seidrade replied to your post “seidrade replied to your post “spikedbat:

joss whedon: loki…”

I haven’t followed much of what’s going on with accusations against him but I’m sure it’s not great. Unfortunately right now we’re in this great societal quandary over whether we accept the art and artist as separate entities or not. And right now I think we’re simultaneously claiming the author has less authority over the work and the meaning lies with those interpreting it— yet the work is punished for the sins of the creator when they go down in flames. It’s a strange paradox.

Well, so far there haven’t been any actual sexual harassment or assault accusations, as far as I know. It’s mostly problems with his depictions of women and their roles, and then what his ex-wife said about him (that he described himself as being constantly tempted by “desperate” young women “throwing themselves at him”).

I’m no slavering “death of the author” deconstructionist, but I do think that works of art can be separated from parts of the author’s life that aren’t related to the content of the work. It gets messier when the work seems to justify the creator’s sins, as with some of Woody Allen’s films (Manhattan and Irrational Man, I gather, both apologize for older men who become involved with very young women). I also think that you can object to some components of a work (the characterization of Black Widow in the Avengers films, perhaps – though I think I don’t have as much of a problem with it as some people) while still appreciating others. Unfortunately, people on this site seem to have difficulty with nuance, moral ambiguity, and partial judgments – there’s a lot of black-and-white, all-or-nothing thinking (or moral rigorism, as the philosophers put it).