Looking back on a decade in online fandom social justice: unexpurgated version
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| Title: | Looking back on a decade in online fandom social justice: unexpurgated version |
| Creator: | sqbr |
| Date(s): | May 10, 2016 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | sqbr, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Looking back on a decade in online fandom social justice: unexpurgated version is a post by sqbr.
It has a companion post called A decade in online fandom social justice.
This post was written, in part, as a response to Your Vagina is a Bigot; My Vagina is a Saint and the discussion that ensued.
Topics Discussed
- Race and Fandom
- changing platforms
- social justice
- attitudes
- bullying
- privilege
- much more
Excerpt
I've been inspired to write this by seeing other fans trying to sell their own, equally subjective narratives that contradict mine as The Objective Truth, and it annoys me. The most recent example is this deeply flawed essay by Franzeska. Here's some criticisms by POC: a thread on ffa wherea POC looks back on their own experiences of lj fandom [1] and Fans Of Colour Are Not To Blame For Fandom's Erasures: A response to That Meta.
Note: I have a terrible memory so some of these details are probably off, luckily I wrote a retrospective post back in 2010, though even then you can see how differently 2010!me describes things. Subjective! Also, this is an absolute novel, I don't expect people to read all the links as well, they're just there for anyone who want more context on a specific part. I feel weird that so much of it is about my experiences as a white antiracist, but that's the way things played out. Any time I express an opinion about anti racism imagine a "But I'm white, so what do I know" disclaimer.
So! For context: I started out identifying as a white, straight, ablebodied woman, and have since realised I am and to some extent always was a white, biromantic, grey asexual, mentally ill, genderfluid person. I also have an acquired physical disability.
I have been involved in social justice since I was born in 1979: my grandparents and parents are very involved in local (Western Australian) progressive politics, and while I haven't gotten involved much in activism myself I've inherited the same natural tendency to notice and complain about things like racism and classism (like many older progressives my parents are less big on gender/sexuality/disability) I also inherited my mother's impatience with the simplistic, dogmatic approach of her communist parents.
I've been involved in fandom since I was a teenager in the 90s, frequenting fandom message boards etc and, once I got the chance, my uni's science fiction club.