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Fox Apologizes for Controversial X-Men: Apocalypse Ad

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In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, 20th Century Fox apologized for an X-Men: Apocalypse ad that was criticized recently by Rose McGowan. The studio explained, “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.”

I’m honestly surprised that Fox decided to comment on this, let alone remove the posters, but I’m glad that they’ve made that call. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Jennifer McCleary-Sills, director of gender violence and rights for the International Center for Research on Women, had a helpful explanation of why she found the poster concerning: “I understand that some might not see it as an issue because it is a film about violence … with male and female characters who are warriors and fighting each other as equals.” But, she says, the poster highlights how some media can default to violence against women, and even make that violence seem titillating: “what really is the challenge here is the intentionality of it. You could have chosen any from the thousands of images, but you chose this one. Whose attention did you want to get and to what end?”

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Regardless of how the moment depicted in this poster plays within the film, that image was a poor choice with which to promote the movie, for a whole bunch of reasons. Kudos to Fox for acting on the feedback they received from McGowan and others.

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