It's just funny to me how fast public opinion does a 180. For years he was known as as an ally to the feminist cause due to how he always has strong female characters in his work instead of portraying them as damsels in distress. Now everyone is just down with him being a jerk and denying they ever said anything nice about him.
The thing is, was he really a feminist? Or did he just use feminism as a shield from criticism and scrutiny?
Sure, he created some impressive and empowered female characters for their time, but when his own wife, actors across several properties and former crew all support allegations made against the guy, well, that's when you need to take a second look at the guy.
The problem is that people tend to deify others because they bring something new, often forgetting their "new master" is just as likely to make mistakes as their mortal followers. And in that situation, people tend to overlook some fundamental problems with their new hero.
So sometimes, they can get away with it, because no one is ever going to think their hero would ever do something that horrible, especially to women. Sometimes though, someone has had enough and speaks out and it leads to more people speaking out.
When you have Charisma Carpenter, Sarah Michelle-Gellar, Michelle Trachtenberg, Amber Benson, Emma Caulfield, Kai Cole (Whedon's ex wife), Ray Fisher, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa and many more speaking out against Joss Whedon, then you have to ask yourself something - All these people can't be liars, so how deep does the Joss Whedon rabbit hole go?