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ranrata: (trueblood-tarathornton)
I've taken to giving a wide berth to those in fandom who scream the loudest about social justice. Let's see if you can figure out why.

Yet another Two White Guys Do The Same Thing Every Week show starts airing. Fans cream themselves instantly and jump on the show, declaring it the best thing ever, shipping the two white male leads, and occasionally pointing out its problematic aspects in between.

Meanwhile, shows starring women, characters of color, fat characters, or disabled characters also start airing. One of two things happen: some of the fans loudest about social justice pretend these shows don't exist. Alternatively, they go overboard in finding reasons to criticize these shows.

From there, they either continue to watch and constantly find things "wrong" with these shows, while in the very same posts squeeing about their Two White Guys programming; or they give up altogether and go back exclusively to Two White Guys.

There are long and plentiful meta posts about how Supernatural or Sherlock OMG TREATS THE FEMALE CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERS OF COLOR SOOO BADLY! Meanwhile, fans write the most horribly sexist and racist posts about, say, River Song, or Samantha Bloom, thinly veiled as criticism borne of concern for social justice issues.

Forgive me for being a little deeply suspicious of anyone who goes on and on about the need for diversity, but makes excuses to not watch shows that actually are diverse. From looking at their favorite programming, it's very clear they're not interested in anything not centered around white men.

You don't need to check out every single show starring minorities. You don't even need to like them all. But I can read, and I have a functioning brain; I see the pattern, and I know when I see bullshit.

So I've taken to avoiding fans who scream loudest about social justice, because that's where I've found the ones most full of shit. And I know I'm missing out on some of the awesome fans who do back up their words with action, but the fact is that there are fans who are seriously poisoning the well of social justice and aren't being called on it, and who need to be told:

Be the change you want to see in the world, or shut the fuck up.

_______
EDIT 11/21 - Hello new people wandering in. I'm finding that some of you are misunderstanding my post. I recommend you take a deep breath when you finish reading, and re-read it, and make sure it says what you think it says before you wind up disagreeing with points that were not made. I will ask you to quote back portions of this post where you think I made said points. Who knows, I might concede I wasn't clear enough. I might not. But I'm not going to argue about points or tangential arguments I didn't make.

EDIT 11/23 - Changed "So I've taken to avoiding fans who scream loudest about social justice, because they're inevitably the ones most full of shit." to "So I've taken to avoiding fans who scream loudest about social justice, because that's where I've found the ones most full of shit. And I know I'm missing out on some of the awesome fans who do back up their words with action, but the fact is that there are fans who are seriously poisoning the well of social justice and aren't being called on it, and who need to be told:" in order to clear up that I'm talking about a subgroup of fans who talk about social justice.

Comments

azn_jack_fiend: (Default)
[personal profile] azn_jack_fiend wrote:
Nov. 21st, 2010 06:23 pm (UTC)
I'm in DW/TW fandom, and notice pretty much ZERO overlap between a) people who will actually speak up and meaningfully complain about media representation of racial/sexual/gender/other minorities, either in shows they like OR in shows they don't like and b) people who bash characters like Gwen and River Song. So this post would make a lot more sense to me if there were names and links and arguments quoted.

Another point of confusion would be that I have no idea what your definition of "social justice" is. Because as far as I can tell, the term is almost as meaningless as "politically correct" in that people on LJ/DW are starting to use it to mean "anything I personally don't like".

Also, being the change doesn't preclude critical thought. You can do both at the same time. You're setting up a false dichotomy.

I'm totally sympathetic to the point of your post as it relates to pointing out a certain levels of hypocrisy and inconsistency between speech and action in fandom. I see that happening in Torchwood fandom around issues of homophobia, Ianto's death, the whole complex there. But I don't see what you're describing has to do with "social justice". And you're also describing a widespread situation where people "get credit" for pointing out representation problems. And I don't see that. I really don't. It certainly hasn't been my experience.






ranrata: (dwtw-martha)
[personal profile] ranrata wrote:
Nov. 21st, 2010 06:26 pm (UTC)
Also, being the change doesn't preclude critical thought. You can do both at the same time. You're setting up a false dichotomy.

And where did I say this? Seriously, quote the part of the post where I said this.

I'm getting so sick of trying to have discussions in fandom, and people falling over themselves to be righteously offended that they don't check to see if what they think they read actually matches up with what they really read.
azn_jack_fiend: (Default)
[personal profile] azn_jack_fiend wrote:
Nov. 21st, 2010 06:56 pm (UTC)
False dichotomy: "Be the change you want to see in the world, or shut the fuck up."

I don't see any reason why people can't be the change while not shutting up. In fact, I think those two things work together pretty well.

I'm not righteously offended. I'm just saying your argument really, really doesn't match up with my experience. If you're not interested in backing it up, I'll duck out.
ranrata: (dollhouse-dewitt)
[personal profile] ranrata wrote:
Nov. 21st, 2010 06:59 pm (UTC)
I don't see any reason why people can't be the change while not shutting up. In fact, I think those two things work together pretty well.

Okay, so there's just a misunderstanding. Are you reading that as "be the change in the world and shut the fuck up"?

In fact, I think those two things work together pretty well.

Because I have no disagreement about that.

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