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shadowkatJustice League's Director Joss Whedon's Controversial Toxic History"
The opening was straight out of every old horror movie: Teen couple sneaks into a darkened building. Ominous background music swells. He wants to go up to the roof and make out. She thinks she hears a noise; he says it’s nothing.
And then she turns into a monster and pounces on him.
“Welcome to the Hellmouth,” the 1997 pilot episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” wore its trope-flipping female empowerment on its sleeve, and audiences devoured it.
Showrunner Joss Whedon had arrived.
Twenty-four years later, Whedon is facing multiple allegations of being the monster himself. Many of the female stars from “Buffy” are done with him. “Justice League” star Ray Fisher has accused him of being racist and abusive in a Hollywood Reporter story that also details a witness’ account of Whedon’s boast that he would make actress Gal Gadot “shut up and say the lines.” The latest details hit as “The Nevers,” HBO’s Whedon-created show about Victorian women with superpowers, is set to debut Sunday, and Whedon is so radioactive the network isn’t even using his name.
It’s an ironic twist of cinematic proportions for the auteur who, for decades, was Hollywood’s go-to male feminist.
I realized today while fighting with a Whedon fan on the Whedon Studies board on FB, that I am angry at Joss Whedon. But it's an empty anger.
I don't know why I care, it's not like I'm still a fan of the work - I kind of moved on for the most part after the Buffy comics and Marvel Agents of Shield. (Like most of the Whedon/Buffy fandom.) Also it's not like he didn't disappoint or make me angry before.
Nor, would I say I was that invested in the DC vers. (I wasn't. I didn't like Man of Steel or Batman vs Superman that much when I saw them with friends in the theaters.) And while I disliked Avengers Age of Ultron, I forgot about it due to all the other films released after...and eventually moved on.
I think it's because I was fan of his work? I was more than that - a fan of the writer, and had to a degree identified with him. We are about the same age and same generation - top end of Gen X, just after the Baby Boomers. He's about 56, and I'm 54 - so he's two years older. We both grew up with the Westerns, and both studied them in school. He has the Shakespearean background. He loved the X-men. His favorite X-men characters were mine. And he enjoyed General Hospital. And I found Buffy relatable in a way that no other show was or did. Let's face it - on some level or other I identified with the man. And I was envious of him - he seemed to have this perfect life. An artist wife - who had designed their house, complete with Shakespearean ampitheater - where they hosted Shakespeare plays and readings. He wrote and created an innovative and subversive television series that did stuff - that was frankly groundbreaking in the 1990s and early 00s, and inspired so many of the top television show-runners and writers today. And he was a supporter of Stacy Abrhams, and NOW. Whedon in the early 00s - it seemed could do no wrong.
There were rumors of course, and gossip. But there always is - usually from disgruntled crew or staff. And in each case - there were two sides to the story. And I heard both.
Also I spent a lot of time analyzing and writing meta about his work - which is a bit different than fanfiction. Meta - you tend to try to figure out the writer's intent, and spend more time figuring out the writers, creators, and analyzing what works and what doesn't.
Never meet your heroes? Right? And it's not like I put him on a pedestal or wasn't aware he was most likely a jerk. I was. I did not want to meet him in person, although I though he might be interesting to chat with. And I met interesting people through the Buffy fandom.
Was I a Whedon fan? Hard to say. I've seen pretty much everything he wrote and directed, and read just about all his comics. So yeah, fan.
And now, I'm angry. But it's an odd and empty sort of rage - fueled with a sense of apathy and disgust at showbiz. I find myself thinking why are we paying these people so much money?
Because I saw it - I saw what he did to another person's work, and how he made that work blatantly sexist and racist. The complete opposite of the original Director's intent - and worse? Put that Director's name on it. He twisted that Director's story into a sexist and racist frat boy comic book movie. I was appalled when I realized it.
Not only that - but he was actively dismissive of the other artist - after that artist left because of a "tragic" death in the family. He was abusive to that artists' friends. The actors and crew on the movie, and outright fired the composer. And made it all about himself.
When I saw that - finally - I began to see the rest. How cruel and juvenile his humor and snarky quips truly were. And it was unsettling.
And I wondered - did my love of his work - enable this? Most likely not. It reminded me of how I felt when Bill Cosby's crimes were revealed or Joe Paterna (head coach of Penn State), both heroes of My Dad's and how crushing it was to find out these things. Or what's going on now with Cuomo - I don't want to believe the allegations, but it is getting harder not to.
I wasn't really angry, or appalled, until I watched and compared the Justice League films. Up until that point, I could hand-wave a lot of it. Innocent before proven guilty. And Ray Fisher's claims were so vague - until he did the interview with the Hollywood Reporter that is. And it's hard to condemn someone for something they did to someone over twenty years ago, particularly when the circumstances around it were complicated - the lawyer in me, won't let me condemn. Yet, when I saw the Justice League films, and did the comparison myself, I realized this person has been doing this behind the scenes all along, everything was true, and he'd been subtly throwing in racist and sexist content that I've been hand-waving or overlooking, or shrugging off? Or maybe just discounting.
So this makes me question how I looked at his work...did I see what I wanted to see? Or, was it more complicated than that?
I don't know folks. It's discombobulating having artists whose work you loved be revealed as deeply flawed, and fractured people, guilty of monstrous things. Makes one want to re-evaluate their work - or possibly just look away.
What I keep coming back to - is that other people were involved with Buffy, not just Whedon. And Whedon was younger then, and his ideas were progressive for the time. And people are more than one thing. Whedon, himself, kind of points that out in the episode Lie To Me, which he wrote. In the episode Buffy doesn't know how to handle her ex-boyfriend, who she thought was a nice guy - but makes a deal with Spike - to kill her, in return for becoming a vampire. Because he doesn't want to die of cancer, and would prefer to live forever. How, she wonders, can this person she trusted and loved, do something so evil? Turns out to be foreshadowing for Angel, who she adores and loves, becoming the manipulative and evil Angelus, and later Spike - who she lets in, only to have him turn violent when she rejects him. Or a comment Whedon made regarding Spike's redemption - "in our society we too often demonize the person and not the act, and I wanted to address that."
And I think of the Renegades podcasts - where Springsteen and Barack discuss the harmful effects of a toxic male culture on their psyches and our own. How they were raised to not show emotion, to not want a family or feel neutered by one, that the alpha male loner was the ideal. And how twisted this is - the Western mythos.
I can relate. I grew up on Westerns. Watched them every Saturday night with my Father, and Mother - who adored them. We went to films as a family. And read all the Louis L'Amour, and Tony Hillerman (which are better). My grandmother loved the West, she loved the desert, and the wide expanses.
As did my Aunt, who lived in Vegas. We used to watch Western Television shows, and my parents loved Gunsmoke, which was among the longest running television shows back in the day. One of the reasons, my Dad enjoyed Star Wars - was it was a combination of a WWII movie and a Western. The other films didn't quite grab him in the same way.
And I think Westerns, Noir Cinema, the Slasher Pics formed Whedon, along with having a sick mother - who was a leader of the Women's Rights Movement almost to the exclusion of all else.
So I see it. But the anger is there all the same. This feeling of being duped? I see it elsewhere as well - that anger reflected in others online. Whedon's actions on Justice League and before that - have unfortunately hurt the careers of those involved in the Nevers, a show that may not make it, we shall see. Whedon's become so toxic that HBO has removed his name from the credits and the promotional campaign.
I'm angry that someone so abusive - got these opportunities, only to misuse the power. When there are so many who never do. That academics study his work and do presentations, and meet to discuss it - when there are so many artists and writers who they overlook. So damned many.
It's the same anger I feel - when I see a bully get promoted at work. Or Bill Cosby's crimes were revealed.
This feeling...of...why? You were given all these gifts...why?
Yet it is futile. Hence the emptiness of it. The apathy.
How do you reconcile the art of someone you once ...respected, with the truth of who they were? Or the truth of how they acted? Does that change how we view the art that we loved or once loved? Or not at all? Can we look past the abusive actions of the artist and see the art clearly for what it is, ever again? Does it taint our love for it? God knows.
It's something I'm still grappling with, apparently.
The opening was straight out of every old horror movie: Teen couple sneaks into a darkened building. Ominous background music swells. He wants to go up to the roof and make out. She thinks she hears a noise; he says it’s nothing.
And then she turns into a monster and pounces on him.
“Welcome to the Hellmouth,” the 1997 pilot episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” wore its trope-flipping female empowerment on its sleeve, and audiences devoured it.
Showrunner Joss Whedon had arrived.
Twenty-four years later, Whedon is facing multiple allegations of being the monster himself. Many of the female stars from “Buffy” are done with him. “Justice League” star Ray Fisher has accused him of being racist and abusive in a Hollywood Reporter story that also details a witness’ account of Whedon’s boast that he would make actress Gal Gadot “shut up and say the lines.” The latest details hit as “The Nevers,” HBO’s Whedon-created show about Victorian women with superpowers, is set to debut Sunday, and Whedon is so radioactive the network isn’t even using his name.
It’s an ironic twist of cinematic proportions for the auteur who, for decades, was Hollywood’s go-to male feminist.
I realized today while fighting with a Whedon fan on the Whedon Studies board on FB, that I am angry at Joss Whedon. But it's an empty anger.
I don't know why I care, it's not like I'm still a fan of the work - I kind of moved on for the most part after the Buffy comics and Marvel Agents of Shield. (Like most of the Whedon/Buffy fandom.) Also it's not like he didn't disappoint or make me angry before.
Nor, would I say I was that invested in the DC vers. (I wasn't. I didn't like Man of Steel or Batman vs Superman that much when I saw them with friends in the theaters.) And while I disliked Avengers Age of Ultron, I forgot about it due to all the other films released after...and eventually moved on.
I think it's because I was fan of his work? I was more than that - a fan of the writer, and had to a degree identified with him. We are about the same age and same generation - top end of Gen X, just after the Baby Boomers. He's about 56, and I'm 54 - so he's two years older. We both grew up with the Westerns, and both studied them in school. He has the Shakespearean background. He loved the X-men. His favorite X-men characters were mine. And he enjoyed General Hospital. And I found Buffy relatable in a way that no other show was or did. Let's face it - on some level or other I identified with the man. And I was envious of him - he seemed to have this perfect life. An artist wife - who had designed their house, complete with Shakespearean ampitheater - where they hosted Shakespeare plays and readings. He wrote and created an innovative and subversive television series that did stuff - that was frankly groundbreaking in the 1990s and early 00s, and inspired so many of the top television show-runners and writers today. And he was a supporter of Stacy Abrhams, and NOW. Whedon in the early 00s - it seemed could do no wrong.
There were rumors of course, and gossip. But there always is - usually from disgruntled crew or staff. And in each case - there were two sides to the story. And I heard both.
Also I spent a lot of time analyzing and writing meta about his work - which is a bit different than fanfiction. Meta - you tend to try to figure out the writer's intent, and spend more time figuring out the writers, creators, and analyzing what works and what doesn't.
Never meet your heroes? Right? And it's not like I put him on a pedestal or wasn't aware he was most likely a jerk. I was. I did not want to meet him in person, although I though he might be interesting to chat with. And I met interesting people through the Buffy fandom.
Was I a Whedon fan? Hard to say. I've seen pretty much everything he wrote and directed, and read just about all his comics. So yeah, fan.
And now, I'm angry. But it's an odd and empty sort of rage - fueled with a sense of apathy and disgust at showbiz. I find myself thinking why are we paying these people so much money?
Because I saw it - I saw what he did to another person's work, and how he made that work blatantly sexist and racist. The complete opposite of the original Director's intent - and worse? Put that Director's name on it. He twisted that Director's story into a sexist and racist frat boy comic book movie. I was appalled when I realized it.
Not only that - but he was actively dismissive of the other artist - after that artist left because of a "tragic" death in the family. He was abusive to that artists' friends. The actors and crew on the movie, and outright fired the composer. And made it all about himself.
When I saw that - finally - I began to see the rest. How cruel and juvenile his humor and snarky quips truly were. And it was unsettling.
And I wondered - did my love of his work - enable this? Most likely not. It reminded me of how I felt when Bill Cosby's crimes were revealed or Joe Paterna (head coach of Penn State), both heroes of My Dad's and how crushing it was to find out these things. Or what's going on now with Cuomo - I don't want to believe the allegations, but it is getting harder not to.
I wasn't really angry, or appalled, until I watched and compared the Justice League films. Up until that point, I could hand-wave a lot of it. Innocent before proven guilty. And Ray Fisher's claims were so vague - until he did the interview with the Hollywood Reporter that is. And it's hard to condemn someone for something they did to someone over twenty years ago, particularly when the circumstances around it were complicated - the lawyer in me, won't let me condemn. Yet, when I saw the Justice League films, and did the comparison myself, I realized this person has been doing this behind the scenes all along, everything was true, and he'd been subtly throwing in racist and sexist content that I've been hand-waving or overlooking, or shrugging off? Or maybe just discounting.
So this makes me question how I looked at his work...did I see what I wanted to see? Or, was it more complicated than that?
I don't know folks. It's discombobulating having artists whose work you loved be revealed as deeply flawed, and fractured people, guilty of monstrous things. Makes one want to re-evaluate their work - or possibly just look away.
What I keep coming back to - is that other people were involved with Buffy, not just Whedon. And Whedon was younger then, and his ideas were progressive for the time. And people are more than one thing. Whedon, himself, kind of points that out in the episode Lie To Me, which he wrote. In the episode Buffy doesn't know how to handle her ex-boyfriend, who she thought was a nice guy - but makes a deal with Spike - to kill her, in return for becoming a vampire. Because he doesn't want to die of cancer, and would prefer to live forever. How, she wonders, can this person she trusted and loved, do something so evil? Turns out to be foreshadowing for Angel, who she adores and loves, becoming the manipulative and evil Angelus, and later Spike - who she lets in, only to have him turn violent when she rejects him. Or a comment Whedon made regarding Spike's redemption - "in our society we too often demonize the person and not the act, and I wanted to address that."
And I think of the Renegades podcasts - where Springsteen and Barack discuss the harmful effects of a toxic male culture on their psyches and our own. How they were raised to not show emotion, to not want a family or feel neutered by one, that the alpha male loner was the ideal. And how twisted this is - the Western mythos.
I can relate. I grew up on Westerns. Watched them every Saturday night with my Father, and Mother - who adored them. We went to films as a family. And read all the Louis L'Amour, and Tony Hillerman (which are better). My grandmother loved the West, she loved the desert, and the wide expanses.
As did my Aunt, who lived in Vegas. We used to watch Western Television shows, and my parents loved Gunsmoke, which was among the longest running television shows back in the day. One of the reasons, my Dad enjoyed Star Wars - was it was a combination of a WWII movie and a Western. The other films didn't quite grab him in the same way.
And I think Westerns, Noir Cinema, the Slasher Pics formed Whedon, along with having a sick mother - who was a leader of the Women's Rights Movement almost to the exclusion of all else.
So I see it. But the anger is there all the same. This feeling of being duped? I see it elsewhere as well - that anger reflected in others online. Whedon's actions on Justice League and before that - have unfortunately hurt the careers of those involved in the Nevers, a show that may not make it, we shall see. Whedon's become so toxic that HBO has removed his name from the credits and the promotional campaign.
I'm angry that someone so abusive - got these opportunities, only to misuse the power. When there are so many who never do. That academics study his work and do presentations, and meet to discuss it - when there are so many artists and writers who they overlook. So damned many.
It's the same anger I feel - when I see a bully get promoted at work. Or Bill Cosby's crimes were revealed.
This feeling...of...why? You were given all these gifts...why?
Yet it is futile. Hence the emptiness of it. The apathy.
How do you reconcile the art of someone you once ...respected, with the truth of who they were? Or the truth of how they acted? Does that change how we view the art that we loved or once loved? Or not at all? Can we look past the abusive actions of the artist and see the art clearly for what it is, ever again? Does it taint our love for it? God knows.
It's something I'm still grappling with, apparently.