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When I was 17/18, I thought Joss Whedon was what feminism looked like. It was a huge, fucking embarrassing thing to unlearn. I thought him masking ego with self-deprecation made him seem right and smart, not even noticing then that there WAS no self-deprecation, only more ego.
In college, I first heard about Charisma's firing over her pregnancy on ANGEL and I was stunned. It immediately changed the way I looked at works that I thought were untouchable and somehow immune to criticism, because I was a teenage fanboy.
Fuck, I basically CHOSE where I went to college because it offered a course on BUFFY. And I loved it, not simply because it was a college class on my favorite show of all time, but it let me see it through a lens I desperately needed to look through.
Spike's attempted assault, Tara's death, Xander... well, all of Xander. My favorite show of all time did a lot of things wrong. It's still my favorite show of all time, still my favorite world to go back to, but it was not immune to criticism, because nothing is.
BUFFY, it sounds stupid to say, honestly saved my life, probably on more than one occasion. And I know a lot of fans of that world have been over Whedon for a long time. Teenage me thought he was some kind of god, because he created my favorite characters and worlds.
When the truth is, most of the best ideas and episodes weren't even his. If it were up to Whedon, Spike would have been a cowboy and Angel would have been an actual angel named Angel trying to commit enough good deeds to be let into Heaven.
I think it *is* important to have inspirations in writing, but idolization is different. Do not ever treat any thing or person as infallible. The second you decide someone is immune to criticism, that they'll never be wrong, it's over. That's how fans become mobs.
That's how you get people attacking anyone who condemns their idol, lashing out at any accusation, because on some level they obviously know it's right. Whedon's been a red flag for so long and it's not gonna change until fans stop looking at that flag and insisting it's a cape.
