Today we learned that Joss Whedon is a cheating scumbag. Which is disappointing on several levels; not the least of which is that it becomes very hard to continue admiring someone who has been exposed as a liar and a cheat.
It’s also disappointing because the various people who proclaim that they find his work overrated, as if it’s a badge of honour, will now somehow–absurdly–feel vindicated. I certainly won’t get any less enjoyment out of Buffy now than I did before. Then again, neither will I get any more enjoyment out of Age Of Ultron…
Whatever the fallout from this is across the internet, I will be studiously ignoring it. This will be yet another chance for the odd intersection of left and right that typically gun for Whedon to resharpen their claws and exploit this as a chance to attack his feminism; in doing which they will conveniently sidestep the thing they should be attacking him for (which is being a cheating scumbag) while giving lots and lots of men reasons to believe they can’t or shouldn’t support feminism.
I will leave the last word to John Scalzi, and his excellent post inspired by this matter: https://whatever.scalzi.com/2017/08/22/my-personal-feminism-2017/