Apologies for making it seem as if I am saying people should be condemned for certain tastes; this is certainly not what I believe. I didn’t intend to attack anyone, and still am confused as to how exactly I did? Rather, I was talking about fandom in aggregate. I don’t think that it’s wrong for individuals to like or sympathize with certain characters, but I also don’t think that it’s wrong to examine the trends that these individual preferences add up to.
As for the issue of PTSD — I certainly don’t mean to dismiss it as a serious topic, or one that we don’t talk enough about in our culture. A very dear friend of mine has PTSD, which is not to say that I am immune from making stupid or misinformed comments about it, but rather to say that it is something that I care deeply about. It’s not wrong for fans with PTSD to connect with Cullen, and I am glad that they have a character they can connect with that way.
What bothers me, however, is the way that it is sometimes — often? — invoked, not so much as an aspect to explore, but as a defense.
The thing is, we don’t know that Cullen has PTSD. Speaking of, we don’t know that Anders or Fenris have PTSD. I’m not a psychologist, but even if I was, none of the dialogue that we have with these characters is substitute for a clinical interview which would lead to a diagnosis.
The codex says that Cullen’s experience at Kinloch Hold “shook” him. We know that he has nightmares about it (though we don’t know their frequency or intensity). What other intrusion symptoms does he have? Is he exhibiting avoidance behavior — he hasn’t left the Templars. Has his mood and outlook become markedly more negative? He’s certainly become more pessimistic, but given that a large part of the Templar Order agrees with him and that Kirkwall is bursting with blood mages, perhaps that is just realism. Is he having violent or irritable outbursts? His treatment of Wilmod could be called an example, though according to Cullen himself, the violence of this confrontation was a deliberate ruse. Otherwise, Cullen is quite solicitous in his responses to Hawke (or so it seems to me). Of course, we never see him outside of a few conversations, so what off-screen symptoms he might be suffering from are a mystery. Possibly, they don’t exist.
None of this invalidates the idea that Cullen has PTSD, but nor does it confirm it as fact. Many people who go through traumatic experiences never develop it. Doubtless we’ll know more come Inquisition, but given that we don’t know, I can’t agree that “it’s at the heart of his character arc.” Of course it is totally fine for people to read him this way, and sympathize with him, and like him! That is good and positive, and one of the things that being a fan gives to people.
But what we are discussing here — the question I was trying to poke at — is why some Cullen supporters bend over backwards to defend him from even untagged criticism when other characters, such as Meredith, are not given the same kind of treatment. So this discussion is not about people who are reading Cullen as having PTSD and being well-served by that particular interpretation (fine to do). This discussion is about people who are invoking that interpretation as fact and using it as a bludgeon to argue that everybody owes it to Cullen to recognize his character arc and to not criticize his actions (not fine to do).
This is the trend about which my comments were made. It’s the same sort of thing that has people excusing Anders for what he’s done because of his experiences at the Circle and saying that it is wrong to call him a terrorist or call his actions immoral. Anders is my very favorite character, and I could talk myself blue in the face about all the reasons why, but I recognize that people’s reasons not to like him are legitimate. His having experienced trauma or mental illness do not make people’s reasons to dislike him less legitimate.
And that is basically the essence of the tags that you’ve highlighted. People have mental illnesses. People’s decisions and behaviors are effected by these illnesses. But that does not mean that they are owed forgiveness for their actions, simply because of where their actions come from. When people are hurt by someone, they are allowed not to forgive them. When people disagree with someone’s actions or attitudes, they are not required to take into account everything that might have led a person to them in forming their judgements. When people act like PTSD is a talisman against doing any wrong rather than a complex condition, I can’t help but feel it is being misused.
And it’s no attack on anyone’s individual preferences to point out the gendered way that this label is used as a whole. Fanon interpretation of Cullen’s PTSD means that people critical of him get lectures on how to “correctly” read his character. But Meredith is just a crazy bitch. Her death explains a lot of why there is not as much call for a redemption arc for her, sure, but it doesn’t explain the utter simplification of her motivations while the motivations of other (male) characters are thoroughly picked apart.
I know that PTSD can be particularly challenging for men, whom culture expects to simply “get over it”. But at least a national conversation about it exists. The President himself has acknowledged the difficulties faced by veterans with PTSD, and has taken steps to improve care for them. But the wounded soldier (typically male) is not the only PTSD sufferer that exists, and the coding of PTSD as a male disorder is itself an injustice. Women suffer PTSD as well, whether from combat or for other reasons, and their experiences are much more rarely talked about. Women are more likely than men to develop PTSD as a result of trauma, and what’s more, the lifetime prevalence of PTSD for women who have experienced sexual assault (certainly a gendered phenomenon) is 50%.
Of course it is fine for people to relate to Cullen as a person with PTSD! But when we are primarily talking about him, or Fenris, or Anders, as people with trauma worth exploring, and not about characters such as Meredith, or even Isabela (who has experienced several traumas and whose recklessness, avoidance, and use of alcohol are all symptoms of PTSD) or Aveline (who displays less symptoms, I think, but whose experiences at Ostagar and with Wesley were certainly traumatic), we are perpetuating certain societal wrongs.
I don’t think it is shaming to point out that trend and try to explore why it might exist.
