Avengers Director Offers Support to Feminist Frequency Creator After Death Threats

The Avengers director and Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon has spoken out in support of Feminist Frequency creator Anita Sarkeesian, who this week revealed that online abuse and death threats drove her to contact the police and leave her home.

Writing on Twitter, Whedon urged his followers to watch Sarkeesian's Tropes vs. Women In Video Games series, which examines gender cliches in the video game industry. "Even if you think you get it, the sheer tonnage makes misogyny seem newly appalling," Whedon said.

"I watched a bunch of women get sliced up in video games and now I'm watching it on my Twitter feed," he added. "[Anita Sarkeesian] is just truth-telling. Deal."

Since Sarkeesian's Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series debuted, she has faced a raft of criticism, but things got truly terrifying this week.

"Some very scary threats have just been made against me and my family," she wrote on Twitter. "Contacting authorities now." A follow-up tweet read: "I'm safe. Authorities have been notified. Staying with friends tonight. I'm not giving up. But this harassment of women in tech must stop!"

The most recent episode in the Tropes vs. Women In Video Games series, the second part of a program called called Women As Background Decoration, was published on Monday. The series was successfully funded on Kickstarter in 2012.