Joss Whedon quit Twitter. Why? According to Whedon’s own words , Joss left Twitter because it was simply too busy, keeping him from getting the peace one needs to do one’s own work. Joss says it was just too much noise and it was keeping him distracted.
Apparently, no one bought that excuse — er, reason.
As the speculation began to spread throughout the internet community, the consensus finally determined that Mr. Whedon was chased away by the more militant feminists hounding Joss’ Twitter account with criticisms of his portrayal of Black Widow in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
This was more than enough for Mr. Whedon to remain in silent acceptance and it hasn’t taken long for Joss to respond in kind.
“That is horses**t,” Whedon told BuzzFeed News . “Believe me, I have been attacked by militant feminists since I got on Twitter. That’s something I’m used to. Every breed of feminism is attacking every other breed, and every subsection of liberalism is always busy attacking another subsection of liberalism, because god forbid they should all band together and actually fight for the cause.”
“I saw a lot of people say, ‘Well, the social justice warriors destroyed one of their own!’ It’s like, Nope. That didn’t happen,” Joss continued. “I saw someone tweet it’s because Feminist Frequency pissed on Avengers 2 , which for all I know they may have. But literally the second person to write me to ask if I was OK when I dropped out was [Feminist Frequency founder] Anita [Sarkeesian].”
Anyone who has been a fan of Joss Whedon and has followed his work understands the utter ridiculousness of the entire situation. From Whedon’s beginnings, he has made a point of creating strong female characters , women that young girls can aspire to and to emulate. Doesn’t anyone remember Buffy The Vampire Slayer ?
Mark Ruffalo does. Or, at least to judge by his A.M.A. (Ask Me Anything) response on reddit , he sees what Joss intended with Black Widow.
“I think it’s sad. Because I know how Joss feels about women, and I know that he’s made it a point to create strong female characters. I think part of the problem is that people are frustrated that they want to see more women, doing more things, in superhero movies, and because we don’t have as many women as we should yet, they’re very, very sensitive to every single storyline that comes up right now. But I think what’s beautiful about what Joss did with Black Widow — I don’t think he makes her any weaker, he just brings this idea of love to a superhero, and I think that’s beautiful.”
There is more to his response. Six full paragraphs to be certain, but that first paragraph really sums up the entire thought succinctly. Joss Whedon does care about women and he does need some peace and quiet.
[Featured image: Joss Whedon courtesy of Kevin Winter/Getty Images]
