#[ AND TOO OFTEN... the argument is that 'oh white people don't experience racism!' ]

[causalitylinked]

Honestly, despite being Caucasian, I feel like in more modern-esque settings, Fiorito doesn’t exactly have ‘white privilege’, if only due to the fact that similarly to Yngwie who is also white, she is very POC passing; in fact, I get the sense people would often mistake her to be Brazillian or something. And considering even as a young child, Fiorito wasn’t canonically shown to have paler skin, I’m inclined to believe it’s less that she’s tanned and more that she was just born, having more melanin than the average person.

Either way, with how I can picture people generally concluding she’s ‘exotic’ looking, I cannot, for the life of me, imagine anybody calling her a ‘cracker’. Why, it seriously seems far likelier for someone to throw racial slurs Fiorito’s way or treat her as though she’s black... yet regardless, she’s in the unique position where she’s simultaneously white yet can still sympathize with other POC folk, due to the fact she has experienced Anti-black racism before.

To that end, I think modern verse wise, Fiorito never manages to feel a true sense of belonging in either the white or black community... because as much as she relates to the latter, she just doesn’t fit their racial demographic or share their culture, to the point where she can’t help but view herself as a ‘sham’, while with fellow white people, they discriminate against her so much, she never felt like she was ‘one of them’ either.

Granted, her race doesn’t exactly play a huge part in her identity and she still happens to love her body/take pride in the way she looks, but she also was never around someone else who looked like her except maybe her father... so there is still this odd alienation/isolation she feels from society, especially because lighter skin is considered to be the most beautiful and darker-skinned white people are rarely ever represented in media.

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

Okay, if it's too much, don't answer that's fine. I'm not American and I've read so many different things about the political stuff that's going down over there, some saying Biden is the same as Trump, some say he's even better than Bernie. I got not clue how to sort that Joe Biden guy, sooo... Could you help us non Americans out a little? So far it's just looking like everyone is standing around a dumpster fire, shouting stuff that's not really comprehensible

Jesus Christ this was something to wake up to this morning. I’m gonna be honest, it’s not my job to educate you or anyone else on this matter, you’re all adults (supposedly, I’m doubtful about a lot of you) and Google exists. But I also understand that it can be intimidating to dive into the wide world of the internet and it feels easier to ask someone you trust or feel that you know, so I’ll do my best to be concise and explain.

Everyone is standing around a dumpster fire shouting stuff that’s not comprehensible because people, my darling, are idiots.

“No, Mads, people aren’t idiots!” A person is not an idiot. But people are. Put us in a group and we’ll happily self destruct in the most spectacular fashion possible.

Biden is nowhere near the same as Trump, people just live in an echo chamber and refuse to look at the facts. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how awful Trump is. It baffles me that people are saying Biden, who happily supported Barack Obama and played second fiddle to him for eight years, is the same as the man who’s putting children in cages.

Here is a breakdown of Biden’s policy plans should he be elected. Very different from Trump’s, as you can see. To quote this post here:

“It's important to be critical of political figures, especially during a primary election. Joe Biden has been in politics for a very long time, and his record is by no means spotless. There's lots to criticize, politically and personally. But having Biden in the big chair instead of Trump changes the entire game.

Look at it this way: if Joe Biden wins, a democratic Congress gets a clear path to passing real, lasting progressive laws. If Joe Biden wins, Ruth Bader Ginsburg gets to retire, and be replaced by a young firebrand who will make Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh's lives a living hell for the next 40 years. If Joe Biden wins, all of the horrible executive orders Trump has enacted are gone, on day one: family seperation, abortion bans in VA hospitals, EPA funding gutted, global warming denial in NOAA, removal of LGBT+ protections, all GONE in January 2021. If Joe Biden wins, all the Trump shills in the government disappear: I'm talking about new people in the CPB, the Justice Department, the FTC, and everything other federal agency. With Biden instead of Trump, we're going to be fighting for Medicare for All vs. Obamacare, instead of Keeping Obamacare vs. Stripping Away Any Kind of Federal Insurance. We're going to be fighting for the Green New Deal vs. Having a Functional EPA, instead of Gutting The EPA or Having No EPA At All. The fight is way different, and we get to pull the conversation further left - where it belongs.

This election is just as much about getting rid of the Republican stench in the Oval Office as it is electing a particular person. So yeah, be critical of Joe Biden, but please don't lose sight of what President Joe Biden would actually look like versus President Trump.”

People seem to be forgetting that when you vote for president, you are, supposedly, not voting for One Supreme Leader Who Makes All The Decisions Ever. Putting Biden in the Oval Office is more about putting in a man who will pass the laws that a liberal, democratic Congress will put in front of him. A man who will actually listen to his advisors. It’s about putting in someone who won’t appoint a bunch of judges that will screw over everyone for the next, oh, three decades.

I don’t want Biden in office. I wanted Elizabeth Warren, for fuck’s sake. Whose policies were the same as Bernie’s, by the way, for all you bros out there who say you aren’t sexist. The last thing I want is another old white man, for the love of whatever you worship. But the idea that someone who supported and worked under someone like Obama is somehow the same as a Neo-fascist egomaniac is... ridiculous. It’s truly ridiculous. Not that Obama was perfect, far from it, but under his presidency we were making progress on things and my God, I wasn’t scared for the lives of just about everyone I know.

As for Biden versus Sanders, the argument that Biden is better stems from the fact that while Sanders has helped move the party left with his presidential campaigns and he makes pretty speeches, he hasn’t actually done anything in all his time serving as an elected public official. If you actually go and look at his track record, he hasn’t passed many laws or helped enact a whole lot of others. Everyone’s making a big deal about how he “saved millions of lives” with his big speech but actually, sorry kids, politics are not Hollywood and you don’t save the day by making a speech and miraculously everyone votes on something. Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado and Schumer actually talked to people, convinced them on it, and got the votes that secured the unemployment bill being passed, and that’s what saved lives, not someone yelling (no matter how passionate or eloquent their yelling is).

It’s great to yell about how the system is corrupt etc but you have to actually follow those words with actions, and Sanders, historically, is not good about compromising, working with others, reaching out to others, being on a team. And that’s exactly what you need to be able to do in politics to get anything done. There’s an episode of Leverage called “The Gimme a K Job,” where Sophie spends the entire time running back and forth between politicians getting them to compromise and quid pro quo for one another so she can get them to vote on a law. I recommend watching it. The situation is played for laughs, but it’s also brutally honest. You cannot get anything done in politics (or in a lot of things in life) if you aren’t willing to work together and bargain and give some to get some, and Sanders isn’t, and that’s not good.

Now, Sanders has done a lot in his presidential campaign to move the Dem party left and he’s really stirred up younger voters, and those are both good things. If you look at Biden’s policies in the post I linked, you’ll see a lot of them are more liberal than most people expected, and that’s probably because Biden and his team saw everyone supporting Sanders’ policies and went, “oh, okay, this is what the people want.” Which already shows that Biden is willing to listen to the people more than Trump and his party are.

And then there’s the more personal side of things. Sanders really left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth because some of his supporters were so extreme in their support of him, to the point of acting like he’s the only person who could possibly save us, when honestly that’s not how democracy (or socialism, frankly) works. The whole idea is that all of us, working together as a movement, are what makes change. The people all standing up together and demanding that lawmakers do this, that, and the other thing. Sanders extremists, known as “Bernie Bros,” acting like Sanders is their One True Savior has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. In my experience, people don’t like being shouted at and told they’re idiots. And in my experience, one single person isn’t going to save you. And nobody’s perfect so furthermore acting like someone is perfect is only going to annoy everyone else around you and set you up for disappointment down the line.

There are a lot of people out there feeling attacked by Sanders supporters, and so frankly, they’re glad to see the back of him and throw support behind Biden, because they’re just sick of dealing with his extremist followers.

If you want to tear the system down completely then gold star to you, but the fact is otherwise you have to work within the system to change it. And I don’t see any of these people yelling on the internet actually doing the work to organize a revolution. It’s fun to yell about your opinions, it helps you feel better, it helps you feel powerful and heard. But the real work is done in volunteering, in protesting, in running for local offices, in doing research and then voting for your mayor, your governor, your senator, your state representative. Those people, as the COVID-19 epidemic is proving, actually often have more direct power to help or harm you than the President does.

People have more power than they think, but they’re just refusing to use it, and they’re refusing to think critically and to do research on the policies of candidates. I’ve seen people calling Biden a “serial rapist,” for crying out loud, which, whether he assaulted a woman or not, is not true. That’s like if I killed one person and suddenly everyone was calling me a mass murderer. People like to exaggerate, to bloviate, and to think in black and white. It’s disappointing, but true.

One final thought, for both you and actual Americans: look at how non-Americans are viewing the United States election. We are not the center of the universe (although we like to pretend we are) but we do have a huge impact on the global stage, and other countries are begging us to elect someone other than Trump. You want to claim we’re not the stereotype of the selfish, self-centered American? Than put your money where your mouth is and look at the non-Americans who are asking us to please, please, please elect someone else. Do it for them, if nothing else. The world is bigger than just us.

Biden isn’t perfect. One could argue one way or another on the Sanders v. Biden debate. It really depends on your personal opinion. But when it comes to Trump v. Biden, it really shouldn’t be rocket science. One of them has allowed racism, sexism, and xenophobia to thrive. He’s literally responsible for thousands of deaths (and counting) through his mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic. He’s backed us out of the planet-saving environmental agreement that everyone else agreed to. He’s enabled corrupt, selfish politicians to have their way. He would appoint judges that will strike down everything from refugees to abortion rights. He’s destroyed our international relations, nearly started a war, and I actually don’t think he knows how to read.

And his name’s Trump.

That’s the difference.

[freedom-of-fanfic]

I've been reading through your blog, and while I don't agree with everything I think you make some good points. One question though, I can't really wrap my head around the "fiction has no bearing on reality" argument? if fiction is 100% divorced from reality, then why bother critiquing racism/misogyny/etc in media? it's generally agreed that unquestioned depictions of bigotry is bad, so why doesn't that hold true for unquestioningly portraying, say, a 15yo and a 30yo in a relationship as good?

I don’t think I’ve ever argued that fiction has no bearing on reality. in fact, I can’t think of any instances of seeing an ‘anti-anti’ or ‘pro-shipper’ discourse blog argue that fiction and reality have no relationship whatsoever. I’d disagree with anyone who asserted that, because it’s plainly evident that’s untrue.

What I usually say about the relationship between fiction and reality is one of these two statements:

fiction does not have a 1:1 affect on reality. meaning: humans don’t just blindly accept what popular fiction (such as mainstream media) tells them as truth, or assume that what happens in fiction is 100% safe to imitate irl. our cultural and individual absorption of the messages in a work of fiction are complicated and colored by our life experience, existing culture cues, and more. (x)(x)

reality affects fiction affects reality. meaning: works of fiction are often inspired by real life. if a work of fiction is popular enough/viewed widely enough (such as mainstream media), its messages are assimilated and filtered and absorbed into culture, affecting people in real life. reality and fiction are connected by a complicated ecosystem of ideas, culture, assumptions, lifestyles, upbringing, etc., and fiction is rarely the sole originator of a bad or dangerous idea. (more likely it’s highlighting - on purpose or on accident - a cultural assumption that went mostly hidden before.)* (x)(x)

Regarding the examples of how fiction can have an effect on reality in your ask:

it’s a matter of scale.

let’s take a moment to remember that anti-shippers who assert that fiction is harming people irl are generally using that argument against transformative fanworks, not big-scale MCU-level productions or bestselling book series.

transformative fandom is, on the scale of things, a very small place with a strong culture of tagging/warning for potentially squicky/triggering/kinky/etc content and populated primarily by marginalized people who are not likely to be tomorrow’s movers and shakers when pitted against rich (white, straight) cis men. for that reason, our ‘problematic’ works are more likely to be products of societal issues, not the cause of those societal issues. (we tend to take pop culture/the works that we’re fans of and use our creations like funhouse mirrors to problematic society - not necessarily better, but often different.)

my blog deals with allowing fans - mostly small-time creators making little or no profit off their work and rarely more than a few thousand people in their audience - to be allowed to create their small time fanworks without restriction and just make sure the content is warned for when put out in spaces with mixed audiences. that doesn’t mean ‘don’t point out racist tropes in a fanwork’, but it does mean ‘don’t treat the fanwork creator like they’re the source of all racism when you point it out’. scale your critique to the situation. (x)(x)

take care not to compare apples to oranges.

to be honest: I don’t think comparing a mainstream media depiction of casual bigotry to a mainstream media depiction of a sexual relationship between a(n implied innocent kid) 15yo and a(n implied predator) 30yo is very valuable. 

Why? because we already socially condemn sexual relationships that have even a whiff of pedophilia/taking advantage of the sexually innocent. (that’s why people who take sexual advantage of underage people try to paint those underage people as sexually aware - because (disgustingly) it’s the lack of innocence that makes a victim of a sex crime ‘fair game’.) and if a person is tagged as sexually harming kids/anyone too young to be ready to consent? they’re scum.** we have no mercy.

bigotry that goes unchallenged is a lot more widely ingrained. people with race privilege don’t notice racism. cis men don’t notice sexism. etc. it has to be super blatant for them to go ‘oh, that’s bigotry.’

a mainstream media 30yo/15yo depiction that’s remotely realistic? that 30yo character will be tagged as a creep. we’ll all hate the 30yo together, probably.

a mainstream media depiction of bigotry that’s remotely realistic? will fly under the radar of viewers who aren’t personally affected by it, and hurt those who are.

as broad examples I call these apples and oranges (they’re so broad it would be easy to bring them together as well), but the point is this: 

let’s stop comparing fictional depictions of sexual/romantic relationships and how ‘healthy’ they are irl to racism/sexism/queerphobia in fictional works - especially fanworks. They’re not the same thing. (and I’m tired of people using racism/bigotry as a subexample to prove why we need to be so careful with our sexy fanfic being ‘sexually healthy’, ugh.)

tl;dr: remember that fiction - perhaps especially fanfiction - and indeed, all of fandom, doesn’t spring into existence in a vacuum. we all are cooking in this cultural pot, and we need to examine fiction and reality with that in mind.

*so if a work of fiction strikes you as carrying a dangerous or immoral message, it’s worth asking yourself which came first: a cultural message (you may not have ever noticed) or fiction about the message?

**there’s a reason antis try to get everyone they hate labeled as a pedophile.