This article was originally written for Modern Myths, INC. and was posted on December 1, 2012. This is a reproduction for portfolio purposes.
Anything you post on the internet is permanent. Even once you’ve deleted it, it’s still really there. With tools like Google Cache and the Library of Congress achieving tweets, all of which is fairly common knowledge, nothing can just disappear. And you think that industry people would know that, especially if they are involved pretty deeply in social media. Of course, actual knowledge is not mutually exclusive with the common sense that should be paired with internet use: just look at Rob Liefeld, Dan Slott, Guillem March, or any other number of comics industry figures that have made online faux pas (and there’s a lot).
So a small part of me feels that it’s no surprise that a distasteful, year old post by Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn has been dredged up. This post, now only accessible via Google Cache (WARNING FOR ADULT LANGUAGE), is a top 50 list of user voted superheroes with whom the general populous of Gunn’s blog would like to have sex.
(I’ll pause here so you can get the kids out of the room. It gets worse. WARNING FOR ADULT LANGUAGE)
Now, “top 50 superheroes you would sleep with,” that’s not an uncommon list. And, frankly, there’s nothing wrong with the concept. Who of us can truthfully say we have never had a crush on a comic character? I find it pretty unlikely that there is anyone out there that has never liked a fictional character a little more than they technically should. And it’s certainly not the actual list that I take issue with; it features both male and female characters and is fairly diverse, considering it is about comic book superheroes. What I take genuine insult to is Gunn’s commentary on many of the characters.
Many of his comments are simply distasteful: “I want to an***y do [Kitty Pryde]. I won’t even mind if Lockheed is in the room…” OR “Wouldn’t you want to look back and forth from [The Invisible Woman’s] pretty blonde face, to your p***s actually having an or***m inside of her v****a?!”
Others are definitively slut shaming: “[Black Widow has] f**ked half the men in the Marvel Universe, [so her place on the list] is much deserved].” OR “Being a teen mom and all, [Stephanie Brown] is easy.”
And the comment that raised the most taste would definitely be: “I’m hoping for a Marvel-DC crossover so that Tony Stark can ‘turn’ [Batwoman].”
Gunn’s comments on various superheroines (and heroes) range the gamut from misogynistic to offensive to distasteful to genuinely homophobic (he also refers to Gambit as a “Cajun fruit”). This is interesting because Guardians of the Galaxy is a comic that canonically features a prominent lesbian couple (who are notably not included in the roster for the movie. Is that Gunn’s choice, or Disney’s?).
Now Gunn is the director who Disney and Marvel specifically chose for the Guardians movie, and he has even been publicly endorsed by Joss Whedon, director of the Avengers and the upcoming sequel, as well as the upcoming ABC SHIELD show, so I think it is fair to be concerned. A number of fans claim they are boycotting the 2014 movie, while many others have started a letter writing campaign to Disney and Marvel Studios, asking that Gunn be removed from the project.
Likely due to the amount of outcry regarding the blog, and the fact that the Human Rights Campaign, one of the largest Gay rights groups, openly condemned the post, it was deleted and James Gunn subsequently issued a public apology. The apology appears sincere, but the most concerning thing about it is that Gunn claims that the post was intended to be “satirical and funny.” The post does not strike me as satire, but that is a matter of personal perception.
So, it’s certainly a good thing that Gunn apologized for his distasteful comments, but it’s also worrisome that he found those comments to be humorous in the first place. It will be interesting to see if this will affect the movie’s release, but based on the mercurial nature of the internet, this whole ordeal may be forgotten by the time August of 2014 rolls around.
I certainly don’t think I will forget.
Ellie Hillis 