thrillmoms

tmirai:

76txt:

abakkus:

tmirai:

I don’t even go here in regard to TAZ, but I read the creator’s response to all of the “backlash” yesterday and…

Wow. It is a fucking shame that even had to be written. Gracious and smart and honest as it was, it’s incredulous it came to them having to do that.

From an outsider’s perspective, it seems like yet another gross example of fans overstepping boundaries and using Representation and Diversity as their progressive superiority fodder. Which is always difficult (especially for creators belonging to certain majority groups) to argue against without coming across as assholes or dismissive. It does not allow the possibility that maybe these fans are just entitled assholes using skin color as a means to bully creators into telling their stories.

And can I just say: the fact that anyone would expect a fantasy character named Taako to be Latinx just because the name sounds like/is related to tacos is fuckin’ racist as shit. How is that an actual parameter of someone’s assumed race/culture? And that this sect of the fandom has hung that expectation (or other expectations of representation) over the creators’ heads to the point that if the creators don’t adhere to it (like the graphic novel), they feel justified hurling claims of racism and whitewashing which, from what I read, is far from the truth.

What disgusts me more in this is that the majority of these dissenting voices do not seem to belong to brown people. There is a new form of fetishization of brown flesh happening in fandom–where white fans use us and our skin color to get a stamp on their Progressive Brownie Points card. A new way to assuage their White Guilt and fluff their I’m Woke About Representation boners at the same time. They think it’s some significant act of contribution to diversity in media to headcanon characters as brown. Or gay. Or disabled.

Well. It’s not. Because it’s not their story to do that with. And it’s often really just another form of fetishization with self-centric intent on some “I love brown people! Some of my best friends are brown!” bullshit. These are people that’d rather bark at three white guys about including brown character instead of, oh, I don’t know…using that energy to look for some brown creators to support.

When earnest, the challenge of “Creators should think beyond the narrow standards” should always be presented. And fans should be able to communicate with creators their concerns and critiques about representation. But stories should ALWAYS belong to creators first. They should be able to create the kind of stories and characters they envision and determine what degree of influence their audience will have.

Concerns of predominantly white or straight or cis casts are usually valid and discussions should be had. But every story is not going to be representative of everyone. Or anyone. Sometimes, stories are just stories that people love for very personal reasons and they want to tell and share them for reasons of self fulfillment and the hope that others will enjoy it, maybe even identify with. But if certain people don’t enjoy or identify with it, it’s not necessarily the duty of the creator to change their vision in order to check off representation boxes.

Social media has made creators too accessible and given fans a stage on which their voices are too loud. Tumblr and Twitter can be great tools to connect creators and community, and produce some wonderful discussions that should and need to be had. But creators also have to set some firm and impassible boundaries of how much interaction fans have with them and how much influence they will have on their creation. Arguing for representation and diversity isn’t always done with the best intentions or communicated with the most effective voice.

I give it to any creator–even the ones who fuck up–who bare themselves with an admission of guilt and a true desire to do better through listening to their fans. But sometimes, the fans aren’t right. Sometimes it’s the fans that should check themselves and feel guilty.

And the thing about TAZ especially is that the McElroys have explicitly stated that all headcanons are canon. The graphic novel is one person’s headcanon, and people are acting like it invalidates everyone they’ve ever made, when it doesn’t. It never will. It wouldn’t even without their disclaimer, but this makes all the shouting that much weaker.

you realize that the mcelroys literally made that post saying they accepted the criticism and said not to bash on people who were upset by it right?

like they’re grown ass men they don’t need to be coddled, did you read the post at all or nah

I knew someone would make this point; I meant to address it in my original post but figured I’d wait.

Yes, the post did graciously accept and validate the perspectives of their fans. They even reiterated on Twitter to not “shout down people upset by this.” That’s noble, and honestly I wish more creators would respond to criticisms like that. I’m not saying they’re wrong in how they feel about their responsibility and role in this. They smartly turned a damned if you do or don’t situation into an introspective moment of self-reflection rather than only getting defensive and angry as so many white creators often do.

However–them acknowledging the feelings of their fans doesn’t necessarily mean the criticism was justified or appropriately expressed. Criticism is by default valid because of individual perspective, but it’s never necessarily right or wrong. It’s biased and influenced by personal experiences, wants, and expectations. The core of the fandom’s issue–wanting diversity in a piece of fiction–was not misplaced. Yet the nuances of this particular situation–the way this criticism was expressed and the reasons used to justify the vehemency of the responses–were unfairly skewed to an unwinnable situation. The way I see it, the creators had no choice but to react the way they did if they wanted to salvage anything positive from the situation.

Let’s break down what occurred and someone, please, correct me if I’m wrong:

1. A large sect of fandom headcanoned a fantasy character that had no defined skin color or racial influences or background as brown.
   
2. Fandom fights among itself about which headcanon is correct and pressures creators about confirming the Brown One is the Right One.
3. Creators flat out say all interpretations of the character are valid and right and fans should explore whatever headcanon they want.
4. Creators thoughtfully move forward with what they wisely think is the best expression of their fantasy character for the sake of taking their personal, self-created work to a visual medium.
   
5. Fandom explodes, claiming racism, white-washing, erasure, and a bunch of other diversity buzz words because creators chose not to adhere to the headcanons that were never confirmed in the first place.
   

I’ve said it before, but fans cannot use headcanons as precedent or standard for what creators should do. Diversity is not a check box. It’s not a quota. It should be something that just IS. If a creator has, for whatever reason, not included some sort of element in their work that doesn’t reflect fan projections, then that’s their decision and the canon. Fans are entitled to express their disappointment about a character not being brown, but in the end, this piece of media is not their creation and they are in no position to expect this validation.

White creators need to tread the waters of racial and cultural representation very thoughtfully and lightly. They have no other choice. They can’t say “I didn’t make this character brown on purpose/didn’t want to make this character brown.” without coming across as a racist asshole or, at the least, dismissive of legitimate concerns. Believe me, I’m not trying to coddle white creators about how hard it is to be appropriately inclusive amid demands for representation. It’s actually super easy and many of them make some ignorant af mistakes.

Yet as ultra critical as I am of creators and media they create, I am also critical of fandom and mass response. There exists in Tumblr Culture™ a belief that fans are always right if their issue is about diversity, that just qualifying something with “This is about representation” makes the preceding statements flawless in their intent and expression. And that isn’t true. We joke about Tumblr Fandom being terrible and over-reactive, a social justice snake eating it’s on tail as it 360s into being the bully it rallies against. There is a large, prominent grain of truth to this and, again, I attribute it to creators being so accessible on social media and the hive mind in a vacuum space phenomenon of it.

So I don’t think I’m shouting down fans, but I’m definitely saying we need to hold fans more accountable when they’re not being fair or thoughtful too.

(via aaeds)

aliensnipe:

Reblog this and tag where you stand on cucumbers, bell peppers, mushrooms, cilantro, and brussels sprouts.

(via guavas)

paradisiak:

just-shower-thoughts:

As an adult, I can quite literally do whatever I want to, but I always end up wanting to just go home.

I’ve never seen anything more accurate

(via aaeds)