#you missed the point of marvel if you're bigoted and hateful

[nihtscada]

spiderman fans are either sweet as hell or just disgusting??

during the spiderverse popularity someone made a plus size spidersona and the comments were disgusting and saying there's no way she could be spiderman

meanwhile we have fucking dinosaurs and a monkey with webshooters, A CAR THAT IS SPIDERMAN.

what would Stan Lee say?😕

[weaselbeaselpants]

Deepest apologies to OP as their baseline argument is true and I think a general rule to follow. Real, actual people > fictional blorbos and the feelings you attach onto them. Good. Good post.

But man oh man the replies...I'm sorry but this got me going on both sides of the "accept media criticism/stop using criticism as absolutism" thing.

Just a lot of assuming no media literacy for every situation ever whenever someone gets heated about media and how people react to it.

I'm gonna just leave out that "never trust someone who tells you to police ur thoughts thing and simply reply with this convo from the otherside of that coin to explain how "kill the cop in your head" is a bad mandate to sign onto, especially for people who are suseptible to being taken advantage of.

((tbf, I don't completely agree w this argument either. before you say anything the artist replying here is an nsfw artist tho))

I'm more hopped up on the 'classic' "why are you reading/watching/listening to this thing if it bothers you" claim. Like, NO DUH if I'm reading Lolita or some shit and getting disturbed that's on me hun ur right. OBVIOUSLY, fiction and media is meant to make you feel uncomfortable sometimes or challenge you somehow. What you're missing is the fact that I AM just sticking to my fandoms and comfortzones and my problem is when sinister shit is being said and done in front of me, it's being ignored because of these excuses. I've had this problem since my Brony days. It's NOT that any kind of fictional act = bad/endorsing irl bad behavior. Or at least, it shouldn't be that way in media comprehension. It's that other people within these spaces are using these arguments to get away with their own bad behavior that may be predatory and/or bigoted...and the rest of the community aren't willing to stand up to it because they think stating the obvious is a "call out" on them as a whole.

Again, sorry OP. Again, your statement is correct about fictional characters should not mean more than real people. In the sense of judging other people's fantastes and being "traumatized" cuz someone hated on their blorbo which means they 'endorse abuse' or some shit, yeah that tracks. My issue is how this attitude is extended beyond to just any kind of fandom interaction and media analysis EVER, and how any attempt to be critical of harmful behavior MUST be an attempt at policing others, and not, you know, saying that something makes you uncomfortable on your own damn blog on your own damn time.

Looking at Lolita again, there you have a fictional story that is meant to make you think and consider real life situations; and which has unfortunately been used by people reading it who don't get the point to abuse real-life people --most media, even stuff that's meant to be constructed but still enojoyed (Avatar, Disney, Marvel and DC) isn't anywhere near that extreme and media literacy is being used to bully other people into submission, or ''cop'', their personal wants.

---

I'm sorry to people reading this and trying to make sense of my word salad clippings. I'm just really put off by the unironic use of "purity", "police" and "pedophile" to refer to people bullying others about fandom. Bullying sucks. It's not fair to do even if you have a reason to be mad. But at best, ur conflating your fan-tiffs of small potatoes with some really dangerous shit.

Annoying Anti whining about how Reylo destroyed their life because reasons =/= purity culture and puritans

Someone shipping aged-up characters or adults with age gaps/uneven dynamics =/= pedophile

Someone telling you to think of other people in your fandom who aren't you =/= policing your thoughts or the thoughts of others.

I feel like you'll know for sure when those things happen and when someone if honestly using purity, predatory or police tactics to shut up/keep others in line. I feel like this bitching that I'm now taking part in is just keeping us fighting rather than actually calling out the nasties around us who are getting away with their heinous shit with our own in-context reasonable alibis....and I'm tired. Tired of other hurt people putting up walls of DNI to protect their emotional selves but obstensibly lash out at other people while they do so. Tired of conflating people you dislike with legit people. Tired.

I will say though, I think the og point can be a "rules for thee but not for me"-thing. Like, no shit people will value fictional characters and the emotions grafted to them over people they don't know. That's what happens when fandoms have this "x character is me"-view on representation and kinning ur fav. That's something literally everyone does ever. You can be removed from it and practical and point out that these aren't real people, but it's impossible to completely remove urself from that mindset.

There's no B-all end-all argument to all of this, only to certain ethics which we then try to apply to this discussion.

I really think everyone needs to truly internalize this:

Fictional characters are objects.

They are not people. You cannot "objectify" them, because they have no personhood to be deprived of. They have no humanity to be erased. You cannot "disrespect" them, because they are not real.