Reasons Joss Whedon is a Good Feminist

I was disappointed by how quickly Black Widow’s infamous “monster” line in Age of Ultron became ammunition against Joss Whedon. I had a different reaction, I felt as though Joss was using the Hollywood blockbuster, a platform that is classically rather sexist and misogynistic, to make a point about a woman’s right to choose. Black Widow’s pathos didn’t rest within the fact that she was not able to conceive but that she wasn’t given a choice in the matter, that she wasn’t allowed to be both a mother and an operative. Instead, misunderstanding led to outrage which led to condemnation, not only of the movie and the line but of Joss as a feminist.



I personally think Joss is a great feminist, nobody bats a thousand but I think Joss has an exceptionally good record of staying true to his feminist beliefs within his work. It is a darn shame that this has been swept over by the instinctual outrage of people who were gunning for him for any reason they could muster- like that Wanda was going to be a River Tam clone which turned out to be a categorically incorrect and premature assumption.

So, without further adieu, here’s EverVexingHexes’ reasons why he deserves better than to be picked apart….

He’s willing to risk his reputation to make statements about chauvinism, sexism, and misogyny in the industry.



Joss tried to make a Wonder Woman film way back but his plans dissolved over time. When pressed as to why, he cited some issues he had with the mythology of Wonder Woman but he also made a point of saying Warner Brothers was anything but enthusiastic about putting it into production. He also went on to say that toy manufacturers often circumvent the presence of females in superhero films, fearing they won’t sell. A lot of writer/directors would never and have never had the gusto to hold a studio accountable for anything in such a public way, let alone accuse it of sexism. The issue with toy manufacturers is something everyone in the industry is also well-aware of (just ask Paul Dini) but few are willing to pipe up about. He has always been very brave in staying true to his beliefs, Willow being a lesbian in Buffy was a point of contention for the WB but Joss never wavered on the storyline, often putting himself at odds with the network. Please, try and name another director as high-profile who has the nerve to risk his reputation in such a way.



He has a fantastic track record of portraying intelligent women in the field of science in all his projects.



Women are heinously under-represented in fields of science and largely discouraged from even showing an interest in such industries, it’s a huge issue. But Joss has always depicted capable, intelligent, and often prevailing women in various scientific fields. This is something rarely noted and even condescendingly copped up to his alleged fetishism for “brainy girls” as if it’s a sexy archetype rather than a reality of this world that women can be surpassing in their intelligence.



He created Bennett Halverson of Dollhouse, a gifted neuroscientist whose intellect surpassed resident genius Topher Brink on numerous occasions.



Also, just as noteworthy is Ivy, Topher’s assistant, who regularly noted the absurdity of taking order from him when she was just as capable (and even a contender to replace him).



Then there’s my personal favorite, Winnifred Burkle from Angel, who was a brilliant physicist and scientist that ended up running her own lab at Wolfram & Hart.



Adele Dewitt of Dollhouse was also in the bioengineering field, involved in stem cell research before heading the Los Angeles division of the Rossum’s Dollhouses. She’s also a FANTASTICALLY COMPLEX character, btw.



And who could forget Kaylee of Firefly who was the engineer that kept the Firefly up and running?



Then, most recently, Helen Cho of Age of Ultron who was a gifted geneticist



Also within the MCU, Jemma Simmons, a biochemist on Agents of SHIELD…



Then there are characters like River from Firefly, Skye from Agents of SHIELD, and Willow from Buffy who are depicted as being of genius-level intellect as well.



He’s only gotten better and better at representing and supporting women of color as well.

To those who say he’s more a proponent of cute, white women than anything else, you are definitely undermining a lot of important actresses’ work- Iyari Limon, Gina Torres, Morena Baccarin, Dichen Lachman, Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennett, Ruth Negga, Liz Lapira, Indigo, and Claudia Kim. So please, if you’re thinking about going there, don’t even.



He has pushed for more females in the Avengers franchise.



Aside from working characters in like Maria Hill and Helen Cho, he also had more centric female characters in mind as well. He wrote a draft of Avengers that included Wasp which the studio rejected, he also tried to get Ms. Marvel to be featured in the end of Age of Ultron which the studio also rejected. The whole reason we got Wanda even was because Joss rallied for her and Pietro to be included, Marvel chose not to deal with the tricky legality of using those characters for years.



As a matter in fact, for those of you accusing him of leaving Black Widow underdeveloped, I would care to wager that the studio has interfered with his focus on the character as well. They wanted to do away with the entire chunk of the movie that took place on Clint’s farm and the dream sequences which would’ve drastically reduced Widow’s role to just being Hulk’s love interest….



“The dreams were not an executive favorite either — the dreams, the farmhouse, these were things I fought to keep … With the cave, it really turned into: they pointed a gun at the farm’s head and said, “Give us the cave, or we’ll take out the farm,” — in a civilized way. I respect these guys, they’re artists, but that’s when it got really, really unpleasant.”

What a lot of people have overlooked is that Joss is only a component to a much bigger machine which has opted to remain quite inactive in representing females.



He supports women behind-the-scenes.

One of the most aggravating criticisms of Buffy was that the character was written by a male. When, in actuality, a lot of female writers were crucial to her continued characterization as a strong female. Marti Noxon was the strongest writer other than Joss and held the most responsibility, even assuming the role of executive producer in season 6 (while still writing)- he also supported her directing aspirations when she went behind the camera for the episode “Into the Woods”. Rebecca Kirshner and Jane Espenson were also very important writers to the show. Also, ever heard of Mau Tancharoen? Co-executive producer of Agents of SHIELD who started out on Dollhouse as a writer?



He also employs heaps and heaps of other female writers and directors for his projects, just check the credits for any given show.

He’s ACTIVE in feminist causes

People love to point out that Joss criticized the term “feminist” and it’s branding issue (a dialogue quite innovated at this point). But what they neglect to mention is that he did this while being honored by Equality Now, something he was honored for contributing to a few times over. His association with this organization resulted in Browncoats (Firefly fans) donating over half a million dollars to the feminist organization which focuses on women rights on a global scale.



“Equality is not a concept. It’s not something we should be striving for. It’s a necessity. Equality is like gravity, we need it to stand on this earth as men and women, and the misogyny that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition. It is life out of balance, and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman who’s confronted with it. We need equality. Kinda now.” - Joss Whedon

So, to me, this idea that one decontextualized, surface evaluation of a quote in conjunction with a few other alarmist, assumptive interpretations (of the twins connection to Hydra, the “prima nocta” quote) could do so much damage to our impression of him as a feminist is HORRIFIC. So many trolls and people holding personal contempt for Whedon has done too good of a job of sweeping over a body of work that has been massively good for women. Worse yet, people without familiarity or deep knowledge of his work cosign on it without any further observation just for the sake of pseudo-righteousness. For whatever Joss’ shortcomings are, he’s got far more positive qualities to his work that are, at the moment, heinously under-recognized. So if you’re still looking to come gunning for Joss….

