#and that being racist in itself

[all-chickens-are-trans]

god I gave up on Moby Dick too early last time. this weird little man goes from 'oohhh terrifying foreigners' to getting gay married to one so quickly. this is only chapter 8 ffs

[bigskydreaming]

Imagine if you were a gay or bi man who tried a certain firefighter show because of all the attention it was getting for one of its mains having a later in life bi awakening.....and between seasons you ventured into its fandom in search of material to tide you over til the next one. And you're greeted by a deluge of posts and fics that are just cheerfully homophobic towards one half of the newly out bi character's canon relationship on the basis of 'well he's not the RIGHT gay guy' and pushing the idea that actually its fine to cheat on him because Reasons and he's sexually predacious based on......behind the scenes implications people have divined like they're reading fucking tea leaves.

But don't get it twisted....this fandom, like all fandoms, really cares about representation!

Sorry not sorry, but we really need to kill this idea that fandoms are welcoming and inviting and inherently progressive when they're frequently insular and reductive as fuck. Every single fandom I've been in has had major trends of people doubling down on their own headcanons and fanon interpretations of the characters and willfully enacting trends aimed at running off people who like the 'wrong' characters (usually characters marginalized along one or multiple axes), like the characters in the 'wrong ways' or other bullshit.

Scott is a Bad Friend fics overtaking Teen Wolf fandom was not incidental, it was a FEATURE of the fandom, because the vast majority of that fandom did not want to share its space with anyone who had the nerve to like its main character. Survivors complaining about or criticizing the prevalance of rape fics in a certain fandom has in my experience always led to a reactionary UPTICK in those fics, with gems like 'this character can, will, must be raped' in the tags making it crystal clear that some of these fics exist because how fucking DARE anyone try and push forth a narrative not agreed upon by Fandom Main.

I could cite examples for so many other fandoms, with the commonalities always being that vast majorities in these fandoms are explicitly reacting defensively to being asked to be more mindful of fandom trends revolving around or exacerbating racism, homophobia, transphobia, rape or abuse apologia, ableism, etc....

With the most prolific fucking rallying cry across countless fandoms being "No the fuck we will NOT be doing that," because lolololol.....

Fandom is an inherently progressive space, didn't you hear?

[neechees]

This isn't supposed to be a gotcha, I'm genuinely asking because my dad keeps using this as an argument when I try to explain land back stuff to him. And I'm hoping you can help give tips on how to explain it to him.

We're European, and as you probably know there's people here who are anti-immigrant / anti-refugee bc they're racist and want it to be only Europeans. My dad thankfully isn't *that* bad, but his argument is "well if indigenous ppl deserve their land back, even despite all the non-natives who moved there bc they had to, then don't the anti-immigrant EU ppl have the right to kick out the immigrants even if they fled to here as refugees?"

It's so gross and i don't blame you if you don't want to engage with it/answer this anon. I just am like trying to figure out how to answer him and of all the progressive issues I explain to my dad this is the one I'm least familiar with. So how do I explain to him why it doesn't really apply to indigenous Europeans?

I can't tell what you mean when you say "Indigenous Europeans", because Indigenous is a racialized and political category of people that have been affected and racialized by colonialism in a specific way, "Indigenous" doesn't just mean "x group of people who originally come from x area". Because you haven't specific a specific Indigenous Nation (for example, Saami), I'm going to assume you just mean that you are White Europeans who are not Indigenous. You'll have to explain that to him as well. This is also important, because I know many racist Europeans will co-opt Indigeneity in order to promote White Supremacist ideas like creating an ethnostate, and what your dad has suggested, is the definition of that. Secondly, tell him (even if you ARE Indigenous,) Indigenous people, as the same with anyone else, being xenophobic and racist towards immigrants is still bad and unacceptable, we don't get a free pass to be bigoted towards different groups of people and use "landback" as an excuse. Landback goes hand in hand with decolonizing, and you can't do that while perpetrating settler-colonial ideology and bigotry.

I don't know how many times we have to say this, but Landback does not inherently have to do with deporting anybody who isn't "Indigenous", and does not have anything to do with trying to create an ethnostate, the core goals of Landback is neither of those things. You have to emphasize this to him.

Landback has to do with sovereignty for Indigenous Peoples because as it is, we're being oppressed by the White governments that are occupying us. We are stripped of multiple rights while in our own homes. What your dad has suggested about White Europeans having the "right" to deport immigrants is already a reality, White Europeans already have privilege and power over immigrants, and many immigrants already ARE being deported and mistreated by those governments. There are race riots targeting immigrants happening in the U.K for goodness sake!

Landback is centered ideas of decolonizing and dismantling White Supremacy: Your dad's presented idea of mass deportation of any person who isn't ehtnically/racially European or is an (immigrant to there) from the country you reside in is based on White Supremacy. The category "immigrant" itself is very racialized, because when White North Americans or Europeans talk about deporting "immigrants" from the country, typically they're talking about Brown and Black people & people who aren't Christian, and I've never heard a White Canadian complain about a White French immigrant and suggest we deport them, or hear a White American complain about deporting the Irish.

As an example, trying to kick everyone else out of Turtle Island (or anywhere) for one thing would be WAAAAY too much of a hassle to even attempt, too expensive, and useless. Plus, if there was a mass exodus (for lack of a better word) of people via planes, vehicles, and ships all at once or even over time, that would have a big negative impact on the environment, which kind of goes against why people want Landback in the first place (to take care of the land and environment, we care about it). It's counterproductive to several of the goals of Landback.

So to recap, deporting any people who are not "Indigenous" or originally from one area is not the goal, your dad has made a false equivalency because 1

that's not what we want in the first place, Landback has nothing inherently to do with deporting anyone who isn't originally from a specific area or creating an ethnostate, and

trying to do it would be useless and going AGAINST the goals and principles of Landback and what is wanted

part of Landback is undoing racism and White Supremacy, and what he's suggested is promoting those things (White Supremacy and racism)

[utterdrip]

astarion being so conscious about what a big weird fuckin group the tadpole’d are like yelling at them hands fluttering about

“we’re conspicuous enough as this merry band of freaks! can you! be normal!”

[hard cut to astarion panting over the possibility of killing some githyanki scouts]

[rookflower]

grit my teeth and hold myself back from fighting someone every time i see the sentiment of "wow can you believe people actually think nightheart is sexist? and that liking nightheart makes you a misogynist? how crazy is that lol" out in the wild. nooooo that's not what the discourse actually was. you have fallen for the dismissive surface level takeaway people had from a genuine discussion about wider trends of misogyny in the writing, that makes said criticisms out as irrational and hysterical as possible. you will now associate any criticisms of misogyny in the series with this hyperbolic strawman

[lordharmony]

i don’t think i can talk about everything positive about veilguard until i talk about how utterly dismal the trans representation in this game is. yes, especially with taash. because yeah…i do think it being bad is not something to ignore like i see so many people on here say you should “because any rep is better than none.” anytime gender came up while playing veilguard i had a massive pit in my stomach, and i came in with the maybe the most open mind about it. i know for some it was the first time they've seen a non-binary character in a video game and that's why they're less harsh than i am. that has never been the case for me, i have non-binary and trans characters i very much enjoy and don't need to rely on one game to do the job for me.

but this conversation always turns into “oh you just hate non-binary people that’s why you have a problem with taash!” actually i think the game itself has a problem with non-binary people given all they could say about it is “you’re non-binary if you hate being a woman.” or talked about clothes. that’s about the extent we get to explore gender identity in this game. well that and “trans people valid.” we need to shelf the word valid for a while i think. i wish trans rep wasn't written primarily for a cis audience all the time, because i'm so tired of getting talked down to in a conversation i don't need to have.

[communistkenobi]

convincing the graduate chair that it’s fine to give me an extra month to study for my comprehensive exams by giving me the comps list early by explaining that there’s no way in hell im studying with any of the other phd students in my cohort

[siilvan]

i am once again disappointed but not surprised at the COD fandom only caring about “sensitivity” when it’s convenient for them

[starlooove]

Everyone talking about how Mel and ekko saved everyone like they didn’t sideline and ignore them since day one is driving me insane

[featherymainffins]

What the fuck man

[monkiekidtwt]

still ignoring the racism in the fandom okay i see you!!!!

Okay, let’s talk about the racism that went down regarding Erlang fans. For example, a minor was accused of sexualizing their own religion, and people who hate Erlang called him (a literal deity) “unseasoned chicken”. People mocking and harassing children who grew up with that religion for being attached to their deities, and-

… Oh wait, you just want me to talk about it when it specifically makes the people on the side of Erlang fans look bad? Because you don’t really give a fuck about racism OR the misogyny you used as an excuse to harass them (harassment you were doing BEFORE anyone was racist, by the way, so you can’t use that as a “but the other side is just as bad!” argument)? And you only PRETEND to give a fuck about marginalized groups when it’s out of spite, or when you can use it to excuse yourself of horrid actions?? Okay I see you!!!

Now take SEVERAL. Seats.

[susansontag]

cultural heritage is something all humans have, it’s a wonderful, complex, sometimes awful and bloody, history of human migration, invention, invasion, sharing and stealing, etc. in defending it you’re absolutely allowed to appeal to the continuance of certain cultural practices and similarities between various cultures, though the question as to the veracity of these claims is a question for historians and anthropologists. but that they exist and can be seen is just people living their lives.

when it comes to generic heritage, however, this is a question for geneticists. this is equally true for all groups, no matter their cultural practices, language, and family history. you can appeal to the continuance of cultural practices or existence of cultural artifacts to assert why genetic continuance is likely, but you cannot and should not use it to justify why scientists should not be able to carry out their research unimpeded by people making claims on culture. this is equally true for all groups. geneticists work in genetics, and it’s their study that is supposed to get us closer to the truth of human migration patterns, etc, not to the dissemination of cultural practices. they are related but they’re not the same, and though scientists are just as liable to bias and discrimination as anyone else, this is not a fair reason why they should have to feel bad about engaging in work others have labelled controversial. this is not at all difficult to understand, and I don’t know why anyone is coddling this anti-intellectual idea that geneticists should be considered racist or phobic in some way for doing nothing more than their jobs.

[skymagpie]

Man it's not that the Alliance is not bad, because they are and they could be worse, but homogenizing the Alliance when you mean to say "human" is just as annoying as homogenizing the Horde as "irredeemable savage war criminals".

But let's be real, the way Blizzard (in their infinite racism) wrote most of the Horde races is pretty bad, like we have alien invaders who actually came to colonize, we have a group who constantly uses chemical weapons, a whole civilization built upon sacred troll land and genocide and we have a guy who built Mount Rushmore on native Night Elf land... like it's not a good track record. These are things as bad as the stuff the Alliance has done, if not some being worse.

Saying "Well Horde actually good and Alliance bad" is equally stupid as saying the opposite. The trolls, tauren, vulpera etc, haven't done anything terrible, or have done very little just how the draenei, gnomes and who have you from the Alliance have nothing to do with Stormwind politics.

I think faction discourse is the most annoying thing both tumblr and twitter produces, because we argue which faction is bad and which is good, instead of discussing why Blizzard shoved the majority of the non-white coded races into the faction that they write to constantly commit terrible things while the other one does moderately terrible things. Maybe the racism call is coming from inside the house.

[artcinemas]

it’s sad how india who once recognised palestine as it’s own nation is now assisting israel in it’s genocide it’s awful it’s sick. as a country who was colonized and invaded for centuries, are ignoring the value and parallel of the palestinian resistance. especially those specialists in history. rot.

[novella-november]

Well, I now know what original story I'll be writing for Freedom February ...

👀🤖⛓️‍💥

Can't wait for people who use l33tspeak or are greek mythology nerds to immediately realize what is happening with the lore and are excited to see how it plays out.

[widevibratobitch]

Since we're both as unwell about him as we are I consider you to be someone who knows a fair amount and what do you genuinely think the real James Fitzjames would feel if he saw the Terror's depiction of him? (As in watching the whole show)

HUH good question. first of all i think he'd be a little discombobulated by the very experience of watching a tv show but personally i choose to believe he'd at least be happy he was made into one of the main characters?? and that so many cool and sexy insane people are obsessed with him now <3

having said that. as much as i love show!fitzjames they did nerf him down A LOT. they robbed him of the joyous whimsy that was such a characteristic trait of the real jokester supreme fitzjames (show!fitzjames also has little to no relationship with his irl lieutenant buddies which. sad.)

we also know now that. most probably. he was actually fully english so i can only imagine he'd be Not Pleased about the cairn scene to say it lightly lmao imagine you and your adoptive family making significant efforts throughout your whole life to disguise the fact of your illegitimate birth and then 150 years later some people make a high rating show where they babygirlify you not only spill your secret to the millions of people watching (or secrets, plural, and make you call yourself a fake as a cherry on top lol) but they also get it wrong and make it Even Worse (from a victorian englishman's perspective) like stop guys he's already dead lmfao

having said that. he would have loved the britannia costume and the your nails are a terror line. i know he would.