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Finally, the long national nightmare is over as future GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY director James Gunn has apologized on Facebook for his unwise, unfunny and offensive comments that he wrote on his blog two years ago:

A couple of years ago I wrote a blog that was meant to be satirical and funny. In rereading it over the past day I don’t think it’s funny. The attempted humor in the blog does not represent my actual feelings. However, I can see where statements were poorly worded and offensive to many. I’m sorry and regret making them at all.

People who are familiar with me as evidenced by my Facebook page and other mediums know that I’m an outspoken proponent for the rights of the gay and lesbian community, women and anyone who feels disenfranchised, and it kills me that some other outsider like myself, despite his or her gender or sexuality, might feel hurt or attacked by something I said. We’re all in the same camp, and I want to do my best to make this world a better place for all of us. I’m learning all the time. I promise to be more careful with my words in the future. And I will do my best to be funnier as well. Much love to all – James


I find this apology covers the right bases—not only does it admit the original piece was dumb, but it admits that it was unfunny, and being funnier in the future which is a key aspect of moving forward and making a great GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY movie.

22 COMMENTS

  1. Why insist on diminishing and dismissing (disminishing?) people’s upset over this? If there’s more important things to talk about, talk about them, rather than feeding the snake its own tail.

  2. Yeah, even the original didn’t seem like it was hate filled, but kind of immature and it was like he was reaching for something provocative to say. He was trying too hard. The vast majority of the entries were pretty bland (while trying to be edgy and ‘sexy’ or whatever). His apology seems pretty sincere to me too.

  3. I’m also leaning on the side of sincerety since the apology didn’t read like a form letter like these things usually do.

    And for what it’s worth the Spider-man entry on his list was actually pretty funny.

  4. So being unfunny requires an apology these days? Remember when you could read/see something unfunny and maybe even offensive to you personally yet still just move on with your life without starting an online petition, demanding someone’s job, or judging them based on one thing they said that one time years ago?

    I would actually rather see an apology from the person who took the time to find and drag up Gunn’s original post that he had long since removed from his Facebook.

  5. Roberto: obviously you care.

    Joseph: way to intentionally derail the controversy. It wasn’t about “being unfunny,” it was about offending people who are already kicked down enough by western culture. Do yourself a favor and actually read what the objections to the original post were. It is well documented.

    As for me: I’m glad that Gunn admits the error of his ways.

  6. So being unfunny requires an apology these days?

    Ranking the entries, collecting the images, and commenting on them was much more work than making a stupid joke on Twitter involves. Prominent people who do stupid things on Twitter pay a price.

    The problem with sexualizing the comics heroines is that it’s popular, but it conflicts with the public image that the heroes are largely for children. If there were X-rated series with Marvel or DC characters, they would probably be at least as popular as low-selling Marvel or DC series, but the image problems would be unacceptable to the corporate owners. So, instead, there are sites such as rule34.paheal.net, artists doing nude superheroines as commissioned drawings, and Gunn’s poll.

    If children weren’t into superheroes, there wouldn’t be an image problem.

    SRS

  7. Never felt that he had anything to apologize for. As far as the the post being unfunny, come on at least the Spidey part alone should resulted in a chuckle.

    People were concerned as to how he views female characters and how he would portray them. Well there is this destructoid interview about the video game Lollipop Chainsaw that he wrote.

  8. The comments were offensive if you are a fictional superhero or easily offended. They were also two years old and had long since been deleted from his page and had to be intentionally searched out and dragged back into the light so that people like you could cry OUTRAGE.

  9. It’s kinda sad that several commentors here think there was nothing wrong with the original post. Corrective rape is a-okay to some people, it seems. And most definitly nothing that happens all the time. And if you think the original was satire, do please point out HOW it was different from thousands of identical things. Parroting sexist things doesn’t mean you are parodying them, it just means you are sexist.

  10. @Kim “Corrective Rape ” Where did you get rape ? I think the intention of the post becomes clear when you read the entire thing instead of cherry picking certain entries which people feel disrespected their favorite fictional character.

    People on the internet seem to be quick to judge the content of someone’s character or his nature based on a single blog post. Isn’t it more unfair to pretend that sole post (as opposed to others) is how he feels about women or gays ?

  11. Kim — Gunn did NOT advocate rape. Rape was never mentioned, although the people criticizing him have mentioned it MANY times. I have a radical thought — James Gunn saying he doesn’t want to have sex with a man, because he likes to have sex with women, is just as valid as Kate Kane not wanting to have sex with a man because she likes to have sex with women. There is nothing homophobic about not wanting to have sex with the people you don’t want to have sex with. The opposite is called rape and it can happen to women AND men.

    I think what Gunn wrote was dumb and offensive but the response has been Fox & Friends level reasonable. And I find that troubling.

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