Right on the heels of premiering his film Age of Ultron, director and screenwriter Joss Whedon has quit Twitter. The film drew harsh criticism from feminists, who believed, with good cause, that the portrayal of Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow is misogynistic, sexist, and not at all up to the standard of strong female characters that Whedon often claims he writes. That wasn’t all he received. With harsh but justified criticism, came less well-worded tweets. Insults, veritable hate, abuse that didn’t come close to useful or constructive feedback, and death threats. Whedon told Buzzfeed it is the latter, not the former (the angry feminists), that played a factor in his leaving Twitter.
However, this isn’t an examination of Whedon’s feminism, Black Widow’s characterization and other failings in Age of Ultron, if he really faced actual hate and abuse, who’s fault it really is, if he did leave because of outraged feminists, whether Whedon’s comments are simply damage control, and the factors that led to his leaving. Heck, this isn’t even about media outlets’ tendencies to label any out-of-control fans as “feminists” and “female fans” but to term them simply “fans” when feminist criticism is worded in an even-handed manner.
This is about fandom and social media.
There’s a darker side of fandom that celebs are usually sheltered from until they go online. Some fans like to pick fights or insult celebs at the lowest level. Others just want constant attention. —Bonnie Burton, CNET, “Why You Should Care When Celebs Quit Twitter”
In the wake of Whedon’s departure, I’ve seen many celebrate it across Twitter and Tumblr, claiming “We did it!” and “Victory!” To put it mildly, that sort of mentality saddens me. This sort of celebration makes discussion and critique more about a point-scoring contest that proves one is “socially aware” rather than bringing to light certain flaws in a particular media text and its creator and asking they improve and do better. Because of this, what we have on Twitter and Tumblr is a toxic environment that functions as an echo chamber. It becomes a hunt intended to run down the work or creator as opposed to being critical of it and attempting to change media for the better. Instead, discussion becomes about being totally right, about shouting down the offending party, about employing insults and hate instead of rationality.
Harsh criticism does have its place, when not peppered with profanities or death threats or capslock or exclamation point slamming.
Reviewers’ frustrations with this movie are well founded, primarily because they tap into a broader frustration with the way movies, especially action movies, treat female characters. The Twitter rage, by way of contrast, shows what happens when you take a complex debate, zero in on one movie’s participation, and then condense reactions to 140 characters. —Laura Bradley, Slate, “No, Feminists Didn’t Chase Joss Whedon Off Twitter.”
That is truly what people who feel the need to disregard their own tone are doing. They’re, in the end, destroying our ability to criticize–even harshly if that’s what is necessary, harshly but respectfully worded–those works and creators we feel could do better. Should do better. As well-intentioned as creators may be, they’re not perfect, especially considering most of the big name filmmakers are white, heterosexual, cis males. If the other communities, those who have been marginalized and struggle for proper representation, feel a creator has done or written something offensive, they were able to reach out and properly inform them. Those who truly are trolls and hateful have taken away that ability. So now creators, even those who have good intentions and truly wish to create open-minded and inclusive media, become that much farther from community feedback in an age where it should be easier to inform content creators, including high profile ones, when and where they are unknowingly and inadvertently stepping on toes.
If it continues in this way, all good and useful criticism will be drowned out in the shouts of abuse and hate. To criticise a media text is to bear in mind that one has to adopt a respectful tone, that one catches more with honey than vinegar, that one does not always know better, that on the internet things spiral out of control so easily because of toneless plain text.
If we wish to keep our ability to reach out to content creators, we need to bear in mind the way we phrase that critique. Creators, very often in my experience, are open to respectfully offered criticism. Insults, hate, abuse, and death threats are never acceptable. Not over any issue, not toward anyone, and especially not over a piece of fictional media.
