Rose McGowan Finds ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Marketing Very Problematic

Rose McGowan is angry again. She hasn’t been the most tactful throughout her career, seemingly making enemies wherever she goes, and hey… that’s fine. She’s just doing her thing. I choose (yeah, I’m gonna pretend that I have the choice to spend time with her) to stay out of her sphere and she’s fine to continue doing whatever it is she does.

This week she was mad about the larger than life X-Men: Apocalypse billboard in which Oscar Isaac‘s Apocalypse is seen choking out Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique. It’s a good look at the dichotomy and power struggle inevitable of all violent, action-packed, superhero-themed films.

McGowan wrote via Facebook:

There is a major problem when the men and women at 20th Century Fox think casual violence against women is the way to market a film. There is no context in the ad, just a woman getting strangled. The fact that no one flagged this is offensive and frankly, stupid. The geniuses behind this, and I use that term lightly, need to to take a long hard look at the mirror and see how they are contributing to society. Imagine if it were a black man being strangled by a white man, or a gay male being strangled by a hetero? The outcry would be enormous. So let’s right this wrong. 20th Century Fox, since you can’t manage to put any women directors on your slate for the next two years, how about you at least replace your ad?

All I have to say is this is a violent movie. It is literally equal opportunity violence. There is a good-evil clash and all violence is deployed in an effort to end this battle. It’s ugly. It’s gross. It’s violent. But the issue here is the pervasiveness of violence on the screen, no???

Continuing her rant:

I’ll close with a text my friend sent, a conversation with his daughter. It follows: ‘My daughter and I were just having a deep discussion on the brutality of that hideous X-Men poster yesterday. Her words: ‘Dad, why is that monster man committing violence against a woman?’ This from a 9-year-old. If she can see it, why can’t Fox?

Today I learned I might be less socially conscious than a 9 year old. But in the end Fox apologized to save face:

In our enthusiasm to show the villainy of the character Apocalypse we didn’t immediately recognize the upsetting connotation of this image in print form. Once we realized how insensitive it was, we quickly took steps to remove those materials. We apologize for our actions and would never condone violence against women.

Women win today, I guess.