#Fandom xenophobia

[horizon-verizon]

The fact that so many people think the Starks are honorable anticolonial fighters and the pinnacle of morality is absolutely insane, they literally built a massive wall to isolated a bunch of people they considered as “savages”, they hunted and slaughtered the Free Folk, the Children of the Forest, giants, exterminated whole houses and clans and took their daughters as “prizes” while conquering the North, etc. The Blackwoods were originally from the North and ruled most of the wolfswood, before being driven out by the Starks and forced to flee south. The Starks are the OG COLONIZERS in ASOIAF.

Even this did not give Winterfell dominion over all the North. Many other petty kings remained, ruling over realms great and small, and it would require thousands of years and many more wars before the last of them was conquered. Yet one by one, the Starks subdued them all, and during these struggles, many proud houses and ancient lines were extinguished forever. — The World of Ice and Fire – The North: The Kings of Winter.

I recently finished a Tiktok series that will probably just be as lost to the internet if we lose TikTok but I had to get out in response to a particular creator who bashes Rhaenyra while also proclaiming themselves as black stans. I think they are really more black stans because they hate Alicent personally and feels the thrill of the side-taking, but that's neither here nor there. 😏

To quote one of my mutuals here [rhaenin]:

It just rings so familiar to the way so many people view the other in real life. Because the Targaryens are overtly, and intentionally written as the other. It's the reason so many people identify with them, and it's the very same reason that other people vilify them. They're not just the in-universe other to the 'default' culture established in the text, but they're also given characteristics that we, the reader and audience, can recognize as other and even sometimes anathema to Western Christian culture. To paraphrase the annoying people that love to cite Ramsay when they feel like it: If you look at a morally complex family surrounded by other morally complex families in a morally complex world in a story that's famed for seeking to challenge your underlying assumptions, and think that their association with fire and brimstone is meant to signify their singular satanic evilness, rather than say... challenge that very Eurocentric assumption, you haven't been paying attention. This vilification mindset where the Targaryens are the singular evil of Westeros is so common to people who seem to want to consume ASoIaF without engaging with the criticisms of the Eurocentric worldview of history at the heart of it. And they end up using the convenient “others” to project all the wrongs of that world onto so they don't need to examine it any deeper. ........... It comes from the same place with how someone pointed out that the baffling bastardphobia that would have medieval peasants giving the side eye is so often people jumping at the chance to “cosplay” as bigots who base their arguments in misogyny and bio-essentialism. Because it's an acceptable channel to indulge in that mindset in a way that they'd often otherwise question, or at least hold back from expressing out of caution.

[survivalove]

one thing that annoys me is people reading yangchen’s books and acting like she should be this bloodthirsty assassin.

the point of yangchen’s character isn’t that she revels in violence. it’s that she would forsake her cultural beliefs for the sake of the world if she saw it necessary. and she did.

and the air nomads punished her for it.

because they were still a living and thriving culture that could hold their own accountable.

while the rest of the world held her in high regard for her efforts, even in death, there were those from her culture that wouldn’t let her deeds go unpunished on the permanent record.

aang doesn’t have that.

he can do whatever he wants and the rest of the world wouldn’t care. no one will ever hold him accountable for his cultural missteps so he has to. that’s why it’s important to aang to hold himself to his beliefs. to keep his people and culture alive.

do you ever watch celebrities talk about being famous? how they know they have legions of fans that will praise them no matter what? and how terrifying that is to them? how important family is to them? because those are the people that keep them grounded. do you line what that feels like? to be inherently famous and have no one left in your family to keep you grounded? to be a human that’s only ever seen as a god?

no, you don’t. i don’t. but that is the life aang lives.

it’s why people who complain about the finale are annoying. it’s why people using yangchen to downplay his choice is also annoying. and it’s why people acting like yangchen had nothing to lose are extremely annoying. because her choices cost her a lot. and it hurt her. because she loved her people too.

[candiezmanzion]

me when im reading idw comics and sonic is mean to metal

[icantturnthisthingoff]

okay i don’t want to give that one person more attention than necessary because they aren’t very reasonable so im just gonna put in my final opinions on this topic on my own post.

no singular civilian person is at fault for the actions of their government or their military. that is the fault of the people at the top of that decision tree alongside those who knowingly and willingly choose to spread propaganda.

its also a bad faith argument to suggest that it is the fault of the russian people due to their silence and inaction when we know that those who have spoken out against the kremlin have been assassinated and imprisoned. we also know that there is little to no democracy in russia.

russians who oppose the invasion of ukraine are not silent, they have been silenced.

and those who have left russia because they did not wish to be drafted or involved in said invasion in any capacity have been pretty fucking vocal about it offline at least from my experience living in hotspot area for slavic immigration.

but even without all that : just being from a country does not make you inherently bad or good or anything really because thats not how it works?? yes environmental factors can greatly impact the way somebody thinks politically and morally etc but its not inherent. like if you look within peoples families a set of siblings may all be raised the same in the same area by the same people with the same rules, regulations and beliefs but you will find that very often sibling 1 has a wildly different worldview to sibling 2 or 3 and so on. thats the beauty of human complexity we make up our own minds ultimately.

anyways i’ve ranted enough

tl;dr - the person at a JO concert singing UM in russian has no real say in the actions of their country and is not a bad person just because they are from russia, they might be a lovely person they might be awful, but whatever they are its not just because they are born in russia and to say so would be xenophobic

[rakkuntoast]

im just so sad cuz most of this situation that happened with cellbit started AND was fueled by pure xenophobia towards the brazilian community over on twitter

people kept looking for an excuse to hate on them and decided to resurface shit to justify their hate. so much of a community that is supposed to "unite everyone"

[the-path-to-redemption]

Hi! I was on the Heartstopper tag and saw one of your older posts. And I'm just curious: I never even heard of the 'Boyfriends' webcomic; where can one read it? Also, what did Alice O. say about japanese BL? That seems extremely messed up, when she very obviously was inspired by them, and caters to the same audience, who would read cutesy shounen-ais... Thanks, if you answer.

Hi! So the "Boyfriends" comic is written and illustrated by Refrainbow, an Asian transman which you can read on Webtoon. It updates weekly and is generally very cute as the plot is just following a polyamorous group of boyfriends living college life together, so it won't include something like a grand overarching plot like other stories might. It's a Slice of Life comic with most chapters having a condensed plot that can be wrapped up pretty quickly.

And as for Al*ce O. and their stance on BL, here's a link to their opinion on it as well as someone responding to it on Twitter. But to briefly summarize, Al*ce claims that Hearts*ppers shouldn't be considered "yaoi" or even "BL" because the works falling under these categories are "fetishizing" gay men in a bad way. But the thing is, BL or "Boys Love" is literally just that, Boys Love. It's a genre that encompasses light-hearted works of Shounen Ai (basically just BL in Japanese) to the more hardcore, NSFW variants. It's the same thing to classify any work including an MLW relationship under the "Romance" genre, regardless of whether it has sexual content or not.

The problem with Al*ce's point is that they consider these works, mostly made by Japanese or other Asian creators, as "fetishizing" and "negative" while their work as a Western creator is somehow more pure and "not fetishizing". Which is xenophobia. Because they are elevating their work as a Westerner over Eastern creators without even attempting to do basic research into the BL genre and history, or how by creating these works, those Eastern creators are much more susceptible to legal troubles regardless of their works having NSFW contents or not. That's just shitty, and the hypocrisy of Western baby queers doing the same thing Al*ce is doing makes them xenophobes and Puritans as fuck.

Again, you can like one variant of this big genre and not like the other. That's your right as a reader, but elevating one over the other, especially when you're putting down works of marginalized people makes you scummy.

[chaos0pikachu]

BL fandom got a major james somerton-esque problem and yes I will explain in detail- [gets thrown in a van]

[psyga315]

This is why.

Only RWBY will you have the entire marketing be centered around the relationship and only the relationship.

My Hero Academia's marketing, on the other hand?

Retweeting other official accounts when it directly relates to them. But also iconic anime moments.

Selling merchandise (that's actually cheap, well produced, and isn't just pandering to a ship)

And even celebrating the birthdays of different characters and not just the mains!

[insertcreativenamehereplease]

Name's Scott. He/Him, please.

DNI if you are homophobic, transphobic, racist, xenophobic, antireligion, and so on!!! Proshippers not welcome in any way shape or form!!!

Main fandoms are Dead By Daylight, Halo, Overwatch, DC Comics, and Marvel. (Many others not listed here.)

[jynjackets]

its really weird when people try to generalize a rogue one fandom because it literally ranges from people 65+ years old to little children and across at least five continents specifically because of its casting and marketing. like sorry not all of us are going to have tumblr accounts for you to judge but it really baffles me when haters try to draw a picture of what we look like or think like when one of the biggest points of the movie was the importance of diversity

[spider-xan]

Last year, people understood that the blood baptism was about Mina being the brains opposing Dracula in addition to her being the 'best beloved' of the group (not Jonathan singularly bc at that point, Dracula does not care about him, just like how he does not care about Lucy once she's dead), but somehow this year, it's all about how the scene is actually about Dracula having a sexy vendetta against Jonathan instead and wanting to fuck him, thus reducing Mina to a prop for Jonathan and his angst while giving Mina's role as the closest thing Dracula has to a rival to Jonathan instead, like, how is this not just the kind of fandomization where white men are centred and women get downplayed in their own stories.

[xceanlynx]

Hey, I thought it would be nice for international swifties to hear Brazil's side of things from someone from Brazil.

I don't know if or how much money Taylor (or more specifically her PR team) spent with all the tabloids and stuff, but whatever it was, it's only working internationally. Here, the consensus among fans and non-fans is that Taylor did not act as expected from a big artist like herself.

First, the surprise song "dedicated" to Ana. Look, as far as I understand (I'm not a swiftie), Taylor sings one or two "surprise" songs each night, or each city, something like that. A song that no one knows beforehand. Maybe it was a coincidence that it was that specific song, maybe Taylor chose to sing it after Ana's tragic passing. I can't tell you because I wasn't involved in concert production. What I can tell you is that this is in no way a proper tribute. Ana's name wasn't spoken, not even once. Her picture wasn't shown. I'm sorry, this is no tribute. People are interpreting it as such, and Taylor won't correct them, it's better for her that we believe it was.

Second, fans are most disappointed at Taylor because she didn't give any support to Ana's family. Yes, Taylor is not at fault for what happened, but we, as human beings, always do stuff just to show we care. To show our kindness. Not because we're obligated judicially to do so. The Brazilian fans are not saying she has to pay compensation for the family, they're saying that it would've been nice if she even contacted them, to see if there was something hr and her team could do. Just to know them.

Many artists have shown their respect for their fans in various other circumstances, circumstances they were not responsible — brazilian fans were even ringing back a situation, many years ago, in which Beyoncé (yeah I know, swifties, but this is not the time for a fandom war) just shouted a late fan's name during her Halo song (sorry I could only find info in ptbr) in a concert here in Brazil. The fan died way before the concert, and just because he was a big fan and had already bought tickets, she showed us her sympathy that way.

Another example people are bringing up is when RBD (latam, you know them) came to Brazil and did an autograph event for free — they were (and still are, they had a concert a few days before taylor) so popular back then that over 15.000 people showed up in a venue that only supported 7.000 afaik. There was a stampede, and people died. RBD did unimaginable things to show how much they cared. They were literally traumatized by this incident (Alfonso is very vocal about it), but they still showed respect for the victims, THEIR FANS, and the families.

Would it really hurt Taylor's image, if she did something like that? If she showed that she actually cared? Is she "grieving" so much that she can't show more sympathy?

[fictionkinfessions]

I don't want to watch my source but do at the same time. I've watched one of the movies because I was thinking about trying to work up to watching the TV series about me, thus I figured I ought to see the movies leading up to it, but then I realized "oh wait, I'm painted as the villain after I effectively had a mental breakdown because of potentially 2,000+ years of being lied to and set up to fail when the lie finally was revealed because there was no conceivable way for it to stay a secret forever, I have to relive the worst half of the splinter timeline I remember, and it all leads up to watching a TV show where they put a collar on me like I'm a fucking animal". Not to mention the fact that someone I remember being effectively irredeemably asshattish is a "hero" (to be fair, he is still portrayed as not a great person but it eats me up inside that he gets to be redeemed seemingly with minimal effort for effectively playing with his toys meanwhile I get no sympathy for being treated like shit by the man I called Father for so long; I think the fan side of it has a lot to do with how this world views its counterpart of me and that's a whole religious discussion in and of itself but in my canon, the weirdness was literally just because of xenophobia, even humans were influenced by ideas of what a jotun is so much that even in the part of the splinter timeline where I did nothing wrong, they acted like I was a ticking time-bomb) and I know that people would probably see him as still easily redeemed if they saw the timeline where I didn't do anything wrong. By the way, Tony, if you (specifically the one I knew in the second part of my splinter timeline) are reading this, I hope you've grown a lot since then because I did not deserve your hostility.

-Loki (MCU)

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