Lawrence KilliumJoss Whedon turned out not to be the savior/poster boy feminists thought he would be after his wife wrote a scathing story about how he cheated on her.
To give some background, Joss Whedon has always pandered to feminists. In fact, he snuggled so close to them that Jezebel would write articles about how fantastic he was with titles like “Watch Joss Whedon Make the Perfect Speech About the Word Feminist” and calling his speeches “the best articulated explanations on the power of words to shape our understanding of a movement in recent history.”
“I hate feminist. Is this a good time to bring that up? Is this the right forum for that?” Joss Whedon once said during a speech at the Equality Now dinner. “I hope I’m being clear,” he added. “I didn’t say I hate feminists; I said I hate feminist. I’m talking about the word.”
You could basically hear the feminist’s egos inflating while he droned on about how the word doesn’t do them justice.
But their love affair with the producer didn’t last forever. After allegations of infidelity came from his ex-wife, people started jumping ship.
It started when his ex-wife, Kai Cole, wrote that he “hid multiple affairs and a number of inappropriate emotional ones that he had with his actresses, co-workers, fans, and friends,” one of which she claims he had while on the set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She says she penned the blog “to let women know that he is not who he pretends to be” and that he is a “hypocrite preaching feminist ideals.”
All this led up to Whedonesque, a 15-year-old site for the fans of Joss Whedon, shutting down.
From EW:
Whedonesque owners were asked by readers if the site was shutting down because of “the issue” or for another reason. While no exact reason was given for the closure, one owner, Caroline van Oosten de Boer, didn’t deny it might have been a factor, but stated, “I have been toying with closing down the site for various reasons for the last five years or so.”
On social media, van Oosten de Boer also tweeted about the site shut down (and alluded to Cole’s accusations):
‘Trust the art, not the artist,’ is a thing I stopped saying when I copped on it was probably an artist who coined the phrase.
— Caroline 🍜 (@cvodb) August 21, 2017
… pic.twitter.com/03Uz3AQtHb
— Caroline 🍜 (@cvodb) August 21, 2017
Readers opinions were varied, many feeling that Whedon’s personal life shouldn’t be an issue in continuing the fan site. Though as one reader put it: “Seems the right decision to close the site, and a dignified last post. This site has felt like a kind of time capsule to me, the way it harks back to the golden age of Joss Whedon shows, and also the now antiquated site design. 🙂 It served fans of his work well over the years, but times change and it’s time to move on. Obviously, a sad way for things to end, but such is life. I guess heroes always turn out to be flawed and complex people, some more than others.”
Many think that lesser men decide to act like feminists so that they can manipulate people. Well, it looks like Joss used it to dupe quite a few.
H/T: EW
