X-Men Ads Apology: 'Apocalypse' Chokehold Insensitive, Says Fox

"X-Men: Apocalypse" ads put Fox in the doghouse with Hollywood activist actress Rose McGowan who complained that a billboard ad showing actor Oscar Isaac as a mutated giant holding actress Jennifer Lawrence in a massively muscled chokehold promoted violence against women, noted Deadline.com.

The ad with Apocalypse strangling Mystique and promoting the movie's May 27 opening had been plastered all over New York City subways for weeks and the billboard versions placed in Los Angeles and other large cities were just starting to come down, according to Variety.

McGowan, best known for starring in the television series "Charmed," told The Hollywood Reporter that the imagery promoted violence against women.

"There is a major problem when the men and women at 20th Century Fox think casual violence against women is the way to market a film," McGowan told THR. "There is no context in the ad, just a woman getting strangled. The fact that no one flagged this is offensive and frankly, stupid."

"The geniuses behind this, and I use that term lightly, need to take a long hard look at the mirror and see how they are contributing to society. Imagine if it were a black man being strangled by a white man, or a gay male being strangled by a hetero?" 

Fox apologized on Friday, reported Variety, saying that it never meant to condone violence against women

"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," Fox said in a statement. "Once we realized how insensitive it was, we quickly took steps to remove those materials."

Mystique, which has appeared in many of the nine "X-Men" films, is the tough nearly-nude, shape-shifting character from Marvel's "X-Men" comic book series. She was first played in the movie series by model Rebecca Romijn.

McGowan made headlines last November when she criticized Caitlyn Jenner for her Glamour's Women of the Year acceptance speech, in which Jenner joked about the difficulty of finding things to wear, noted Us Weekly.

"Caitlyn Jenner you do not understand what being a woman is about at all," McGowan said then. "You want to be a woman and stand with us – well learn us. We are more than deciding what to wear. We are more than the stereotypes foisted upon us by people like you."

In 2014, McGowan had to issue an apology of her own after charging that there was a lack of support from the gay community for women's rights, reported CNN.

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