my first drafts of this post had considerably more capslock
Many, many people have dealt with this subject much more eloquently than I'll ever be able to, but it's been eating at my mind for weeks, and I finally am going to just say something about the assorted fails that have been cropping up in fandom lately: the J2 Haiti story, the story that cast Gabe Saporta as a Catholic priest, and the story of MTF!Spencer. I don't think that I'll be saying anything new here, but I'm going to say it anyway.
All of the stories I mentioned are ones in which the authors did something offensive and hurtful without meaning to -- and that seems to be the crucial point in their minds. They didn't mean to hurt anyone, and therefore shouldn't be blamed, and all the negative attention they're now receiving is unfair and worse than the original offense.
Listen: FUCK THAT. Intent only takes you so far. Whether or not you intended to, you did something wrong, and you hurt other people. Acting defensive and blaming the people that point out the things that you did wrong? SO INAPPROPRIATE IT BOGGLES MY MIND.
Look, I'm a writer. I understand that criticism can hurt, especially criticism of something you've labored over for months, possibly years. But this isn't about you. I know that getting criticism hurts, but that's PART OF WRITING. And it's not the problem we're discussing, here. It really, really isn't. Many of us in fandom are writing from positions of incredible privilege, and there's a huge possibility that in our writing, we'll get something wrong. Part of being a decent human being is being able to take a step back and look at things from multiple perspectives, to be able to admit that, hey, I did make a mistake. I should have done more research, I should have portrayed this differently, I should have thought about how it would feel for other people to read this. And then you thank the person who was decent and awesome enough to point out your errors. That's how it works, or how it should work.
No one is perfect. We all make mistakes, and that sucks, but it's inevitable. It's how we react to those mistakes and learn from them that matters. Blaming the people that were hurt by our mistakes? Calling those criticisms an attack? NEVER OKAY. HOW IS THAT SUCH A DIFFICULT CONCEPT TO GRASP? AND YET. *deep breaths* *steps away from the capslock key*
Still, good things have come out of these shitty situations. More and more people are comfortable about speaking up about fandom problems -- see this awesome post by fairestcat on the subject. And that? That is awesome. Speaking up can be incredibly hard to do; I know I haven't been feeling up to commenting on any of the recent incidents myself. I have an incredible amount of respect for the people that have, especially when the response is often so vitriolic and hurtful.
Even though seeing all the fail lately has been depressing as hell, I can't help but hope that people are actually learning from it, from the dialogue and discourse that has resulted. Maybe, even if it takes a distressingly long time, fandom will become less of a minefield and more of a safe place.
*puts her optimism boots on and walks out the door*
All of the stories I mentioned are ones in which the authors did something offensive and hurtful without meaning to -- and that seems to be the crucial point in their minds. They didn't mean to hurt anyone, and therefore shouldn't be blamed, and all the negative attention they're now receiving is unfair and worse than the original offense.
Listen: FUCK THAT. Intent only takes you so far. Whether or not you intended to, you did something wrong, and you hurt other people. Acting defensive and blaming the people that point out the things that you did wrong? SO INAPPROPRIATE IT BOGGLES MY MIND.
Look, I'm a writer. I understand that criticism can hurt, especially criticism of something you've labored over for months, possibly years. But this isn't about you. I know that getting criticism hurts, but that's PART OF WRITING. And it's not the problem we're discussing, here. It really, really isn't. Many of us in fandom are writing from positions of incredible privilege, and there's a huge possibility that in our writing, we'll get something wrong. Part of being a decent human being is being able to take a step back and look at things from multiple perspectives, to be able to admit that, hey, I did make a mistake. I should have done more research, I should have portrayed this differently, I should have thought about how it would feel for other people to read this. And then you thank the person who was decent and awesome enough to point out your errors. That's how it works, or how it should work.
No one is perfect. We all make mistakes, and that sucks, but it's inevitable. It's how we react to those mistakes and learn from them that matters. Blaming the people that were hurt by our mistakes? Calling those criticisms an attack? NEVER OKAY. HOW IS THAT SUCH A DIFFICULT CONCEPT TO GRASP? AND YET. *deep breaths* *steps away from the capslock key*
Still, good things have come out of these shitty situations. More and more people are comfortable about speaking up about fandom problems -- see this awesome post by fairestcat on the subject. And that? That is awesome. Speaking up can be incredibly hard to do; I know I haven't been feeling up to commenting on any of the recent incidents myself. I have an incredible amount of respect for the people that have, especially when the response is often so vitriolic and hurtful.
Even though seeing all the fail lately has been depressing as hell, I can't help but hope that people are actually learning from it, from the dialogue and discourse that has resulted. Maybe, even if it takes a distressingly long time, fandom will become less of a minefield and more of a safe place.
*puts her optimism boots on and walks out the door*