(no subject)
Cross-fandom meta makes me sad.
I always start out reading it interested and motivated and ready to learn about whatever types of privilege or fail might be relevant. I always end up, usually pretty quickly, wondering why the people who are so upset about whatever -ism don't just... find less faily fandoms?!?
I mean, sure, no fandom is going to be completely without fail. I am perfectly happy to discuss racist or sexist or whatever-ist elements in Blake's Seven or Sentinel or Torchwood. But some canons are more faily than others. Don't choose to spend your time and energy on a source material that is utterly riddled with fail then go out complaining about how all fandom is sexist and racist and homophobic and ablist and.... Don't complain about how horribly sexist fandom is when you've never watched Blake's Seven. Don't complain about how horribly ablist fandom is when you've never watched Highlander. Don't complain about how horribly racist fandom is when you've never watched Sentinel.
If your source material is horribly faily, STOP PROMOTING IT. Stop watching it, stop buying the DVDs, stop writing about it, stop reading it, stop ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO PRODUCE MORE LIKE IT. Let it die the ignoble death it deserves. And then go spend your time and money and energy on the fandoms that are less faily, so you can talk about how to make them even less so with people who are interested and motivated and don't need to have the very basics pointed out to them. And then those fandoms would grow and prosper and TPTB might even be encouraged to PRODUCE MORE LIKE THEM, instead of like the ultra-faily ones that get all the attention.
I mean, think of all the energy expended in the last few years talking about racefail in the Stargate and Supernatural fandoms. Now, imagine if those source materials had never been allowed to become popular, and instead all that energy had been spent talking about the ways racism still appears in any of the less faily fandoms like Firefly or Sentinel or Torchwood.
Instead of hashing out the same Racism 101 wanks over and over again, we might actually be on to 102 by now.
I always start out reading it interested and motivated and ready to learn about whatever types of privilege or fail might be relevant. I always end up, usually pretty quickly, wondering why the people who are so upset about whatever -ism don't just... find less faily fandoms?!?
I mean, sure, no fandom is going to be completely without fail. I am perfectly happy to discuss racist or sexist or whatever-ist elements in Blake's Seven or Sentinel or Torchwood. But some canons are more faily than others. Don't choose to spend your time and energy on a source material that is utterly riddled with fail then go out complaining about how all fandom is sexist and racist and homophobic and ablist and.... Don't complain about how horribly sexist fandom is when you've never watched Blake's Seven. Don't complain about how horribly ablist fandom is when you've never watched Highlander. Don't complain about how horribly racist fandom is when you've never watched Sentinel.
If your source material is horribly faily, STOP PROMOTING IT. Stop watching it, stop buying the DVDs, stop writing about it, stop reading it, stop ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO PRODUCE MORE LIKE IT. Let it die the ignoble death it deserves. And then go spend your time and money and energy on the fandoms that are less faily, so you can talk about how to make them even less so with people who are interested and motivated and don't need to have the very basics pointed out to them. And then those fandoms would grow and prosper and TPTB might even be encouraged to PRODUCE MORE LIKE THEM, instead of like the ultra-faily ones that get all the attention.
I mean, think of all the energy expended in the last few years talking about racefail in the Stargate and Supernatural fandoms. Now, imagine if those source materials had never been allowed to become popular, and instead all that energy had been spent talking about the ways racism still appears in any of the less faily fandoms like Firefly or Sentinel or Torchwood.
Instead of hashing out the same Racism 101 wanks over and over again, we might actually be on to 102 by now.