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Who is Joss Whedon?

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Joss Whedon: Self Proclaimed Modern Feminist in Pop Culture

The pretty little blond is innocent and vulnerable. The handsome jock looks less trustworthy in the eyes of the audience than he seems to to the pretty little blond. She follows him away from the crowd to a dark room where no one can hear her...she is going into danger. We sit in the audience trying to convince her to stay where she was, don't follow this guy, he is clearly up to no good. We know this because we have seen it many, many times in so many movies. This is always what happens and our hearts are beating faster.

But then, well, this is the first scene in Joss Whedon's 7 season classic, Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series. The cute little blond is Darla, the 400 year old vampire and well, whatever the big guy had on his mind, now he knows only fear, fear of the cute little blond.

Joss Whedon has always wanted to reverse the curse, to see the vulnerable blond become the strong one. Most of his female characters are basically good, but complex. Even Anya, the vengence demon turned mortal had some layers, even though her view of the world was pretty black and white.

Whedon eventually got to do a Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, but the studio execs couldn't really buy into the concept so it had to be a silly exploitation film. A cult classic to be sure, but not the Buffy we know.

Through perseverance he eventually sold the show to Fox. It started at mid season went into 5 seasons at Fox, was canceled and went to the WB for two more seasons. It spawned the show Angel which had a male star but two regular strong women, Cordelia and Fred with a host of other great women characters.

After these shows ended he produced Firefly which was Gunsmoke meets Star Trek . By this time we were all so used to his wonderful female characters that it wasn't really an issue. However, the network that treated the show shabbily, may have been threatened.

The picture is of Joss Whedon and Allison Hanigan. She portrayed Willow, perhaps more of a symbol of Whedon's feminism than Buffy. She started as a mousy little high school girl, but he saw that many levels that others didn't. This was most evident when he hid her in an Eskimo suit when all other girls were wearing sexy Halloween costumes. It was she who Oz spotted and loved. Later she turned into a very powerful and complex witch who happened to be a Lesbian. Talk about evolution!

Contents at a Glance

The Wonderful Joss Whedon "Equality...
Joss Whedon on Strong Women Characters
Four reasons to love Joss Whedon
Even In Angel, With a Male Protagonist:...
Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku on the &quo...
Quick, what do you think of Joss Whedon?

The Wonderful Joss Whedon "Equality Now Speech" A MUST SEE!

You must listen to this speech! I repeat YOU MUST LISTEN TO THIS SPEECH!

Joss Whedon is tired of being asked why he writes such strong female characters and wants to know why they aren't asking everyone else, "Why aren't you writing strong female characters?"

Important!

Joss Whedon on Strong Women Characters

Joss Whedon is tired of being asked why he writes such strong female characters and wants to know why they aren't asking everyone else, "Why aren't you writing strong female characters?"

Four reasons to love Joss Whedon

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer saved the world over and over, could fight the strongest vampire to the death and was still a girl we could all identify with.

2. Cordelia Chase evolved from being a 'mean girl' in high school to a multi-dimentional woman who saved the world and still looked out for herself.

3. Faith the Vampire Slayer went to Hell and back, and eventually redeemed herself with her strength.

4. He is one of the most talented screen writers to ever reach Hollywood. His stories are not just political, psychological, sociological, but they are beyond being entertaining and engrossing.

And these are merely three of the wonderful women he created and breathed life into. They are all women who are as real as they are fantasy.

Even In Angel, With a Male Protagonist: There Was Fred a Tiny Woman Who Kicked Butt

Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku on the "Doll House"

He continues to turn the 'poor little victim' type into the strong heroine.

Quick, what do you think of Joss Whedon?

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Into Each Generation Is A Choosen One

Firefly Was One of Whedon's Most Creative Ventures Where Is Was Assumed Women Would Be Strong

Shout Out For Joss Whedon!

Share your stories, sightings, thoughts, rants, raves...

Reply

7Suze7 Feb 10, 2011 @ 5:58 am | delete

Neat guy, I'll have to go watch his shows

Reply

mysticmama Jan 5, 2011 @ 10:10 pm | delete

Love Joss! I think he's the Shakespere of our times x 100 ~ I've watched Buffy & Angel so many times the DVD's are worn out, and I'm still mad the Dollhouse was cancelled ~ can't wait to see what he does next! ~ Blessed >*

Reply

Othercat Jan 5, 2011 @ 9:11 pm | delete

I've always loved him. The only show I wasn't completely addicted to was Dollhouse, but that's because I've never been a big Eliza Dushku fan. He portrays the type of woman we all wish we could be. Strong, outgoing and still looking great even after killing 7 vampires!

Reply

darciefrench Jan 5, 2011 @ 8:31 pm | delete

Never heard of Joss Whedon, but can relate to appreciating women vampire slayers and strong women in general- great lens topic -:)

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rgasperson Jan 5, 2011 @ 3:11 pm | delete

This man is a Genious, except for his need to keep working with Fox

Reply

sousababy Jan 5, 2011 @ 8:16 am | delete

Margo, I have never done this before...this is lensrolled to EVERY one of my lenses. This is OVER the top and I plan on featuring your lens in mine (will let you know where). Thank you, you just put wind back in my sails. Fondly, Rose

Reply

BigGirlBlue Nov 21, 2010 @ 9:04 pm | delete

JW rocks! Rocks I tell you!

Reply

Flynn_the_Cat Oct 15, 2010 @ 8:39 pm | delete

Awesomeness :D lensrolled this on all my Buffy, Angel and Firefly lenses!

Reply

julcal Mar 28, 2009 @ 10:06 am | delete

Margo, as you know, I don't watch any TV, so I don't know this guy, but this is a great lens! It made me interested in Josh, brought out who he is and actually made me interested in a series with a name like "Buffy the Vampire Killer" ? Yep, after reading this lens, I would even watch !

So... 5* and all that stuff!

Reply

cjjc Mar 28, 2009 @ 10:01 am | delete

:) I never saw any of these shows - i must have missed that era somehow or another :)

Nevertheless, the lens is GREAT!

5*, a tweet and a FAV !

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Great Lenses on Joss Whedon and His Work!

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer

If you have seen Buffy, you will want to have this to relive all the wonderful episodes.

But if you haven't seen it, you are in for a major treat.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Complete Series (Seasons 1-7) (2010) 39 Disc

Amazon Price: $117.48 (as of 06/02/2012)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer isn't just the story of a strong female who leads her gang to save the world week after week. It is also the story of everything we all endured in high school. It is the quintessential coming of age story.

There was the story about the girl who was ignored by so many people that she became invisible and began to get revenge. Joss Whedon was going to air a story about a bullied boy who was going to shoot himself in a bell tower, but Columbine happened just days before so he pulled it. Joss Whedon knows the issues.

Angel

Angel: The Complete Series (Collector's Set)

Amazon Price: $99.88 (as of 06/02/2012)

Angel, the vampire who Buffy loved, realizes that he cannot continue the relationship for both of their sakes. He loves to LA to save the city and the planet.

Even though Angel has a male as its main character, it is wonderful to watch the selfish, mean girl, Cordelia, evolve into a complex, giving, but strong woman!