Black Widow Controversy

Joss Whedon has left Twitter due to the backlash he received for his portrayal of Natasha Romanoff A.K.A. Black Widow in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Apparently people are not happy that the first lady of the Avengers plotline involved a romance between her and Bruce Banner, a revelation made in her backstory and that she is captured by Ultron and saved by Banner. From a quick glance, that sounds rather stereotypical, but what these people seem to be missing is a thing called context. So let's talk about that. *Spoilers Ahead*

Let's start off with the Natasha/Bruce romantic sub-plot; I personally wasn't a fan of this plotline, but not because of anything on Natasha's part, in fact, that was the part that made the most sense to me. She's always surrounded herself with fighters and Bruce is the most powerful weapon in their arsenal who is a pacifist, of course that would draw her attention, it's something that she's never experienced before and someone who connects to her more emotionally than physically. I just didn't like it because they gave no reason for Bruce to be in love with her except for the fact it's Scarlett Johannson. Then there is the reveal that she can't actually have children because they sterilized her in training and refers to herself as a monster. Now some people take offense to her referring to herself as a monster because she's sterile, fair enough but i think it's been misinterpreted. She's an assassin who can't have kids, she's can only take life from this world and not give it, that's why she sees herself as a monster. But there are even some people who think this actually makes her character one dimensional because she's in love with Banner and cries about not having a family...so let me get this straight: Learning more about a characters backstory and putting them in a situation that they've never been in emotionally before and having a usually calm character get so invested in something that they actually cry about it...takes away from a character's development?

Finally the whole Natasha getting captured and held prisoner part of the film, again, context means a lot here, so why was Natasha captured in the first place? Because she was busy making sure the mission was a success, if she didn't put herself out into the firing line then the Avengers would have failed and her capture is the result of her own heroic actions. And yes then she get's captured even though that doesn't make sense, why doesn't Ultron just kill her? But regardless, once she's broken out by Banner, what does she do after that? Kick the crap out of like 200 of Ultron's minions, you know, because she's a badass.

But all of this is subjective reasoning to a subjective argument, if you disagreed with how Black Widow was characterised in this film, perfectly understandable. What isn't and what is completely unacceptable is all of the hate and insult that Joss has been recieving because of this CLICK HERE.

This isn't people expressing their dislike of the character's subplot, this is bullying, and even worse, this is people behaving like children, calling him names, threatening him and demanding things been done your way. If this is how you fight for change, then you don't deserve change because you are a horrible human being. Let's say Joss Whedon was sexist, racist, transphobic or any of the things people called him in these tweets (Which he's not) responding immaturely and resulting to name calling doesn't make you any better than him, this is kind of the key element that most humanitarians have been trying to teach for decades now, don't stoop to their level because it doesn't make you right, it makes you just as bad.

But no, Joss is not any of those things, i don't see how people can call him a sexist when he created one of the most empowering women on television Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and it's not just that one character, Willow, Faith, Anya, Zoe, River, Inara, he's written quite a few strong female characters in his time. And as for the transphobic remark, it's because he made a joke in an interview...someone needs to buy these people a dictionary and look up the word 'Joke'. And I have no idea where this racist thing came from, I guess when people like to exaggerate, they really like to exaggerate.

My point is, if you didn't like Black Widow's character, that's fine, although if you really think this film was entirely in his control then you don't know the first thing about filmmaking and no matter what, responding with this much hate and immature behaviour does not make you an activist or a SJW, it makes you a bully.

-Danny