Less spoiler-rific AVENGERS comment, about Joss Whedon's Problem

[xiphias]

Yeah. The movie doesn't pass the Bechdel Test. At all.

See, this is the disappointing thing about Joss Whedon. He so totally wants to be a feminist. But he just . . . misses. And I feel so bad for him. I'm always rooting for him to get it right, because he WANTS to get it right, and WE want him to get it right and he just doesn't.

He's got multiple female characters with agency. It would be so easy to actually put some of them in the same room at the same time and talk about things, other than men, that move the plot forward. But he doesn't. Even though he writes female characters with agency, they're usually interacting with men, reacting to men. His worlds are patriarchal, even though it's not his intention, or his desire, and he WANTS to do better.

Please, Joss. Get it right. You want to. We want you to. It just hurts that you don't. We're pulling for you, Joss! Please.

Comments

[sethg]

Whedon’s work, for all its many virtues, has a big dollop of Nice Guy™ wish-fulfillment fantasy, which I, as a recovering Nice Guy™, can’t help noticing. Example: In Firefly/Serenity, the prostitutes’ guild that Inara belongs seems to have near-monopoly power over the trade, and that power is exercised for the benefit of the prostitutes rather than their clients (in one episode it’s made clear that mistraeating a prostitute can get someone blackballed by the guild), in a system whose government doesn’t demonstrate a great deal of concern for the welfare of workers in any other kind of job. It’s Certified Organic Fair Trade Prostitution!