The Undoing of Joss Whedon
New York magazine|January 17 - 30, 2022
The Buffy creator, once an icon of Hollywood feminism, is now an outcast accused of misogyny. How did he get here?
By Lila Shapiro. Photographs by Ryan Pfluger, Alamy, Robert Gauthier, Jason Kirk, Justin Lubin, Shutterstock, Theo Wargo, Wireimage, Picturelux, The Hollywood Archive, AF Archive, DC Entertainment, Warner Bross
The Undoing of Joss Whedon

IN THE FALL OF 2002, 160 scholars convened at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. They were an eclectic group—theologians, philosophers, linguists, film professors—and they had descended on the medieval city for a conference dedicated to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a cult television show about a teenage girl who fights monsters while attending high school in Southern California. It was not a typical academic gathering. There were life-size cutouts of the eponymous heroine as well as Buffy-themed chocolates, action figures, and, in the welcome bags, exfoliating moisturizers (“Buffy the Backside Slayer”). Professors stalked around in long black leather coats like the vampire Spike, Buffy’s enemy and, later, her lover.

This story is from the January 17 - 30, 2022 edition of New York magazine.

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This story is from the January 17 - 30, 2022 edition of New York magazine.

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