I've seen a bunch of "fandom etiquette" posts on my dash today and I'm going to say something that is maybe going to be unpopular but;
The absolutely pervasive mentality that unwanted criticism or critique shouldn't be given and should be ignored is why fans of color don't stay in fan spaces.
And I am not going to mince words here:
A lot of you are racist. A lot of your fan works are racist.
That might have been difficult to hear. And if it was, you should probably reflect on why that was.
"Fandom etiquette" has created a space where fans of color either bite our tongues and eventually leave or say something, get dogged on, and then eventually leave.
So much of "fandom etiquette" seems to be about insulating creatives from Feeling Bad and hostility to any kind of negative feedback is a pretty big contributor to why bigotry festers in these spaces.
#imo the potluck analogy applies- it would be rude to critique someone's icing technique at a potluck bc it wasn't as good as at the bakery #but if they had decorated their cupcakes w hate symbols it wouldn't be rude to tell them that's gross and gtfo #in fact it would be inappropriate to NOT say anything in that situation #or to complain that another guest who did point it out was 'ruining everyone's potluck' #and pointing out racism in fan works is 100% the second thing not the first! (via destructions-daughter)
You know, when I've remarked that a lot of the responses to my posts feel like people are just plucking out keywords they think they recognise based on the shape of them and replying to what they imagine the post says based on that, the possibility never occurred to me that this is actually how many American schools are currently teaching kids to read.
Like, my assumption this whole time has been that when folks go "I misunderstood this post that says [thing] as saying [unrelated thing] because I mistook [word] for [completely different word that happens to start with the same letter]", that was a bit. What do you mean they're teaching kids a reading method that's tailored to produce this exact error?
On the heels of my poll that had tumblr showing as 76% White, I’d like to tell y’all about the BIPOC Attention Tax.
The BIPOC Attention Tax is the penalty that non-white folks pay in engagement for being non-white on social media sites...
More below the cut
The BIPOC Attention Tax fucks up all BIPOC, but it fucks up trans BIPOC in particular due to being multiply marginalized. It’s the penalty you pay in engagement for being non-white on social media, taken in less shares/visibility.
While the BIPOC Attention Tax affects most BIPOC, it affects SWers, content creators, and those who rely on mutual aid the most. You have to share our stuff more than you think. You have to reply to us more than you think. It’s in how we watch smaller white accounts double our size in no time at all but if our accounts show any sign of being BIPOC we lag behind.
We’re societally conditioned to pay more attention to the thin, white, conventionally attractive folks and amplify them. While this ain’t their fault, it does mean *you* need to put active effort into subverting that urge and be conscious of who/how you’re interacting with.
Don’t just like posts from BIPOC folks, stop worrying about your “profile aesthetic”, sharing a post literally takes 3 seconds and especially in the case of SW and MA can literally keep folks housed, fed, alive. Our content, our art, our lives and survival fucking matter.
White trans folks have more options to leverage their whiteness to escape the states criminalizing transition, medical care, existing in public while trans. Not only do TBIPOC suffer the effects of poverty more/worse, but the BIPOC Attention Tax makes crowdfunding/mutual aid much harder as well.
Even in terms of just bullshit discourse, TBIPOC will often get higher rates of harassment at lower follower counts than their white counterparts, without the “benefits” of easier/more successful SW or MA that come at the higher follower counts, increasing the toll for staying.
Many of the white folks I see on social media (including tumblr), especially white trans folks, will have one or two token BIPOC moots they keep around because they’re hot or funny, and otherwise have no BIPOCs in their groups, networks, etc.
Ask yourself, how many BIPOC folks would call YOU their friend?
I know shit is hard right now and we wanna escape and pretend things ain’t happening but the longer we do that, the more of us die or disappear without anyone knowing or noticing. But we can at least be more intentional in who we engage with and support, even if it’s just sharing/boosting.
One year ago today I posted this practically shot Iron Giant photo I created using real figures, lighting, miniature sets & my trusty old tin foil for water technique & cotton wool for the splashes.
“my father is a boy and my mother is a girl so i’m mixed” is the funniest possible response to someone asking your gender and it came from 6’5 Viking footballer and notable weird little guy Erling Haaland on a Snapchat
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