ahem

[lirazel]

OH HEY JOSS WHEDON I SEE YOU THERE DENYING A WOMAN AGENCY OVER HER OWN BODY AGAIN. AND I AM NOT EVEN SURPRISED. BUT I REMAIN DISGUSTED NONETHELESS.

Seriously, sometimes I feel like this guy is a Gnostic and thinks the body is just straight-up evil or something and needs to be punished, except he seems to mostly apply this insane troll logic to women, so he isn't even consistent.

Ugh.

Comments

[gryfndor-godess.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure the twist would even bug me that much (provided Buffy got her agency back and destroyed the asshole who took it from her, etc.) if it weren't for the way Joss bragged so much recently about writing an abortion plotline. He said she would have an abortion. He got press for it. He probably made sales from it. He's lauded as a progressive, feminist hero.

And it's quite probable he was lying.

I can't spell out how disgusting and sleazy that is.

Even if I enjoyed the comics' plot in and of themselves as interesting sci-fi/fantasy stories (because in a vacuum, without all the icky implications, the robot thing could actually be really neat), I think Joss is going to ruin it for me. Or at least, make me very, very bitter.

[ruuger]

if it weren't for the way Joss bragged so much recently about writing an abortion plotline.

Yes, this. Now it just comes across like him using feminist issues (and current political situation) to increase the sales on his comic. Not cool, Joss. Not cool.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't know how he'll dig his way out of this one.

[angearia.livejournal.com]

WORD

I think he just figured out a way to write a story where Buffy decides to have an abortion but then CANNOT because her body's out of her control. I get it, this is the political situation right now. But seriously?

It's just... THIS IS NOT YOUR NIGHTMARE, JOSS. STOP WRITING IT LIKE IT'S YOUR NIGHTMARE.

And actually, I think in all likelihood Andrew did it because Joss' nightmare is being the guy who does this to a woman. So it's just really skeevy all around. And I'd be more okay with reading this, but I feel like I've read this Joss story SO MANY TIMES over and over again.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Over and over and over again.

Also: is he trying to ruin ANDREW for me now, too? I do not understand. I like Andrew!

[gryfndor-godess.livejournal.com]

Me, too! I don't want Andrew to go bad (again) the way Jonathan and Amy did (I'm still mad at Joss for those). I hate how the comics are regressing so many characters. :(

[sintonia.livejournal.com]

This is all about his nightmares, from the day he gave that interview is all about pushing messages about characters because he is frustrated. And I'm an open person and I want abortion legal in my country but that does not mean I want to go through something like that in my life. That's too much pain to carry, it stays with you forever, every moment of your life, in every relationship that you try, I just wanted something better for Buffy. It is not about abortion, it's about choosing something for your life not being pushed by Joss Whedon to choose and then, take it off because he needs to show his frustration. Oh, and she is a robot, maybe I lost my ability to die of laughter, but gross.

There are so many mistakes, I can barely order my mind to talk about them, but all I need to know now is why no one tells me what happened with my Spike, this is frustrating for me, what the hell is going on here, he has lost all ability to feel the beat of a heart? not even realize that there is no blood running through there, there's no baby even when he touch her ​​stomach, omg wtf! WHY? and then, how come there is no baby at all. And please, don't tell me "he knows and talks to a robot all those things" or I'll shoot me here.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree--I don't like when writers get all polemic-minded with their writing to the point where it overtakes the story, and that seems to be what Joss has done here, and I don't get it, and I don't like. Gross.

And yeah, I don't think there's a way to fanwank the Spike-didn't-know thing to have it make sense.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I am just DONE with him when it comes to anything have to do with A) sex or B) women's bodies. Like I said in your post, when he stays away from those things, he can create some pretty great stories. But when he goes there, he ALWAYS goes wrong.

So I totally see where you're coming from.

[prophecygirrl.livejournal.com]

Cripes, yes. Even if I wanted to buy into this whole "BUFFY IS DENIED AN ABORTION AND SEE HOW WRONG THAT IS?" metaphor that some people have proposed for this, I can't.

Because, he's lost all street cred with me when it comes to women's agency.


thinks the body is just straight-up evil or something and needs to be punished, except he seems to mostly apply this insane troll logic to women


I want to say that this is a thematic "fetish" -- it's not excatly the right word, but its the only one that comes to mind. I honestly do not think he's even aware of it. But...isn't there another way to prove a point, if proving a point is what you really want to do? Like, actually let her HAVE the abortion? That would be brave. Show her living with a grave but necessary choice, knowing it was right for her.

*sigh*

[sockmonkeyhere.livejournal.com]

I think Whedon makes announcements to the press that his Buffy comics are going to TACKLE A VERY IMPORTANT ISHOO (such as abortion) simply to get publicity...while knowing full well that the important ishoo comic isn't going to actually be seen until several weeks later, and that the press will have forgotten about it by then and never actually read it, and thus will never discover that Whedon fed them a line of bullshit and didn't really explore the ishoo at all.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

You are so right on the money about that one.

I am really tired of Whedon waving his "look I'm a feminist go me!" card in the air when so much about the comics (I haven't seen any of his tv series other than BtVS) is utterly anti-feminist - and really, just plain cruel. (It bothers me just as much or even more when women proclaim him a feminist, because of Buffy. Ok fine, but what have you done for me lately? It reminds me a bit of when some feminists rallied around Bill Clinton back in the day while completely ignoring Monica Lewinsky; the silence of feminists and other women fed into the idea that it was acceptable for the media to brandish her a "slut".)

Some of what Joss puts Buffy and other characters through is verging on torture porn, for me (of a soft-core variety); and I know I'll be called to the carpet for hyperbole with that remark.

I've read about how much sales of the comics have dropped since they first started coming out - is there any way to ascertain how much of that drop is related to gender (in other words, is it mostly female readers who stopped buying or is it more "across the board"? I suppose that's impossible to know unless the comics stores were recording the gender of each buyer, which is absurd of course.)