20th Century Fox apologized for a billboard showing Mystique, played by Jennifer Lawrence, being choked by Apocalypse, played by Oscar Isaac.
The billboard, which had been on display in major cities such as Los Angeles, New York and Toronto, has been criticized and social media has been roused by the ad for showing violence to a woman.
Actress and filmmaker Rose McGowan (portrayed Paige in Charmed series) took to social media to ask others to also raise their voices against this kind of violent imagery against women being shown publicly. She said that there's "a major problem when the men and women at 20th Century Fox think casual violence against women is a 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."
People on Twitter expressed their outrage over the seemingly sexist image. One user wrote "Is anyone else bothered by the fact that one of the most prominent advertisements for X-Men: Apocalypse is Jennifer Lawrence being choked?"
In a statement, Fox said: “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.“
The ad was taken down after the uproar but the image of a woman being choked was said to have been approved by a top female executive at Fox before it went out.
Meanwhile, many fans are calling this an overreaction to the advertising campaign. One Twitter user posted: "You want strong female characters but you want the villain to treat her with 'breakfast in bed?'
Also, check the following meme from 9gag trying to summarize what really happened.
Photo: Deadline.com Fan Pop 9Gag
Source: CNN CBC
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