Don't mean to be offensive, just curious - would you ever write a mafia AU?
That’s absolutely fine! :) I was going to make a post about this at some point, anyway. If somebody dared me, I may. And I would make it super educational.
First thing first: the question is not if I, an Italian, would write a mafia!AU. The question should be:
‘Elena, should people *be allowed* to write mafia AUs?’
(The answer: if you must. But also: could you please NOT?)
This is the real crux of the matter - tumblr doesn’t understand what the mafia means to us Italians. It’s not a trope you can play with for fun. It’s a topic to be treaded with gravity and respect. You’d do research to write a character from a different religion or culture, do your research for mafia!AUs as well. Fandom thinks it’s something fun and quaint to make jokes and write stories about, and they don’t understand how culturally insensitive and offensive that is.
To quote @tombliboos: WOULD YOU EVER WRITE A RACIST FERGUSON COP AU? From the point of view of an oppressor, depicting all the fun ways they can oppress people every day. Or what about a fun ISIS AU! you have an organization rooted with a certain territory that wrecks whatever they touch and kills and steal. I mean you could write either of these, but I bet you’d make a bunch of research beforehand.
And I highly doubt you would anyway, if anything because of the backlash you’d receive. These aren’t obviously perfect comparisons, but I’m trying to drive home the point that mafia AUs will offend A LOT of people. THE MAFIA STILL EXISTS AND RUINS LIVES. We all HATE the mafia with a passion, and then we get online and see people romanticizing it. It’s incredibly culturally insensitive and offensive.
I am somewhat bitter about the fact that I’m supposed to be #woke and educate myself on matters of cultural sensibility that will never impact my RL, but the same courtesy is not shown to my people in return. Mafia Aus are extremely offensive to Italians. Tumblr couldn’t care less. This makes me agry.
To answer your question, again: there’s a way in which I’d write a mafia!AU (the only way in which people should write mafia!AUs! I’m telling you, not giving you advice you can pass on!). Make your characters complete monsters who threaten good people andare into sex trade and kill children. This is what the mafia is. Make sure theydie at the end.
THE MAFIA ONCE MELTED A CHILD INTO ACID BECAUSE HIS FATHER WAS COLLABORATING WITH THE POLICE
This is the sort of thing mafiosi do. I’m putting the rest of the answer under a cut, but I want this where people can see it. Before writing a meet cute for your OTP involving the mafia because you think it’s colourful and cool, consider exactly which sort of people you are romanticizing. More details inside.
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