The Joss Whedon Alleged Accusation fiasco
Joss Whedon is well know within the geek community as the creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse and Firefly. In mainstream community, he is known as the man who introduces the world to The Avengers and currently taking over Justice League. At the same time he is known to be a strong supporter of strong female character.
However yesterday, Kai Cole; his ex-wife wrote a critical essay saying that Whedon has been a serial cheater which includes sleeping with some of the cast member of his directed show and saying that 'His behaviour is anything other than feminist'.Whedon did comment on this statement, though it clearly has backfired him and done nothing than made the thing worse.
As soon as the news broke, you clearly see several articles points out that his take on strong female character is wrong and by no means feminist. The only Whedon's work that I watched were both of the Avengers and Serenity (that Firefly movie), and by only basing on those, I think it is unfair to judge his capabilities of writing strong female character.
His action doesn't in any way discredit his credibility as a writer director. Avengers is still consider one of the best Superhero movies , and people are still clamoring for a Firefly return. What made me quite pissed off, and most people in general is the alleged hypocrisy on feminism. Kai Cole stated that the feminist is just a face that Whedon put in order to gain continuous support from his fan and geek community. If that's true, it is exactly like a political leader who fights against corruption just to gain benefit from that fight (which it many ways is what corruption is). That is what the case is, the feeling of betrayal for supporting a false leader.
I do think however, Whedon's take on strong female character is dated. Gabe Bergmooser mentioned in the podcast Movie Maintenance that a stoic kickass woman is not a strong female character, which i totally agree with. A strong female character can be sensitive and in pain but also capable to deal with it or move on from it. Yet, in my opinion, the stoic kickass woman is what Whedon see in strong female character.
In Avengers, Black Widow introductory scene was she been held captive in a sexy outfit that lead to a brawl and throughout the movie she was being related to the other male character; Hulk and Hawkeye. It's hard to point out the stoic part of Black Widow as she is a spy and withheld much of the emotion as part of the job. This continues in Avengers 2 in that shoehorned love relationship with Hulk (though Avengers 2 is plagued with studio interference, so who knows who's decision is this.).
That being said, Summer Glau character in Firefly was exactly that though I don't think anybody consider that as a strong female character in my opinion.
That is the mostly the main reason why I wasn't really on board on the news that Joss Whedon is set to direct Batgirl and later taking over Justice League. Wonder Woman's portrayal in her solo movie was more in line to the modern day portrayal of feminism. Her character still capable to be affected emotionally but at the same time have a very strong believe and principle. It would be very unfortunate if those are taken away from her (which is not based on the trailer so far).
Warner Bros and DC might be rethinking giving Batgirl to Whedon. His proposed script of Wonder Woman was met with anger by fans due to its over-portrayal of sexualism, and Batgirl recently receives some flag due to her creepy portrayal in The Killing Joke. If Warner Bros and DC wants another Wonder Woman hit, Whedon might not be the right person now.
This goes the same for Justice League. Wonder Woman despite successfully grossing 800 Million in the box office, suffered its international run due to Gal Gadot's stand of supporting the Israeli Military. Justice League might suffered the same thing, in this case, its domestic run as feminism is not really a thing in international country (Malaysia for example, yup I said it). I'll watch it regardless as I don't think a personal stand of an actor or actress should be the reason to discredit something, but some people do believe that, and do gives a red flag to Warner Bros and DC who is searching for another hit post Wonder Woman.
This has made Justice League a much more interested movie to be seen as we'll only see the effect of this news first take place here, unless Warner Bros and DC take a more precaution movie similar to Fox during Bryan Singer's alleged accusation as well.
What do you think of the news ? Do you agree with my opinion ? Sound off your thought in the comment section. Stay tuned for the first chapter of The Promise this coming Thursday by following and liking Comikrew Studio right here or on Facebook. Don't forget to subscribe to my comic on Tapastic and finally follow and hit me up on Twitter.
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