: Thursday, June 17, 2010
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harriet_spy: for my sisters of the Caucasian persuasion - Fandom isn't just those embarrassing people over there who we can quickly separate ourselves from when they make fools of themselves. Fandom. Is. Us. This stuff keeps coming out because it's inside us, it's built into the structures we've been making for years and years: every time we prioritized the love of the pretty white boys over everything else, every time we said we couldn't write a nonwhite character because it was too scary, every time we didn't notice that there weren't nonwhite characters in our shows or nonwhite faces at our gatherings. The ugliness in that J2 story is a reflection of the ugliness in our own hearts. And you know what? Smashing the mirror doesn't make you any prettier -- medie: I'm sorry, what with the where with the fucking what? - I can't ask myself how someone could do this. We live in a culture where filmmakers can produce racist, misogynistic bullshit and get held up as visionaries. Fandom, surprisingly, is actually a place where racism, homophobia, and misogyny are more visible and more likely to be called out (and generate reaction like this) whereas offline, not so much. It takes more, longer, and is forgotten much more quickly in the 24-hour news cycle. -
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furiosity: idefk - What I do want to comment on is an underlying vibe I have been picking up all over the place in recent months, and particularly during tonight's bout of link-hopping: that frank discussion of various forms of privilege has "ruined fandom". -- meta_anon_admin: Anonymous Meta - I am interested in discussing how we could create a larger forum for anonymous meta posters. Right now, the people that are posting meta attached to their online personas do so because they are not afraid to put a foot forward and speak their mind. I would argue, though, that this is just a small fraction of our community, and it cannot be representative of everyone who has an opinion on a topic. -
- naraht: Share a public domain book... - From a purely practical point of view I think it would be great if there were more public domain fandoms in Yuletide this year. Being free to remix and retell and transform is a goal that most of us in fandom can get behind. And thanks to sites like Google Books and Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg, it's easy to share your beloved fandom with other people. -
- tikiaceae: a little bit more on that subject... - Watch the news. Read about current affairs. You have the internets. Google racism, institutional racism, white privilege and go on from there. Follow metafandom, it's kinda helpful.//And if it seems like the fandom's exploding over something... doesn't that make you curious??? Please indulge your curiosity and click the links. Why not? Who knows, you may learn something. -
- ar: confessions of a frustrated femslasher - Tell me, internets, do you come to a point where you say to yourself, "This woman is really awesome, and I would totally read her kissing other girls! But there is literally only one easily-viable femslash ship, and it doesn't do anything for me! Exclamation points of dismay!" -
- iambickilometer: On participation and the decision not to. - Thing is, I almost always have something to say on the matter, whether it's casting white actors as characters of colour, writing fail stories about trans characters, or people trying once again to revoke the marriage licenses of queer couples in California who got married before Prop 8 passed. All of these things are recent events, all of them piss me off some extent or another, not all of them directly effect me. I don't believe in keeping my mouth shut just because I am not the injured party. But I also give myself permission to keep my opinion to myself sometimes. -
- such_heights: Activism, solidarity, and My Stuff - Here's the thing. Sometimes, there's stuff in fandom that infringes upon My Stuff. My identities, the things that shape my life offline and cause me to experience particular kinds of prejudice and disadvantage. And, you know, having misogyny and ablism and homophobia turn up in the middle of the things I do for fun is less than ideal. So, sometimes I talk about it, in the hope that it makes it less likely to happen again. -
- jazzypom: On Nation Language, Jibberish and Why Both Aren't The Same. - I will also like to expand on an oft overlooked subject when it comes to tropes, racism and fandom on a whole: the concept of nation language and jibberish, and how it is oft overlooked in the wider scheme of things, but just as important. -
- ephemere: Itys - I think what many of these people are missing here is how very vital it is to speak out against racism and other institutions of oppression. And, at the same time, how difficult and painful speaking out can be. I cannot say for certain what other people may have experienced to shape their views thus, but speaking for myself: I have seen first-hand what happens when people remain silent, or when they leash their anger and cannot use it to instigate change, and it is a terrible, terrible thing. -
- bethbethbeth: About Silence... - most of the people I've seen mentioning the silence issue are pointing at themselves. They're not trying to shame anybody. They're saying "I feel like I'm doing something wrong when I don't say something, and so I have to speak," and I get that. But for any of you who are turning that shame outwards in an understandable effort to get more people involved, try to keep in mind that there are a lot of people reading your posts who can't participate, who can't speak out - not this day and not this week and maybe not this year - no matter how much they wish they could. -