‘X-Men’ V. Rose McGowan And The Alleged Misogyny Of ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’

X-Men versus Rose McGowan, Rose McGowan versus the X-Men, feminist villagers get your pitchforks ready and prepare for an unnecessary ideological war! Get ready for the misogynistic battle royale! In one corner, 20th Century Fox and the chauvinistic all-men, X-Men versus the former all-women Charmed actress Rose McGowen, and the father and daughter she knows well. Obviously, a comic book franchise with the named X-“men” is already problematic, and depicts an oppressive, male-dominated society of an already male-dominated industry.

Oh, wait. X-Men: Apocalypse has multiple female characters. That isn’t it.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, if you hadn’t heard, Rose McGowan has a beef with the X-Men: Apocalypse ad that has been seen from billboards and other typical film ad placements. Comicbook reported on the feminist outburst, and this is what McGowan had to say.

“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 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?”

News flash to Rose McGowan, this is more or less an action film, so there is going to be violence. The character Apocalypse had already committed violence against every other character prior to Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique.

X-Men: Apocalypse just added a few new major female characters to the mix for this film. Would Rose McGowan prefer they were busy fetching sandwiches for the X-Men, instead of being cast in strong female roles? X-Men: Apocalypse, if we want to quantify and keep a quota, has seven women to the nine men in the main cast on IMDB.

Rose McGowan slams violent #XMen poster featuring Jennifer Lawrence getting choked: https://t.co/DHp9S3dXgY pic.twitter.com/wHet5Q6HMy

— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) June 3, 2016

Unless Rose McGowan is suggesting women need to stick romantic comedies, and they simply can’t handle the violence of an action film, what else is she rambling about? McGowan didn’t stop with her own assessment of the X-Men: Apocalypse ad, which means cue the nameless, faceless friend’s daughter I know also was mortified by it.

“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: Apocalypse 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?”

So, would Rose McGowan and her random, probably doesn’t exist friend’s daughter be perfectly composed if it were a man facing such a violent choke hold? What about a trans-man? A homosexual man? What if it was a dog, as long as it wasn’t a female dog? The films Species, Basic Instinct, Urban Legend, Inglourious B*sterds, and others show woman committing violence against men if we are going with violence without context.

For a so-called feminist, McGowan isn’t very good at it. At the same time, women are fighting and winning the war to be in the frontlines of real wars, Rose McGowan is fighting not to be in the fictional variety.

Unsurprisingly, the case of Rose McGowan V. X-Men: Apocalypse has ended in subjugation, tearful apologies, rendering of garments, and a statement led, according to Mashable, to the removal of said X-Men Ad from 20th Century Fox.

“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 apologized for our actions and would never condone violence against women.”

The confabulation from misplaced and contrived feminist angst has claimed another pound of flesh in a war long since won by prior, more well-respected, strong women. The X-Men: Apocalypse ad is just one example of PC Mafia thuggery looking to crush every ounce of free speech, especially if it fits into a neat little selective agenda box of the moment.

We are not really sure what we have learned from this X-Men: Apocalypse controversy, as the heinous violence against Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique is happening over and over at a theater near you, as well as every other action film that women fought hard to prove they could be in just like men, or the military where the violence is real.

This reeks of hypocrisy when you consider the Dixie Chicks reason affront against a Republican candidate. Breitbart News reported that the typical Republican-hating musical group performed a fairly angry, some might call violent, song about called “Goodbye Earl,” which is about a woman murdering her abusive husband. This wasn’t the offense in and of itself, but a devil-faced Donald Trump was used as the backdrop to this tune.

Based on Rose McGowan’s logic, Donald Trump fans and men should have construed this as an act aggression and violence toward men. Unsurprisingly, it was mostly ignored, as both situations should have been. Also, to be fair, leftists eviscerate and attack female Republicans far more harshly.

Rose McGowan’s hypocrisy is duly noted among the greats, but one has to wonder if the faux feminist cause is truly the reason behind her outrage or the desire to remain relevant trumped everything else. Hollywood stars do tend to get lonely when no one is paying attention to them. Just look at Tom Cruise, at least that’s why one hopes he is the way he is.

What is the “teachable moment” here? Hell hath no fury like a forgotten feminist celebrity. A lesson learned in the Twilight Zone.

[Photo by Paul Zimmerman/Getty Images]