I've come to the conclusion that there are people that read for pure escapism and don't bother/desire to actually *think* about what they're consuming. Trying to bring any sort of sense or logic to them tends to be similar to banging one's head against a boulder with the hopes of making pebbles. Honestly (and to my shame), whenever I've come across massive fail during my fic reading experiences (blatant omniscient narrative colonialism/racism/sexism being quite prevalent in badfic) rather than sending the author a short comment/missive stating my objection I just hit "back" on my browser window. You can usually tell when an author is open to learning experiences and when an author is still grappling with his/her own biases with a little bit of delving, and I'm usually too lazy to stand up and say something. There are generally at least two other folks out there who can eloquently and politely point out fail, I tell myself. Not that that absolves me in the least, but *shrug
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Re: I feel ya.emily_goddessAugust 23 2010, 12:29:19 UTC
Yeah, sometimes I don't have the energy for a fight, so I just do nothing and hope someone else will say something. And I feel kinda guilty, but OTOH, one person can only do so much, you know?
The problem with the "read for pure escapism" logic, as I tried to say above, is that the ability to do that is often a mark of privilege. If I'm reading along and enjoying my book and then BOOM! sexism, it's not an escape for me any more. It's not that I necessarily want to think through the *ist implications of everything I read (though I don't usually mind) - it's that the *isms are sometimes too big to ignore and I can't "just turn my brain off and enjoy it". I just wish more people would try to have enough empathy to get that.
I agree completely. The Penny Arcade backlash at Shakesville was horrible for the blog's mods, trolls all over. :/
I watched an episode of the old Bob Newhart show last night, and I was struck by how not one bit of the humour in the show was at someone's expense unless that person was a major character - and even then, it was more likely to be the person themselves doing the self-putdown.
It was a weirdly refreshing thing, to see this show from the mid-70s doing humour without Othering.
I don't follow Shakesville enough to know what you're referring to, but I can imagine it well enough. I take it kinda personally, because the parts of fandom and nerd-dom I hang out in are pretty safe spaces, so when I venture out into the wilds and get smacked with some really epic privilege!fail (fandom being largely middle-class white cis dudes), I'm always shocked and dismayed. And I'm like, this is my subculture, the identity with which I identify most strongly, and it's not just unsafe, it's fucking toxic sometimes. And then I just crawl back to Fandom_Wank or Racebending where I know it's safe, and I don't venture out.
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The problem with the "read for pure escapism" logic, as I tried to say above, is that the ability to do that is often a mark of privilege. If I'm reading along and enjoying my book and then BOOM! sexism, it's not an escape for me any more. It's not that I necessarily want to think through the *ist implications of everything I read (though I don't usually mind) - it's that the *isms are sometimes too big to ignore and I can't "just turn my brain off and enjoy it". I just wish more people would try to have enough empathy to get that.
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I watched an episode of the old Bob Newhart show last night, and I was struck by how not one bit of the humour in the show was at someone's expense unless that person was a major character - and even then, it was more likely to be the person themselves doing the self-putdown.
It was a weirdly refreshing thing, to see this show from the mid-70s doing humour without Othering.
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