#media literacy it’s a thing

[macdenlover]

it came to my realization that 99% of my fandom related headaches would be cured if everyone understood this

[mysticaltora8276]

As someone who’s actually paid attention to that show, I have one thing to say. Clearly, they did not watch that show because the Jedi were shown to be right. And answer for the “kidnapping children.” Literally the show made it clear that the Jedi team in question overstepped their boundaries and because they overstepped their boundaries everything went wrong. And the sadness of the entire tragedy was one of the coven was actually willing to give the child up to the Jedi, and she had convinced the others to let that happen. But because of their faults and fallacies, they made themselves act irrationally. And note it wasn’t the Jedi order has a whole that was blamed for but those individuals. And incidentally, the Sith are still shown to be the bad guys. And I get the feeling in season two a certain master is going to pop up because he sort of was watching the entire thing from a distance in the shadow as per usual he is the evil master ride after all.

Hey, remember how I've been writing pro-Jedi posts here and on Quora since about 2020 and how there's awesome blogs on this site that have been doing it for even waaaaay longer?

And like, all these pro-Jedi meta accounts and posts were really a minority in a fandom that, for a while, had kept repeating the same "ACSHUALLY, the Jedi are the bad guys if you think about it!" line?

Until The Acolyte began to be marketed as a story seen from the Sith's POV, where the Jedi would be antagonistic... and suddenly a buncha people came out of the woodwork saying "the Jedi were the good guys!"

Remember how I previously said that this all felt to me as if this was all really just a big chunk of Star Wars fans going "ewwww girls"?

I stand by it.

Edit: AND it's really frustrating. Because now the counter-arguments are stuff that I know and can demonstate is factually incorrect...

... but so if I say anything, I'll get thrown into the mix with the "ewww girls" crowd. Fuck's sake.

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

I love how on Tumblr, "media literacy" has become "Um, just because someone writes about this doesn't mean they're endorsing this. I hate all these media puritans ruining everything."

I'm sad to inform you that knowing when and whether an author is endorsing something, implying something, saying something, is also part of media literacy. Knowing when they are doing this and when they're not is part of media literacy. Assuming that no author has ever endorsed a bad thing is how you fall for proper gander. It's not media literacy to always assume that nobody ever has agreed with the morally reprehensible ideas in their work.

Sometimes, authors are endorsing something, and you need to be aware when that happens, and you also need to be aware when you're doing it as an author. All media isn't horny dubcon fanfic where you and the author know it's problematic IRL but you get off to it in the privacy of your brain. Sometimes very smart people can convince you of something that'll hurt others in the real world. Sometimes very dumb people will romanticize something without realizing they're doing it and you'll be caught up in it without realizing that you are.

Being aware of this is also media literacy. Being aware of the narrative tools used to affect your thinking is media literacy. Deciding on your own whether you agree with an author or not is media literacy. Enjoying characters doing bad things and allowing authors to create flawed or cruel characters for the sake of a story is perfectly fine, but it is not the same as being media literate. Being smug about how you never think an author has bad intentions tells me you're edgy, not that you're media literate. You can't use one rule to apply to all media. That's not how media literacy works. Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Aheem heem. Anyway.

[isawthismeme]

[to-be-a-dreamer]

I can’t stand that TikTok trend that’s like “just saw Hadestown and my boyfriend is walking the entire way back to the hotel without looking back at me to prove Orpheus was a chump” because not only do they not get the whole point of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth they also Were Not Paying Attention to the musical they just saw.

Hate people who see WSS as “just a Romeo and Juliet retelling”. Hate people who see Hadestown as “Just an Orpheus and Eurydice retelling”.

Hate people who watch a musical that takes a classic story everyone knows and uses it to explore/critique our modern society and only see it as a funky retelling.

Not Getting The Point of WSS is one thing because it’s more subtle and it can be really easy to just see it as a modern R&J, especially if you don’t really know R&J.

How the fuck do you watch Hadestown and see it as just an O&E retelling? It is one of the most heavy-handed political musicals out there how are so many people missing the point?

Orpheus has to fail. Not because that’s how the Greek myth ends but because that’s the whole point of the message of Hadestown.

Social reform is hard. Changing the world is one of the most challenging things you can try to do. So often we see people try to make a difference in society, to change some kind of injustice in the world. And so often we see those people fail. It can feel so impossible to actually do some good in this fucked up world because we see these people who are smarter and stronger and more qualified than us fail over and over again.

Why do we even keep trying?

Because we have to.

Because one day, someone will try and they’ll succeed.

One day Orpheus won’t turn around.

One day the people of Hadestown will get to see someone escape and they’ll know they can escape too. Only then does the world get to change.

So we have to try. We have to keep singing the sad song, no matter how many times Orpheus turns around, because one day he won’t.

In the Greek myth, Orpheus fails because he loves Eurydice.

In Hadestown, Orpheus fails because we fail.

We try and we fail to make a difference. We try and we fail to change the world for the better. We try to see the world for what it could be and it keeps letting us down.

But we don’t give up. We don’t stop singing.

Hadestown is genuinely one of the best musicals ever. Full stop. This musical is one of the reasons i wish I was smarter because I would love to be able to do an entire thesis on this show and all the themes and messages in it. Some of them are subtle. Some of them aren’t.

It is not just an Orpheus and Eurydice retelling. I am begging people to hear the real message.

Never stop trying to change the world.

One day we’ll make it out of Hadestown.

We just have to keep singing the song.

[misstressviole]

"Alicunt Hightower experiencing misogyny coming coming back on her for the first time" is a wild thing to say about a child bride rape victim. "When you join team misogyny and their policies apply to you too" JOINED? Honey she birthed them by force.

[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

[sinclairstarz]

“mike is so dumbb lol rocks for brains nothing going up there stupid silly gay boy!!!” SHHHUTT UPPP OMG DID WE WATCH THE SAME SHOW… THE WHOLE POINT IS THE WHOLE PARTY IS SMART!!! THEYRE ALL LITTLE SCIENCE NERDS!!!!!! MIKE HAS BEEN SO SMART FROM THE BEGINNING HE WAS FIGURING SHIT OUT!!!!! HE A LIL CONFUSED EMOTIONALLY OK BUT HE IS SO SMART!!!

bring back nerd mike s5

[shadelorde]

Guys. Aaravos didn’t choose to sacrifice his child. What the fuck. Literally one of the first things he said was “take my life instead.” It was not him who sacrificed Leola. And choosing to live wasn’t an inherently evil act, and idk I find it a little weird that some of y’all are already saying that, as someone who has had a sibling die and watched the impact it had on my parents!!

[bellejolras]

i don’t mean to go on a rant but I’ve been reading reviews of Poor Things bc i hate being happy and ohhhh my goddddd

spoilers under the cut but I have complaints about people’s (lack of) media literacy

Oh my god okay so first of all, if you haven’t seen a movie how are you going to comment on it. Reading summaries and other people’s reviews only is not sufficient to make an original point. you do not know what you’re talking about. just stop.

Second, the movie is. satirical. Which I thought was obvious from the absurd premise and surreal visuals? This is not supposed to be the real world. Nor is it advocating for all the stuff it shows. In fact, it’s even actively indicting some of what it shows. For example: fucked up power dynamics in sexual relationships exist in the movie, but the movie is not saying they are good, it’s criticizing them. Is this not getting through to people?

Third, and related, it’s not ! just ! about ! a sexy baby !! Partly because again, satire. But also partly because she rapidly goes through childhood & adolescent maturity. And it’s not meant to be, like, linear… the regular laws of empirical data and science do not apply to this world… so she is not in fact, like 6 when she’s having sex but more like 16. Which you could argue is still a minor, and im not disputing that, because again the movie is critical of this part and duncan is a total loser. But there’s a massive difference between the mental development of those two ages. ALSO there’s literally nothing inherently wrong with baby bella autonomously discovering masturbation. That’s extremely normal for little kids, often just as a way of self-soothing because it feels nice and not with any awareness of sexuality. And it’s fine if you thought that was a weird scene! but it’s hardly pedophilia to include in the film when the “baby” in question is in fact played by fully grown adult emma stone and I cannot believe that I’m seeing people accuse this movie of that

Fourth, if you claim your takeaway from this movie is “it wants me to believe that women’s power only exists through their sexuality” then I don’t believe you’ve seen the entire movie (see point 1). Narratively it’s only a means to an end for Bella, and when she gets tired of it, she stops! She gets bored of duncan and reads philosophy! She leaves her sex work career and becomes a medical professional! And, even in the sex scenes, while there are many, they center her and her experience, her pleasure. Yes, her tits are out a lot but the sex scenes are weird, intentionally grotesque without being violent. The montage with duncan is shot through a fisheye lens and literally pans away from the bed to focus on a bird landing in the room. Duncan can proclaim himself the best lover in the world, but he’s really not important to the scene ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In conclusion, I know the people I’m complaining about aren’t going to read this, but just in case, I urge you to learn media literacy. And anyone else who read all of this, thanks lol!! accepting good faith discourse in the notes/replies

[sallushka]

Priorities.

[arihi]

Feeling unsafe is not the same as being unsafe and people are unable to distinguish between the two - you always have a right to be safe, but you do not necessarily have the right to always feel safe. This is an underlying theme in a lot of issues, like judging others' kinks, queerness, race, media analysis, and more; what the real heart of the problem is is unfamiliarity, things that people do not know and thus shrink away from in fear or disgust or discomfort. It can be a basic instinct to approach change and unfamiliarity with caution, but it needs to be an intentional act to challenge that fear/world view. It is something that we owe to the people around us, and that we owe to ourselves.

[shoot1ngst4r]

dare i say Billy Hargrove?

the misunderstanding of Billy as a character is genuinely my roman empire, it’s been on my mind for years but idk if anyone will wanna listen😭 (i’m open to conversations btw)

[queermikewheelertruther]

TIREDDDD of anti-bylers claiming that bylers dont know how to differentiate platonic friendships from romantic ones but that’s simply not true. like the reason byler has SO many more fans than say henclair, is because they have CANON romantic undertones in their moments together.

you dont see people making hour long analysis videos on madwheeler or hopclair because there is no evidence to go off of. especially after s4, it IS true that there is proof of byler and implied romance between them, especially because of how big the byler fandom got after 2022.

[courtrecord]

honestly i hate how that “maybe the curtains are just blue” post has become shorthand for anti-intellectualism and shit bc as someone who has an utter passion for media analysis now, I WAS THAT PERSON IN HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH CLASS.

english class never taught me how to analyze stories, it taught me how to remember what things the teacher said were “symbolism” and how to take quizzes where we had to match a quote to the character who said it. i didn’t give a shit about any of it, bc literally why should i. it was bullshit.

there’s this idea online that people are forgetting or rejecting what they learned in english class when they’re bad at media analysis, and maybe that’s a little bit true, but i think the much bigger problem is they never learned it in the first place. cinemasins & “maybe the curtains are just blue” aren’t convincing people to abandon an intellectualism they already had, they’re filling a void.

when all you learn in high school is to write on the test “blue = depression”, why is it surprising that so many people don’t give a shit about the curtains.