#Hetalia Fandom Historical Revisionism

[chocobox]

not over seeing someone call iggy an "ugly red flag nickname that only people fetishizing colonization use" baby you know that's like . just what japanese fans call him right. like to this day

[irithnova]

....about that post going around again saying "hetalia isn't real sweaty :))" yeah dipshit anyone with a fucking brain cell knows that hetalia is not real but this take is one dimensional and incredibly tone deaf considering the nature of this fandom.

Having the liberty to participate in a fandom and create content does not absolve you from criticism; Freedom to be creative within a fandom is not freedom from tactfulness or good judgement. Especially within a country personification fandom.

You can cry "hetalia isn't real" all you want in order to deflect and belittle people who have to deal with discrimination by people in the fandom but it's very telling that these sort of posts usually come from people who's nations aren't targeted when it comes to this sort of crap.

Hetalia isn't real, so you can draw racist caricatures and write racist fanfics? Hetalia isn't real, so you can romanticise colonisation? Hetalia isn't real, so you can participate in historical revisionism? Hetalia isn't real, so you can excuse imperialism?

Maybe you can aim your "hetalia isn't real :))" garbage at people who blorbify the likes of Japan and Russia and America so much that they excuse actual Japanese, Russian, and American imperialism. Maybe you can aim your "hetalia isn't real" horseshit at people who use hetalia to showcase their prejudiced biases at certain groups.

If you think I'm joking, I've seen a certified Russia blorbifier post something saying "Go Ivan!" in regards to a news article about the invasion of Ukraine. I've seen people say that Japanese imperialism wasn't that bad because they blorbify Japan so much (Filipino here, if you think that please go fuck yourself!) I've seen people who criticise American imperialism get called vatniks/Russian agents by people who blorbify hetalia America.

Instead of telling people who are tired of dealing with this shit that they should get over it because hetalia isn't real, maybe go and tell the historical revisionists, imperialism apologists and downright racists to keep their trash out of the fandom, because you know. Hetalia isn't real.

[clockworkspider]

I see a lot of people really regretting Hetalia and I understand the many problems with both the canon and the fandom. Like it's just impossible to not have racism when the premise is to make personifications based on cultural stereotypes.

But it was also one of the most beautiful fandoms I have seen. People were genuinely interested in learning about different cultures and history and it also gave people a forum to connect with and talk about their own culture and history.

It allowed people to really wrestle with the concept of national identity. Is a nation represented by its culture, its people, or its government? When a country turns against its own citizens which side does the personifications stand on? When a culture shift/modernizes under globalisation how do you distill that in a single character. I still remember a comic about Tiananmen Square posted on June 4th, with Wang Yao standing amongst the students.

And God there were so many discourse over historical revisionism. But that was a symptom not the disease. The historical revisionism exist due to different education and different perspectives, and I for one did encounter a lot of views (particularly about Hong Kong repatriation) in the Hetalia fandom that I wouldn't have otherwise. (I knew friends from Hong Kong, but talking about politics irl is very stressful.)

Like... Just... As someone who grew up with a lot of my own nation's history denied to me, the Hetalia fandom kinda blew my mind.

I think most of what drove hetalia fandom was intense xenophilia, and a lot of love and curiosity. And I just can't think of that, overall, as cringe.