Reading Time: 3 minutes

Sometimes you just need to vent.

Years — maybe decades — ago, Ben Affleck allegedly made a comment about Alanis Morissette’s sexuality.

The famous singer, who just recently publicly came out as pan, hasn’t forgotten her former co-star’s remark.

Alanis is now airing the matter — along with a pretty intense clip of Affleck’s head exploding.

‘I’ve even had a guy ask me why I didn’t lead with my sexuality’

On November 3, Alanis Morissette was a guest on the Handsome podcast.

When asked about exes who are men, the iconic Canadian singer was asked if she’d ever considered swearing off men altogether after being hurt.

Alanis responded by clarifying her sexuality: “I’m pansexual, so yeah.”

Though the singer is happily married now, it’s great to know that the music legend is, like many people, attracted to folks regardless of gender.

Alanis’ very casual coming out served as the backdrop for an on-stage airing of grievances.

Alanis is doing her “Butterfly with a Machete: A Rock Traumedy,” as you can see in the fan video below.

While speaking to the audience about some people’s past complaints about her, Alanis mentioned her former Dogma co-star.

“I’ve even had a guy ask me why I didn’t lead with my sexuality,” she recalled.

Alanis then gave a sarcastic: “Thank you, Ben Affleck.”

On the screen behind her, a shot of Affleck’s head exploding — we’ll explain the context — played for the audience.

What is the context?

Dogma is one of many films that have carried decidedly pro-Christian meaning and cosmology while nonetheless being decried by Christian organizations. In this case, the Catholic Church was particularly up-in-arms.

The 1999 Kevin Smith project depicted a blood descendant of Jesus, Christianity’s central figure, contending with a plot by two angels to disprove the infallibility of Christianity’s God and thus trigger the collapse of the universe.

(Yes, this is a very brief summary and doesn’t even get into Metatron or Azrael or Serendipity, but don’t worry about it.)

The two troublesome angels were played by Affleck and Matt Damon, which could mean nothing, and, at the end of the film, Affleck’s character nearly succeeds before confronting God. Alanis portrays that character.

The confrontation does not go well for him, and his head does very much explode at the sound of God’s voice. So this is not a random clip, as many in the audience would know.

We don’t think that Alanis is accusing her erstwhile co-star of being bigoted against the LGBTQ+ community.

(One of his kids with Jennifer Garner, Fin, is nonbinary. And while Damon has pretty famously had a lot to learn even in recent years, Affleck’s generally had a reputation of not being a bigot.)

Instead, it sounds like Alanis’ frustration might be with sort of the opposite — of, possibly decades ago, being advised on how to live her life and whom to tell about her sexuality by someone else.

That would grate for many people. Clearly, it grated for Alanis.

Some are questioning why she’d air something seemingly so small in such a public forum. But people are allowed to share their personal experiences and the feelings that these elicit.