A decade in online fandom social justice
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | A decade in online fandom social justice |
| Creator: | sqbr |
| Date(s): | May 10, 2016 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | sqbr, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
A decade in online fandom social justice is a post by sqbr.
It has a companion post called Looking back on a decade in online fandom social justice: unexpurgated version.
Parts
- Fandom ten years ago
- My changing relationship with social justice
- Turning point
- Attitudes shift
- Fail fandom
- MOAR SOCIAL JUSTICE
- Where I'm at in 2016
Topics Discussed
- Race and Fandom
- changing platforms
- social justice
- attitudes
- bullying
- privilege
- much more
Excerpt
I'm still not good at deciding the difference between "someone who sets off my conflict anxiety" and "someone who is genuinely dangerous and/or overly mean". But I've realised I should worry less about whether my reasons for not wanting to be around someone are "reasonable" and just accept that friendship is irrational. I now surround myself with people who make me happy, and with whom I can have productive conversations even when we disagree. And having done that, and having gotten a whole bunch of therapy, I feel happier and more able to discuss scary topics without worrying so much that all my friends will hate me forever if I misstep.
I haven't encountered any bullying or extreme viciousness personally for a while, but I feel like I'd recognise and handle it better than I used to. Bullying is absolutely going on in the name of social justice, see for example The Sherlock 221b Con Wank. And there's lots more people who are largely sincere and less nasty but still lacking in nuance or understanding for other people's point of view.
In around a decade of creating many diverse fanworks I have not once gotten harassed for being racist/transphobic etc in any of those works. I have had friends and betas (when I've felt up to having one) politely express reservations to me privately, but I was glad of it and followed their advice. I have gotten crap for making a character look "too gay", using image descriptions, and undoing whitewashing. Also for using photo references, not having enough sex, and leaving WIPs unfinished. Obviously my experience is not universal, and other fans HAVE been criticised for problematic depictions of marginalised characters, sometimes unfairly (but often not). My point is that it's not GUARANTEED the way some people say it is, and that you're much more likely to experience criticism for choice of ships etc. If you can handle the danger of posting publicly at all, you should be able to handle creating diverse fanworks.
I still have a lot of friends who don't talk much about social justice, and that's fine, as long as they're ok with me bringing it up every now and then.
I try to draw a clear line between my fannish response to canon and a more rational social justice analysis, which includes less fannishly interesting things like hiring practices. It's impossible to be entirely objective, but I think it's worth trying, and hate any erosion of the distinction between the kinds of narratives you enjoy and what you value in real life.
For all that fandom cares more about social justice these days overall, there's still plenty of people who jump too quickly to labelling criticism as oversensitive or mean. For example I'm sure there's people who, if they encounter this post, will stop reading the moment they see the words asexual and genderfluid. But they no longer control the narrative as much.
The new narrative absolutely has it's flaws, and I try and push back against them. But I do feel like things have changed for the better.