#is it problematic

[naazaif327]

Crazy how there’s no slightly unethical Hal/Azune fics yet

[rotationalsymmetry]

Ok, I may regret this.

I’ve noticed a sort of ... thing on tumblr (not so much offline, at least not with the people I hang with) where stuff is either Good or Problematic, with the implication that if something is Problematic but you still engage with it, you have to justify this engagement by invoking the concept of criticism. Like, you’re engaging with it “critically” so it’s ok.

Everything is problematic. Everything. There is nothing which, if you’re watching/reading critically, you can’t find something to bitch about. (Maybe extremely short short stories, maybe.)

If you consider absence of representation an issue, and you should, then there’s definitely no exceptions, because no work covers every marginalized group and every intersection it’s possible to cover.

This is ok, because the point of critically engaging with media isn’t to redeem your problematic faves. The point is to see and understand patterns in media as a whole. Patterns of how different genders are represented and different orientations and different cultures and races and what narratives support colonialism and what narratives support the police etc. it’s not, it never has been, about splitting works into categories of good and bad.

And part of that means: if there’s a thing you like, you don’t have to treat every episode or rewatch like a final exam. You can just watch it, and if you don’t catch everything you might be “critical” about that’s ok. It’s Ok to turn off the critical awareness sometimes, if that is in fact something you’re capable of doing.

Leisure is a biological and psychological necessity. People do in fact need to be able to engage in leisure activities without doing a bunch of extra emotional labor (which is what critical engagement is) some of the time.

So, if you don’t need to “engage critically” all of the time, what should you do?

Engage critically — some of the time. So that you can see general patterns of things like... police being presented in a positive vs negative light, police breaking the law being presented in a positive or negative light, patterns in what kind of person is shown as villainous, patterns in what kind of person is put in a comic relief role, narratives that could be used to justify wars of aggression, narratives that real life rapists could find plausible deniability in, etc etc. You don’t need to do this all of the time, and you shouldn’t only do this on works that someone else has pointed out to you as problematic. (This doesn’t just apply to TV shows etc by the way. Who’s shown in ads and how? Magazine covers? Is that bra being sold as “nude” as though there’s one universal skin color? How are male politicians talked about differently than female politicians? Which tumblr posts get more reblogs and which get fewer?)

If someone else doesn’t want to watch a thing, or talk about it with you, they don’t have to and you shouldn’t pressure them to, regardless of reason. Specifically? Don’t argue if someone cites a social justice reason, and don’t argue if they don’t (because often people would rather avoid conflict by saying “eh, it’s just not my thing” than to say “I’m not watching that because of how they treat a character I identify with.”) Just live and let live.

Be alert to nonverbal body language, if that’s a thing you’re capable of: sometimes people won’t say “I don’t want to talk about this” but will go quiet and look uncomfortable.

Do some of the many, many, many other everyday things that fight issues like white supremacy, patriarchy, ableism, etc. For instance: people often choose what to watch next by word of mouth, so you can talk to people offline or online about shows, books, webcomics etc that have good rep or are by marginalized creators. In particular, when you can send cash marginalized people’s way, do so.

Problems like white supremacy and patriarchy and transphobia and imperialism/colonialism are huge problems and when you live in a society, you’re inevitably going to be contributing to them in some way, knowingly or not. Aiming for personal purity in terms of never watching the wrong thing is...not an achievable goal. There’s always a million small things you can do to push the world a bit closer to justice, cutting out a problematic show from your life or resolving to only watch it critically and never just as something that speaks to your heart or comforts you, might occasionally be worth it, but most of the time there’s definitely something better you can do with your limited attention and intention.

One thing that you do notice if you engage critically some of the time, is things tend to be a mix of good in bad. One thing helps some trans people figure themselves out and is horrifically offensive to others. One thing is viscerally painful to watch for one person, and transmits a concept that’s positively life-saving to someone else. It’s all tangled up. (And I hope I got across the idea that not all good/bad aspects of things have to line up with a clearly understood oppression issue to be important.) Sometimes it makes sense to take a stand and go “this thing is just too problematic to be in my life” even as you also see the good in it. Or to advocate that other people do the same, which should be a higher bar. (Like. You won’t see me bitching about a few Dr Seuss books going out of print.) Other times... other times it’s not worth it. And it’s not like there’s a shortage of other things that do need to be done.

[hoeratius]

Seeing a lot of Oxford comma memes on my dash recently, has something happened?

[theequeerstrian]

The Big Sick looks good.....?? I wanna see it? Is it as good as it looks?

[unknown-entity-tm]

Is it actually wrong to make a black oc capable of communicating with ghost?

Like it feels more wrong to make her white instead of black.

And it's not like she's the only black character or the only one who can speak to ghost.

[crimsonxe]

The Pressure Is On! - Rooster Teeth Podcast - S17E53 - Rooster Teeth

Ky is back and battling BK on this week's episode of "Is It Problematic?" Who supports women the most? Watch and find out!

[crimsonxe]

I can't say enough how much I love "Is it problematic", though I definitely feel for Ky in the latest episode xD