transemacabre (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
transemacabre) wrote2012-07-08 01:09 am
transemacabre) wrote2012-07-08 01:09 am
Entry tags:
"Pretending You're Oppressed: The New Internet Fad"
This article doesn't really break any new ground, but it does neatly summarize what's been going on in fannish circles for the past couple of years now: Social Justice run amok. What started out as a call for better representation and deeper contemplation on things we take for granted, transformed into a witch hunt led by some of the biggest fattest hypocrites out there (what are charmingly referred to as "Social Justice Warriors"). While often referred to as Tumblr Social Justice, it's actually been around on lj since way before the mass fandom migration to Tumblr. I honestly feel like this movement sucked the fun out of fandom.
Three, four years ago, people were writing FIC in my fandoms. People were writing meta. I go on my flist now, and there's a handful of fic posts. Almost no feedback. What meta there is seems to be written by the same two or three people. I don't see squee posts with pages of comments anymore. Even the kink memes are running on empty. Fandom has been around for DECADES, it's not as if it just *suddenly* burned itself out.
Everyone seems... beaten down.
In the "Pretending You're Oppressed" article, the author points out the 'plight' of self-identified groups such as otherkin, transabled, and even transethnic people. Look, if you want to be a unicorn, I'm not gonna get in your face about it. But yeah, it does kinda make a mockery of what the whole movement was supposed to be about. I think Shae hits the nail on the head when she says, "Personally, I think they all suffer from plain old “being boring” oppression. You know, the kind where you’re dull and you watch too much TV and you feel a desperate need to be cool, different, part of a group."
Hits the nail on the head. Because, at the end of the day, most people are *boring*. I don't care what you've got between your legs, you're probably boring. But none of us what to be boring, do we. We all want to feel special. If *those people* are getting a piece of the pie, we want a big fat piece for us, too. Other than that, I dunno. I just want the fun back. I want to make friends again (I used to make friends on here all the time). I want to SQUEE again. I'd like to see more personality on here, and less rhetoric.
Three, four years ago, people were writing FIC in my fandoms. People were writing meta. I go on my flist now, and there's a handful of fic posts. Almost no feedback. What meta there is seems to be written by the same two or three people. I don't see squee posts with pages of comments anymore. Even the kink memes are running on empty. Fandom has been around for DECADES, it's not as if it just *suddenly* burned itself out.
Everyone seems... beaten down.
In the "Pretending You're Oppressed" article, the author points out the 'plight' of self-identified groups such as otherkin, transabled, and even transethnic people. Look, if you want to be a unicorn, I'm not gonna get in your face about it. But yeah, it does kinda make a mockery of what the whole movement was supposed to be about. I think Shae hits the nail on the head when she says, "Personally, I think they all suffer from plain old “being boring” oppression. You know, the kind where you’re dull and you watch too much TV and you feel a desperate need to be cool, different, part of a group."
Hits the nail on the head. Because, at the end of the day, most people are *boring*. I don't care what you've got between your legs, you're probably boring. But none of us what to be boring, do we. We all want to feel special. If *those people* are getting a piece of the pie, we want a big fat piece for us, too. Other than that, I dunno. I just want the fun back. I want to make friends again (I used to make friends on here all the time). I want to SQUEE again. I'd like to see more personality on here, and less rhetoric.
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But...yeah. I tend to err on the side of insensitive, as much as I try to be educated and careful about issues that have a lot of weight to them. I just want to have a good time and LJ feels most of the time like a somewhat private, or at least a "you are here because you were invited" sort of place.
People need to stop worrying about being boring. Passion should be indulged, a good time should be had by all. Fandoms also need to stop devolving into popularity contests, which the notes system on tumblr, more than all the other impersonal incarnations that came before it, has really encouraged. Nothing is better in fandom than talking face to face with other fans and getting inspired by it.
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Appropriate, I feel.
I do get tired of watching every single word that comes out of my mouth because someone can get butt-hurt about the stupidest thing. So many fandoms seem so eager to wail or cry about some perceived wrong thrown at them.
Boardwalk Empire, a fandom I adore, is one of the worst. I'm sorry, but how can someone watch a show about gangsters with murder, incest, rape and the like...and then throw a tantrum because "the girlfriends of the mob bosses don't get enough recognition because they're women."
Christ, I'm a feminist, but I can still enjoy watching a show about the underground bootlegging operations in the 1920s without pissing myself with self-righteousness. I want my gangsters to be BAD, not sympathetic men who are somehow filled with current day morals whilst committing acts of violence. /rant.
TLDR; I agree and I don't want to have to always worry about stepping on toes.
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new and confused