#of course jkr didn't really nuke the problem just sent it sprawling out away from a centralized point of fandom | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

leonsrightarm · 2 years ago

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recommended reading for everyone on this website not only because of how it discusses hallmark movies specifically but also because of what it means for escapist media broadly

some key excerpts:

...the reality is, even in Nazi Germany, the majority of movies approved by the Nazi minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, were escapist and feather-light, with a Hallmark movie-style emphasis on the importance of "normality." ... The qualities that people cite when they defend Hallmark movies — comforting, formulaic, soothing — are all a result of the aggressively conformist impulse that drives them.

because these are things i hear people say to claim their shitty media faves should never be criticized

Hallmark Movie tropes where a woman visits her rural hometown and fall in love with a random camo wearing musclebound white man because of the power of Christmas, and then leaves her successful city job, and cuck boyfriend to be said man's submissive wife is conservative and possibly even white nationalist propaganda.

In this essay I will...

#also more controversial opinion this is to me why shlock media of all origins should not be sheltered from criticism both generally #and specifically #by which i mean fanfiction ya webnovels etc.#things that are typically deemed beneath the notice of serious critical examination but which their fans will rabidly defend #both as works of art and from any actual serious critical examination that might glance in its direction #jkr has effectively nuked the problem but there were many years when i really wanted to talk about themes of white supremacy #in harry potter fanfic and about how it was like. a RECURRING and OVERARCHING theme. constant and overpowering #operating very much in the same way that these hallmark movies do where it's treated as a 'return to normalcy'#of course jkr didn't really nuke the problem just sent it sprawling out away from a centralized point of fandom #someday i might really write a whole thing about it but i'd have to do it anonymously because i would have to pull quotes from #fanfic and it would get me death threats so.#also i would have to go back and read millions of words of bad harry potter fanfic which i don't particularly want to do.

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