Fox Apologizes, Promises to Remove Controversial "X-Men: Apocalypse" Billboard

[GSwarthout]

McGowan's point doesn't need clarifying. A lot of guys are just not going to give a ****, no matter how you explain it.

Word. Mansplaining this away just shows that the men doing so don't understand the underlying problem.

[Xofer]

Word. Mansplaining this away just shows that the men doing so don't understand the underlying problem.

Ditto. Most of the replies to this thread so far have been embarrassing.

[Bdez90]

Word. Mansplaining this away just shows that the men doing so don't understand the underlying problem.

I'm sure all the women out there will love you guys coming to their rescue.

[He-Kal]

So, would it be ok for Apocalypse to be depicted choking Cyclops? Just curious of how people feel about that on the boards...

[Galerion]

Honestly I think it's been a very confusing year and a half for FOX in terms of their superhero franchises. A project that had all the right ingredients failed miserably (FF), a sure fire hit underwhelmed (X-Men:A), and the risky potential flop (Deadpool) took the world by storm ...

See but that's not what I get. Their movies are getting destroyed by the others when it comes to box office and they constantly get a ton of hate for very good reasons by a lot people. How can they be so oblivious to that?
If you ask me it's good that things went the way they did. It's about time that Fox took another jab to the chin and hopefully and finally steers the boat into better waters.

Also Im curious but how did FF had all the right ingredients? I haven't seen the movie and will never do and I haven't followed anything about it either but I was under the impression that people already saw that train wreck coming from a mile away so Im surprised about what you said.

[The Negative Zone]

There may not be any context but its pretty obvious that Apoc is the super villain. That's all the context you need.

[el shah]

A perfect example of SJW idiocy. This should be a reference point the next someone needs to know what being a Social Justice Warrior is and why its mocked*.

*Sorry for my mansplaining and microaggression. Hopefully I didn't trigger anyone and disrupt the safe space.

[macattack]

What are you talking about?

There was a long period of time in Hollywood where women could not be harmed or put in peril if there was any sort of violence happening in the film, mostly in the 30's through the 60's. Go ahead, watch any of the "black and whites" that have some sort of violence in them and count how many hurt women. Also count how many women were allowed to be dynamic characters in any film that had violence in it. The percentage of both is atrocious.

[prigmutton]

Word. Mansplaining this away just shows that the men doing so don't understand the underlying problem.

I'll freely admit that I don't; I'll go with analogy. I'm a gay male. If it had been a gay male character being shown in this position, I wouldn't feel like it was indicative of gay bashing or hate crimes, but rather that the character was considered competent and powerful enough for the Big Bad attacking them to make the villain a significant threat. If someone did make the claim that gay characters shouldn't be shown in a situation like that, I'd find it patronizing.

Obviously, that's just my perspective but I thought I'd throw it there regardless.

[mburns]

Just to clarify. Nobody was objecting to the violence in the movie or the exact same scene in the movie. The billboard became problematic because the scene it shows is taken out of context. When the scene is taken out of context it's basically a guy strangling a woman. Which is very distasteful considering how many women still have to deal with very real problems of domestic violence and assault. What makes matter worse is that they could have chosen so many other scenes showcasing Apocalypse.

FOX apologizing is the right thing to do. They should also be more savvy in their marketing. Stirring up sentiments related to abuse serves no purpose in a marketing campaign designed to sell a fun summer blockbuster.

No context? It's a picture of some weird evil looking blue guy choking a blue women with red hair with the words X-Men Apocalypse splashed across the billboard. What the hell do people think is going on other than a superhero fight where the villain is choking the hero. Rose McGowan is a moron.

[mburns]

A perfect example of SJW idiocy. This should be a reference point the next someone needs to know what being a Social Justice Warrior is and why its mocked*.

*Sorry for my mansplaining and microaggression. Hopefully I didn't trigger anyone and disrupt the safe space.

Ha best post of the day.

[solletaire]

It's not really taken out of context though - the context is a supervillain threatening a superhero. Every time I saw the billboard, that's the context that immediately sprang to mind - Apocalypse attacking Mystique. Although the one happens to be male and the other female, the fact that they are superpowered characters in a superhero film (a fact that should be abundantly clear to anyone not named Rose McGowan) makes it very very different than the same image with a normal man and woman.

TConsudering we are having this conversation on a CBR forum I'm going to go ahead and assume you are familiar with comics, the X-Men, and Apocalypse. You probably might have followed news relating to the movie during the production and release of the movie. Most people are not familiar and have not followed the movie news. So it's likely they might not perceive the image the way you do. You already have a leg up in terms of context (granted my assumptions are correct).

Compound that with the fact most people get a few seconds to take in and process something like a billboard? I firmly remain behind my statement that this image is taken out of context of the story.

As to you second point, our brains are pretty hard wired to recognize the human form and make snap judgements about gender. There are very cool psychology studies that show this. I don't think this is the place to go into those studies, but I can if you are interested. Again compound that to the short time we usually have to process the bilboards? "Guy strangles woman" is likely to be the first thing we somewhat subconsciously take away from the billboard.

[RobinFan4880]

Her analogies don't really work. I don't think people would be outraged if a "hetero" was choking a gay guy (also, side question, is it ok to use the word hetero like that?).

TConsudering we are having this conversation on a CBR forum I'm going to go ahead and assume you are familiar with comics, the X-Men, and Apocalypse. You probably might have followed news relating to the movie during the production and release of the movie. Most people are not familiar and have not followed the movie news. So it's likely they might not perceive the image the way you do. You already have a leg up in terms of context (granted my assumptions are correct).

Compound that with the fact most people get a few seconds to take in and process something like a billboard? I firmly remain behind my statement that this image is taken out of context of the story.

It isn't like some drunken dude in a stained wife beater is choking is tear-eyed, frail wife.

This is a blue guy in a "space costume" choking a blue woman with vibrant red-hair. She isn't teary eyed. She's struggling, sure, but it isn't that bad. Considering what actually happened in the film and the shots they could have used, this is pretty tame.

[brettc1]

It's not really taken out of context though - the context is a supervillain threatening a superhero. Every time I saw the billboard, that's the context that immediately sprang to mind - Apocalypse attacking Mystique. Although the one happens to be male and the other female, the fact that they are superpowered characters in a superhero film (a fact that should be abundantly clear to anyone not named Rose McGowan) makes it very very different than the same image with a normal man and woman.

That was my first reaction as well, but the context is only there if you have knowledge of the two characters to bring to the billboard already.

[Cloudman]

Clearly the people who got angry over this see women as weak people who can't be subjected to the same pressures as men. Good of them to step in to protect women.

Well done social justice mob! Moving us ever closer to a world where women can't even be depicted in action movies.