That is good news under bad circumstances, Tep.

The vulture story was covered on npr. [link]

Her summary is kind of where my head is now:

CHANG: Well, I mean, a lot of Joss Whedon's work has these deeply devoted fandoms, right? Like, whole fan communities have sprung up around "Buffy" and "Firefly." How have his fans reacted to all these allegations?

SHAPIRO: I think that there's a real urge to try to write him out of the narrative specifically. Like, looking at "Buffy," you know, and I'm a fan of "Buffy," I mean, that - it was a very important show to me, and that's why I was interested in writing this piece to begin with. When he was sort of cast by us as this feminist hero, we were thinking that like, oh, he brought Buffy to life. He gave us Buffy, you know. And not necessarily thinking, well, he also showed us that the world is full of monsters. And most of those monsters are men. And most of those monsters want to destroy Buffy, kill her, try to rape her, endlessly brutalize her. I mean, that's in his brain, too, you know.

I think that was where I was going on Facebook. But I don’t want to minimize his actions- but when I said I don’t think he understood what he was writing, I was specifically thinking of Spike- where in his mind he was writing this thing where of course he didn’t have a soul and therefore had to rape Buffy and then get a soul to be redeemed. But I think some of the writers and fans were seeing it as a love redemption arc. (Which is why that costume for the Buffy Bot was great, because Spike’s perfect Buffy is not sexbot Buffy)

I was specifically thinking of Spike- where in his mind he was writing this thing where of course he didn’t have a soul and therefore had to rape Buffy and then get a soul to be redeemed.

Right. Aside from all the instances of rape/sexbot/mind control that recur in his work (which are numerous), I'm now more conscious of his wrestling with that narratively. (Don't worry, this isn't his redemption arc.)

I'm certain in his mind there was something like, "Writers need to go to dark places. That's where the good stuff is." That's basically how he pitched Firefly to Tim (with a horrible rape/murder of Inara by Reavers planned in S2).

He's Spike, he's Warren/Andrew/Jonathan, he's Topher, he's Mr. Universe in Serenity, he's Xander's resentment /entitlement.

The comparison to Louis CK stuck with me, because I remember watching an earlier comedy special of his where he said something like, "I can't look at this rental car agent without imagining wrapping her long hair around my dick and jerking off in her face" - and I was like, "Whoa! He thinks that's how every guy operates, and he thinks he's being edgy but he's wayyyyy past that edge."

When the whole Spike has a soul so now he is redeemed thing was going on and we kept hearing "Spike has a soul" come up for, I wanted once for someone to say "Warren has a soul!"

I really want Joss to go away and not be involved in any thing. I hope no one tries to even give him a writing job because no matter what he touches he's going to infuse it with his themes and just do a retread of what he's already overdone and/or that is icky like his take on Black Widow or another River/Drucilla type ,etc.

What a delightful Time to be surprise awake.

I'm glad Tim will be able to visit his father in reasonable safety, Steph.

I wanted once for someone to say "Warren has a soul!"

Yes, this. Lot's of people who've done horrible things have souls. Suggesting that evil acts are the provenance of Monsters(tm) just makes dealing with regular people's evil harder. I prefer Pratchett's approach where he talks about a man who tortured someone in a dungeon for hours and a man who gave charity to a beggar and how they were the same man.

JK Rowling is another example, though without the gender complication. She does lots of charitable stuff. She's also a TERF. Do I take all of the Harry Potter references out of my speech? She already got my money from the books and the movies. There's no way around the fact that she had, and continues to have, huge influence. Should charities turn down her money?

Welcome to my early morning sleepy rambles.

The Joss article has me depressed thinking about my own self-loathing, and the things I do to sabotage myself, and how implacable it seems.

The Joss article has me depressed thinking about my own self-loathing, and the things I do to sabotage myself, and how implacable it seems.

Huge difference here: Joss used his issues as an excuse for why he was unable to stop himself from treating people like things and abusing them. You don't. You DON'T. And that difference is enormous. It's everything.