Explore all the trashy behavior Joss Whedon has been accused of

Joss Whedon was geek royalty for many years, creating such series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and more. In recent years, however, Whedon has downgraded into the problematic territory. Accusations have surfaced with the most recent from Ray Fisher, who played Cyborg in 2017’s Justice League, saying that Whedon was abusive on set when he took over for Zack Snyder.

In recent years, however, this is not the least surprising thing to emerge about Whedon. So if you want to know all the trashy behavior that Joss Whedon has been accused of over the years. Here’s a quick and convenient rundown of what you should know. While Fisher “forcibly retracted” his statement. There are still a lot of others out there in the world.

Allegedly fired Charisma Carpenter over her pregnancy

Cordelia Chase was an integral part of Buffy and Angel over the course of both series. In season four of Angel, however, that’s when things got weird. Cordelia went evil and got pregnant with a goddess before going into a coma and dying in season five. It was an odd story, according to many. Carpenter, however, would later say that it was due to her pregnancy that she was essentially fired from Angel.

“I think Joss was, honestly, mad. I think he was mad at me and I say that in a loving way, which is — it’s a very complicated dynamic working for somebody for so many years, and expectations, and also being on a show for eight years, you gotta live your life. And sometimes living your life gets in the way of maybe the creator’s vision for the future. And that became a conflict, and that was my experience.”

As her relationship devolved with Whedon things got really tense behind the scenes.

“It wasn’t necessarily graceful on either side. So it was difficult, I think for them to accomplish what they needed to accomplish with a female lead in the position I was in but these things can be done and they have been done and they’ve been done gracefully in the past with other productions, I’m sure.”

Fake Feminist

Whedon’s ex-wife a couple years ago got real about his how he was a fake feminist and only used the ideology of feminism in order to conceal his infidelities. In an essay penned for The Wrap, Kai Cole wrote:

“He deceived me for 15 years, so he could have everything he wanted. I believed, everyone believed, that he was one of the good guys, committed to fighting for women’s rights, committed to our marriage, and to the women he worked with. But I now see how he used his relationship with me as a shield, both during and after our marriage, so no one would question his relationships with other women or scrutinize his writing as anything other than feminist.”

A rep for Whedon said that the essay was “inaccurate”, but that Whedon was not going to comment “out of respect for his ex-wife”.

That Wonder Woman script

A first draft script for a Wonder Woman movie written by Joss Whedon was leaked a while ago. And the internet has held onto it as reasons why Whedon should probably never be allowed near a female main character again. When he was briefly attached to the Batgirl movie, this script came up a lot.

Whedon described Diana as such “She is elemental, as natural and wild as the luminous flora surrounding. Her dark hair waterfalls to her shoulders in soft arcs and curls. Her body is curvaceous, but taut as a drawn bow … She is barefoot.”

It was…horny af and kind of skeevy af, very male gazey. It will make you feel like you need to scrub yourself before watching Patty Jenkins Wonder Woman. 

Whatever you want to call Black Widow’s plot in Age of Ultron

RIP for what he did to Black Widow in Avengers: Age of Ultron though. Remember how he equated her to being a “monster” because she couldn’t have kids? Yikes. 

Sure, a lot of that was in part due to the way the MCU in general was treating their female heroes at the time. But with the way Black Widow was portrayed in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, fans caught a glimpse of a female character with an actual personality!

Sadly, that was all wiped away with Avengers: Age of Ultron, when Joss Whedon really needed to add in the fact that part of Natasha’s training included being sterilized. No one needed the Hulk/Black Widow relationship to start, and making them closer because they’re both “monsters” is even stupider. 

—

Joss Whedon may be responsible for some of nerd cultures’ best properties, but he’s far from a saint. If anything, his mistakes helped others open their eyes to the trashy aspects of nerd culture and will help make this world a bit friendlier.