Black Widow is a “Whore”: Why You Deserve to be Judged by Your Opinions on Fictional Women

“She’s a slut.” An eruption of laughter booms from Chris Evans after co-star Jeremy Renner lands his comment while keeping his deadpan expression. Based on Evans’ reaction it was probably impressive Renner was able to keep a straight face as the words rolled off his tongue. Renner, too, finally cracks and breaks into laughter as Captain America and Hawkeye go into full dudebro-Avengers:

Evans: [Laughter] I was going to say something along that line. Complete whore.Renner: Trick, man. Ignoring that Renner went throwback on some 90’s-era misogynistic rhetoric reminiscent of your uncle’s rolodex and bumping ‘Pac on your tape deck, optimistic fans offer benefit of the doubt that the two Avengers stars were using sarcasm, rendering their comments inoffensive. Others saw no victim to their actions, seeing that Black Widow is a fictional character. Whether you believe they were being sarcastic or not – I personally don’t – Renner and Evans’ comedy still fell short for many fans who didn’t find it very funny. For added context, this happened the same week that Disney marketed the release of 9 male Avengers toys, leaving out the only two women characters it had. Yet Jeremy Renner and Chis Evans continued laughing at their own jokes:

Evans: [Laughter] She’s a slut. Renner: She has a prosthetic leg anyway. While their comments, sarcastic or not, were aimed at the fictional Natasha Romanoff and not their real-life co-star Scarlett Johansson, it asks a question that reaches beyond a si…