@ this post // @ myholldoll
1. I am not implying that you are all one person. I am implying that you are a close-knit group, and that you planned this work together – did you not? Feel free to correct me. It’s ridiculous how you can call those messages insufficient and rude, and yet Shannon thinks that it is her place to police how people respond to messages specifically about canon abusers. That is one thing that people like myself and others have an issue with.
…and for clarity’s sake, I say “and others” because I do not want to drag people into situations that they did not ask to be a part of. I know who they are. I do not need to tell you who they are. I don’t care if you think I am lying or not about their existence, because their safety means more to me than my need for validation…
2. I am not talking for you. I am talking for myself and for people who have raised issue about it to me who would rather remain anonymous. I apologize only if you think that I am talking for you which I have now clarified that I am not (even though this message was not addressed to you to begin with, and had everything to do with an anon asking me why I felt the way I did about the story.) You are well within your right to feel about those stories how you feel, but I am well within my right to feel about those stories how I feel as well.
I am not asking you to feel the way that I do. I grew up in an abusive home as well. I have a parent who is very unwell, who has attacked and degraded me and my mother before, and continues to do so. Getting them to admit that they need help has been a constant battle my entire life. So, when I see people literally erasing scenarios that mimic things that happened to me, it makes me feel uneasy and I am allowed to feel that way without being called rude or an asshole. So is everyone else.
The problem is that Ian has consistently presented problematic behaviors that you have erased. It makes me feel and others feel as well, as though you all think that those behaviors do not matter and are not worth addressing. I have been told over and over and over again, as well as others have been told over and over and over again that his behaviors are unrealistic, out of character, impossible, and so on, when I have seen behaviors just like it before up close and personal from someone who is “not always like that.”
To have that CONTINUALLY reinforced hurts. It has taken me a very long time to come to terms with things that this person has said and done to my family, and this season has been horrible in how they’ve introduced and handled issues that resemble personal issues. Forgive anyone for being disappointed by the fact that in something sold as “the real season 5,″ instead of their issues with the show being explicitly addressed, things were treated in an idealistic manner that did not address but rather erased the situations all together. People who did bring that up were made to feel like shit for wanting those stories to be told in a more realistic and sensitive manner.
…and sure, you are allowed to include or not include what elements you want. That’s not my issue at all. As you’ve said, people do rewrites all the time. It’s when people assert that we’re wrong for being bothered by how things played out or didn’t play out. It’s when people assert that we’re wrong and an asshole for bringing up issues with it. It’s when people have concerns about how the abuse that was in there was addressed, but no one listens as to why it was a problem for us. It’s when mentally ill people have concerns about how you wrote a mentally ill character in that scenario, but are told that this is more accurate. People are free to criticize fanworks. People are free to find fault in them, and feel like their voices are not heard in them.
I know you all chose to leave certain elements out, and I am not referring to any one of those events. I have expressed concerns over and over again in regards to how people have handled Mandy’s situation. How we continually see people jumping in to save Mandy using unsafe methods, acting as if they are safe and sound and she’s better off. When the characters are saying and doing unsafe things but then everyone feels good about themselves for how it played out because “the ends justify the means,” then we end up condoning and normalizing those things.
I know what your goals were. Want to write a fic that idealistically handles Shameless’ characters and world? By all means, do it. Just don’t treat people like shit for not liking it. Don’t pat yourselves on the back and act superior to people who do find fault in it. Don’t assert that these stories are more real and in character, if you want to avoid erasing the fact that people saw these stories play out and they were reminiscent of real people and events in their own lives. Don’t act like you all are infallible people who know what’s right. Good lord, because that’s exactly how Shannon made people feel while tone-policing how they should feel about issues they’ve come across which had nothing to do with her.
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