Joss Whedon is back at it again. In New York Magazine, he did an interview apparently baring it all. And for us, who remember the various accusations throughout the years about misogynistic and ignorant behavior, were not fooled. This was meant to be a redemption for Whedon where he came out as the misunderstood hero, something he’s well known for writing in his works. But it’s not happening now.
Whedon is not the hero in this. If anything, he’s dug a deeper hole for himself. And it’s one that we honestly don’t think he’ll be able to escape. What has brought us to that glorious conclusion? The comments about Gal Gadot aka Wonder Woman. Love her or hate her, she didn’t deserve to have her career threatened by a man who wanted to sexualize her and her character every day of the week and twice on Sundays.
His excuse as to why Gadot “might’ve thought” he said that is infuriating, to say the least. According to Whedon, “English is not her first language, and I tend to be annoyingly flowery in my speech.” Excuse me? Let us read that again. Because from where we’re standing it seems like you’re making an ignorant comment that brushes off her grasp of the English language and questioning her intelligence all at once.
It’s made even worse when you take into consideration the way he said this, with his full chest. He didn’t tiptoe around it or try to say there was a misunderstanding. No, he practically said that her grasp of English was so rudimentary that she did not understand that he wasn’t threatening her. And that brazen behavior to say this on such a large scale speaks volumes as to the level of comfort he has in saying such things.
It also brings up questions as to the environment on the set of his previous works. There have been accusations from Ray Fisher, Charisma Carpenter, and James Marsters. All have painted a picture of a misogynistic man who painted himself as this feminist hero but who really wasn’t. And his recent interview just makes one realize that he was probably worse than we’ve ever thought and that there are probably others who haven’t come forward.
Ultimately, Whedon is destroying his career, one New York Magazine article at a time. He’s making it so people don’t want to work with him or invest in his ideas. And it shows how truly desperate he is to ignore those who have been hurt while him while making no actual effort to change or learn from his past. Until then, we’ll just have to wait and see what Joss Whedon says next and it’ll be worse than the comments he’s already dropped without a care in the world.
