#my post about the crew calling stomach bugs “izzies” was not supposed to be cute and heartwarming it was supposed to be funny

[jellybeanium124]

I saw the post you're talking about, and I think it's endemic of something I see a lot in the canyon, but isn't exclusive to the canyon and is generally a wider online fandom... thing. And it's something everyone does in small, healthier degrees.

Here's the thing: op of the post claims to have those specific gastrointestinal issues. And I am sorry they have to suffer with that (lord knows I've experienced some truly awful stomach pain that stuck around long enough to be considered chronic, and I wouldn't wish that on anyone). I am not trying to make fun of them, a real human being with real feelings and physical issues, at all. All I'm saying is is that this specific post is an example of how a lot of people in the canyon have tied their own self identities into izzy.

I think those of us outside the canyon are too quick to go "lol those canyoners identifying and resonating with izzy lol?? are they saying they are abusive and unpleasant lol??" but that isn't their perspective at all. one thing I've mentioned recently is how much of a black box izzy is. we don't know that much about him. we know nothing about his past, and we only have clues to his internal world. so people project parts of themselves that can sort of line up with izzy if you squint, onto him, and after 2 years of fandom and all the *gestures at everything* people have grown very, very attached to him. why haven't canyoners who hate s2 left yet? because they still have a strong emotional attachment to izzy, and he brings them joy (and, oftentimes, there are other characters in the show they still like too).

And when you've latched onto this guy so hard, and projected the most vulnerable parts of yourself onto him (especially mental and physical disabilities), then someone joking about those traits with izzy feels like someone joking about you.

there is no one, cohesive canyon!izzy. canyon!izzy is whatever the specific canyoner needs him to be. if a canyoner has autism, their izzy has autism. if a canyoner had abusive parents, their izzy has abusive parents. if they have chronic pain, their izzy has chronic pan. and so on.

I mean we all do this, to a certain extent. me and my jewish friends love jewish!ed because we are jewish. a lot of us love autistic!stede and audhd!ed because a lot of us have one or both of those things. I think ed has strong opinions about mini m&ms being the best type of m&m because I know he has a sweet tooth (trait mentioned once, which is how I connected ed with candy in the first place) and I think mini m&ms are the best m&ms (trait that has absolutely no canon support, and is just me projecting onto him). we blow up "a dollop of milk and seven sugars" into a consistently remarked upon character trait for ed. they blow up "izzy the spewer" into serious stomach issues. these are both one-off traits that are not meant to be that deep or thought about this much. the difference lies in the tone and seriousness.

izzy is tragic. you can disagree with me on that, but the canyon 1000% sees him as a tragic figure, and I'm trying to get across what I've gleaned is the canyon perspective here lol. so while we tend to give ourselves to stede and ed and the others with a sense of joy, canyoners tend to give themselves to izzy with a sense of sadness and vulnerability. people are hurt, and the world is hard, and projecting onto this guy makes them happy, so when others joke about traits they relate to deeply, they get, from their perspective, very justifiably upset.

I'm not trying to like... convince y'all to change your opinion about the canyon, or anything? like I don't like that group either otherwise I would... be there instead of here?? y'know? ok like basically the point of my response isn't to try and get the emotional reaction of "oh those poor damaged canyoners 🥺!!!" like nah. no. that's infantilizing and reductive. they're grown adults. my point was to show how I think we got to this point where people take any sort of criticism or joking around izzy so personally. we all know that canyon!izzy is not really all that similar to canon!izzy, and I think these two trends have the same cause. it's because canyoners have projected so much onto him, and given so much of themselves to him.

guys the point of "izzy the spewer" is not that izzy suffers from chronic digestive issues. there is no evidence of that except that he had tummy problems this one time. the point of it is "guy who thinks he is the best pirate and should be in charge of other pirates gets seasick, which is funny because it means he immediately failed in a super obvious way at doing perhaps the single most basic pirate thing"

you could argue that's ableist if you want to take the stance that playing a character's incompetence for laughs is always inherently ableist, but if that's your stance i'd expect you to have a bigger problem with the show's portrayal of stede than of izzy, because stede's incompetence and physical clumsiness and overestimation of his own abilities is played for laughs all the time