Whatever the reasons for Whedon quitting Twitter (yet again), it’s clear the discourse around Avengers: Age of Ultron has reached a vile tipping point. That’s not OK.

But assholes on Twitter shouldn’t distract us from having a real conversation about this, so we’re going to talk about Black Widow... like adults.

A lot has gone wrong with the way Black Widow has been treated in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — before, during, and after Age of Ultron. There were signs before the movie premiered that the studio and even Scarlett Johansson’s co-stars weren’t willing — or able — to take the character seriously.

Once the movie came out, there were a metric ton of problems with how the character’s story arc was presented. And after everyone digested all that, the backlash started. A backlash that seemed centered on Joss Whedon as a person, and not on having a real discussion about the movie.

I’m done. This sucks, because I loved the X-Men with the fierce love of a thousand suns when I discovered them lo those two-decades-plus ago. It also sucks because some parts of Marvel movies are fun, and it’s possible for film directors and Marvel to do these things right.

Instead, we get nineteen overwhelmingly sausage-fest movies, no movie starring a female superhero in sight, the old double standard (Stark or Star Lord can be playboys and it’s fun and funny, but any woman who MIGHT sleep with someone is a whore!) married to rape jokes both onscreen and off, and women reduced to receptacles once again.

And, cherry on this shit pie, people label Whedon a feminist.

Fuck this noise. I’m done.
http://www.lilithsaintcrow.com/journal/no-avengers-for-me/