READ THIS NOW AND PASS IT ON. LOOKING AT YOU, SUPERNATURAL FANDOM.
DISCLAIMER: I am a Korean-American woman who identifies as a secular biromantic (more like a 2 on the Kinsey scale) asexual. I am by no means an expert on the issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, queer theory, colonialism, etc. These are my opinions. If I said something that is wrong or (potentially) offensive, please let me know. This is all part of the learning process. Thank you.
If you haven't heard, let me break it down for you.
Fics have been posting at spn_j2_bigbang. I don't care because I don't do Big Bang (except I am - deancasbigbang, holla!) and I really don't do J2. But people have been talking about it on my twitter feed so every once in a while a rec and a link comes up.
Today, I got linked to this J2BB: Caught Between the Earth and Sky by gatorgrrrl. I didn't care because it was J2 but I especially didn't care when I took one look at that summery and bailed:
The setting is Haiti, post-earthquake. Jensen Ackles is an American doctor who's running from his past, trying to make up for his mistakes in this broken place and live up to the promise he made to his brother half a lifetime ago. Jared Padalecki is a naive photojournalist who's hiding from himself, hoping to find one more story in a place already forgotten by the rest of the world. When he learns about all the good things Jensen and his friend, Haitian nurse Abraham Joseph, are doing around the ravaged country, he thinks he's found his story. Jensen, of course, thinks otherwise. But Jared is nothing if not persistent, and when circumstances work to throw them together, he quickly learns that Dr. Jensen Ackles is more than just a story and that sometimes, stories can become personal.
Fics written using a recent tragedy feel exploitative, but fics about white men finding themselves and each other (and having lots of sex) against a backdrop called "Haiti, post-earthquake" are just...no. No. You don't do that. You. Don't. Do. That.
Here is a round-up post by amazonziti. Read it. Read the post, read the links, read the comments, and pass it on. For the love of all things, pass it on. Do not allow this to die and become buried under by fandom. Do not be swayed by arguments that this is just one fic and that there's worse out there, what's your problem? This Big Bang fic was written while people were still searching for survivors. This is from of the author's notes:
When I signed up for Big Bang back in January, I had a completely different story in mind. An SPN gen story, in fact. That idea languished inside my head for a few weeks until I finally gave up trying to force it and moved on. Then the idea of a different J2 AU fic popped into my head, but again, it didn't go anywhere. Then it occurred to me: Why not use current events as the setting? The Haiti earthquake was still in the news and the more I saw about it, the more I wanted to use it until it seemed like the best idea ever. (That, of course, is only my opinion.)
For the love of fuck, why wasn't there anyone around to tell you, "Hey, maybe this isn't such a good idea because people are out there dying right now. Don't set your white love story in the middle of a real life disaster of mind-blowing proportions. Please, please, please don't do this. This is not the best idea ever."
bossymarmalade has a few choice quotes to show us how much fail this J2BB is. I got as far as the very first line of the very first quoted text-
Abraham Joseph, the black Haitian helping Dr. Jensen:
- A huge, white grin flashed in his direction. “No go slow,” Abraham said. “Not know how.”
-and freaked out so bad I couldn't go back to the tab for fifteen minutes. Then I reached the last half of the last quote-
“But why did you have to name him Abraham?”
[...]
“Do you really have to ask?” he said, looking over at the cat. “I mean, look at him.”
Jared studied the cat again. It was the largest black cat he’d ever seen outside of Animal Planet, with paws bigger than those old Eisenhower silver dollars Jared used to collect when he was a kid. And he did always look like he was just on the verge of smiling.
-and excuse me while I try not to have another freak out.
How can you not see the racism in it? Oh wait, you probably don't. And that's part of the problem. The default for most people is "white" and institutionalized racism means they have been socialized into not seeing how racist this really is. Yes, this fic is racist. It's racist and exploitative and reeks of colonialism/imperialism. I am having a seriously hard time imagining anyone who would enjoy this-oh wait, hang on, wasn't there an incident where someone wanted a fic with "the forbidden love of Imperialist John with Indian servant Aasif..." [locked post; apologies for people not members of fakenews_fanfic; here's an sf_drama post about it-oh fuck, that's also locked...here, have a cap of the Thread of Fail]
By the way, the nonnies at spnpermanon have been unbelievably classy about this fic. I'm pretty sure that this thread is making up the bulk of the comments at the Big Bang post. I would like to bring special attention to this thread in particular because it highlights something I would not have known otherwise - this is not the first time this author failed at Racism 101.
Yeahh. OMG, now that I'm thinking about it more deeply, it's even more problematic. So the villain - the one Jared is seducing and spying on - is called Alain, and is French and Saudi-Arabian (mom's French and Dad's Saudi). But he decides to become a terrorist because his dad was a terrorist, and no other explanation or development is given [the whole terrorist plot is not that well developed]. His coloring is described as Arab and like his Dad, and not French, while his mom is of course an elegant, beautiful French woman. She is portrayed very sympathetically and the one good thing about Alain is shown to be his affection and adoration for his mother. IDK, there are uncomfortable connotations of inheriting his misguided, evil terrorist-ness from his dad and the Arab culture, and his sympathetic side from his white French mom. Yeah...
And then this nonnie had the balls to say, " Omg I love that fic. I liked that she didn't shy away from using people of color like so many authors do. I thought she handled everything pretty tactfully. Would you rather people just ignore other cultures and people of color, fandom?"
If you want to write about people of color you can't resort to stereotypes or erase their identities, experiences, and the intersecting legacies of racism, sexism, colonialism, homophobia, etc. Do your research, talk to people, remember where you stand and what privileges you have in the ongoing conversation, and don't take advantage of disasters like Haiti's to write an epic love story between two white foreigners.
Dear Supernatural fandom, please stop being a fail whale. Unfortunately for this fandom we have high levels of both fail and presence, meaning the problems in our fandom will be noticed, highlighted, and linked at an exponential rate compared to others due to the enormous size of our existence...I guess that suits the "fail whale" bit quite well, actually.
Do not ignore this. Read it, and pass it on.
ETA: After reading more comments at spnpermanon and
bossymarmalade I feel it necessary to point out that it is possible to write fan fiction about recent history without being offensive. This thread includes a link to a Generation Kill AU fic set during the civilian-military clashes in 1999 East Timor.
P.S. Kripke can go DIAF [the tail end of Jared's panel] and I am never watching Splice [NSWF/possible triggers].
If you haven't heard, let me break it down for you.
Fics have been posting at spn_j2_bigbang. I don't care because I don't do Big Bang (except I am - deancasbigbang, holla!) and I really don't do J2. But people have been talking about it on my twitter feed so every once in a while a rec and a link comes up.
Today, I got linked to this J2BB: Caught Between the Earth and Sky by gatorgrrrl. I didn't care because it was J2 but I especially didn't care when I took one look at that summery and bailed:
The setting is Haiti, post-earthquake. Jensen Ackles is an American doctor who's running from his past, trying to make up for his mistakes in this broken place and live up to the promise he made to his brother half a lifetime ago. Jared Padalecki is a naive photojournalist who's hiding from himself, hoping to find one more story in a place already forgotten by the rest of the world. When he learns about all the good things Jensen and his friend, Haitian nurse Abraham Joseph, are doing around the ravaged country, he thinks he's found his story. Jensen, of course, thinks otherwise. But Jared is nothing if not persistent, and when circumstances work to throw them together, he quickly learns that Dr. Jensen Ackles is more than just a story and that sometimes, stories can become personal.
Fics written using a recent tragedy feel exploitative, but fics about white men finding themselves and each other (and having lots of sex) against a backdrop called "Haiti, post-earthquake" are just...no. No. You don't do that. You. Don't. Do. That.
Here is a round-up post by amazonziti. Read it. Read the post, read the links, read the comments, and pass it on. For the love of all things, pass it on. Do not allow this to die and become buried under by fandom. Do not be swayed by arguments that this is just one fic and that there's worse out there, what's your problem? This Big Bang fic was written while people were still searching for survivors. This is from of the author's notes:
When I signed up for Big Bang back in January, I had a completely different story in mind. An SPN gen story, in fact. That idea languished inside my head for a few weeks until I finally gave up trying to force it and moved on. Then the idea of a different J2 AU fic popped into my head, but again, it didn't go anywhere. Then it occurred to me: Why not use current events as the setting? The Haiti earthquake was still in the news and the more I saw about it, the more I wanted to use it until it seemed like the best idea ever. (That, of course, is only my opinion.)
For the love of fuck, why wasn't there anyone around to tell you, "Hey, maybe this isn't such a good idea because people are out there dying right now. Don't set your white love story in the middle of a real life disaster of mind-blowing proportions. Please, please, please don't do this. This is not the best idea ever."
bossymarmalade has a few choice quotes to show us how much fail this J2BB is. I got as far as the very first line of the very first quoted text-
Abraham Joseph, the black Haitian helping Dr. Jensen:
- A huge, white grin flashed in his direction. “No go slow,” Abraham said. “Not know how.”
-and freaked out so bad I couldn't go back to the tab for fifteen minutes. Then I reached the last half of the last quote-
“But why did you have to name him Abraham?”
[...]
“Do you really have to ask?” he said, looking over at the cat. “I mean, look at him.”
Jared studied the cat again. It was the largest black cat he’d ever seen outside of Animal Planet, with paws bigger than those old Eisenhower silver dollars Jared used to collect when he was a kid. And he did always look like he was just on the verge of smiling.
-and excuse me while I try not to have another freak out.
How can you not see the racism in it? Oh wait, you probably don't. And that's part of the problem. The default for most people is "white" and institutionalized racism means they have been socialized into not seeing how racist this really is. Yes, this fic is racist. It's racist and exploitative and reeks of colonialism/imperialism. I am having a seriously hard time imagining anyone who would enjoy this-oh wait, hang on, wasn't there an incident where someone wanted a fic with "the forbidden love of Imperialist John with Indian servant Aasif..." [locked post; apologies for people not members of fakenews_fanfic; here's an sf_drama post about it-oh fuck, that's also locked...here, have a cap of the Thread of Fail]
By the way, the nonnies at spnpermanon have been unbelievably classy about this fic. I'm pretty sure that this thread is making up the bulk of the comments at the Big Bang post. I would like to bring special attention to this thread in particular because it highlights something I would not have known otherwise - this is not the first time this author failed at Racism 101.
Yeahh. OMG, now that I'm thinking about it more deeply, it's even more problematic. So the villain - the one Jared is seducing and spying on - is called Alain, and is French and Saudi-Arabian (mom's French and Dad's Saudi). But he decides to become a terrorist because his dad was a terrorist, and no other explanation or development is given [the whole terrorist plot is not that well developed]. His coloring is described as Arab and like his Dad, and not French, while his mom is of course an elegant, beautiful French woman. She is portrayed very sympathetically and the one good thing about Alain is shown to be his affection and adoration for his mother. IDK, there are uncomfortable connotations of inheriting his misguided, evil terrorist-ness from his dad and the Arab culture, and his sympathetic side from his white French mom. Yeah...
And then this nonnie had the balls to say, " Omg I love that fic. I liked that she didn't shy away from using people of color like so many authors do. I thought she handled everything pretty tactfully. Would you rather people just ignore other cultures and people of color, fandom?"
If you want to write about people of color you can't resort to stereotypes or erase their identities, experiences, and the intersecting legacies of racism, sexism, colonialism, homophobia, etc. Do your research, talk to people, remember where you stand and what privileges you have in the ongoing conversation, and don't take advantage of disasters like Haiti's to write an epic love story between two white foreigners.
Dear Supernatural fandom, please stop being a fail whale. Unfortunately for this fandom we have high levels of both fail and presence, meaning the problems in our fandom will be noticed, highlighted, and linked at an exponential rate compared to others due to the enormous size of our existence...I guess that suits the "fail whale" bit quite well, actually.
Do not ignore this. Read it, and pass it on.
ETA: After reading more comments at spnpermanon and
bossymarmalade I feel it necessary to point out that it is possible to write fan fiction about recent history without being offensive. This thread includes a link to a Generation Kill AU fic set during the civilian-military clashes in 1999 East Timor.
P.S. Kripke can go DIAF [the tail end of Jared's panel] and I am never watching Splice [NSWF/possible triggers].