That Time Joss Whedon Called Himself a “Woke Bae”

For decades, Joss Whedon has been held up as a shining example of equality, a man who wrote some of the strongest female characters in television and movies. 1997’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the first of his projects to have a prominent female heroine, but he quickly followed up with strong women in 2002’s Firefly, and other projects. That’s why his fall from grace has been so shocking, but there were hints all along that Whedon wasn’t the hero he claimed to be.

In a scathing editorial published in August at The Wrap, Whedon’s ex-wife openly called him a hypocrite for having multiple affairs while married to her. Among other things, she said, “He used his relationship with me as a shield … so no one would question his relationships with other women or scrutinize his writing as anything other than feminist.”

That makes one of his previous comments particularly ridiculous. In March 2017, Whedon did an interview with The Hollywood Reporter where he explained how he had made huge strides *sarcasm* in feminism by pointing out his own flaws. At one point, he said, “I was definitely unaware of how things affected people, how representation was lacking. I thought, ‘We’re doing good here. People appreciate it’ [….] Then, later on, I would go … I didn’t help out. I didn’t make a point of hiring female directors. I didn’t make a point of hiring people of color. I didn’t think it through past where I had gotten. I wasn’t necessarily part of the solution. I was, say, right in the middle? […] I didn’t have the bandwidth to care about humans. I hope I treated people with respect, but I definitely missed some of the point. I was of that certain era. Of course now, I’m super woke. Such a woke bae.”

Yeah, Whedon actually called himself a “woke bae.”

In case you’re of the older generation who’s not down with the hip lingo of today’s youth, a “woke bae” is a male significant other who’s enlightened and progressive. Yes, a 53-year old white man used a term applied to 20-year olds, bragging about how “woke” he is while cheating on his wife. In other words, he’s Steve Buscemi on 30 Rock:

What do you think of Joss Whedon?

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