Horizontal vs vertical comparisons

[seeingred]

Poor Jon is embroiled in the shipwar over at OG. *sigh* This reminded me of something I'd been thinking about when it comes to Martha - the different comparisons which the White fangirls make, and the Fangirls Of Colour make. Very broadly speaking, the White fangirls tend to compare Martha to Rose or Donna - to make comparisons within the series.

Comments

[big_n_happy]

"Shipwar" might not be the best word. A lot of the comparisons were also to Mickey, and now Clyde. There's also Bellino and Donna-off-of-QaF.

Definitely Martha has her share of hardcore shippy fangirls, but describing it as a shipwar feels insulting; when a character says she doesn't feel "seen," that's not just a shipper issue. A lot of it's about the omnipresence of Rose rather than the romantic element, which I tend to agree was never properly requited anyway.

[kateorman]

I use "shipwar" in an intentionally denigrating way to refer to the Rose vs Martha stuff. Because of Martha's unrequited love, the race issues and the shippiness can't be completely disentangled; but I find it infuriating when the former is inappropriately dragged in to bolster the latter. (I think this is why identifying the two different approaches is important.)

[big_n_happy]

Rusty started it? It's a show that openly plays to shippers, and "Oh, she's blonde!" kinda sums up the difficulty of disentangling. I had problems pre-S3 with Rose vs Martha stuff, but the show didn't do much to discourage it.

[kateorman]

RTD is not writing the show for a few hundred fangirls on LJ.

[nostalgia_lj]

But if I go to the OG it's rubbish. Stop silencing dissent, woman!

[kateorman]

I didn't make the OP in order to drag the repetitive, incestuously amplified, self-absorbed shipwar into this LJ. I made it to point out those very flaws in much of the fannish criticism (and its sometimes inappropriate appropriation of anti-racism) of the show, and the much broader viewpoint of genuine anti-racism, which I am slowly learning.

In short, you lot go on and on and on about how Russell harshed your squee, and that's entirely unwelcome here, and if you persist in it I will banninate you.

[nostalgia_lj]

So is it the question of how to detangle things to your satisfaction? I think the tangledness is messy but probably what made a lot of people notice the problem in the first place. If something seen as A Bit Dodgy (rightly or wrongly) harshed people's squee then why is that A Bad Thing, though? Like how the treatment of Clyde is about the only harsh in SJA which is otherwise made of win and awesome.

[big_n_happy]

The first major post I recall was neadods, a (seemingly?) white fangirl comparing Martha with Mickey. I can see the difference between majority-white entitlement shippers and FOC, but everyone got stuck with the same central issue, which in itself goes beyond "Martha didn't get shagged."

[big_n_happy]

PS "intertextual" and "intratextual" are the acceptable show-off terms for what you're referring to.

Ta!

[kateorman]

Should've thought of that myself. :-)

[pbristow]

Meanwhile, on a different battlefront... the4thCircle's rant.

[kateorman]

Alas: it's flocked.

[pbristow]

D'OH!!! Sorry. [BLUSH]