#its hard to imagine the guy's motives behind all of this unless its just motiveless sheer lack of effort from

[tumblunni]

I think the problem with Joss Whedon is that he’s a ‘90s feminist’. And he will never, ever, even TRY to progress beyond that.

Its like.. he was genuinely seen as feminist back when he first started making shows, he genuinely actually succeeded in doing many feminist things, writing many good story arcs that’re memorable even nowadays. So it becomes hard to imagine how on earth he’s become so terrible now?? I think the problem is just that he’s never progressed, but also that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s standing still. He’s not even as feminist as he used to be back then, there’s such a bigger bar to compare him to. Its not like you can do nothing for decades and retain your crown as the most progressive man in all cinema, and it feels like doesn’t understand that. 'Wow look my new hero can kick ass AND have her boobs out in every scene’ was only a big deal back when cinematic repression was the bigger problem than over-obsession with sex. ‘Hey look my hero is super stereotypically feminine and constantly makes jokes about her own gender’ was one of his go-to things in the early days. Because the idea of a woman being in that particular plot role was considered unknown and impossible, drawing attention to her gender helped get the point across. Back when having one single gay character was ahead of its time, nobody even noticed he was doing weird shit like ‘mm sexy lesbians for the benefit of the straight audience’ and ‘no, even though she liked men too in the past, she’s not bisexual she just ‘turned gay’’ and ‘male homosexuality is somehow funny at the same time’ And like.. he’s still doing the same ‘techniques’ now but he’s fighting against stereotypes that’ve long since been eradicated, and not only ignoring new ones but actively falling head-over-heels in love with them, completely oblivious. its like his definition of himself as some feminist masterpiece has made him stop using critical thinking ever!

And he doesn’t want to improve anything?? It feels like he’s fine with the world as it is? If anything, it feels like he’s fine just letting sexism exist, because it means he can rehash the same tired old talking points forever and make money off it. I dont know if he could even imagine a world where predjudice doesnt exist, or even HOW people could stop it from happening.. he just wants to write how in space 900 years in the future we still have exactly the same gender stereotypes for some reason. And like.. I just.. cannot understand this.... I can’t relate to the sort of person who would ever think “Welp, it’s done, it’s over!” and just.. STOP doing feminism. While still calling himself a feminist. Just decide that one arbitrary point in mid-90s problems for women is the only set of problems they’ve ever had and ever will have. Never bother reading up on even the most minimal info on anything that’s happened since! Its like he thinks he’s stocked up enough backpayments on his activism and now he can retire to a condo out west. its like he thought there was some end goal of Becoming a feminist, and now he’s accomplished it and can never do anything wrong ever again. Level 99, all skills learnt.

Really this is why I hate all the focus on identity politics above everything else. Honestly i don’t give a shit one way or another whether someone identifies as feminist, what i do give a shit about is whether they support sexist shit or oppose it. Hell, its mot even really THAT, its just.. do they DO sexist shit, or not? Its like the old classic analogy, “if you trod on my foot and you said you didn’t mean to, either way i’ve still got a broken foot’. Too much focus on performative ‘yes I will Publically Declare that I am not a sexist/racist/homophobe’, and less on actually stopping people who do bigoted shit, learning how to recognise bigoted shit, learning how to not accidentally do bigoted shit, finding ways to help the victims of the bigoted shit, finding ways to change the society that supports the bigted shit... Nah just lets all say we’re part of the Not Bigoted club and spend more of our time arguing that we can’t have ever said anything bigoted because we hold this arbitrary membership card. You know there’s something wrong when you do most of your arguing against actual members of the minority you claim to support...

Ironically I think Joss Whedon would have gotten away with a lot of his shit if he hadn’t gained that early reputation as ‘a feminist’. He tries to use it as a shield from criticism, but as much as you see people who say ‘he cant have done that, he’s a feminist’, you’re hearing ‘holy shit that’s really bad, he’s supposed to be a feminist’. Like, it wouldnt even be newsworthy otherwise, the state of TV scriptwriting is so shitty right now that there’s dozens of dudes farting out these same shitty attitudes. Honestly the most useful feminist thing Whedon is doing right now is accidentally drawing attention to issues people would have ignored from a less famous bigot!