#and the lack of media literacy in general

[riddlers-roulette]

Probably a bit of a hot take, and definitely petty fandom salt, but i’ve come to notice that in recent years, with most fandom spaces becoming puritanical in their efforts to ice out anything that can be labeled toxic, or anything that just doesn't fit the fandom’s prevalent opinions on a situation or character–a phenomenon that has only been exacerbated by TikTok and the overuse of “therapy-speak”--there seems to be a general lack of nuance and/or sense of media literacy in most vocal fandom spaces when it comes to a story that is not just black and white.

Arcane is one of the most recent example of this, with (arcane s2 spoilers ahead) characters caitlyn and vi being discussed pretty heavily with the terms like “domestic abuse” and “abuser apologism” particularly when it comes to caitlyn’s act of jabbing her rifle at vi’s side before walking away, leaving vi anguished. Now, i’m not saying domestic abuse is not real–i’m just saying, that in this instance, I don't believe that the act was domestic violence, nor do i believe that any of the parties that make up CaitVi are abusers.

Arcane itself is a complex story with heart shattering situations that the characters find themselves in constantly, often putting them at odds with their morals, the morals of their environment, and the morals of the audience. Do I think caitlyn was right to jab her rifle at vi? No. But we as an audience can tell that neither does Caitlyn herself. Neither does Vi. But when Caitlyn did so, it was when she was under immense emotional duress, her mother’s killer getting away, and she was blocked from taking vengeance by the person she trusted the most. When she said the horrible things she did, she was hurting and angry and lashing out–she was punching the walls like a woman gone. And why is it that we can offer characters like Jinx the grace to absolve her of her crimes due to her own psychotic breaks, but not other characters to their own actions done in moments of their own breakdowns? Vi punching Powder, for instance. An act that had Vi villainized by the fandom for a long time. 

Which brings me to another point–absolution. It is one the extremes characters tend to fall into when it comes to fandom, with the other extreme being amplification. A character’s sins tend to be glossed over, or explained away so that the character in question becomes an unquestionable angel and champion of justice, or, in other cases, tend to be overly exaggerated, making the character out to be the worst of the worst, the lowest of the low. Rarely is there an in-between, with multifaceted characters complete with riveting backstory and motivations and complicated characteristics inevitably losing a little of what makes them, them, all in the pursuit of woobification, gratuitous groveling from other characters, and victimization; it’s an apology fantasy on steroids. In other cases, and often, connected cases, if one character is getting the baby treatment then chances are that another is getting the villain treatment, becoming a sort of caricature of themselves. Motives and environmental factors and politics are all thrown out the window, and all that’s left is cartoonish, flat, oft one-dimensional portrayals. 

Arcane’s Silco is an example of the former, with the singular trait of caring for Jinx becoming twisted and emphasized until he is nigh unrecognizable. His harmful actions towards the undercity are erased and he is lifted up instead as something other than he was. He is transformed from the fascinatingly flawed, human depiction to something bland and uncanny. He is just a Poor Sad Betrayed Meow Meow who is also a Good Dad. But it’s okay because he also does crimes! Except wait, those crimes are also sanitized and cutesy, or horrific and without reason or logic. He has lost what makes him, him.

And for the other half of the coin, the unnecessary villainization, we have Jayce! Jayce was hated upon widely, especially after the release of Season 1, and his struggles were erased.

(and yes, there were struggles. Jayce was more privileged than those from the Undercity, that is unquestionable, but he was not as privileged as the other Council members or even most of his peers. He had the fortune of a patron, but that was something that had to be earned, and he could always risk losing. He was from a House, yes, but it was also a minor one, and he would have labored in his factories alongside other workers–he wasn’t a crazy wealthy guy. He staked his entire life on his research that he was actually going to take his own life when his dream was taken from him. His dream wasn’t to generate wealth by unlocking the arcane, but rather, it was to put these tools in the hands of the common man too. One of his first act as councilors was to immediately try to root out corruption. He was able bodied and from Piltover, and so, had more privilege than Viktor (who is my favorite arcane character) that is undeniable. But Jayce did have struggles, he wasn’t taken seriously by the Council due to his own status and had to go through them initially when it came to his own HexTech. Jayce had struggles,but Jayce is a POC and Viktor is a white boy, so Jayce’s problems are gonna be minimized by fandom but that’s a whole other issue–)

And yet, three years ago, the Jayce hate was at a total high, with every action of his being dramatized so as to make Viktor’s pain far more excruciating. 

I’ve derailed a little! The point of this post was to point out the “therapy speak” in fandom that often comes at the cost of lifting one character up and bashing the other, all while skipping over the context and nuance for the gray situations the characters found themselves in. All this to say–with fandom’s recent behaviors when it comes to relationships in fandom, it really makes you wonder if people have forgotten that relationships aren’t easy and actually require constant work and effort. That relationships change and evolve and grow with each obstacle that comes one’s way, and that sometimes things get rough, but that love is being able to understand and empathize with one’s partners–that not everything is black and white and that not every mistake is irredeemable.

edit: also, don’t really care enough to argue with ppl on this point in the notes. it’s tired and repetitive and half the time it’s like arguing with a brick wall. if this gets out of hand I will start deleting and/or restricting replies

[thewinchestah]

I’ve been on tumblr since I was 11. (2010) This blog (my only blog) is 14 yea old. Everytime I log on here and see ridiculous fandom discourse and the morality fandom police acting I feel like and old hag.

“oooh but there’s too swearing”

“ohhh those degenerates are writing *gasp like a Victorian lady* >>SEX<<< fics about a fictional character that’s absurd!

What are you guys gonna do? Report me to the fandom police

be for fucking real.

[afklancelot]

i feel like seriously describing junji ito's horror works as simply "wouldn't it be fucked up if this happened" is dumb because it's such a vague description that most other horror works can also be described as that. For example:

"Wouldn't it be fucked up if your house suddenly started creating new rooms and changed its dimensions on you?" (House of Leaves, specifically The Navidson Record)

"Wouldn't it be fucked up if the doors, windows, and your parents suddenly disappeared out of nowhere?" (Skinamarink)

"Wouldn't it be fucked up if a clown in a sewer started killing kids?" (It)

among others.

Not to mention, most of Ito's works do have deeper meaning to them, specifically targetting japanese culture. This video touches on his shorter works, but even his larger works have metaphorical meaning.

Junji Ito describing his mindset on writing Gyo as "man it would suck if sharks had legs" is real funny, but it's also critiquing Japan's war crimes in WWII; the origin of the "legs" being from World War II when the Imperial Japanese Army was trying to create biochemical weapons cannot be a coincidence. Hellstar Remina is about a hostile alien planet, but it's also an allegory of fans turning on a girl because of something beyond her control, reminiscent of idol culture. Hell, even Uzumaki, probably one of his greatest "WTF" horror works, is also about a pair of teenagers being unable to escape their hometown, unable to expand their horizons in the outside world. they just keep going in circles, unable to escape.

I don't know, at this point describing Ito's works only being "wouldnt it be fucked up if this thing happened" is starting to feel like "the curtains are blue because the author likes the color blue" but like. for horror

[ithinkdogshouldvote2]

It's not enough to destroy you with facts and logic. If you hate Sparrow Oak I NEED to kill you.

[ghoulishcraving]

on the theme of queerbaiting and hannibal i have OPINIONS and idk how well ill be able to express them on writing and in english but here we go

i get why some call it queerbaiting, and, although, i myself consider it canon, HEAR ME OUT

I'm going first to put the example of a real life artist, yoongi, from bts, this guy has consistently answered to questions like "what's your ideal woman" by saying "a person like...." or even saying things like "the gender doesnt matter much to me, it's the personality.....", has lyrics on his songs like "either a girl or a guy I'll make you come with my tongue....", and even said on a radio show years ago that he liked "the macho type" in guys, but he is still not considered queer by the general audience, he is not queer, except to queer fans like myself, bc we see that and obviously that means the man is not straight but to the general public, to the straight public he never said explicitly that he is gay, bisexual, pansexual, queer, anything so he is "not gay".

because the thing about queer identities is that they will be denied as long as there is the slimmest chance to do it, as long as there is not a direct rotund answer.

that happens with hannibal, it doesnt matter how obvious is, because there isn't an explicit acceptance or declaration of queerness and there isn't an explicit kiss or sex scene or confession between will and hannibal.

and that is something that we do not realise as much because of the niche audience it has, but if this show blew up, and its audience reached a more general audience we would see the denial of hannigram everywhere.

because even on the "is hannibal in love with me?" we do not get a rotund yes, we get a metaphora, a rephrasal, a reinterpretation, that can be interpreted as platonic. as a platonic obsession.

because even when both actors wanted a kiss it didnt happen it stayed platonic

and what confirmed for me this idea was the treatment of margot and alana's relationship.

we have a show, about the fbi, about a serial killer about violence (traditionally directed to men) protagonized by two very attractive men (usually done to attract a women audience), that plays onto queer topics spectacularly and has a blatantly obvious queer story (for queer people) but it's not a romance, and they never explicitly portray both men as queer, the only (explicit) relationships they are shown having is with other women (therefore not risking the lose of interest or hate from a straight audience that wants to be/men the protagonist or desires them/women) but the moment they introduce a lesbian couple we dont even see how they get together, we barely see anything about them as a couple but we do have a sex scene, wich would be something liked by a straight men audience, ignored by a straight women audience, and liked by a queer audience (confirming the queerness of the show) but without risking the proclaim of the two protagonists.

I hope this makes sense, and I know what fuller says and that the man just need a bit of cheering to write and post hannigram porn on his social media but honestly for me, what a creator, producer or actor post on their socials do not count bc it's not on the show, and again it allows deniability, it isn't canon

most of this is basically how I see the show translates onto a publicity and commercial sense, I myself consider hannigram as completely canon but still I'll always say that not putting a kiss on screen had nothing to do with the purity of the bond, or the complexity of their relationship and more to do with its marketing and the possibility of losing audience over it.

although in the end the audience of this show is the queerest I've seen hajfjdbnrnf

[sevenines]

steven and connie’s s5 rift is so interesting because the intent was for steven to be clearly in the wrong but people value messiah complexes so greatly they can’t understand connie at all

[theprestigegirly]

controversial post from me but like,,,

when did people start bashing the romance genre again as if reading romance means you’re less intelligent and to be a proper respected reader you have to read classics like???? isn’t it just good that people are still reading at all???? read what you like?????

it’s like you wouldn’t watch a tv show that bored you because it was “technically good” (and if u do like what are you doing with your precious hours it’s a bloody tv show) so why would you bash someone for not reading some long ass sad deep thinking book they don’t wanna read???

like i promise a whole generation is not losing language skills because they want to read a cute romance and not like,,,,, depressing miserable stuff

[amourem]

watching hsr twt say the xianzhou goes around purging peaceful planets and murdering inhabitants for following yaoshi is insane to me actually. once again. are we playing the same game?

[widevibratobitch]

my toxic trait is getting into a show that's honestly mid at best and creating a version of it in my head that is so so good and nuanced and compelling and then seeing a take by an average fan with wet cement for a brain and just deflating like a months old helium balloon

[dashiellqvverty]

ive only ever seen like 2 or 3 james somerton videos max and i forget what the first one or two i watched even were (something to do with disney i think?? but not the evil queens one im almost certain) but i have hated him ever since i watched the attack on titan video and he said something along the lines of "yeah this isnt an ALLEGORY bc the ghettos in the show arent literally identical to actual historical ghettos" and i was like what do you think an allegory IS

[dancingdorito]

genuinely think I am going to leave the bridgerton fandom for good. I don't like anyone here except for the fan artists and my mutuals. everyone else seems to be self important middle age cishet women who have nothing better to do than complain and be horny on main.

as a queer fan, i don't feel safe in this fandom, and as someone with common sense and a life, i don't feel like my existence is welcome anymore, nor do i have the energy nor time to exist in this environment.

i might still post about it but i probably won't tag. it was fun while it lasted y'all, stay well.

[eliseliedl]

i decided to quit tw*tter

[inkykeiji]

blake + joel’s reactions to valentino’s voice in the poison remix is just,,, so fucking cute i am squealing n kicking my little footies ◟( ˃̶͈◡ ˂̶͈ )◞

[itstokkii]

hi tokki ive been a bit absent but u did nothing wrong and don't deserve the haters lmao. fuck all these racists 🫡

thank you so much...!

honestly i'm very glad to have surrounded myself with people who care and support me and it made dealing with the mental toll a lot easier. i was relieved to see many who did understand my point and realized how messed up it was that a bunch of adults with nothing of substance to say were hounding on a child to the point where said child had to delete tumblr for a week

[ssaalexblake]

I know it's unlikely that there's an overlap between these two camps in fandom, but i cannot overstate how hilarious it is that the most common complaints i get in my activity feed bitching about 13's era are either 'it was too blatant they said Everything out loud and didn't show instead of telling' and 'ugh Why is it subtext and not said out loud' (both of these sentiments are paraphrased and summarised by me bc they always come with a Lot of waffle, and nobody knows the word subtext anymore apparently) because. It's just funny.

But i'm honestly not sure which one is worse, because on one hand at least camp A acknowledges that stories with no subtext are bad even while they show the media literacy of a toad in not noticing anything that happened that wasn't spelled out for them, but camp B at least Noticed the subtext even if they lack the understanding that stories without layers are either crap, or made for the 2-3 age demographic.

[andthroughthewire]

Speaking of bad takes, the amount of people who took Kim’s self loathing speech in F+G as “actually I was always using you” is baffling

Between that, others saying Kim's role in the story was over and a sizeable portion of the subreddit refusing to believe Gus was flirting with the waiter until Gould confirmed the obvious on a podcast, it was a bad week for media literacy.