#examine the way you treat women in relation to the mlm ships you enjoy. are you being fair to them? please god

[blueskittlesart]

not to swing at another nest, but i think it's also really fascinating how the re/valink shippers similarly shove zelda to the side/sideline her. i've seen quite a few fics where they make zelda so awful when REVALI is the guy who is textually mean/rude/whatever and never changes 😭 and like that's fine i think the story benefits from having people who don't like link, that's what makes botw zelink fun in particular! but zelda changes throughout the course of her and link's time together! that's the point!!! she GROWS she CHANGES!!!!!!!! they cause each other to bloom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but people force her into this static role + make her worse and then act like that's the real zelda

this is SUCH a common problem in fandom in general like whenever a male character has 2 potential love interests, 1 male and 1 female, 10 to 1 in any fandom portrayal the female character will either be viciously mean or reduced to like. a sidelined wingman who is only there to further the male characters' relationships. when there is a woman in media that people perceive as getting in the way of a man or a relationship between 2 men they will either vilify her or get rid of her entirely to compensate for the fact that they don't want to actually think about her at all. this is not a problem unique to the zelda fandom but sid/link and reva/link are like. really obvious examples of the phenomenon lmao

[jaskicr]

let’s talk about fandom racism

i have seen so many people say that they don’t like yennefer, or they don’t vibe with her, or she isn’t compelling, or she is irrelevant to their fics/art/creations...

yes. everyone is allowed to like and dislike characters. everyone is allowed to have their preferences. and i’m not disputing that. but when people brush yennefer off, justifying it some of the reasons above or other reasons they come up with, i question whether there’s something rather dodgy behind this, especially when those very same people really, really stan white male characters (geralt, jaskier, the wolves etc)

some people are going to come at me, ‘why are you making everything about race??!??’ or accuse me of calling them racist, when they aren’t racist, how dare i say stuff like that. but it’s interesting, isn’t it? the way fans justify their dislike or their dismissal of female characters of colour with excuses like they’re not ‘compelling’ or they’re ‘problematic’ - when their fave white dudes are arguably just as bland and problematic, but those fans continue stanning their faves anyway.

it’s important, i think, for many fans to take a step back and evaluate their preferences. ‘fandom is for fun,’ you might say. ‘why do i need a reason to like a certain character? can’t i just like them because i do!’

you can! what i want people to evaluate, though, is how their preferences have been shaped by unconscious bias. unconscious bias is created as people grow up, shaped by people around them, shaped by the structure of society - and in society, white-dominated ones in particular, racism is embedded deep within, and it influences the way many people perceive and treat media, the way they interact within fandoms.

that is what i want people to examine and evaluate. you might reject it - because no one wants to be told that they’re racist, that they have unconscious prejudices that they don’t even notice. everyone wants to think that they’re open-minded, that they’re inclusive, that they are completely accepting of every minority group ever - when in fact, the way they’ve been brought up, the way society has influenced them, has created biases within them that shapes their preferences and perception.

i’m not saying people are being intentionally malicious and sidelining characters of colour like yennefer on purpose. i’m saying that there are unconscious prejudices that influence their views in a way that they likely aren’t aware of, leading to them dismissing characters of colour, or demonising them, or magnifying the flaws that a character of colour has while excusing a white character (usually a white man) for similar flaws. 

this can very clearly be seen in how so many fandoms have white male characters as the most popular amongst fans, with many white mlm ships being the centre of those fandoms. meanwhile, people of colour, whether or not they have a compelling or interesting story arc, are relegated to the side, either ignored or used as a facilitator to help the two white men get together, or acting as a side character who has no life outside their connection to the white man.

sound familiar, fandoms?

i’m not telling you that you have to like characters of colour. i’m not saying that if you don’t like yennefer, you’re racist. i can’t make you like them, and it would be wrong of me to make you. but i am imploring that you examine and evaluate your preferences, and see if you have any unconscious prejudices and biases that you might not have noticed before, and become aware of them and how your prejudices might affect the way you treat others, the way you engage with fandom content.

then maybe - maybe, poc like me won’t feel so unwelcome in fandom. we all recognise that representation is important, and the fact that characters of colour are so often pushed aside in fandom tells us that you want to push people like us aside. it tells us that, because of your internal biases, you prefer white men over us, and for me? it makes me feel unwelcome, sometimes, the way i see characters like yennefer and triss and fringilla ignored or dismissed in favour of geralt and jaskier and the wolves.

and i get that people have preferences! i too enjoy writing and reading about geralt and jaskier. but sometimes i bring up yennefer or triss or fringilla and i simply get talked over - this really doesn’t make me feel welcome, and though i can’t speak for every poc in this fandom, i can imagine that at least a few of us feel the same way. 

geraskier is still one of my favourite ships, but i’ve noticed that i tend to gravitate towards white mlm ships, and i wonder - what does that say about me and my internalised prejudices? what can i do to improve and evaluate myself?

not liking yennefer or other characters of colour doesn’t automatically make you racist. you don’t have to like them in order to not be racist. i’m merely asking that you be conscientious of your preferences, and be mindful of how you engage with fandom especially regarding characters of colour. 

consider whether you hold characters of colour to a different standard than a white character - if a character of colour were white, would you dismiss them in the same way? would you demonise them for their flaws? 

consider how you write and interpret characters of colour. do you fall into harmful stereotypes? do you use characters of colour to uplift white characters, and do characters of colour only have significance in relation to white characters?

consider how you treat fans of colour. do you listen to us when we express our concerns, or do you talk over us and try to speak for us, rather than amplifying our voices? consider your white privilege, because there are parts of fandom that impact on real life. 

there is so much more i want to talk about, so much more i could talk about in this post (going into women of colour specifically), but the post would become far, far too long, and i’ve answered quite a few asks regarding this issue, so do check them out if you’re interested in knowing more about my take on different issues regarding fandom racism. 

(and here’s an ask where i link several posts about fandom racism in the witcher fandom, and in fandom in general)

feel free to send me asks or dm me about this! this is just my take on things and i’m speaking from my limited experience, so i might not be the best equipped to talk about this. i’m open to discussion, i’m still learning and developing my views on this, so please do talk to me if you find an issue with what i’m talking about or want clarification on anything<3

[azozzoni]

How do you feel about the whole treatment of skam españa and crisana like do you think people are right to voice their concerns about the mlm fetish in the fandom or do you think the reason crisana isn't as popular or included as much is for literally any other reason I'm interested to hear you thoughts because I've only just got into skam through crisana and lots of people I follow mention it and I really love your ships and writing so I wanted to ask your perspective

I’ve been trying to think how to answer this because I don’t like to get in the middle of the fandom squabbles and I have a habit of saying the wrong thing all the time.

First of all, everyone has a right to voice their concerns about anything. Everyone has opinions and should be able to express them without being attacked. That does not mean everyone’s opinions are right or good. 

As it relates to mlm fetishization, I think there is a special kind of ‘social justice’ that has taken over Tumblr since 2012 where the world is black and white. Where is the line between appreciating a couple and turning it into a fetish? According to some people, you can’t like a mlm couple if you are a woman or straight or... any number of other reasons. It is fully justifiable to point out that there are people who treat mlm couples as a fetish. And it is also good to question why you like a particular couple, to question if you are treating them a certain way when you wouldn’t treat a wlw couple the same.

Now, that’s not to say that preferring mlm over wlw makes you a fetishist. People have preferences. They like what they like with no rhyme or reason (I’m getting to the rest of your question, I promise). I’m going to fully admit that I have not watched s2 of Espana yet. It was airing at the same time as another remake and I have a hard time doing two at once. I think one could argue that it’s not as popular because it’s about two women. The default in the world is still white males. It takes a long time for defaults to change.

(this is where I’m going to get controversial)

As to Crisana not being included, I’m going to say that I think it’s total bullshit. Even if you hate a remake (Italia gets a lot of hate-some deserved, some not. Druck also gets left out a lot), if you’re doing a gifset of all the remakes, they should all be included. I realize gif-makers are creators, and as creators, we have control and the ability to pick and choose. But it always seems unfair and petty to leave out a particular couple because you didn’t like that version or whatever. They are part of the SKAM family, like it or not, and their season means something to someone. 

I’m not trying to tell people what they can or can’t do when it comes to their own creation. In the end, it’s your content. There are characters I choose not to include in my fics because I don’t like them as much. I’ve been in fandom for a very long time, and I’ve seen the arguments go round and round. Back in the day, it was how girlfriends of band members were villainized in fic, or how everyone hated Ginny because she “got in the way” of Harry and Draco. I’ve seen it all. I’ve also played into the tropes when I was younger, less mature, less educated. 

I don’t know how old most of the skam fandom is, but I assume mid-teens to early 20s. I knew nothing when I was that age, and luckily tumblr was not around until I was, like, 21 so I can’t even imagine being bombarded with all the messages now about how liking anything problematic means you’re a terrible person. It is hard to process even now, trying to figure out what is okay and what’s not--can you enjoy something problematic? I say yes, as long as you acknowledge the problems. Nothing is 100% perfect. If you only allowed yourself to like perfect things, you would have nothing to watch, nothing to read, no friends.

It is so difficult trying to figure yourself out, examining why you like things, especially when strangers on the internet are saying that liking (or not liking in the case of Crisana) something makes you a bad person. The world is not as simple as that.

I think I’ve gotten off-topic. But I hope I answered your question? These are, of course, all my own opinions, which I should be able to state here, on my own blog. I tend not to give my opinion on tumblr for fear of the backlash that inevitably comes. I am not an authority on anything and I don’t like conflict. I see both sides of this problem and don’t have a solution. Just try to keep in mind that while some arguments will have merit, they may not be 100% right. You have to form your own opinions and try to be fair in your judgements.