RKP ON "ALIENATING THE AUDIENCE"
I am a proud enjoyer of good writing in literary and visual works alike. However, I've noticed that some pieces of media are far more catered towards a specific demographic than others, but not necessarily for the better. Does a piece of writing HAVE to have an audience in mind? And what are the pros and cons of being "for everyone" over "for a specific group of people."
Ever since getting interested in making my works well-written, I have encountered the advise of "know your audience." Afterall, when you know who you are writing to, you will know how to please them. However, there are plenty of projects out there that know their audience well, yet still are, for the lack of a better term, rather mid. Because they are so focused on pleasing their audiences, they are exactly what you would expected them to be.
Even works with "controversial themes" such as those of LGBTQ+ representation, progressive social commentary, representation of underrepresented cultures, etc... still end up blending into one another when I come across them. Many simply do not catch my eye at all -- am I just that braindead and hard to please? Am I alone in this feeling? What makes them so similar?
On the flip side, it's not that I don't agree with the themes presented within them. I have seen my fair share of more "conservative" media as well and it is even worse when it comes to the pandering issue. I dislike it. However, while I enjoy one of these options over the other, both ends of the horseshoe end up meeting at the point of "equally forgettable in the end." Not a lot of art I see makes me think or question my values. I either agree completely, disagree completely, and forget about it the moment my screen goes black.
However, I am no writing master, either. Even in my own works I've noticed myself unintentionally attracting and pleasing a certain demographic. Even if subconscious, I want to be accepted. I want to be agreed with, and I want to be "right." People with similar values to mine tend to gravitate towards my art and I tend to gravitate towards theirs even if I don't feel passionately about it nor have much to say. Forcing myself to look in directions I usually wouldn't hasn't been too helpful, either. Even when entering a space with different values, it's the same story -- people validating one another and making safe media by their environments standards of "safety." I do not want to add to that pile.
While all art is valuable, I wish to create something more than a pretty picture or a story to nod to. So far in my art journey I hadn't exactly considered that there might be something more, but that changed when I progressed in "One Piece" of all things.
For those that might not be familiar, One Piece is a very unique show. I have heard a hater on the net describe it as "the perfect average," "mid," "not having a direction" and therefore being "safe," but it is anything but. One Piece does not try to be liked by everyone. Instead, it doesn't try to appease anyone. I do not think that there is a single person that enjoys every millisecond of One Piece without molding their personality to it. However, despite its flaws, it is full of heart and whimsy and ideas so vast all thanks to it being utterly chaotic in all the right ways. Even though I don't like the whole thing, it is still my favorite show, and there ARE shows where I like the whole thing.
One Piece is an enigma. It has shameless queer representation, yet it can be sexist in the name of big boobie ladies onscreen. One Piece is the silliest, most goofy-looking anime I've ever seen, yet has themes so serious and politically relevant that the Indonesian government is taking legal action against the straw hats flag because people are using it at protests. It looks great, but it looks terrible. It is shallow, yet it is deep. It is tragic, yet it is comical. It has the most beloved characters of all times, but many are hideously designed with no respect for any rules I've come across! I genuinely belive that Oda (the creator) just runs with his first, completely random ideas most of the time. It is VERY greedy and self-indulgent, but also so giving and valuable to the audience that kept going. In some regards, One Piece has very little "respect" for their audience, but that's the beauty of it. There is no bootlicking or sugar coating involved. One Piece was not made to please you. It just is the way that it is, and that's absolutely wonderful.
After thinking about it some more, I realized that the most timeless of stories are those that have extremely simple ideas. At the end of the day, One Piece is for people that like freedom -- that is the foundation, everything else is just fun. Many people have different ideas of what freedom means, but we all value it. Not a single demographic other than "rich people" (which are freedom's direct enemies) has been alianated from One Piece. Even though the subsections of the fandom fight, they all keep watching! HOW did Oda manage to curate such unity?!
I think that the answer is equally as simple as making something timeless. You do not need to think long and hard about who your audience is unless you are running a marketing scheme. If you wish to attract a certain demographic, become a safe, marketable figure within a certain community, then I understand the advice. However, the greatest art was never safe nor marketable. The greatest artists were always making tough pills to swallow in some type of way, even challenging the ideas that they themselves believed in. I believe that writers should worry themselves less with what makes their work "appealing" or "worth looking at" and more with what they wish to add to this world. Stories are already valuable if they come from the heart. If something you make leaves an impact, and it will if you're being genuine, then your creation will naturally be shared, even if it takes longer to pick up steam. Be smart about how you present your work when there are opportunities for harmless marketing, but do not let appeasing the masses ever get in your heart's way.
If you keep an open mind and if you respect every audience member equally, you will not alianate anybody. If you ever grow big, there will be morons that misinterpret your work. There are morons that think that Luffy would let Gaza die, afterall, but those morons being there is a consequence of something much more beautiful -- the fact that Oda, despite his very liberal-leaning views, never made fun of anybody who was a person that hated freedom.
It is so easy to make fun of people whose values we do not share, and frankly I do not mind that at all if you aren't looking to challenge anybody's mind -- make fun of conservatives all you like and I will laugh, but I also do not think that that makes for a very challenging piece of media. Personally, I want the people whom I disagree with to watch my stuff anyways. Extreme people and not so much, alike. I want to see opposition and passion and I want to see my ideas be challenged back, because I don't want to be saying stuff that everybody already 100% agrees with.
Whatever One Piece did when Bon Clay screamed "WE'RE HERE AND WE'RE QUEER" and some conservative still kept watching after that, I want to do too. I will acquire a piece of that magic. I wish to make something SO great, SO fun, yet so valuable that even if you hate me and everything I make, you'll still keep watching. I want everybody with even a bit of brain matter to have a good time. The only people I wish to alianated are those that I deem irredeemable -- and those are also rich people LOLL
