RWBY Fandom Bullying & Harassment; Addressing the LC/FG controversy and Phoenix/Night bashing
Fandom culture on Twitter is incredibly flawed. The RWBY fandom in specific has displayed such inconsideration and blatant apathy to people’s emotions. Specific RWBY headcanons and ship preferences gain such a following and popularity that anything deviating from those is shamed and ridiculed. The online community on Twitter has created a culture that promotes and enforces bullying others for their sexuality, gender identity and (relation)ship preferences. By dismissing someone’s opinion, invalidating their headcanons and ship preferences, in favor of our own or more popular preferences, we continue to divide the RWBY fandom.
While I would not go so far as to call it heterophobia, as I feel the term directly undermines the severity, significance and prevalence of homophobia, I do agree that the culture the RWBY fandom promotes is counterproductive and harmful. The events that have occurred from the LC/FG controversy as well as the harassment CRWBY has received is inexcusable. The literal cyberbullying that has occurred to RWBYtubers such as Phoenix/NIght for simply showing they have a ship preference or even talking about a ship that deviates from the popular RWBY ships, regardless of supporting it, is appalling.
The RWBY fandom on Twitter seems to have a clear disconnect between headcanon and truth. The narrative that is promoted by popular Twitter RWBY fans in favor of their own headcanons is a false one. RWBY fans who assumed Clover and Qrow would be a couple, that Clover is gay and would be gay representation confused headcanon for truth. People allowed their preference to cloud their judgment and their assumptions have directly harmed others.
There very well may be queer romantic subtext between Clover and Qrow interactions. However, this was not intentional by CRWBY.
CRWBY is not and should not be held responsible for how people interpret the show.
Usually headcanons either deviate from canon or assumes something that hasn’t been explicitly stated in canon or by the team creating the media. Headcanons are merely preferences and beliefs/opinions we have about a character. However, headcanons are just that: opinions.
Headcanons can have truth in that we relate to the headcanons (such as having a headcanon that a character is gay because you are gay and relate to them, of which I have many hcs like this). However, most RWBY fans seem to confuse themselves and believe their headcanons are the ultimate truth.
For instance, many people headcanon Yang as a lesbian. This headcanon is widely held and popular in the RWBY fandom. People who deviate from this popular headcanon and hc her as bi or pan are then ridiculed for their opinion. (It is incredibly frustrating to see people call this hc lesbophobic, as it is NOT, they simply have a different headcanon from you). It is this disconnect between reality and personal narrative/opinion that we hurt and exclude RWBY fans.
It is also this disconnect that is partially responsible for the misunderstanding of FC/LG. It is hardly a fault of CRWBY, in my opinion, that people misinterpreted and misunderstood CRWBY’s writing. Perhaps they should have clarified Clover was not gay early on once they saw how people people assumed he was. However, they couldn’t have predicted the backlash they would receive when LC/FG didn’t become canon, let alone at Clover’s death.
Additionally, people believe their ship preferences to be the only valid opinion. The flack Phoenix/Night has received from stating he liked Robyn & Qrow and would like to see them become a couple was stupid. Someone liking a m/f ship does not make them “het” and someone’s m/f ship is just as valid as your m/m and f/f ship.
As previously stated, I am not calling this “heterophobia”, however, if the role’s were reversed, the behavior of fans who ridiculed his ship preference would not pass. I am a lesbian, I like many m/f, m/m, f/f ships, I also liked LC/FG. However, I know my ships are not the only valid ships. I headcanon Yang as a lesbian, however, I do not ridicule others who have different headcanons because I know my headcanon is not the only valid headcanon.
TL;DR: CRWBY is not responsible for the misinterpretation and misunderstanding of LC/FG. People shouldn’t be ridiculed for having a different ship preference or headcanon than the popular, widely held/accepted ones. RWBY fans need to remember headcanons are not truth and our personal headcanons are not the only valid headcanons. RWBY fans need to remember our personal ship preferences are not the only valid ship preferences.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.