#qpoc bringing up racism in queer spaces: “you're pitting us against each other!!”

[jesncin]

What an incredibly uncharitable reading of what I said. Woof where do I even start.

So the main accusation here is that I'm "attacking another comic". Where did I do that. All I said was that I personally didn't like the comic, and felt uncomfortable about the bigger culture of queer allegory and narrative overshadowing to the point of blatant erasure of racialized identity (please actually read the Sunspot article) in relation to my work and the current direction characters are being reimagined in mainstream media. And let me be clear I never encouraged anyone to attack this artist and will continue to discourage anyone from doing such a thing. Also in the tags I said "you're free to hc any character as trans" so this narrative you're setting up about me being mad that they're not following my exact headcanon doesn't even work to the post you're replying to. This is coming from me, who reimagined Conner Kent as a Black queer teen. since when was I a stickler for canon. Now that these made up elseworld scenarios are dealt with- your other points:

"Someone can be part of multiple marginalized groups" this is the most annoying rebuttal people give me whenever I bring up any kind of intersectional criticism. My recently published graphic novel about a trans Indonesian queer boy going through culture shock makes me rather aware of what it's like to experience intersectional struggles. Who said I was pitting any identities against each other? That's not the issue here. Sunspot and Superman are not characters that are being reimagined as queer in addition to their racialized narratives in canon. "I need you to understand that a marginalized group having representation is Not taking representation away from you." Sunspot's Blackness is being removed in character design, casting, and narrative for a queer coming out allegory. You can not tell me that isn't erasure and pinkwashing in action. Are you sure you wouldn't have a problem telling this to the Black critics who have thoughtfully voiced out this concern?

Fandom has a problem with POC criticism. Especially queer fandom at large. I'm not the only POC who has expressed discomfort over our works being misinterpreted as solely queer when we were discussing race and diaspora identity. But when we bring this up, fandom tells us we have to be grateful that our stuff appeals to queer sensibility. At the expense of our own individuality. How many times have I been told to shut up and be grateful whenever I criticize the racism in MAWS because I should be happy about the gay robot ape couple? Too many times.

"Pinkwashing is not when queer people exist. Pinkwashing is specifically using alleged lgbtq friendliness to distract from other negative aspects of an entity, and it is not queer people’s fault. A Character Being Trans Is Not An Attack On You." What a vague definition of pinkwashing that centers guilt ("not queer people's fault") and is vague about "negative aspects of an entity". So let's bring this to the real world. We're currently in an era where queerness is being weaponized to justify colonization and gentrification. Queerness is seen as the mark of social progress in performative progressive society. Us poor brown countries don't even know what gay is right? We're so uncultured (never mind the queer cultures that the west criminalized in their colonization), and need to be enlightened by the power of western brand queer colonialism. I didn't watch an American lesbian couple promote gentrifying Bali as a queer escapist holiday paradise during the height of the pandemic just to be told other queer people can never be a threat to me. That's just willfully ignoring intersectional identity and privileges other marginalized people can have.

I consider all this in media criticism- pinkwashing being instilled in modern narratives at the expense of racialized narratives. It's a historical pattern we need to be critical of. If your only take away from this is "I hate queer characters and hcs" then you're part of the problem, because you didn't even bother listening and engaging with my points. You can enjoy your trans superman headcanon and silly lil comic. I never you said you couldn't.

0 days since I've been tone policed.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C8UnZtHp4_N/?igsh=MzJwajM5cXd5NDNm

Saw this and immediately thought of your wholesome Superman rework. 🏳️‍⚧️

aaah I'm put in an awkward place when folks send other people's fanart and I...don't like it 😅 like traditionally it's fandom etiquette to just scroll away when you see fanon/fanart you don't like, but when I'm put on the spot like this and have my work directly compared to it...welp.

While it's nice to see more recognition to possible queer readings of marginalized supers, I'm wary of how mainstream queerness has been used to pinkwash adaptations of the more racialized aspects of the character in question. Superman is an allegorical analog for a white-passing Jewish immigrant, but in MAWS those themes are universalized to being just "different". There's a whole episode where Clark's marginalization is likened to that of a gay couple, and how he's forced out of the closet because having boundaries and privacy hurts his friends' feelings. Never once in the show is he likened to immigrants or people of color who experience xenophobia.

I haven't watched X-Men '97, but I do find it troubling that Sunspot- whose very origin involves him experiencing anti-Black violence- has his marginalization likened to just queer struggles. A non-Black actor has yet again been casted to portray him. Just another example of how Sunspot in particular has been gradually getting whitewashed in new takes. It's just with queerness now too.

I think this is why it kind of gets to me when people read my "wholesome" Superman-comic-about-losing-parts-of-yourself-to-xenophobia as a trans allegory. It's like whitewashing via pink kryptonite.