the failure mode of performative outrage is hilarity
This morning, I woke up to a series of ff.net comments on Tides (a Naruto canon-divergence AU fic I wrote back in 2005), which I cannot read as anything other than performance art.
I suspect this is even how the commenter intended them, although what they thought they were performing was threatening and dismissive anger with the aim of producing hurt, fear, and a sense of inferiority, rather than the utter hilarity I actually experienced, because baby's first flame attempts are impossible to take seriously. *wry*
Content warning for misogyny, ableism, homophobia, and death threats/suicide baiting, I guess.
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Nine anonymous comments on 'Tides':
Chapter 1: What a load of shit. He'd better die! Oh, and suckura's not strong. Her healing, fine, that's ok, though quite honestly, anyone can do that. Hinata, Ino, hell even Naruto heals Guy's eyes or something like that, so she's just a stepping stone there. She's not special and she's not strong. She's still useless, weak and totally ugly!
Chapter 2: Wtf you damn retarded sakutard. Suckura the desperate slut might want to turn traitor for her precious delusional fantasy of being with sasgay but Naruto would NEVER turn his back on the village! he stay true to his ninja way you fucked up delusional creep! This story is a pile of shit! Watch the damn anime before making your own pathetic shit up!
Chapter 3: Boring shit! Write better. Naruto would never leave konoha for the avenging traitor!
Chapter 4: No. Suckura IS still behind. She will never be near Naruto's level! Fuck you and your made up shit!
Chapter 5: Wtf again? You really are pathetic. Naruto was the one to learn the water walking and walked on the ocean when he saved that worthless slut suckura on that mission with that Idate kid! Stop fucking changing things to make sasgay the traitor and that desperate weak slut suckura look good. Naruto is the genius. Even Tsunade and Jiraiya said so, since he learned the Rasengan in 3 days, so stop funking up a good anime cunt!
Chapter 6: Sakutard! She has NO curves. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Get it?! Suckura does not change. she's STILL a ramrod straight billboard brow with a huge forehead that's ugly and doesn't give her character, and a huge ass! She has never been a looker. that's Ino, Temari and Hinata's job. And even Tenten has more to her than suckura the billboard brow and body!
Chapter 7: Oh god this is sickening. Sakutards are disgusting. YOU'RE disgusting! Suckura is not the stronger one. She's NOT. FUCKING. STRONG! Get it through your thick, delusional head! She is shit!
Chapter 8: You are a sicko! It was Kakashi that the older Naruto and Suckura fought, not sasgay. Sasgay s not stronger than Naruto. Naruto would thrash him easily. Suckura is NOT strong! godamnit you're completely delusional. You're a typical sakutard who makes up shit to make that shit look good. She is total trash! So funk you! Go and die you worthless piece of trash!
[Chapter 9 was apparently too awful to merit its own comment.]
Chapter 10: Thank fuck for the end! What a load of shit. Sasgay is an avenger. End of. He's NOT special! He's a demon by choice! ITachi is the one that getsrid of the curse mark, not suckrua, who would never manage that kind of thing! Itachi had reasons to kill his crappy clan off and that was cause they were trying to stage a coup d'etat, so fuck you! They deserved to die! And so do you sakutards! You're all pathetic and delusional!
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...
I find these hilarious both for their general misreading of the manga (apparently the intended message is that Naruto is god and can do no wrong, while both Sakura and Sasuke -- you know, the people Naruto loves and would die to save -- are horrible and need to die in agony (thus making Naruto's choice of friends... wrong? impossible! pay no attention to the contradiction behind the curtain!)), and for the amount of effort expended in performative outrage when every browser comes equipped with a perfectly functional back-button. The attitudes embodied in the commenter's choice of insults are more sad than anything else, but also contribute to my inability to take anything this person says seriously.
This gift of hilarity has also reminded me that I should probably go stick a note in front of all my Naruto fics saying that they're based on manga canon only (for the very simple reason that I have never watched the anime). I mean, people like today's commenter never read author's notes anyway -- they are looking for things at which they can perform frothing outrage, not nuance -- but it would give me an additional thing to laugh about later on when they act like anime-only events should be a trump card when discussing a manga-based story. *wry* And for people who aren't performative outrage artists, such a note would be a quick and easy way to set proper expectations going in.
...I'll get to that some other day, when I am feeling up to a couple hours of internet housekeeping.
If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)
I suspect this is even how the commenter intended them, although what they thought they were performing was threatening and dismissive anger with the aim of producing hurt, fear, and a sense of inferiority, rather than the utter hilarity I actually experienced, because baby's first flame attempts are impossible to take seriously. *wry*
Content warning for misogyny, ableism, homophobia, and death threats/suicide baiting, I guess.
---------------
Nine anonymous comments on 'Tides':
Chapter 1: What a load of shit. He'd better die! Oh, and suckura's not strong. Her healing, fine, that's ok, though quite honestly, anyone can do that. Hinata, Ino, hell even Naruto heals Guy's eyes or something like that, so she's just a stepping stone there. She's not special and she's not strong. She's still useless, weak and totally ugly!
Chapter 2: Wtf you damn retarded sakutard. Suckura the desperate slut might want to turn traitor for her precious delusional fantasy of being with sasgay but Naruto would NEVER turn his back on the village! he stay true to his ninja way you fucked up delusional creep! This story is a pile of shit! Watch the damn anime before making your own pathetic shit up!
Chapter 3: Boring shit! Write better. Naruto would never leave konoha for the avenging traitor!
Chapter 4: No. Suckura IS still behind. She will never be near Naruto's level! Fuck you and your made up shit!
Chapter 5: Wtf again? You really are pathetic. Naruto was the one to learn the water walking and walked on the ocean when he saved that worthless slut suckura on that mission with that Idate kid! Stop fucking changing things to make sasgay the traitor and that desperate weak slut suckura look good. Naruto is the genius. Even Tsunade and Jiraiya said so, since he learned the Rasengan in 3 days, so stop funking up a good anime cunt!
Chapter 6: Sakutard! She has NO curves. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Get it?! Suckura does not change. she's STILL a ramrod straight billboard brow with a huge forehead that's ugly and doesn't give her character, and a huge ass! She has never been a looker. that's Ino, Temari and Hinata's job. And even Tenten has more to her than suckura the billboard brow and body!
Chapter 7: Oh god this is sickening. Sakutards are disgusting. YOU'RE disgusting! Suckura is not the stronger one. She's NOT. FUCKING. STRONG! Get it through your thick, delusional head! She is shit!
Chapter 8: You are a sicko! It was Kakashi that the older Naruto and Suckura fought, not sasgay. Sasgay s not stronger than Naruto. Naruto would thrash him easily. Suckura is NOT strong! godamnit you're completely delusional. You're a typical sakutard who makes up shit to make that shit look good. She is total trash! So funk you! Go and die you worthless piece of trash!
[Chapter 9 was apparently too awful to merit its own comment.]
Chapter 10: Thank fuck for the end! What a load of shit. Sasgay is an avenger. End of. He's NOT special! He's a demon by choice! ITachi is the one that getsrid of the curse mark, not suckrua, who would never manage that kind of thing! Itachi had reasons to kill his crappy clan off and that was cause they were trying to stage a coup d'etat, so fuck you! They deserved to die! And so do you sakutards! You're all pathetic and delusional!
---------------
...
I find these hilarious both for their general misreading of the manga (apparently the intended message is that Naruto is god and can do no wrong, while both Sakura and Sasuke -- you know, the people Naruto loves and would die to save -- are horrible and need to die in agony (thus making Naruto's choice of friends... wrong? impossible! pay no attention to the contradiction behind the curtain!)), and for the amount of effort expended in performative outrage when every browser comes equipped with a perfectly functional back-button. The attitudes embodied in the commenter's choice of insults are more sad than anything else, but also contribute to my inability to take anything this person says seriously.
This gift of hilarity has also reminded me that I should probably go stick a note in front of all my Naruto fics saying that they're based on manga canon only (for the very simple reason that I have never watched the anime). I mean, people like today's commenter never read author's notes anyway -- they are looking for things at which they can perform frothing outrage, not nuance -- but it would give me an additional thing to laugh about later on when they act like anime-only events should be a trump card when discussing a manga-based story. *wry* And for people who aren't performative outrage artists, such a note would be a quick and easy way to set proper expectations going in.
...I'll get to that some other day, when I am feeling up to a couple hours of internet housekeeping.
If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)