If the line between scholarship and fandom was vanishingly thin, so was the line between fandom and worship. On the first morning of the conference, David Lavery, a professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University, stood at the podium and declared the show’s creator, Joss Whedon, the “avatar” of a new religion, the “founder of a new faith.” Lavery and two other professors would go on to establish the Whedon Studies Association, an organization devoted to expanding the field of Buffy scholarship. As Lavery would write in the introduction to a book he co-authored on the series, Whedon had not simply composed a narrative about a struggle against the “forces of darkness — vampires, demons, monsters of all varieties”; he had taken a stand against a panoply of oppressive “social forces,” most obviously the “forces of gender stereotyping.” According to the prevailing rules of Hollywood horror at the time, Whedon’s protagonist, a hot blonde with a dumb name, should have died within the opening scenes, but Whedon had flipped the genre on its head, endowing her with superhuman powers and a hero’s journey.

This entire paragraph will be evidence in my trial when I am being held for Khmer Rouge style war crimes against academics.

Also I don't believe Whedon is 'undone.' I mean he could be, if he gives up. But if he doesn't, if the suits are still on his side, he'll be back. Maybe he'll have a few fallow years here, maybe he won't get another Marvel property, but best (worst) case scenario is that in a few years he quietly unveils some 'challenging' indie movie that he's director or producer or writer on, and he does some big public apology and promise to do better, and all is forgiven. If the film industry still has a place for someone like Polanski then Whedon should make out fine no matter what he says or does. Unless he turns the suits against him, of course, and he gets hung out to dry.