Whedon is a feminist, not sexist: Ruffalo
Everyone’s favourite big green monster Mark Ruffalo says his Avengers director Joss Whedon is not sexist - in fact he’s a committed feminist.
Ruffalo, who plays the Incredible Hulk in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, has come to Whedon’s side after fans called him “misogynistic” because of how he depicts Scarlett Johansson’s character Black Widow in the film.
Whedon quit Twitter this week after receiving reams of vicious social media comments ranging from “Is a strong female character not in your vocabulary?” to “we all hate you“, “fight me” and “never touch Marvel again”.
But in a Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’ session overnight Ruffalo strongly defended the claims, saying Whedon is an advocate for women.
“He’s a deeply committed feminist,” Ruffalo wrote.
“And the guys one of the sweetest, best guys - as far as any man can be a champion for women, he is that.”
Ruffalo said the anger hurled at the filmmaker was “misplaced“, and that it stems from the need for more female superheroes.
“The guys (superheroes) can do anything - they can have love affairs, they can be weak or strong and nobody raises an eyebrow,“ he wrote.
“But when we do that with a woman, because there are so few storylines for women, we become hypercritical of every single move that we make because there’s not much else to compare it to.”
Meanwhile, Whedon himself has blasted suggestions he quit Twitter because of the backlash, saying he instead left the microblogging site just to have some peace and quiet while writing.
“That’s horse***t. Believe me, I have been attacked by militant feminists since I got on Twitter. That’s something I’m used to,“ Whedon told US site BuzzFeed.
“I just thought, ’Wait a minute, if I’m going to start writing again, I have to go to the quiet place’. And this (Twitter) is the least quiet place I’ve ever been in my life.”
Whedon’s depiction of Black Widow garnered attention last month when Avengers stars Jeremy Renner and Chris Evans joked that the female superhero was a “slut” in a promotional interview. They later apologised.
