In the words of Bette Midler: Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.

#NotAllComicsFans

I agree with the writer's point, but he's an asshole for what he says about comics and those who read them. Apparently he is invested too, or he would not have cared enough to write this. Oh, unless he's guilty of "supposed outrage" too? Nahh, couldn't be, surely.

At least Renner and Evans are in on the joke. I don't know if a feminist could make an entertaining comic book. They'd be too busy proselytizing.

My apology would be "I'm sorry you don't like the joke." Make your own movie if you don't like this one.

MarkD has a great point: This would have been an perfect occasion for a leftist-type "I'm sorry you feel that way" apologia. I'm going to remember that.

Most of the comic-book industry is very leftist and PC these days. That's being driven mainly by Marvel Comics, which is the 800-lb gorilla of the industry, sucks all of the air out of the room for anyone else (aside from, to an extent, anime) and is populated with Leninists. They've pretty much destroyed all of the classic properties they inherited from the Marvel-DC merger, and under their influence, every new superhero movie turns out to be crappier than the last one.

Two observations: 1. I would be leery of any adult who is still obsessively reading comic books. 2. I would be leery of anyone of any age who is emotionally tied to fictional comic book characters.

My apology would be "I'm sorry you don't like the joke."

Rennet basically said that and it made people angrier.

I would be leery of anyone of any age who is emotionally tied to fictional comic book characters.
What about fictional non-comic book characters?
Like Cersei? Or McDreamy?

You would not make much money in the entertainment industry I think.

Seriously, folks, all the "real" things to get worked up over, this imaginary slut-shaming is what you pick? It's not like ScarJo is walking around with a mattress on her back. (Did I go too far?)

*Renner ....Jesus I can't spell

Anyways they were both drunk and it WAS a stupid thing to say about a movie that will most likely be breaking that 1 billion mark. They should apologize. The slut/whore thing didn't offend me because of the words, it offended me because they were out on a job (promoting a film ) and didn't act like professionals. They were rude and annoying. Even RDJ has been keeping a lid on his craziness.

Oh, whatevers. I'm trying to find out who, exactly, was deeply offended and demanded the apologies from Renner and Evans. Neither of Walsh's articles spelled that out, and the HuffPo link didn't say, either.

Worse yet, even if Renner and Evans were being snarky and immature (and they were), the whole situation cried aloud for countersnark, not outrage. Somebody could have said, "Renner and Evans? Aren't they playing Wonder Woman's eunuch sidekicks?" But no; only dour humorlessness will do.

By the way, that Walsh does go on a bit, doesn't he?

The worst part of this is that both those guys are known for being all around good guys.

Its also worth mentioning that they were not inaccurate. Black Widow specializes in seduction spy work. Its what she does and if you are familiar with comic character she does get around quite a bit as part of her job. She is actually much more tame in the movies.

-I have now spent a paragraph explaining a superhero love triangle, which makes me weep inside.-

Now, c'mon. Just treat it like a serious book club discussion about some of the main characters. You know, like 'Twilight'.

Has anyone noticed that there is an almost systematic effort to rid the language of any term which might insult a woman, or women? Meanwhile, all the terms which insult men are left in.

The "C word" is condemned as "reducing a woman to a genital part." Okay, then why are there still about a dozen epithets which can be directed toward men (by both women and men), which reduce a man to a genital part? Why are there efforts to take the "B word" out of the language, while there are still all sorts of vulgar or insulting names to call men? Now we hear that an "S word" and a "W word" show how ingrained sexism is. And all the words like "jerk," "a------," "S.O.B," and so on, almost solely directed at men, what do they say about sexism in our culture?

Everyone needs some words of insult, even epithets, to use on occasion, or to describe someone. They should be used sparingly. But feminist groups are apparently trying to make it linguistically impossible for someone to say or write anything negative about a woman. Think about it: if you encounter a woman who behaves abominably, or who is a very unpleasant person, what adjectives or nouns are still acceptable to use to describe her or her behavior?

Just another reminder as to who really runs the show - a public emasculation was in order. If sexism equals sexist behavior plus institutional power, then today surely only women can be sexist.

> then today surely only women can be sexist

Aaah, but you've forgotten women can NEVER be sexist:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B6c3TAYIAAAzo18.jpg:large

-I have now spent a paragraph explaining a superhero love triangle, which makes me weep inside.-

Now, c'mon. Just treat it like a serious book club discussion about some of the main characters. You know, like 'Twilight'.

I'm sure he also feels it's not at all weird for people to be so crazy about things like, oh, sports that they know tons of minutiae about the entire history of some sports-ball teams, and even things like the habits of current players.

But nah.. that's totally "normal" and "ok."

I'm not a comic person at all, but the double standards about stuff like that makes me mad. Like people that say video games are a waste of time or you're just sitting there.. as they sit there not even using their brains watching someone else play a sport.

As to the feigned outrage here.. from what little I've seen (I look up things I'm watching on IMDB all the time and the front page often has news) the 3 of them (Renner, Evans and Johansson) are apparently super close on set and essentially joke around and pick on each other all the time. So this was likely the kind of stuff they do as pals all the time.