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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
Maybe they could edit the movie so that he says “prima nacho” instead while holding a bag from Taco Bell.
Of course, the corporate tie-in might anger the lefties even more …
Thanks!
I’ve been laying low, trying to avoid grumpy posting, the Ricochet equivalent of drunk dialing.
It doesn’t end there. Apparently, Marvel is catching flack because a private email by its CEO, acquired via the bottomless pit that is WikiLeaks, discusses the obvious reality that female superhero films have all been financial failures.
On another note, Father Robert Barron argues that Whedon’s Avengers sequel embodies the philosophy of Nietzsche. **SPOILERS**
Don’t these movie execs know these supershero movies are about art, not money?!
Wait… never mind.
Although she is not strictly a superhero, there is much to be said for the Alien movies featuring the character Ellen Ripley. Of course, it helped a lot that the movies she was in were good. At least some of them, anyway.
Just the ones that come out at night…mostly.
I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here when I say this is probably the first time anyone has ever written the words “happily grovel”.
Feminists are thor losers
The man has a point, not least because of the way the story plays out–a few men facing the implications of planetary man & the threats facing him. But the insight that necessity overcomes justice & that man’s powers are not commensurate with the predicament he is facing–this is not necessarily Nietzschean stuff. That view of things might simply be implied in science, for one. For another, at least in this very American story, the cosmic view–the view from nowhere, as Mr. Nagel might say–is benevolent essentially.
They know that groveling brings acceptance, and acceptance makes them happy.
Modern culture is all about being approved by the ruling classes.
This is an excellent rant at AoSHQ.
It’s also about the Garland shooting, Megyn Kelly, Bill O’Reilly, and Pamela Geller. But it fits here, too.
It’s about the Upper Middle Class “which is deathly afraid of social stigma, and lives in class-based fear being grouped with the wrong people.” The writer posits that the Upper Middle Class Consensus is basically a left-wing worldview. As such, they are particularly prone to groveling before the SJWs in order to seek approval.
I find this unfathomable. I don’t understand how the upper middle class feels no shame for the antics they put on. Banning plastic bags in Silicon Valley? I have health problems, and shopping is much more difficult for me because of that; I can’t buy as much stuff at once as I used too (you can really pack things in plastic bags).
Who would want to be popular in such a crowd? I’d feel embarrassed if I were (I shocked a local meetup the other day when I asked if anyone had tips for preventing one’s customer base from devolving into personalized idolatry of oneself. They didn’t seem to understand how that can be bad for business in the long run; why wouldn’t you want your customers to love you fanatically?).
It could be argued that American society was lost when we allowed the Left to define what and who was acceptable in society, starting in the late 50’s. One could even go further and argue that William F. Buckley’s decision to read the Birchers out of the Conservative movement was precisely this kind of surrender to the Left. Our Birchers were better than their Socialists. We surrendered a whole host of principles, including freedom of association to the Left, simply because we found the targets unpalatable ourselves. “We don’t like them either, so, no great sacrifice. We’ll give in on this one. It’ll make us look good”. That’s precisely the kind of thinking that automatically cedes ground to the Left. It was still a case of Churchill’s maxim: feeding someone else to the crocodile isn’t going to save you.
But, oh, are we good at feeding the Croc, aren’t we? Want a modern example:
Let’s talk about Sarah Palin!