Jeremy Renner Called Black Widow A Slut Again

Hey Jeremy Renner, I know you acted in one of the biggest movies in history (and Avengers: Age of Ultron seems likely to join that rarefied group eventually), but you have to know that your words have meaning, right?

A little bit of backstory: during what must have admittedly been a difficult press tour promoting the superhero sequel, Renner and Chris Evans joked around about Black Widow being a slut.

They apologized for those comments with statements below:

Evans: "We answered in a very juvenile and offensive way that rightfully angered some fans. I regret it and sincerely apologize."
Renner: "I am sorry that this tasteless joke about a fictional character offended anyone. It was not meant to be serious in any way. Just poking fun during an exhausting and tedious press tour."

While Evans seemed genuinely apologetic, you can tell from the tone of Renner's statement that he didn't really believe he'd done anything wrong. People were still outraged at their comments, but slowly things began to die down.

Until last night, when Renner went on Conan and stirred this sh*tstorm up all over again. Here's the clip in question:

If you can't watch the video, here's a key quote:

“Mind you, I was talking about a fictional character and fictional behavior. But Conan, if you slept with four of the six Avengers, no matter how much fun you had, you’d be a slut. I’d be a slut.”

Dude. Not cool. Putting aside the fact that this is a fictional character, Black Widow can sleep with whoever the hell she wants to sleep with, and she shouldn't be judged for it. That's just perpetuating a double standard that's been around for decades. Secondly, in the movies Black Widow never slept with Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, or Hawkeye, and in Age of Ultron (spoilers ahead), it's revealed that she and Clint Barton are actually just close friends. Black Widow hangs out with his family, and they all seem very friendly together.

I understand making a joke in the heat of the moment during what was likely the fifth or sixth straight hour of sitting in a room while reporters shuffle in and ask you questions. I get that, even if the joke didn't work or was inappropriate. But doubling down on it after you've "apologized" and had the benefit of realizing the mistake? That just seems ignorant and irresponsible to me.

This whole situation feels like a plotline from Entourage. Can you imagine what Renner's publicist must be thinking? This is a PR disaster, and if he keeps it up, he's going to start seeing female fans start to boycott his films. He's being very flippant about the effect that his words have here, but I'm not sure that he remembers that there are a lot of young fans of the Marvel movies, many of which are girls. It's bad enough that they don't have enough female-friendly merchandise to play with, and now this? Come on, man. It's 2015. You've gotta step it up and realize that what you say matters. It may not be a big deal to you, but there's an audience that sees these heroic characters as role models, and to trash the only female of the group like that could have real effects on the kids who look up to her.

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