three thoughts on racism, fandom and being offended

[thewaterbandit]

1. People have a right to be offended

This is the most important point so I'm putting it first. Just because you, personally, don't find something offensive doesn't mean that somebody else won't, especially in cases of racism, sexism, transphobia, etc. And that other person will be perfectly justified in taking offence. It's not being 'oversensitive

Comments

[skelody]

Fff, Fedex arrow. /bookmarks

[thewaterbandit]

I know, right? scans_daily is awesome for stuff like that :D

[futuresoon]

Thanks for being a bastion of sanity--I'm on the "feeling guilty" side of it all; when I first heard the line I had a "wait, what?" moment but then I forgot about it because the rest of the clip was funny, and then I didn't think of it at all until people started posting about it. In a vacuum, I probably would have been completely fine with it (and the other unfortunate lines Funi's been using). But I don't agree with the arguments for not caring about it--it's not related to WWII, it's out-of-character for Italy, it doesn't make sense at all in the context, and why was it even necessary in the first place? And yet I know I'm still going to buy the DVD and probably even enjoy most of the dub, even though I don't want to support things like that...argh. None of us are gonna come out of this happy. :\

[thewaterbandit]

I'd really recommend read the scans_daily links if you're feeling guilty- especially 'The FedEx Arrow and How to Deal With It' and 'Defending What Entertains Us', especially amokk's comment thread. Those are the two resources that really helped me in figuring this out.

I'm probably going to watch the Rome bits of the dub, just 'cause I'm curious about how he'll sound, but apart from that I'm done. It gives me a good excuse not to listen to England's painful accent any more!

[futuresoon]

Reading those does make a feel a bit better, thanks. (I'm starting to make the justification that "hey, I like Supernatural! Nothing's as bad as Supernatural! so this is totally small potatoes for me!"; not sure if that's actually wise, but if it works...)

I'm...just remembering Rome's comments about boys in his episode with Germany; if the sub is like that...well, I wish you the best of luck.

[thewaterbandit]

Fff, maybe I should break out that crazy mahjong anime again. It was like a perfect storm of offensiveness.

Eeeh, yeah. I think I might need that luck :/