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Feminists Chase Avengers Director off Twitter
Joss Whedon is the screenwriter and director responsible for both Avengers blockbusters, as well as television favorites Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Unsurprisingly, Whedon is also an outspoken leftist who uses his Twitter feed to mock and ridicule conservatives. He thinks politicians who deny climate change should be denied penicillin, believes men should be denied the vote on “reproductive health,” and despises Justice Clarence Thomas and organized religion.
He certainly hates all the right people — so why are progressives mad at him? It seems one of his strong female characters isn’t quite strong enough for radical, third-wave feminists.
“Avengers: Age of Ultron” writer-director Joss Whedon has not been fired from the franchise, despite the rumors people may have seen on Twitter Monday. The rumors ignited after the Oscar-nominated director deactivated his Twitter account.
So why did he quit Twitter? After “Avengers: Age of Ultron” debuted in theaters Friday, some people harassed Whedon, since Black Widow (played by Scarlett Johansson) was portrayed as a “damsel in distress.” Naysayers labeled him a “hypocrite.”
Joss Whedon deleted his Twitter after being called out for being hypocrite. After calling other movies sexist, his turns out to be sexist.
— Piper (@fyzzgiggidy) May 4, 2015
@josswhedon So… was Black Widow being weak as a character “not your fault”, or are you simply a massive hypocrite?
— HammersmashZach (@ombranox) May 2, 2015
In The Daily Beast, Entertainment Reporter Jen Yamato’s headline was “The Avengers’ Black Widow Problem: How Marvel Slut-Shamed Their Most Badass Superheroine.” In “An Open Letter to Joss Whedon from a Disappointed Feminist Fan After Watching ‘Age of Ultron,'” Women and Hollywood reporter Sara Stewart mewled:
Again and again, you’ve paid lip service to the idea of fighting misogyny in the film industry — most recently, in the comic-book arena. “It’s a phenomenon in the industry that we call ‘stupid people,'” you’ve said. “There is genuine, recalcitrant, intractable sexism, and old-fashioned quiet misogyny that goes on. You hear ‘Oh, [female superheroes] don’t work because of these two bad ones that were made eight years ago’… there’s always an excuse.”
So what I want to know is, what’s your excuse?
For years Whedon has been lauded as one of the few Hollywood screenwriters who creates strong female characters. As a result, the “Whedonverse” has an uncommonly large female fan base despite serving male-dominated genres like fantasy, sci-fi, and horror. So he must be doubly shocked that it is feminists, not knuckle-dragging male Tea Partiers, who are demanding his scalp.
This blue-on-blue witch hunt doesn’t surprise those who have paid attention to leftism’s march through the institutions. Progressives have chased out most conservatives, but for their ideology to survive they must identify new victims and blame new oppressors. As I’ve said before, liberalism is eating itself and at the end of the day Joss Whedon is just another straight white male.
The Black Widow character is a strong female superhero who regularly beats up scions of the patriarchy, which is nice. But she doesn’t properly advance neo-feminist contempt for childbearing and male-female relationships. Strike them from the script, Joss, or we’ll excommunicate you for reactionary thoughtcrime and treason against the revolution.
The whole episode reminds me of a scene from Andy Garcia’s film about the communist takeover of Havana. In The Lost City, Garcia plays a club owner who desperately tries to modify his revue to please the new state censors:
“The saxophone is an instrument of the imperialists.” The modern left no doubt views this scene, nods their heads, and mutters, “good point.”
Published in Culture, Entertainment
The early episodes of Dollhouse were plodding and dull, and I assume a lot of people gave up on it. But if you stuck with it, it turned into a dark and brilliant sci-fi series that — like Firefly — ended too soon.
Hmm… so what does it say about me that I find that image mildly arousing?
This brought to mind some of the stores I heard as a child from people who had worked in East Germany before the wall fell. They never went into any details (I was too young), but I will never forget the remembrance of fear on their faces.
America is a free country? What a laugh.
Ok, let’s not get carried away here. Last I checked Mr. Whedon was still a free (and very rich) man, in no danger of being sent to Siberia or the gulag.
Part of being a free country means that people have a right to say mean idiotic things on Twitter.
I can tell you those kinds of stories if you like. Americans sound pretty much free to me. Shy of conspiracy nuts or people with weird resentment, who in East Germany or anywhere in the blighted East would deny America is a free country?
The man’s right–free people includes mobs. Something should be done about that, but whatever should be done has nothing to do with this kind of exasperated contempt. It would be better if you naively wished people were nicer to each other–at least that’s a worthwhile sentiment.
I don’t think conservatives can do anything to help liberals who get clobbered by the lefties they usually cheer & by whom they are usually cheered. But they should try. Somebody should tell this guy, we’re less prone to destruction on the other side of the fence-
At what point does “free speech” transform into “privately-enforced censorship”? There are a lot of problems in America that we simply aren’t allowed to discuss in public because of inane political correctness.
And yet here we are, in public, discussing them.
In truth, we’re not–we’re talking about discussing them–I think maybe we just don’t really know. There are a number of favorite causes listed here, that should account for these problems–lefty totalitarianism, popular insanity, maybe others I’ve missed–but they’ve got lots of trouble, although they satisfy my anger, at least.
For one, we seem to not be able to understand that the people doing wrong here are also people & why they’re doing wrong. I’ll admit, if I have to put myself in the position of Mr. Whedon, to say nothing of the crazy feminist, I cannot do it. I’d like to hear from someone who can… I mostly think they’re crazy or clowns. Some people say they do it for the money or prestige. I’m not sure that’s a good enough answer, although it does some work for helping me understand what goes on with these public contests over whose most just about proving whose most unjust…
For another, it seems we’re all either scared we’re next or exasperated that this is what public speeches have come to–surely, talking about it cannot make that despair better…
Let me put it this way. I am afraid to advocate for my own political interests; if I do, I’m afraid I will lose my livelihood.
There is something wrong in white America. I’ve experienced enough of that “something” to care deeply about it, and yet I don’t even know what it really is, because we aren’t allowed to talk about it. Why are some white people treated differently than others? Is it ethnicity, class, cultural conflict, sectarian conflict, religious difference, or even genetic difference? I don’t know the answer to that question.
What I do know is that if I painted a large sign with the words “white people from [whicever socioeconomic group I belong too that isn’t popular] deserve to be treated better” and stood in front of Capitol Hill, I would risk losing my job.
That is not freedom, folks.
There’s also another thing to consider–who here would disagree with us? Could we talk about the excesses of internet mobs somewhere else, where people disagree?
Perhaps that you should spend more time bride-shopping in SF’s Mission District?
Michael Jordan didn’t discuss his politics either; he remarked “Republicans buy sneakers too.” Voluntary restrictions of this sort can seem a bitter swallow, but, like beer, they can be an acquired taste.
Just consider what people used to have to do, in centuries past, in order to avoid arousing the ire of the lords of the world. A lot of great, creative satire came out of those restrictions. Gargantua and Pantagruel, Candide, Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary, Gulliver’s Travels, … .
No I think Feminazi is within the guidelines of the CoC.
I was just thinking about you the other day…thinking I hadn’t seen any posts or comments in a long while. Welcome back…or good to see you, if I’ve been oblivious!
Buffy longed piteously for the pleasures of cheerleading, dating cute boys, and being popular in high school. Thrust against her will into the role of weird girl/super heroine, she tries repeatedly to escape; by denying, running away, even by dying.
Right about now, I’m guessing he’s flabbergasted, and is wondering what happened to all the feminists who loved the humanity of Buffy. He need look no further than the conservative heroines who have lost their normal existence in the effort to rescue an ungrateful continent. Think Catherine Engelbrecht and Pamela Geller.
Will Whedon recognize the irony and have a David Mamet style awakening? If so, will conservatives be savvy enough to reach out to him?
No & no!
As my Momma always said “What goes around comes around”. and she wasn’t even a lefty.
To Joseph’s point, over half the members of Ricochet aren’t comfortable using their real names while talking politics and culture online.
< devil’s advocate mode = on >
Wait, you mean Twitter wasn’t designed solely for the purpose of giving millionaires a place to promote themselves at no cost to raving fans who will never question their received wisdom?
And here I thought Twitter was strictly a venue for rich folk to get free advertising.
Whoda thunk it?
< devil’s advocate mode = off >
I get all my news from Twitter.
What do you think the chances are that he will claim that Chewie and Han and Leia are actually a inter-species, bi-sexual, poly relationship that had to be kept secret from the evil empire?
Whedon is rich enough and influential enough that he won’t have to make the tearful public apology the left so often requires of their offenders.
For every Whedon who can shrug this off, there are a dozen lesser filmmakers (or politicians or writers or . . .) who will happily grovel for forgiveness and willingly place themselves in the public stockade so as to be granted absolution by the howling mobs.
Sadly, he suspect he learns nothing from the episode, though honestly there are worse possible outcomes.
For a lot of lefties, their identity at least in part defined by their opposition to us. Even grudging appreciation for someone on the right, even if we speak in their defense, is too much for them.
LOL. No.
Building on what someone else said earlier, not only will he grovel to feminists and apologize for falling from the purer faith, he’ll attack the very people that defended him, because he doesn’t want to be associated with those people.
On one hand, as with Jonathan Chait I’m having trouble finding any sympathy for someone who just yesterday was himself part of the howling mob that he now finds turned against him. He who lives by the SJW mob shall die by it.
Which is a shame because Firefly had one of the best defenses of religion I’ve ever heard; “You don’t fix faith. It fixes you.”
I’ve only seen Firefly and Avengers, so I can’t truly say whether I like his work or not, but either way, he’s on his own here.
For goodness sake, it’s a story. And a comic-book story, at that. Are feminists really, truly whining about a character in a movie, while our president has said to a doomsday cult known as Iran, “Sure, you can be a nuclear power.” Strange times.
As someone else mentioned, progressives do not think through their “rules” to the logical conclusions. Movies encompass all manner of stories: uplifting, heartwarming, disturbing, fantastic, grotesque, depressing, ridiculous, hilarious. They contain characters comprising the full spectrum of human types. These may take outlandish forms, such as the nanny who uses her umbrella to fly, or the brilliant psychiatrist who considers which wine should be paired with a meal of human flesh. No matter how unusual the exterior of a character may be, a screenwriter will try to infuse his creation with recognizable internal human emotions.
Is it really the position of the Whedon critics that characters should only voice politically-correct ideas, thoughts, and feelings? Is it their position that, even though countless women through the ages have expressed regrets similar to Black Widow’s, that the character must never make such statements that are at odds with their own personal philosophy? Do they care nothing for artistic freedom and license? Or for the most important diversity of all – diversity of thought?
This road leads to a dead end, and at that dead end there lies an “imperialist” saxophone, smashed to bits.
There was a second outrage from the movie as well.
Apparently Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark character made a joke about reinstituting Prima Nochta if he lifted Thor’s hammer and got to rule Asgard. The SJWs descended into an outrage spiral about this “rape joke.”
What gets me is that I can’t imagine any of the brainless SJW twits or their equally stupid White Knights having a clue what Prima Nochta was. But somebody, somewhere on the internet looked it up. The word went out. The feminists got the vapors, and hashtags were deployed.
So . . . what can you joke about anymore?
Will comedy soon be solely the province of conservatives? I can’t see any downside to that.
Male genital mutilation. Many womyn and most Feminist love a good castration joke. Makes you wonder if that is not why they embrace trans males so much.
There is a temptation to explain to them that Tony Stark was not worthy to rule Asgard, even when he used the Iron Man technology to assist him…
…but where’s the fun in that?
Yes.