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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

sqbr: Rose and the doctor (dw?)
[personal profile] sqbr wrote:
Nov. 23rd, 2010 02:45 am (UTC)
River Song: Doctor Who character. Female, morally ambiguous, middle aged, kickass and knows it. Flirts with and unsettles the Doctor. Despised by a large chunk of Doctor Who fandom.
sami: (Default)
[personal profile] sami wrote:
Nov. 23rd, 2010 02:51 am (UTC)
... that sounds kind of totally awesome.

Clearly I need to catch up on Doctor Who despite the tragic lack of David Tennant.
sqbr: Rose and the doctor (dw?)
[personal profile] sqbr wrote:
Nov. 23rd, 2010 03:12 am (UTC)
I haven't even gotten to Amy (the actual companion) who is generally despised by the same people for roughly equivalent reasons.

River was in the Season 4 episode "Silence in the Library" if you've seen that. But yes, Season 5 is made of awesome and you should definitely watch it. And then you can read my Amy/River femslash.

Here's a picture of River, the Eleventh Doctor and Amy.

(Normally I'd be a little worried about going off topic like this, but given the topic I assume ranrata won't mind some promoting of tv with awesome female characters)
sami: (Default)
[personal profile] sami wrote:
Nov. 23rd, 2010 03:21 am (UTC)
... wait.

Fandom hates on her?

What. I don't even.

But she rules.

I will try not to be all shallow and "... but the new doctor is funny-looking and not David Tennant" about it, because my deep adoration of David Tennant and his utter charmingness is not his fault.
sqbr: me in a graduation outfit. Trust me, I'm a doctor (of maths) (doctor!)
[personal profile] sqbr wrote:
Nov. 26th, 2010 02:36 am (UTC)
You definitely do. I missed David Tennant as well but the new guy, while not as cute, still managed to endear himself to me by the end of the pilot :)

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