Joss Whedon Has Been Telling Us He's Toxic All Along

I have been re-watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because my pandemic self only wants to watch things I have already seen. Coincidentally I am also seeing all these stories about Joss Whedon and speculation that he is incredibly toxic. His facade of feminism has lasted him the span of his 30 year career with only a few hints at its faults in his public persona. That is if you don’t watch closely, the only direct evidence was the theories surrounding his firing Charisma Carpenter from angel. Angel, Giles, Spike, Xander, are all incredibly toxic men who get a supernatural write off.

All the male characters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer have a toxic alter ego. Angel/Angelus, Giles/Ripper, Spike. Xander has a plethora of stereotypically masculine traits that he collects to eventually become a competent character. Watching with skepticism through a feminist lens one begins to understand that though Whedon ideologically grasps the basic concepts of feminism, and maybe wants to be the type of person who is dismantling the patriarchy, at some point one has to accept that he lacks buy-in. Joss writes men who are endearing and warm, and supportive, and then makes them abusers. He has been telling us that he is duplicitous

Lets start with Angel. Angel is a vampire with a soul, a soul he can lose to become his alter ego Angelus. Angel is on the side of good, helping Buffy in her quest to vanquish evil. Angel, becomes Angelus when he and buffy have sex and he loses his soul. I cant even begin to unpack that storyline, older man has sex with high school girl, becomes volatile and abusive to her and everyone she knows. Only to return and still be a good guy, because he has his could back.

Rupert Giles, a kind gentle librarian who is Buffy's Watcher, basically a private tutor on slaying vampires. Giles also has a dark side in which he used to dabble in dark magic. Ripper his alter ego is a punk rock, dark magic, demon worshiping kind of guy. Giles is not as classically toxic as angel/Angelus, though it does demonstrate my point that Joss Whedon writes forgivable toxic men. What Giles does demonstrate is that this is a thread in the male characters on Buffy.

Oz being a nice guy and then a werewolf, demonstrates the same point. The wolf is who he is. Even though he is nice and smart and sensible, the wolf is always there and controls his impulses. This is a fact of Oz, not some external event that comes and goes with his emotions. Oz had to be bitten and become a werewolf.

The ultimate example is the scene in which Spike sexually assaults Buffy. Spike has been in love with Buffy for a few seasons at this point. He is being haunted by the First evil and Buffy is rejecting his advances, so he rapes her. Buffy and Spike are eventually able to reconcile their differences to a point, they vanquish the first evil and the character then does a crossover onto Angel. The whole thing is a plot device.

You can see this trend in numerous female characters as well, however there is one key difference. The toxicity of women on Buffy and Angel are usually a direct result of broken hearts. Anya, becomes a vengeance demon after being slighted by a man. Willow turns dark after Tara dies. In the reverse Darla gets pregnant despite being a vampire and she is impacted by the soul of her baby. The duplicity is decidedly something that happens to the female characters where as it is inherent in the male characters.

Joss Whedon may see himself as a feminist, he may resent his less favorable character traits, however he is not the feminist that he claims to be, and seeing as Buffy recently turned 20 years old, he has been informing us of that fact for a very long time. He sees women as needing super powers to engage with their toxic men, and men as having a duality that is ever present and even though the seem like harmless kittens they are soulless monsters.

I am not going to stop watching Buffy slay, just like I still eat nachos from taco bell its comfort food. I can hope for better and still enjoy what was in some regards. Right? I guess thats a conversation for another time. As people come forward with whatever happened on the set of Justice League, or other projects, lets all keep our jaws from dropping, he put it all out there for 30 years, we were just too busy being entertained to notice.