Trouble In Paradise: Shitty Things About The Whedon-verse

So I was reading over at Shapely Prose and came upon Snarky's Machine talking about the importance of discussing the problematic aspects of things that you actually like (pop culture-wise). She mentions that it's pretty much just shooting fish in a barrel to point out what's wrong with shit you hate. I can see how one might be tempted to ignore those moments that conflict with our personal principles when it comes to our favorite things. So I decided to talk about something that is deeply troubling to me about one of my favorite things. Namely, the super shitty attitude displayed towards gay men in the Whedon-verse.



Sigh. I hate to say it, but for all of Joss Whedon's awesome female characters (Buffy, Willow, Kennady, Zoe, Inara, Kaylee what uuup!), and fairly matter-of-fact treatment of lesbians and lesbian relationships, the few times there are gay men up in the 'verse, things tend to go tits up.

Thinking back to the days of early B:tVS, remember when the werewolves (which turned out to be SPOILER WARNING: Oz) first arrived and started committing their mischief? The Scoobies thought it was this one particularly skeevy and aggressively misogynist classmate, Larry. Larry is seen earlier in the episode smacking co-eds bums and cat calling in the Sunnyvale High halls. Larry is a jerk. So the Gang splits up to confront their were-suspects, and Xander talks to Larry. Through some plot contrivance that I can no longer recall, Larry thinks Xander is giving him an out to, well, come out. So he tells Xander that he's gay and that he's relieved to have someone to talk to, so he doesn't have to continue the dude-bro charade with the co-eds' bums. Naturally, Xander's reaction is to be put-off and grossed out! Because gays are gross. And while men and straight women can appreciate a sexy, performative lesbian couple (see for reference: "I'll be in my bunk" and Kaylee's wide eyed curiosity), dudes are not in any way allowed to be accepting or comfortable around gay men. You know, the buttsex, amirite fellas?

Fast forward to the seasons with the Trio, AKA Andrew, Warren and Jonathon. Jonathon is a long-term character dating back to the series' beginning, and Warren is a pretty good villain, so what do we do with Andrew? Well, according to Word of God, Tom Lenk's own "fey" behaviour led him to write Andrew as A Gay. It made for some Freudian slip moments regarding exactly how Andrew feels about his boss. The fact that Andrew never quite comes to terms with his sexuality is apparently a source of nonstop lolz for Joss. I find that kinda shitty, as a queer woman who took a long time to learn to accept what I was seeing in myself. I never really considered my inner turmoil all that funny.

One last shot, for hardcore Whedonites or Firefly fans. Hark back to the unaired "Heart of Gold". The crew visits a brothel owned by Inara's long time friend, and when Kaylee inquires about the male prostitutes, and whether they service women-folk, Wash deadpans "let's not ask". FROWN. But again, the buttsecks! Ewwwwwww! Hahaha!

So, in conclusion, I love a lot of things about Joss Whedon's work, but I hate the way he is a dick to the man gays. The Boyfriend posits that embracing lesbians is a good way to seem progressive without really going out of your boundaries to get behind lifestyles that you don't understand. Get some gay in there without alienating your male audience. I would say that this is pretty possible from the standpoint of the networks who produce his work (why keep going back to fucking Fox? Inconceivable.), but I would like to think that he is less manipulative than that as a person, and maybe just a little less aware of the message he's putting out with these throwaway lines and incidents.