Movie Maven

You may have heard this awhile back, but director/writer Joss Whedon (my love, my soulmate) has snapped. In the wake of the horrific (and caught on tape) "honor-killing" of 17-year-old Dua Khalil Aswad, Whedon went on the venerable fan site Whedonesque to discuss what he sees, from the dusty streets of Iraq, to the tragic wasteland of modern horror "torture" films. About his viewing of the grainy cell phone video, in which Aswad's battered face was "nothing but red," and his shock at seeing the same sadistic bent in the recent horror flick Captivity. It was possibly the most compassionate and fiery speech about violence against women I have ever heard, a voice calling out for our global culture to look at itself and ask why there is still the agreement that there is something inherently "wrong" with the female sex.

It’s no longer enough to shake our heads and make concerned grimaces at the news. True enlightened activism is the only thing that can save humanity from itself. I’ve always had a bent towards apocalyptic fiction, and I’m beginning to understand why. I look and I see the earth in flames. Her face was nothing but red.

I count Whedon as one of the precious few male filmmakers (besides, perhaps, Quentin Tarantino) who shows women not as sex objects or victims, but whole beings, simultaneously human and goddess-like. And his call for true action seems to have been heard. A handful of activists have begun an arts anthology, who's profits will benefit Equality Now. The blog, and how you can help is here.