I get in theory why people complain about het ships or whatever, I get wanting to watch queer media I really do, but I guess where y’all lose me is like. I saw some asshole on a post about Sinners complaining it was “hetslop”—this person was specifically doing so while also claiming Remmick was a queer character and thus they were justified in caring more about him than the Black protagonists. which is a whole other disgusting can of worms that has been well addressed by others at this point. but even in the absence of that part of the argument, like, no, i actually don’t think that a hunger for queer stories is an especially good excuse to deride and dismiss a piece of landmark Black filmmaking, especially as a non-Black person. I have a post that’s been going around encouraging folks to engage with more Native stories and characters, and I had someone come onto that post saying in the tags that they’d need these stories to be queer in order to care. and I just think that, you know, sucks! like obviously as a queer Native I also want to see more of those stories too. but idk how else to put it other than to say that Black people and people of color shouldn’t have to be like you in order for you to care about our narratives and experiences. and I think some of y’all are using this disdain for heterosexuality as a cover for your unexamined racial biases. it’s not okay to be racist to people just because those people happen to be straight, and you continue to be white before you are queer.
on an even more basic level than that, also, I simply just think some of y’all NEED to learn how to interact with media and storytelling without ships and fandom in mind. like if not being able to write fic about two men kissing is genuinely going to be a dealbreaker for you I think that’s actually something you need to work on within yourself because at that point I think you’re no longer really interacting with art and themes and narrative so much as just kind of playing with toys. which is, like, fine I guess. have fun. but it wouldn’t kill you to disengage from that from time to time. especially if would allow you to actually appreciate rich and deeply moving cultural stories from communities of color that you desperately need to learn how to see as human
Fandom culture has been getting increasingly narcissistic and it's defeating the purpose or art and storytelling. A piece of media is someone telling you a story. You can critique it, you can consider if the story is being told effectively, what it means to you, how it influences culture, etc. etc. You don't have to like it, and if you understand how to listen and how to critique you already know that engaging with a piece of media isn't about liking it, it's about thinking about it. But when you dismiss a story because it isn't what YOU want or it doesn't represent you specifically, you're essentially saying that you don't care about other people's stories, you want their experiences and perspectives to cater to you and you alone. You're saying that you don't want to listen, you want to hear the sound of your own voice issuing from everyone else's mouth. And the thing is, I don't know how to explain to you that you live in a society.
Stop breaking everything down into ao3 tag categories. People are trying to tell you about the way they see the world. They have so much more to say than the little boxes you want to sort their narratives into for the convenience of your personal consumption.
