I honestly think the two reasons above are interrelated, or even the same reason being identified in two ways. I’ve been staying far far away from the discourse wrt shipping in this fandom, but from what I’ve seen, what @mmanalysis is saying is more of a– clarification of what @thejgatsbykid is saying.
Go back to Twilight. Who are the main romance leads marketed? Edward Cullen and Jacob Black.
Edward Cullen is the abusive, manipulative, white romantic lead.
Jacob Black is not white (and frankly has his own problems but I don’t recall the series enough besides Bella breaking her hand punching him, so, I’ll set that aside because I don’t remember enough.)
If Edward Cullen was abusive and manipulative AND not-white, there is no way in hell that he would A.) be as heavily marketed, B.) be as completely adored, or C.) that his abusive characteristics would have ever been accepted.
It’s not that people in the U.S. (and the West in general) market abusive relationships to teen girls, it’s that they market abusive relationships with White men/boys to teen girls.
Be honest – how many “hot, broody, angry loner” type boys in YA are white? How many male love interests in YA are white in general? Most of them. Almost all. Hell, the literal trope of broody hot asshole is the Byronic Hero, and that’s as white as it gets.
Think about it: In the Hunger Games, Peeta is white. In The Mortal Instruments (let’s talk barely disguised rewritten Incest fanfic!), it turns out that Clary and Jace aren’t siblings, but Jace is blonde and golden-eyed. All played by white actors. Who else could I pick and choose? There’s that new book turned into a movie, The 5th wave, and that love interest is white. I’m pretty sure all of John Green’s protagonists are white male love interests. Vampire Academy. etc. etc. etc.
Girls are marketed white abusers. It’s the same reason why people are more likely to complain about Bill Cosby or Chris Brown, but say jack all about Sean Penn or Roman Polanski.
Now all that aside, the worst part is that I’ve seen (second hand) people trying to claim that Finn is not respecting Rey’s “personhood” because he grabs her hand twice while fleeing for their lives, etc. Like these kids are kids but also some of them are sure as hell adept at understanding the way to talk about ~feminism~ and ~social justice~ if it backs up their problematic and/or racist bullshit.
Basically, yes, teen girls are marketed white abusers are romantic partners, but also an aaaaawfffullll lot of those girls seem understand just enough to claim that Finn doesn’t respect Rey, that he’s selfish or uncaring, or that he invades her personal space, or disrespects her ~*~identity~*~ and it’s not very feminist if she ends up with the first boy she meets, etc etc etc.
Where do we draw the line, honestly? Like okay you’ve been marketed this your whole life but the second you start using big kid words to talk about why Finn isn’t good enough (because you wanna uphold the racist shit you were packaged elsewhere), I don’t think it’s right to give you a pass anymore. I don’t feel sorry for the white teenagers who talk about how unfeminist rey/finn is but buy into shit like Rey/Kylo. At that point, I consider them to be “adult enough” to get educated.
Basically okay, sure, they’re being sold this shit, and whatnot, but if you buy what is being sold and then say something else being marketed is more “problematic” than the thing you bought, then I can correct you on the matter.
turnnoffyourmind
dailybridgerton
jimmyeatworldofficial
titsay
