2012-06-07 15:07![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
digitaldiscipline
digitaldisciplineI've previously mentioned, in my "lists of things which many people like, but I do not" Joss Whedon and his body of work. That was years ago and, upon reflection, my attitude towards his ouevre hasn't changed. I've watched a couple episodes of Firefly and found it pointless; I checked out Dr. Horrible and confirmed that, yes, I enjoy the fuck out of NPH and still hate musicals.
I've also learned, in the intervening years, that, for some reason, Mr. Whedon is held up as some kind of shining, cock-bearing light of progressiveness and feminism, and...
http://www.overthinkingit.com/2009/12/23/joss-whedon-feminism/
http://www.themarysue.com/reconsidering-the-feminism-of-joss-whedon/
No, seriously, shut the fuck up. I get that he writes (or attempts to write) complicated, possibly-empowered female characters, and that makes him marginally less pathetic than the vast number of writers and directors who don't. But that's giving the guy a gold star for remembering to wash his hands after taking a leak, not because he's earned employee of the month for delivering superior service.
He isn't. As a matter of fact, the more he's lauded for being a strong voice for women's advocacy, the more he becomes part of the goddamned problem.
http://ferretbrain.com/articles/article-394
If people only see and aspire to be as feminist as Joss Whedon, we're fucked. We all need to be better than he is. A lot better.
So, after seeing a link come down the pipe from else-twitter, I called Joss Whedon an asshole after I read this:
http://whedonesque.com/comments/13271
I had a large-to-me portion of the internet land on my head this morning after having a friend with tens of thousands of twitter followers rebroadcast my pithy broadside. Much of the debate among people I know took place on Facebook. Some of it was fairly testy. I don't think any butt was permanently hurt. :-)
I was, rightly or wrongly, called out for mis-reading that essay. I agree with his closing argument - action and advocacy are necessary. But the route he took to get there, and the rhetorical trick he tries to employ, worked so poorly that... yeah, I lit him up before finishing my read-through.
You know what would have forestalled all of this? A simple pair of <.h3> tags around "What is wrong with women?" Make it clear those aren't HIS words. Make it clear that's not HIS question. Make it the question he's trying to answer, because he's seeing it stated everywhere. But, no.
It comes across as "What is wrong with women?" to my reading of it, and my visceral antipathy towards victim-blaming cuts in and I am going to set the man on fire (with my mind, or with a blowtorch, I don't give a fuck which). "Why don't women leave abusive households/cultures/situations?" "Why do women accept this horrific treatment?"
As soon as you ask those questions, you're not helping to answer them; you're helping to perpetuate them.
And I don't care how many fanboys I have to walk over to stop you.
I've also learned, in the intervening years, that, for some reason, Mr. Whedon is held up as some kind of shining, cock-bearing light of progressiveness and feminism, and...
http://www.overthinkingit.com/2009/12/23/joss-whedon-feminism/
http://www.themarysue.com/reconsidering-the-feminism-of-joss-whedon/
No, seriously, shut the fuck up. I get that he writes (or attempts to write) complicated, possibly-empowered female characters, and that makes him marginally less pathetic than the vast number of writers and directors who don't. But that's giving the guy a gold star for remembering to wash his hands after taking a leak, not because he's earned employee of the month for delivering superior service.
He isn't. As a matter of fact, the more he's lauded for being a strong voice for women's advocacy, the more he becomes part of the goddamned problem.
http://ferretbrain.com/articles/article-394
If people only see and aspire to be as feminist as Joss Whedon, we're fucked. We all need to be better than he is. A lot better.
So, after seeing a link come down the pipe from else-twitter, I called Joss Whedon an asshole after I read this:
http://whedonesque.com/comments/13271
I had a large-to-me portion of the internet land on my head this morning after having a friend with tens of thousands of twitter followers rebroadcast my pithy broadside. Much of the debate among people I know took place on Facebook. Some of it was fairly testy. I don't think any butt was permanently hurt. :-)
I was, rightly or wrongly, called out for mis-reading that essay. I agree with his closing argument - action and advocacy are necessary. But the route he took to get there, and the rhetorical trick he tries to employ, worked so poorly that... yeah, I lit him up before finishing my read-through.
Pretty much all you learn is that Elisha Cuthbert is beautiful, then kidnapped, inventively, repeatedly and horrifically tortured, and that the first thing she screams is “I’m sorry”.
“I’m sorry.”
What is wrong with women?
I mean wrong. Physically. Spiritually. Something unnatural, something destructive, something that needs to be corrected.
You know what would have forestalled all of this? A simple pair of <.h3> tags around "What is wrong with women?" Make it clear those aren't HIS words. Make it clear that's not HIS question. Make it the question he's trying to answer, because he's seeing it stated everywhere. But, no.
It comes across as "What is wrong with women?" to my reading of it, and my visceral antipathy towards victim-blaming cuts in and I am going to set the man on fire (with my mind, or with a blowtorch, I don't give a fuck which). "Why don't women leave abusive households/cultures/situations?" "Why do women accept this horrific treatment?"
As soon as you ask those questions, you're not helping to answer them; you're helping to perpetuate them.
And I don't care how many fanboys I have to walk over to stop you.
