It's rare.......

.....for me to post opinions on topics here, but I'm breaking with my tradition. I fear that anyone who criticizes Disney's decision (me being one of those people) might be seen as a stogie-smoking, slap-happy good old boy, stuck in a 1970's-esque universe. I am not that, AT ALL. James Gunn wrote some childish, rude, crass things.....and they weren't funny.....not then, not now. Time, as-it-were, has a funny rhythm on the internet.........it tends to freeze so-to-speak. Ten freaking years ago, we were ALL still figuring out this goofy little thing called 'Twitter'.....what it was, what it could do etc. The man has voraciously criticized himself for what he wrote (in public forums) and has apologized. I'll put (an abbreviate version of) what I put on my personal FB page: #metoo is good and proper and righteous....and LONG overdue. The tone and timbre of how things have worked with/toward people regarding sexual 'leverage' in Hollywood needed to change a VERY long time ago.....you bet. HOWEVER, if this turns into #kill_them_all then the whole freaking mess is going to collapse, I'm telling you! Some salient maturity and a general understanding of the nuance of what people are/do/say at times needs to be considered. James Gunn was AND is a creative genius who shot his mouth off. I don't find rape/pedo jokes one bit funny......and SOME TIME BACK he saw the error of his childishness.....and took action accordingly. It was 10 years ago......and firing the guy now......this is just too far. I've lost a lot of respect for Disney with this......this was a perfect chance for them to pour some calm, mature decision making into this IMPORTANT era we're going through right now and they blew it.

Here's a question for you: what exactly should Disney have done? Not meant at all rhetorically. Either there's something else they could have done that would not have blown up in their faces, or you're asking too much of them. Independent of what would theoretically constitute justice toward Gunn. So, how would Disney have gone about doing something other than what they did without either creating a backlash against Disney as a whole or, at the least, creating a backlash against the movie he was being employed to make?

While we're at it, what is the best-case scenario for Gunn? Is it possible that this is it? He loses his job, he accepts it unhesitatingly and says the stuff he said then was dumb then and he's a different person but he still accepts full responsibility — and maybe, after people have had a chance to talk about how he's a good person now, and he accepted full responsibility, he gets employed again, perhaps somewhere other than Disney so as not to muddy the waters, and is accepted back into polite society (as it were).

You make some VERY salient points, to which, I will prattle on about(just a wee bit), but I'm not sure will offer a poignant answer.....other than (kind of) agreeing with you: 1)In the grown up world, when you say, 'I take responsibility for my words/actions'.....that means you are willing to LIVE WITH the outcome, in an effort to REALLY make amends. I'm not saying someone should lie down and be killed for a parking ticket, but he should've been smart enough (even 10 years ago) to know what he was saying/writing would be available in a public place and (considering his station in life even then) should've been aware of the adage, 'People believe what they read.' 2) Disney is a 'family minded' company....that is ALSO traded on the stock market. The have a board, they have shareholders, their 'image' is a VERY big deal. They have to think of that, in terms of children/families etc. They're not 'Joe's Biker Bar' (no offense to bikers or guys named Joe, either!) 3) Most importantly, they didn't kill the guy. Really, if I were the assistant manager at my local Burger King and I plastered those jokes on a poster and hung them up by the soda fountain, I'd be fired in 10 seconds! Why should he by any different? (Other than, yes......I think 10 years if an awful long time to be punished for some stupid words). 4)No one appointed Disney to be the arbiter of the #metoo movement, which means it's not for them decide if things are 'getting out of hand'....actually they're not strong/big enough to even do that! So, the above serves as me back pedaling from my rant a tiny bit!

Well, speaking of the past, Disney allowed calling Moana a "babe", caused some unrest with the Maui suit and with that entire movie but most importantly, if they care for history and public image, Robert Downey Jr's history isn't exactly what you would consider a role model.