Okay, I'm out of tag space to rant in, so I apparently need to write an essay now
First of all, my original tags were that I lived through the way Steven Universe fans treated their show, and I was glad the Zelda fandom wasn't like that. Like yes, LoZ has a TON of problems; transphobia, racism, imperialism, misogyny, etc etc etc, but those of us who like the game KNOW HOW TO ENGAGE WITH THIS CRITICALLY. We fix the issues in our fanfiction, point out issues in our theories, etc. You can recognize that a piece of media has flaws and was made by people without your best interests at heart, and still engage with and enjoy that media.
THIS WAS NOT me saying that Steven Universe was problematic and I can enjoy it anyways. Steven Universe itself was not the focal point of what I was trying to say.
What I WAS saying was that the way the majority of SU fans interacted with work made purity culture popular. We all meme about the awful fandom the cute show made, but it's bled into other corners of other fandoms. You can't read this on Ao3. You can't like that character. Such and such did nothing wrong, while so and so is a war criminal.
The way fandom engages with media has polarized to two extremes, where either you're expected to dissect what you watch or read down to the smallest micron, or you're encouraged to ignore literally every problem with what's going on.
Things are not objectively good or bad. Literally nothing in the world is as polarized to the extreme that people on this site take it. Things require NUANCE. "What was the context this was made in? What's the context the audience is taking it? Is it still a problem? Can I DO anything about that problem?"
THAT'S how you properly analyze media. You use more than just a shallow, surface level understanding of an issue to decide whether something's okay for YOU YOURSELF to watch.
Nobody else. You don't get to decide that for anyone else. Nobody's engagement with media is going to be the exact same as yours, and it's arrogant and naïve to assume otherwise.
You don't get to tell people what to read or not read. You don't get to tell people what to watch or not watch. You people forget that the internet is full of STRANGERS. Your dashboard? It's like walking through a mall. You might recognize some people on it. You might listen in on conversations. But you are STILL expected to behave yourself. You can't walk up to some strangers and say "well actually what you're saying is wrong." You can't stroll up to someone reading a book on a bench and slap it out of their hands. That doesn't make you a good person, no matter if your friends applaud you for it or not.
And you know what? It's YOUR mall. If you don't like what you're hearing, Tumblr has this neat little thing called a content filter. You can block tags. You can block PHRASES. I use it to tune out news that makes me too upset to read about; I'm not adding to my compassion fatigue any more than I have to. I also use it to block fandoms I see too much of, fandoms I'm not into, fandoms I dislike, etc.
TUMBLR IS NOT TWITTER. On this site, you curate your OWN experience. You see something you don't like? Filter it. That's your responsibility. You have opinions on a piece of media? Blog about them. Or keep them to yourself, if you can't handle that.
This post, IN ITS MOST BASIC FORM, is playfully telling you "don't tell me what to do, you don't know me."
For those of you saying "oh except this media-" congrats on missing the point.
The Legend of Zelda is dear to me. I understand its flaws. I work mindfully around them.
My generation loved Harry Potter. Yes, JK Rowling is a terf. For those of us who were fans, this was HEARTBREAKING. For those of you who came in after she made that public, you're, understandably, full of vitriol. But the author being a bad person doesn't magically erase the connections people made because of her work. It doesn't wipe that we had fun with it. We made friends. We had parties. We saw a world full of magic and wonder, and we got invested.
I don't do Harry Potter anymore. JKR being who she is ruined that for me. But I remember what that joy and excitement felt like, and I am not going to take that away from anyone else.
My Legend of Zelda is someone else's Harry Potter. It's someone else's Attack on Titan. It's someone else's Madoka Magica, Dream SMP, YouTube celebrity, Boyfriend Dungeon, and so on.
You don't get to tell people what to do.
You don't know how they engage with it.
You all grasp this pretty well when it comes to LGBT stuff. It's not up to you to decide if someone's trans enough, or gay enough, if they're doing it for attention because of how they present, if it sprang up because of trauma, and so on. You're good about it when learning someone avoids certain foods, needs additional help, hates or loves their family, and so on. You don't know their story, so you don't get to decide what they should or shouldn't do, right?
So I KNOW you're capable of nuanced thinking. I KNOW you're capable of respecting people's privacy, just learn to expand that to their interests as well.
AND ALSO BECAUSE IT APPARENTLY NEEDS TO BE SAID: PIRATE IT
OBVIOUSLY don't support people who are garbage because they make things you like. Get an adblock and go on kissanime/kisscartoon/etc. Get your merch from etsy. Critical thinking skills applies to HOW you consume media too, and I shouldn't have to be spelling this out for you
The guy's a fascist? Keep that in mind while watching the stuff, and don't give him a penny. She's a terf? I can name a dozen libraries and two dozen pdfs you can access her work for free. Channel that vitriol into spiting the creator, and supporting people in the smaller communities and services, not tearing into the people who value their escapism over your Simon-says morality system
God would you people PLEASE rub your two brain cells together and get some static going between those neurons?
2087
tangentwithtanner
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prguitarman
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