Just when I thought I was out...
And just like that, the Whedon Wars are upon us again.
This past weekend, Kai Cole, ex-wife of Joss Whedon, published a guest essay on the entertainment website The Wrap (full disclosure: an old college roommate of mine is one of their editors), accusing Joss of cheating on her multiple times over the course of their marriage. I'll spare you the details. You can look them up for yourself if you like. The point she was making, the reason she gave for telling her sad story, was to inform the world that Joss is not the feminist hero he makes himself out to be or that much of the media acknowledges him as.
And that's where I come into the picture, because I'm one of many people who started questioning his feminist street cred a long time ago.
A quick review: I was a fan of his Buffy the Vampire Slayer series from the very beginning. I learned how to switch from screenplays to prose by writing Buffy fan fiction. And what really drew me into the show was the story of Buffy's friend Willow (already my favorite character in the cast) and her girlfriend Tara. It was the high point of the series - until Joss killed Tara off and turned the storyline into the low point of the series.
I did a lot of writing about the subject back then. I didn't have a blog, but I was on posting boards and I had friends who posted my commentaries on their sites. A couple of them gained a lot of attention. My main argument was that Willow and Tara had a social value that went beyond just being characters on a TV show, in the same way that Lieutenants-of-color Uhura and Sulu had value beyond their presence in the original Star Trek cast back in the 60s. In my view, killing Tara off and turning Willow evil threw away all the good the storyline had done, wasting an opportunity to do something groundbreaking. Plus Joss and his creative team had hurt a lot of my friends in the process, and had acted like jerks about it in the media. The anger I felt over those latter points has passed now, but my professional/philosophical disagreement remains to this day.
(I have since realized that when Joss insisted he treated Willow and Tara like every other couple in his shows, he was telling the truth. Every couple that gets together in a Joss Whedon show ends up with one or both characters turning evil or being killed, not necessarily in that order. Which opens up another professional disagreement I have with him, but at the same time forces me to admit he wasn't singling Willow and Tara out. It was still a wasted opportunity, though. He didn't appreciate what he'd done.)
These days, Joss has moved on to big-budget movies, where I don't have to hear about him as often, while I've moved on to books and don't pay as much attention to TV. I've liked that arrangement. But now here comes this article, with a pack of wolves behind it, ready to take down another celebrity who's suddenly become vulnerable. And meanwhile, a bunch of my old comrades-in-arms are telling the world, "We told you so! We told you he wasn't a real feminist." For several days, I've thought about wading into this mess. I may end up regretting it, but I feel a need to say something.
Has Joss Whedon ever written things that some women find empowering? Certainly. The very idea of a high school girl (with a silly name, even) going out and beating up the monsters changed the rules of what's possible in our storytelling, and when you change what's possible in storytelling, you change what's possible in the world (which is why Willow and Tara were so important, not to belabor a point). And certainly different people can pick different story elements out of the whole and be inspired or strengthened by them. That's not in question. But does that make Joss Whedon a Feminist, with a capital F? And if it does, is that identity threatened by the revelations of his serial infidelity?
I'll address the second question first. Being a feminist (or even a Feminist) does not require perfect moral fiber. People are complicated, and they don't always have or exercise the best judgment. Being a serial adulterer doesn't even stop you from getting elected President any more. So now, back to the first question - Is Joss Whedon a Feminist? Your mileage may vary, but I have to say no. And my reason for saying that is not rooted in his private life, but in his writing.
Consider another writer who did a lot of sleeping around, Gene Roddenberry. Despite his character flaws, I would still consider him a feminist, based on what I see in his work. Yes, Star Trek did have a lot of what David Gerrold dubbed "green priestesses of the cosmic computer" for Captain Kirk to seduce, but it also had a number of strong, independent women, beginning with the Enterprise's original First Officer, who was too radical for the suits at NBC. And these strong, independent women often lived successful lives, without getting killed or turned evil or otherwise punished for being strong and independent. The same cannot be said for Joss Whedon. I could elaborate, but someone at The Mary Sue already did, so I'll just direct you there.
I guess the question of whether Joss Whedon is a Feminist can be answered in the same way as the question of whether the Willow/Tara story was positive for the LGBTQ community. It depends on how much value you get from seeing characters raised up, and how much it affects you when those characters get knocked down. If you like it while things are good, and either you don't mind when things go bad or you bail out before they do, then sure, by all means enjoy what you can. But if you prefer seeing things through to the end, or you just don't bail out fast enough, I'm afraid Joss is going to let you down. And as far as I've seen, that's the way he's always been. Revelations about his private life haven't changed that impression one bit.
This past weekend, Kai Cole, ex-wife of Joss Whedon, published a guest essay on the entertainment website The Wrap (full disclosure: an old college roommate of mine is one of their editors), accusing Joss of cheating on her multiple times over the course of their marriage. I'll spare you the details. You can look them up for yourself if you like. The point she was making, the reason she gave for telling her sad story, was to inform the world that Joss is not the feminist hero he makes himself out to be or that much of the media acknowledges him as.
And that's where I come into the picture, because I'm one of many people who started questioning his feminist street cred a long time ago.
A quick review: I was a fan of his Buffy the Vampire Slayer series from the very beginning. I learned how to switch from screenplays to prose by writing Buffy fan fiction. And what really drew me into the show was the story of Buffy's friend Willow (already my favorite character in the cast) and her girlfriend Tara. It was the high point of the series - until Joss killed Tara off and turned the storyline into the low point of the series.
I did a lot of writing about the subject back then. I didn't have a blog, but I was on posting boards and I had friends who posted my commentaries on their sites. A couple of them gained a lot of attention. My main argument was that Willow and Tara had a social value that went beyond just being characters on a TV show, in the same way that Lieutenants-of-color Uhura and Sulu had value beyond their presence in the original Star Trek cast back in the 60s. In my view, killing Tara off and turning Willow evil threw away all the good the storyline had done, wasting an opportunity to do something groundbreaking. Plus Joss and his creative team had hurt a lot of my friends in the process, and had acted like jerks about it in the media. The anger I felt over those latter points has passed now, but my professional/philosophical disagreement remains to this day.
(I have since realized that when Joss insisted he treated Willow and Tara like every other couple in his shows, he was telling the truth. Every couple that gets together in a Joss Whedon show ends up with one or both characters turning evil or being killed, not necessarily in that order. Which opens up another professional disagreement I have with him, but at the same time forces me to admit he wasn't singling Willow and Tara out. It was still a wasted opportunity, though. He didn't appreciate what he'd done.)
These days, Joss has moved on to big-budget movies, where I don't have to hear about him as often, while I've moved on to books and don't pay as much attention to TV. I've liked that arrangement. But now here comes this article, with a pack of wolves behind it, ready to take down another celebrity who's suddenly become vulnerable. And meanwhile, a bunch of my old comrades-in-arms are telling the world, "We told you so! We told you he wasn't a real feminist." For several days, I've thought about wading into this mess. I may end up regretting it, but I feel a need to say something.
Has Joss Whedon ever written things that some women find empowering? Certainly. The very idea of a high school girl (with a silly name, even) going out and beating up the monsters changed the rules of what's possible in our storytelling, and when you change what's possible in storytelling, you change what's possible in the world (which is why Willow and Tara were so important, not to belabor a point). And certainly different people can pick different story elements out of the whole and be inspired or strengthened by them. That's not in question. But does that make Joss Whedon a Feminist, with a capital F? And if it does, is that identity threatened by the revelations of his serial infidelity?
I'll address the second question first. Being a feminist (or even a Feminist) does not require perfect moral fiber. People are complicated, and they don't always have or exercise the best judgment. Being a serial adulterer doesn't even stop you from getting elected President any more. So now, back to the first question - Is Joss Whedon a Feminist? Your mileage may vary, but I have to say no. And my reason for saying that is not rooted in his private life, but in his writing.
Consider another writer who did a lot of sleeping around, Gene Roddenberry. Despite his character flaws, I would still consider him a feminist, based on what I see in his work. Yes, Star Trek did have a lot of what David Gerrold dubbed "green priestesses of the cosmic computer" for Captain Kirk to seduce, but it also had a number of strong, independent women, beginning with the Enterprise's original First Officer, who was too radical for the suits at NBC. And these strong, independent women often lived successful lives, without getting killed or turned evil or otherwise punished for being strong and independent. The same cannot be said for Joss Whedon. I could elaborate, but someone at The Mary Sue already did, so I'll just direct you there.
I guess the question of whether Joss Whedon is a Feminist can be answered in the same way as the question of whether the Willow/Tara story was positive for the LGBTQ community. It depends on how much value you get from seeing characters raised up, and how much it affects you when those characters get knocked down. If you like it while things are good, and either you don't mind when things go bad or you bail out before they do, then sure, by all means enjoy what you can. But if you prefer seeing things through to the end, or you just don't bail out fast enough, I'm afraid Joss is going to let you down. And as far as I've seen, that's the way he's always been. Revelations about his private life haven't changed that impression one bit.
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