You are just as responsible for your fandom activism as creators are for their fanworks

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Title:	You are just as responsible for your fandom activism as creators are for their fanworks
Creator:	shinelikethunder
Date(s):	April 30, 2017
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External Links:	You are just as responsible for your fandom activism as creators are for their fanworks, Archived version
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You are just as responsible for your fandom activism as creators are for their fanworks is an April 2017 essay by shinelikethunder.

The topic is social justice and fandom, policing others content and discourse regarding fanworks, and personal responsibility. The essay has the tags #fandom activism#antis#tumblr 'social justice'#meta#fandom.

As of July 2017, the essay had 1,627 reblogs.

Excerpts

More so, in fact, because your primary purpose is telling people what to do or not do. Any instructive value in creative work is understood to be subordinate to entertainment and self-expression, but if you’re out there explicitly advocating for something, you’d damn well be ready to own it. Including all its implications and potential negative effects.

That means: If you’re urging people not to create some kind of fanwork because you think that’ll protect a vulnerable group, you’d better be ready to account for the members of that group who make it, enjoy it, and find solace in it.

That means: If you’re urging retaliation against creators, you are absofuckinglutely responsible for the harm that befalls them as a result, including harm to members of the group you’re trying to protect.

That means: If you’re holding everyone else to high standards about how they could affect someone with a trigger-able mental illness, you need to hold yourself to the same standards, including effects on people whose anxiety manifests as over-scrupulosity or intrusive thoughts.

That means: If you’re shaming erotica you find “gross,” you don’t get to blow off conversations about how that shame plays into conservative sexual-purity enforcement. You don’t get to wash your hands of the implications, whether or not that’s what you meant. Explicit activism has far more duty to consider indirect implications than anyone’s personal pursuit of sexual fulfillment does.

That means: If your activism has garnered you a huge follower count, you are responsible for the exposure you inflict on the people you pick fights with, and the dogpiles or hate mobs you incite. This can be a tough thing to learn if you get popular overnight, and even well-meaning people fumble with it at first, but it’s something you have to figure out. And don’t fucking give me that “it was just a block list, I didn’t mean for anyone to go into their askboxes on anon and tell them all to kill themselves” crap, the only people fooled by it are the ones looking for an excuse to be fooled.

Addendum: if you coerce someone into disclosing an intimate trauma or outing themselves as a member of a vulnerable group on a public blog just to avoid harassment… yes, you bear partial responsibility for any subsequent abuse of that information. Also, fuck you, fuck your “activism,” and maybe try taking a break and minding your own fucking business for a while.

Excerpts from the Comments

[micelle]:

It's also worth drawing a distinction between hard power and soft power. In fanwork discourse, hard power basically doesnt exist. Nobody can forbid or enforce anything. So instead

people who seek influence have to do so through social and moral channels. The real social currency on Tumblr is how many True Believers you have. How many people are willing to go to bat for you and your ideas? In fandom, the power is in convincing people that you're right. It's a culture war.

[lurksin2manyfandoms replied to unforth- ninawaters]: So much all of this. I was PHYSICALLY and emotionally attacked by fandom “friends” I made once upon a time; we had become offline friends, we shared fandom interests and admired each others social justice goals and activism. They found out I’m Jewish (I never hid it but they didn’t connect that fact, I guess). They beat me up a bit, told me that I “belong in an oven.” And then told their followers to attack me online, as well, I got hit with a ton of angry messages for “hurting” said fandom...

[21st-century-flapper replied to ereini0n]: And don’t fucking give me that “it was just a block list, I didn’t mean for anyone to go into their askboxes on anon and tell them all to kill themselves” crap, the only people fooled by it are the ones looking for an excuse to be fooled. This is a kind of behavior that makes me want to scream.No, adding “please don’t go and harass them” when you’ve just made a callout post about someone does not absolve you of responsibility for when the inevitable happens and that person is harassed. Unless...

[victim-that-speaks replied to unpopularfa nopinion]: ... this post would be good for you to realize that people have the right to defend themselves. To point out someone being wrong isn’t harmful. To tell them they are responsible for themselves isn’t harmful. It makes them uncomfortable, sure. But a 21/22 pairing is considered pedophilia 17/19 is considered pedophilia. That is an age gap, not pedophilia. They are misusing pedophilia. They are attacking people over FICTION! We have the right to correct them. And this wouldn’t be a problem...

[haodan]: Ok at this point can you just like leave me alone. I legitimately don't care That Much and you're getting into new drama that I wasn't even addressing in the first place. This is all turning into a rabbit holle.

[spacesemmel replied to shinelikethunder]:

Oh hello, this sounds reasonable… but hey, here’s where the tumblr SJ get-out-of-jail-free card comes in: PUNCHING UP IS ALWAYS OKAY. As soon as that’s established, and let’s be honest, around here it is, the problem of responsibility for your own activism conveniently falls away. Oppression olympics, anyone? I’m sure those people you want to shut down have some kind of privilege? And voilà, no need to tread carefully: you know they deserve it.

#fandom [[wank]]#sj fail#that punching up phrase is my ultimate pet peeve#because as soon as we've established there's a group of people deserving of violence#we only need to convince ourselves and a few others that our opponents belong to exactly that group#same with punching nazis#do you want to know what I've seen people get called nazi for on this hellhole of a website??

[the-real-seebs replied to lysikan]: Ayup! It’s weird how the people talking about how “fiction affects reality” never consider that reality also affects reality.

[jumpingjacktrash replied to roachpatrol]:

this is just a good general principle. you are responsible (within reason) for the results of your activism. not just online but in meatspace.if you’re at a march, and you decide it should include more rock-throwing and window-breaking, and the police freak out, you share responsibility for the cascade of bad shit that subsequently goes down.if you’re organizing a support group, and you argue that it should exclude a certain set of people, you’re participating in those people’s alienation,...

#life advice

[nuggetemily replied to manyblinkinglights]:

thinking guy meme: “you can’t contradict your own values if you just never discourse”(honestly though a lot of this is good advice for any interaction, not just fandom shit)

#i wish i could just not discourse#but i fall into that 'over-scrupulous and intrusive thoughts' group :(

References

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