Last week, Joss Whedon took to the pages of New York Magazine to set what was left of his reputation on fire and then dance about in the ashes.
This was not his intention. Whedon was responding to the many reports of the past year that highlighted his abusive behavior, capping off a precipitous fall from grace for the one time wunderkind of TV and film. New York Magazine gave him all the rope he could want and he went to town. Ray Fisher, who played Cyborg in the Justice League movie, said that Whedon was abusive and unprofessional. Whedon responded by calling him a “malevolent force” and “ a bad actor in both senses.” Gal Gadot also complained about Whedon, saying that he told her he’d make her “career miserable,” and also objected to a “comic” scene where the clumsy Flash would trip and fall and land on her breasts. Whedon responded that english was not “her first language” so she must’ve misunderstood. him. (Gadot’s response: “I understood perfectly.”)
That would be enough to send any PR person scrambling to end the interview, but Whedon went on. Charisma Carpenter, one of the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, went public with her experiences with Whedon. She said he made her life hell when she became pregnant during a season of Angel, calling her fat, and asking if she was going to keep it. Numerous people said he was casually cruel, one writer recalling how he spent an hour mocking her writing in front of the entire writing staff. His ex-wife wrote an open letter a few years ago, talking about how he had numerous affairs with cast members and fans, while claiming to be a feminist. Whedon justifies his actions in the interview by saying “I had to sleep with them… I was powerless to resist!” (Guys, just try that on your wives or girlfriends and see how well it works for you!)
That’s a lot of giant red flags. Whedon’s own words established him as a Grade A douchebag at best and a cruel and abusive predator at worst, happy to bask in the adulation of a female fanbase while preying on them for sex.
To anyone involved in fandoms of the late ‘90s all the way through the mid 2010s, this was a terrible letdown. Whedon was famous for his snappy dialogue, full of zingers and jokes, his strong female characters, and his casts full of found families. Thousands of young women grew up enamored with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, inspired by her and they created a strong online fanbase. There was a period on the internet from about 2002-2015 where if you even dared to imply that Firefly might NOT be the single greatest contribution to the medium of television in human history, then you would get swarmed by the Browncoats.
Whedon also directed what I consider to be the best superhero film ever, the first Avengers movie. I think it’s the perfect combination - funny, but not campy; there are stakes, but it’s not dour; the characters understand heroism, and it's the antidote to the SERIOUS grimdark movies with monotone color palettes.
Now, this is a whole lot of preamble to say: yet another creator that I respected and admired and whose output I am a fan of has turned out to be a repellent human being. He joins an unfortunately long list of people. I grew up listening to Bill Cosby’s stand up and watching the Cosby Show, and I’m sure you know all about what has been revealed about “America’s Dad.” Issac Asimov practically invented the modern concept of robotics in science fiction, and he was a serial groper. Louis CK is a hilarious comedian, who likes to masturbate in front of women who didn’t volunteer for it. Plus, there's Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, and on and on.
And that’s just the sexual assaulters! That’s not even getting into people who create art that just have repellent opinions, such as Orson Scott Card (anti-gay), Gina Carano (anti-trans), and JK Rowling (anti-trans). Even my favorite animated series is not immune. Jay Johnston, who voiced the role of Bob Belcher’s nemesis Jimmy Pesto on Bob’s Burgers was seen at the Jan. 6th insurrection and is no longer on the show. (To be fair, if any character on Bob’s Burgers was going to be a part of the insurrection, it would 100% be Jimmy Pesto.)
(Please note that I’m not going to claim that anyone has been “canceled.” I absolutely hate that phrase. It’s an invention of people who’ve dreamed up this fantasy that they’ll tell a woman she had a pretty dress on and then the “woke mob” will descend on them. Cosby isn’t “canceled” because he was politically incorrect. He raped dozens of women and had to finally face consequences for his actions. And just like Carano and Rowling are free to opine about trans people, others are also free to call them out on their bullshit.)
All of this has brought the question to the forefront of my thoughts. How much should the real world actions of artists affect my enjoyment of their art? Should I feel bad that I watch the battle of New York in Avengers about once a week or that my wife and I quote lines from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog to each other? There are still Cosby routines that are burned into my memory from 30 years ago, should I invest in a Men In Black neuralyser to erase them?
The cop out answer: it’s complicated. My honest answer: sometimes, maybe. I guess?
Some of these are easy. Bob’s Burgers is one of my favorite shows and Johnston was just a hired voice actor, and his character is supposed to be a dick. Neither am I going to fast forward through Carano’s scenes in The Mandalorian, even though I’m fine with Disney firing her.
I alway enjoyed Woody Allen movies, but it’s certainly harder to watch Manhattan. It was a running joke for decades how Allen always cast himself as a love interest to 18 year olds, but it certainly hits differently with Mr. Soon-Yi Previn now. Is that enough to keep me from ever watching again? There are some great one liners and jokes in them, but I’m probably not going to cue up Midnight in Paris or Annie Hall anytime soon.
Stand ups are different for me than writers, since a lot of them are presenting a version of themselves as their comedic persona. Cosby was one of the all time great stand ups, but I haven’t listened to any of his stuff since all his accusers came forward. All those routines about Spanish Fly and “playfully” smacking his wife are super uncomfortable now. Louis CK presented himself as an everyman sad sack, joking about his struggles with dating and parenting. It’s hard to reconcile that comic persona with the dude who likes to crank it in public.
After Whedon’s article, there were a rash of people on twitter loudly and proudly claiming that they’d never liked Whedon. And sure, good for you, I guess. But there are millions of us who did. And him being an abusive jerk doesn’t make Avengers less good. Or Buffy. Or Firefly. Will it make me less likely to check out a new Whedon project. Almost certainly. Is that consistent? Probably not. I can justify it by saying I already own the Avengers on blu ray, and I pay for Hulu whether or not I watch Buffy, but I won’t watch a new show or movie of his. I can say that, but I’d still buy tickets if he got rehired to do another Avengers movie. Is that hypocritical? Absolutely.
In a perfect world, all the art we consume would be created by individuals who are decent people. But it’s not a perfect world. Artists are people who often have shitty opinions and do terrible things. (Just look up the backgrounds of the artists in your nearest art gallery.) It’s impossible to completely separate art from the artist, but by the same token it's not fair to assume that a piece of art represents an artist's views perfectly. (Otherwise, you'd have to believe that Martin Scorsese endorses mafia murders.) Also, it'd get extremely boring if you only read or watched stuff from the same perfect people.
Everyone's line is different. I'm never going to listen to a Cosby routine again, but I'm ok with watching Rosemary's Baby come Halloween time. And when the mood strikes, I'll cue up Once More WIth Feeling, the musical episode of Buffy. It won't be the same as when I first saw it, when I was blissfully unaware of what a giant creep Whedon is. The music and lyrics are the same, the writing hasn't changed. All that is different is that I know that I should probably know better.
Victor Catano lives in New York City with his wonderful wife, Kim, and his adorable pughuaua, Danerys. When not writing, he works in live theater as a stage manager, production manager, and chaos coordinator. His hobbies include coffee, Broadway musicals, and complaining about the NY Mets and Philadelphia Eagles. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @vgcatano and find his books on Amazon
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