#granted. people run with this WAAAAAAY too far and refuse to look at things in context. and a lot of 'how this concept is presented' | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

musical-chick-13 · 29 days ago

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I just am kind of :/ about the idea that "a poor depiction of [x serious topic] can NEVER be harmful, and NOTHING is inherently better or worse than anything else because ALL art is an EQUAL value of neutral." Because like. Y'all (rightfully) get up in arms about Bury Your Gays. Because that particular story patterns reflects a wider societal issue of queer people being seen as Less Important™ or More Disposable. Obviously you can grasp that sometimes things Come Across Really Badly and it's okay to complain about that.

No, killing off a gay character in a show in a hamfisted and narratively-stupid way isn't the same thing as an actual irl hate crime, that's. Ridiculous. But if, say, a woman hates the way women are portrayed through a shallow, misogynistic lens; or black people hate the way black characters are treated in 90% of mainstream stories; or trans people are tired of seeing so many examples of trans characters being A Punchline; or disabled people see yet another depiction of disabled life as An Unending Torturous Death Sentence That Will Rob Them Of The Ability To Be Happy Forever; or people are tired of graphic violence against marginalized characters that doesn't add anything to the story...they're not Doing Purity Culture for criticizing that? Like. They're allowed to be. Uncomfortable. About that.

#the thing is. looking at how things are portrayed in mainstream fiction can give us a good idea of how society in general feels about #(or POSITIONS itself as feeling about) various topics/issues/types of people.#if people go 'hey this reflects a Negative Societal Trend I would like that to change' then. I feel like that's more than fair???#sometimes works of fiction DO present things like white supremacy or the subjugation of women or eugenics or mistreating #your partner or seeing your children as objects as Good™ things.#granted. people run with this WAAAAAAY too far and refuse to look at things in context. and a lot of 'how this concept is presented'#is VERY subjective. and as always it's possible for something to excel in its handling of one social issue while completely failing in #regard to another. and sometimes something is well-meaning enough that you can make peace with it. but like. please tell me that #you understand the merit of criticizing things that openly espouse and celebrate harmful ideology. because you CAN actually do that in art.#and I'm not like. idk. saying Do Vigilante Justice Over People Who Create Said Art or something. I just want some fucking nuance here.#you ARE allowed to criticize something for depicting a topic poorly. you ARE allowed to evaluate something to decide whether it #fits the 'poorly-depicted' label or not. I promise you can embrace the existence of art that makes you uncomfortable AND criticize shit #we're in this weird place where people need to be Less Critical™/more open-minded AND need to be more willing to point out the #flaws in various works. it's. very strange.#anyway. fiction does not equal reality. but that doesn't mean all fiction is free of flaws or negative complications.

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