Joss Whedon Quit Twitter to Work, Not Because of Scary Feminists

When Joss Whedon quit Twitter last week, many speculated that it was because of criticism he was receiving about the latest Avengers movie, which he wrote and directed. But now, in a lengthy interview with BuzzFeed, Whedon says that any analysis (including some from Patton Oswalt) that he did so because people were yelling at him about the role Black Widow plays in the film is “horseshit.”

Our friends at io9 have carefully summed up the issues that some have had with Black Widow in the Avengers: Age of Ultron, but in brief: critics of the movie are upset because, in a world where there are few woman superheroes depicted in movies, Black Widow isn’t portrayed particularly progressively or interestingly in the film. It’s been seen as a missed opportunity, and a disappointment.

After the “backlash” to the movie began, Whedon’s decision to stop tweeting seemed, to some, to be obviously connected to so-called angry feminists tweeting at him about the movie. But Whedon told BuzzFeed that as was the case with the last time he quit Twitter, that isn’t so. He just needed a break.

“Believe me, I have been attacked by militant feminists since I got on Twitter. That’s something I’m used to. Every breed of feminism is attacking every other breed, and every subsection of liberalism is always busy attacking another subsection of liberalism, because god forbid they should all band together and actually fight for the cause.

He also went on to add that rumors that he and Anita Sarkeesian are sparring aren’t true, which she confirmed on Twitter as well.

And he continued to wax on about feminism and liberalism, as he’s done before:

“I’ve said before, when you declare yourself politically, you destroy yourself artistically,” he said. “Because suddenly that’s the litmus test for everything you do — for example, in my case, feminism. If you don’t live up to the litmus test of feminism in this one instance, then you’re a misogynist. It circles directly back upon you.”