yo, so recently i've noticed a lot of call-out posts directed at people that ship bat-fam ships because these glorify incest / paedophilia and i was wondering if you had any thoughts on these? (because ngl i agree with some of their points, but ... i also ship certain ships like burning) (and because you're always so eloquent <3)
so there are multiple possible answers to this. let me start with this: generally, i think moral censorship is dangerous. like, on a global scale (for example in journalism), but specifically in art. morality is extremely subjective, and philosophers and ethicists have been trying to nail it down for literally thousands of years. we’re not going to magically solve that problem on tumblr through anon asks. this may sound condescending, and that’s really not my intention–i just mean that it’s the kind of debate that just doesn’t have a definite conclusion, because of the nature of the initial question.
now, there is censorship that i do, personally, find useful and defendable, but it’s not moral. protecting kids from sensitive or graphic content, for example, is technically censorship, but it’s essential. fandom does that: it has a universal rating system and an in-depth understanding of trigger warnings. this is good. this is what, in theory, should allow all of us to enjoy fandom safely.
should we censor “problematic” content? this question is much, muuuch older than the internet. individuals and governments alike have been burning books for centuries, for more or less commendable reasons and with more or less shaky justifications. we tend to accept freedom of speech as something progressive, and regimes that don’t allow a certain liberty of expression are usually characterized as authoritarian. yes, that does extend to art. art is the number one tool of propaganda. artists under most fascist regimes had to either flee or conform to the dominant ideology. should we censor mein kampf? should we censor the works of mao? should we censor céline’s pamphlets? céline is a very good example, because he’s both a novelist and an essayist. for those of you not coming from a french-speaking environment, louis-ferdinand céline is a prominent french author who’s life spanned the two world wars, and who is known mainly for two things: his incredible style which revolutionized european literature, and the violent antisemitism of his ideas. i was, for the longest time, of the firm opinion that we should stop printing his work. it is still extremely hard for me to defend the opposite position on a personal level; but on an ideological one, because of my antifascist views, i find that i must. not because of the undeniable quality of his writing or because he has influenced some key figures of 20th century european lit, but because art should always be free. there cannot be a concession to this. once you start making exceptions, you’re opening your door to moral censorship, and it has always, always in the end been used to oppress, never to liberate. instead of keeping céline’s (and other’s) works hidden from the next generations, what we should be doing is teaching them in context, and encouraging critical analysis. ignorance is dangerous. we should be very, very aware of the evils of this world. we should keep reading mein kampf, because we should never be allowed to forget. not because humanity should practice self-flagellation, but because humanity should always be self-aware.
this right here is my general position on censorship. now, because that shit got real deep real fast, let’s answer your actual question. i’m coming at this from two main angles: as a writer, an “artist” (i know there’s a whole other essay to write on if writers are artists but for the sake of brevity let’s accept this for now), and as a survivor. leeet’s break this down into points, y’all.
1) art should be free. art is a right. artist should be allowed absolute freedom of expression. mind you: freedom, by definition, isn’t a free pass to just do anything you want. your freedom ends where other people’s freedom begins. you’re not supposed to hurt other people in the name of individual freedom.
2) who’s the judge? how does one obtain the moral superiority to assess other people’s works? if someone is bothered/hurt/triggered by your work, does that give them the right to ask you to take it down? if you yourself are using art as a coping mechanism, does that absolve you from “being problematic”? if that is the case, are we forcing people to either give up on their coping mechanisms or disclose their trauma? by giving survivors this “privilege”, aren’t we othering them?
3) art philosophy is fascinating. i realize not everyone is privileged enough to access that kind of culture/education, but if you’re into fandom and the mechanisms of fandom it’s deffinitely something you should check out. aristotle’s poetics, a major text for the field, breaks down the “essence” of tragedy, among other things. he explains that an essential component of art is catharsis. i haven’t read the wiki page and i don’t like how most western folks teach aristotle, but i’m sure it’s enough to give you the gist of it. we love tragedy because it allows us to catalyze our dark thoughts and impulses into something “harmless”. greek tragedy is literally built on stuff fandom has tried to censor lately: murder, incest, rape, abuse, blasphemy, etc. that’s because like it or not, these things are part of the human experience. and humans have to put that out somehow, or it’s gonna eat them from the inside. even if you’re not a “victim” yourself, there is something cathartic in writing about “””gross””” things. maybe you’re putting some of your fears on paper. maybe you’re writing about a violence you have in you and that you want to take out on PAPER and not in real life. same goes for reading and more generally consuming art.
lin-manuel miranda tells it waaay better than me in this interview:
I find that, for me, the work is a safe place to put all the stuff you don’t want to put in your real life. I don’t want to be a crazy, manic asshole. I don’t want to have an affair. I don’t want to have a fucking gunfight. But! There’s a part of your brain that wants to experience everything, and so work’s a safe place to explore it all. Both in the writing and in the performing. I get to write about an affair. I get to have the guilt and the feeling of that without having to fuck my life up. [laughs] Art is the place to safely explore all those other sides of you, because the side you want to bring home is the side that wants to be a good father and be a good husband and be a good son. In art we can be fucking nuts. So I didn’t have any depression left to play outside of the theater. I was like a dry sponge at the end.
4) so, what am i really saying? i’m saying ship and let ship. i’m saying tag your shit. i’m saying that of course people can find some shipping triggering or just disturbing, and that’s absolutely fucking valid. if your fandom experience feels unsafe, block people, ask your friends to tag, etc. take care of yourself, and make yourself your own priority. that… also goes for folks who ship “gross” ships. for whatever reason. you don’t have to justify yourself. as long as you’re respectful of people who don’t like what you like, you’re not hurting anyone. as long as you’re not, like, actively campaigning for these things in real life, art should be your safe space. fandom, specifically, which has historically been a place for women and queer people to explore things we never talk about in mainstream media or society in general, should allow us to “get weird”, and even to “get nasty”. something being explored in art doesn’t necessarily mean the author is presenting it as good or valid. sometimes it does, and that’s a whole other question (does intent matter? etc etc), but you have to interpret and analyze the narrative yourself, y’all. i think that’s a very, very important nuance. i think it is very, veeery dangerous to tell a whole generation of young artists that they cannot pour their darkness onto their canvases and blank pages anymore.
dailybridgerton
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