I was going to skip commenting, but I found myself fuming a little while doing the dishes, so I guess I’m annoyed.
Re: the original comment here, I find it telling that the original author sees no irony in the fact Evans’ apology (where “He does just about everything right”) comes off as incredibly robotic and scripted while Renner’s seems (to me) like something he actually said.
I can understand if one would interpret Renner’s statement as being a bit flippant. I find it hard to tell. However, I if I had a bunch of myopic, narcissistic, absolutist morality police blowhards up in my face, I would probably also want to tell them to fuck off.
Why do I keep doing this to myself? I already know Rob Beschizza likes saying dumb shit, but I keep coming back to Boing Boing for more. In the very link he provides, we can read,
"If you slept with four of the six Avengers, no matter how much fun you had, you'd be a slut," Renner joked. "Just saying. I'd be a slut."
Now, unless I’m confused and Renner is a woman, I’m pretty sure he just said he would view that person as a slut regardless of whether they were a man or woman. Maybe not the nicest thing in the world to say, but not the,
a woman who sleeps with multiple partners is a slut.
Except wasn’t that part of the character development of Tony Stark, that he was a playboy, and this was viewed as a positive… Did anyone call his character a slut? No one called Tony Stark a slut, they called Natasha a slut. That’s the issue.
But why do we still judge people–but more harshly women–by their sexual activity? Why can’t we get over that by now and realize that a healthy love of sex isn’t a reason to call people names? Why call anyone a slut.
Now, unless I’m confused and Renner is a woman, I’m pretty sure he just
said he would view that person as a slut regardless of whether they were
a man or woman.
The point was that one character was called a slut, the other wasn’t, in actually real reality. it’s far more likely for a woman who has multiple partners to be called a slut. It’s a double standard. That’s the problem.
No, actually, “the point” that I was making was that Boing Boing is a rag, and Beschizza distorted what Renner said by purposely misquoting him. What you wrote is the point that Beschizza is making.
Indeed, nobody called Tony Stark a slut even though his character was introduced on screen hitting on a female soldier and swapping stories about the 12 Maxim models he’d slept with the previous year.
Yeah this is confusing. “Slut Shaming”-oriented rhetoric is confusing because half the time it’s about reclaiming and owning the word “slut,” (see: slutwalks, The Ethical Slut, etc), and half the time it’s about preventing people from using the word (see: This conversation).
Please… we will solve the problems of global sexism right here on this BBS long before we can even work our way up to solving impossible problems such as comic book continuity!
If she got retconned, she’d probably be waking up in Cardiff somewhere…
Anyway, point being, it is unwise for Renner to use this kind of terminology at all. So sticking to his his guns and pointedly doing it again seems… like he is taking glee in it and doing it to poke the critics.
Completely unrelated, but I had a friend in college who was Bosnian.
She spoke pitch perfect American English, to the point where when I first met her, she had me play a guessing game as to where she was from. I guessed California, being that she was 6’1" and blonde.
She was also somewhat moderate in her college sexual experience (a fact I know because I knew her through a friend of my SO.). Anyways, hilariously, in mixed company once she mentioned something she had done with her boyfriend, and I jokingly called her a name, which she didn’t recognize.
Anyways, it’s a fond memory standing outside the dining hall, listing off derogative terms offhand to increasingly baffled looks. English is great. Your list is missing a few, which I rattled off in addition to your list:
Trull
Trollop
Lady of the Night
Working girl
Hustler
Strumpet
Muh feelings.
You know what’s a hoot? That wasn’t even the worst thing he said at that event, not even close. But “slut shaming” is the flavor of the week for the internet rage machine so it took off like an anger-based meme. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SvcaFUEFrs&index=2&
Yeah, he said a stupid thing. But the dude is a minor celebrity with no real influence. This is only a couple of steps up from “Jimmy next door called me a fag.” These days I only have so much outrage to go around, and I’m not convinced it’s worthwhile to spend it on Gawker-grade celebrity gossip.
So, just to get in on both sides of this argument, there is nothing at all confusing or contradictory about a marginalized group both trying to stop the derogatory use of slurs, and also trying to reclaim those slurs as a mark of pride in their own community. Both these things are part and parcel of disarming the tools of bigotry. To use a completely shallow example, I call myself a nerd with pride, but I know that nothing good will come of Beefslab McQuarterback calling me “Hey, NERD!” from across the high school cafeteria.
Renner is not someone I’d enjoy having to sit through dinner with… there would be words said, they wouldn’t be good.
I think, however, this is one of those cases where you can’t let an actor’s actual personality matter if you want any hope of enjoying the movie. And I believe that is acceptable–an actor is paid to be someone they’re not, and in turn we pay to suspend our disbelief for a few hours. It’s that mental contract that makes entertainment possible. If the character Clint Barton were making these comments, sure, I could see criticizing the film. But the truth is Renner’s take on Black Widow is completely irrelevant to the on-screen story.
That said, if other directors are now hesitant to bring Renner into their productions, he’s only got himself to blame.
