*Sighs* I'm probably going to regret this, but here we go again.
I've seen people's posts about "Life" and how Yuno's story turned out and how Yamanaka reacted to Yuno's story, and this whole thing has reminded me of why I've been struggling to actually enjoy MILGRAM since Daisuki released.
Because yeah! The way Yuno's miscarriage is portrayed as murder is wrong and fucked up! The message of Yuno's story is fucked up (as is the message for Haruka's story)! The visceral womb imagery in "Life" is used for shock value in the same way that Mahiru's boyfriend hanging himself is used for shock value in Daisuki! 4-5 people in this prison straight up *did not commit murder* (depending on whether you think whatever Shidou did was murder or not, but Yuno, Futa, Mahiru, and Kazui are not murderers because wrongful death and manslaughter are not the same as murder) and yet are treated as murderers all the same! Characters (especially female characters and characters who have confirmed mental health issues like Haruka and Mikoto) are demonized not just by the fandom, but *by the narrative itself and by the writers*! The whole "these MVs are based on how the prisoners perceive themselves and their crimes" argument doesn't work when the writers are the ones who are portraying these characters in this specific way and are using specific words and imagery to show what they want to portray for these characters. (That's not to say you can't explicitly portray someone as a bad person or have a character who is explicitly evil, but at least be honest that the portrayal is biased; don't act like a biased portrayal is objectively true. This is admittedly just my opinion, but I think we're being expected to take these MVs and the lyrics at face value - "everything you need to know about these crimes is in the MVs.")
And for what?
I'm just...we can agree that some of these characters did messed up things or made bad decisions. Sure, Haruka shouldn't have killed animals and children, Futa shouldn't have doxxed a middle schooler, Muu shouldn't have bullied her peers or killed Rei, and Kotoko shouldn't have acted as a vigilante. Sure, it wasn't the best life decision for Yuno to do compensated dating, Shidou should have considered the ethics of what he was doing more thoroughly, Mahiru should have had a conversation with her boyfriend about each of their expectations from the relationship, Kazui should have been honest with his wife, and Mikoto should have stood up for himself at work...or something. (Honestly, I don't know what Amane could have done differently; I've never been in a cult, but I do know that it's hard to know you're in a bad situation until you either get out of the bad situation or you get evidence from outside that your normal isn't normal.)
But...haven't we all made bad decisions and fucked up in some way? Like, I presume most people in this fandom haven't killed someone, but not having a conversation about boundaries and expectations with someone you care about either because you don't realize that's a conversation you're supposed to have or because you're scared to do so? That's not a rare occurrence. If you're in the medical profession, the legal profession, or any profession where ethics are a big deal, it's not uncommon to run into ethical dilemmas (hence why law students are required to take a legal ethics class). I can't be the only one who has made several decisions in the past that made my life worse in some way, right?
There's this continuous thread of...I guess dehumanization is the best way to put it? Not that these characters are the same as real people, because they're not. But the way that Haruka, Muu, Kazui, and Kotoko are portrayed implicitly or explicitly as inhuman and how the audience is (in my opinion) being pushed to see them in a purely negative light when they have sympathetic and/or positive traits (yes, even Muu and Kotoko)...the way that John is told to his face that him having "being born" and existing is a sin...the way that suicide and suicidal ideation are simultaneously minimized and used for shock value...and this whole framework of "these are murderers and you have to judge them" when several of them didn't murder anyone, when characters like Haruka, Muu, Amane, and Mikoto were all reacting to terrible situations, when no matter whether we forgive or don't forgive, things will go terribly wrong...it's troubling and bothersome. Yes, these characters are fictional, yes these are extreme situations in some cases, but it's not like most of these situations are impossible in real life. It's not unreasonable to ask for these situations to at least be handled with a bit of care, right? But it's clear that was not the point of this series. It was never the point. There was always going to be things used for shock value that shouldn't have been used that way.
As usual, I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with this. I'm writing this late at night, and I didn't get much sleep last night, so my points might be a smidge incoherent. But...it's frustrating. It's frustrating that this series has turned out this way, especially because part of me still wants to like this series that has been a major part of my life since I started law school. It's frustrating that some people (not everyone, but some) are not even trying to analyze the text and the rhetoric (but I will admit that as someone who spent a decent chunk of college doing rhetorical analysis because of my degree, I am biased).
...I wish this series wasn't like this, but there's no point to pretending like MILGRAM isn't heavily flawed in every aspect.
