Joss Whedon quits Twitter

[WearySky]

I dunno about racist elements (as I wasn’t really looking for that type of thing), but as for sexist elements I can see some valid complaints there. Again, I’m a straight white dude, so it’s not my place to go telling women what they should interpret as being sexist. I personally thought the “I’m always picking up after you guys” bit was funny, but I can see how some might take offense to that. The “Hulk=giant monster baby” thing, I’m a bit on the fence about that as well, but I can see where people are coming from.

And actually, I went to try and find the actual quote just to be clear that my memory of the scene was accurate, and here it is:

@Black Widow

You know what my final test was in the Red Room? They sterilized me, said it was one less thing to worry about. You think you’re the only monster on the team?

So, I think my “less attachments” bit may be my brain filling in other experiences with assassin-type stories, as opposed to what was actually portrayed in the movie, to interpret that particular scene. The brain is a funny thing, that way. Somebody who isn’t familiar with the “no attachments=better killing machine” trope could certainly interpret that scene entirely differently, and I think that’s completely valid. I feel like Whedon was trying to portray the scene the way that I interpreted it, but I can see that a bit of extra context might have helped portray it a bit better.

[nungesser]

As a white dude myself, I’m told I’m not supposed to judge racist/sexist elements, but it’s my personal feeling that if someone wanted to see things as being sexist, sure, they could choose to interpret them that way. If they saw the lack of people of color on the Avengers (as they exist at the beginning of the film) as racist, well, okay, I can’t change your mind there, either. But the threads of sexism in the film are so thin and tenuous that you’ve really got to have an agenda in mind to see them that way.

I’m not a straight dude, so if I went into Avengers (or any superhero movie, really) with my mind set on finding every example of straight privilege or lack of homosexual inclusion, I’d come away from it with my laundry list of angry bullet points to post on Tumblr. But I don’t, because I know that’s not why I watch superhero movies.