Joss Whedon fires back at rumors he left Twitter because of feminists: 'That is horses**t'

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Joss Whedon quit Twitter for some peace and quiet.

Following the opening of "Avengers: Age of Ultron," filmmaker Joss Whedon decided to delete his Twitter account.

Whedon, who has always been an outspoken voice on Twitter, so the fact that he left with no explanation led to a lot of speculation. Many folks immediately pointed their fingers at tweets pouring in from people who were angry enough about the film's portrayal of Black Widow to send Whedon death threats. Many of these people declared themselves to be feminists, which led to the belief that being hailed as a misogynist was why Whedon left the platform.

"That is horses**t," Whedon told BuzzFeed News during a lengthy interview.

This doesn't mean that he wasn't well aware of the threats and negativity hurled at him.

"I've said before, when you declare yourself politically, you destroy yourself artistically," he told BuzzFeed. "Because suddenly that's the litmus test for everything you do - for example, in my case, feminism. If you don't live up to the litmus test of feminism in this one instance, then you're a misogynist. It circles directly back upon you."

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Yet, he never felt any sense of danger from it.

"Nothing that made me go, 'Wait, they're calling from my house,'" he said. "It was like, OK, these guys don't understand about hyperbole."

Ultimately, Whedon left to work on his creative and personal life.

"I just thought, Wait a minute, if I'm going to start writing again, I have to go to the quiet place," Whedon said. "And this is the least quiet place I've ever been in my life. … It's like taking the bar exam at Coachella. It's like, Um, I really need to concentrate on this! Guys! Can you all just… I have to… It's super important for my law!"

Whedon has a reputation for writing strong, female roles. Last year, he also stood adamantly behind feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian, as she faced death threats of her own during the GamerGate controversy. Whedon feels that anything that he can do for the cause won't be solved on Twitter.

"For someone like me even to argue about feminism - it's not a huge win. Because ultimately I'm just a rich, straight, white guy. You don't really change people's minds through a tweet. You change it through your actions."