing an opponent so beneath him that he could reduce her to tears with words.

It’s a misogynist line, delivered by a despicable character. It’s also a key phrase in a scene that’s entirely about why Black Widow is an essential team member and more than capable of matching wits with a very smart and powerful adversary. She’s an incredibly effective spy, and in case the opening scene didn’t convince you of that fact, she just tricked the trickster god himself.