What In the F#@k Is This?

[Content Note: Misogyny; whorephobia; disablism.]

Marvel Avengers Jeremy Renner, who plays Hawkeye, and Chris Evans, who plays Captain America, sat down for an interview to promote the upcoming Age of Ultron, and this shit happened:

Video Transcript (of first part of video only): A white female reporter for Digital Spy sits across from Renner and Evans. She says: "I have a very serious question to start with about shipping. Because I know a lot of fans were actually pretty invested in the idea of Natasha [Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson) with either or both of you guys, and now obviously she's with, she's with Bruce [Bruce Banner/The Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo]. What do you guys think about that?"

Renner: "She's a slut."

Evans: [throws his head back and laughs out loud] "I was gonna say something along that line! She's a complete whore."

[They both laugh uproariously.]

Renner: "A trick, man."

[They laugh and laugh.]

Evans: "She's a slut!"

Reporter: "Whatever movie it is, she'll just be the sidekick? She'll be flirting away—"

Renner: "That's right."

Evans: "Yeah, man, just flirting with everybody."

Renner: "She has a prosthetic leg, anyway."

Evans: [laughs out loud] "Leading everybody on."

Renner: "That's right."

So, a fictional character—who is a token woman among men in the Avengers franchise—is not dating either one of their fictional characters, which makes her a "slut" and a "whore" who flirts with everyone and leads people on, and who the fuck wants her, anyway, because she's got a prosthetic leg and thus is not even deserving of their FICTIONAL CHARACTERS' attentions.

I know, I know—I'm the Most Humorless Feminist in all of Nofunnington, and don't I get that they were just joking geeeez?

Yeah, I get it. I get it big time.

Forgive me (or don't) if I don't find the humor in "jokingly" invoking narratives of toxic masculinity which slut-shames women for having the audacity to believe we are not the wholly owned property of any man who tries to stick his flag in us; to believe we have the right to choose our partners.

What say you, Marvel?