Comments on: Joss Whedon Interview – Cue Laugh Track

By: Rodney

Rodney — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:11:58 +0000

I think he isn’t so much talking about females in lead roles but actually having females playing the STRONG lead of a show. Lucy was still a second rate citizen always fearing the wrath of Ricky if her stay at home housewife roles were interupted by her antics.

Mary Tyler Moore was certainly a strong female lead, but she was still presented carefully as a second rate citizen because of her gender. She worked at a TV station and was in a secretarial role, while a man ran the show with a male anchor on TV. Sure she was independent, but still was limited as to what she could do.

Joss doesn’t claim to be a trailblazer, but he is doing his part making females in strong leadership roles.

By: DFav

DFav — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:18:50 +0000

I like a lot of what Whedon says, but the TV comment makes no sense. Mary Tyler Moore had arguably the most popular sitcom of the ’70s. And isn’t the Lucy Show the most important sitcom ever? That was in the ’50s. For at least the last 40 years the “father” figure of sitcoms has been the most maligned for story purposes (everything from the bumblings of Homer Simpson back to the ignorance of Archie Bunker). I don’t see where women on TV have gotten the short end of the stick (ba-dum-dum). Maybe Whedon wants to make himself out to be some kind of a pioneer with Buffy or something. Since he based the character on how Kitty Pryde was portrayed in X-Men comics from the ’70s, I don’t see Whedon as a trailblazer.

By: Cinexcellence

Cinexcellence — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 15:56:19 +0000

“There’s plenty of cool comics with female characters… But all it takes is one Catwoman to set the cause back a decade.”

Brilliant.