It still blows my mind that people seriously believe that if you criticize something, you can’t possibly be a fan. If I’m ragging on Vampire Rain for being the second worst game ever released for the 360 because the gameplay is a joke and… well, you know what, the whole goddamn game is a joke, that’s one thing. I’d say it’s pretty obvious that I do not see anything redeemable about Vampire Rain.
But a lot of the time when people criticize media, it’s because we do like it. We like it and we want to see it become better. I’d say Tumblr is a media oriented website, and there’s a pretty solid fandom presence here. It’s full of people drawing fanart, making graphics, posting screenshots, fanfiction, whatever—everyone’s engaging with the canon in their own way.
Some people engage with media through criticism and a critical eye, or (god forbid) a different perspective. Fandom attracts people of all genders, all sexualities, all races, and different walks of life. When someone calls something that happened in a canon racist, sexist, homophobic, etc—this does not mean that they necessarily hate the canon. Most of the time it means that they like the canon and are sick of bullshit in something they enjoy. They wanted it to be better than that, want it to be better than that, and are going to offer their piece on the matter.
You know what else? Sometimes people are just sick of seeing the same thing happen over and over and just want to express how pissed off they are about it. This is a perfectly valid thing to do. Someone angry about a harmful stereotype being shoved into something they enjoy for the 500th time has every right to talk about how (and why, if they choose) it pisses them off.
Media of any form does not exist in a bubble. It is created by real people for real people. Stop that, “it’s just a game/comic/tv show” bullshit. Just stop it because you are wrong. These things didn’t just magically pop out of thin air overnight. Even if they did, they’re still being processed and analyzed by real people.
When you’re on a media oriented website with a strong fandom presence, addressing issues you have with the source material should not be unacceptable behavior. It should not be a requirement for “fan status” that you hug everyone and tell them how nice they are if they’re saying something that is offensive to you. It should not be a requirement for “fan status” that you shut your mouth and “let everyone else have their fun”. Take that shit back to Kindergarten (or just about anywhere else, since there’s nothing revolutionary about telling marginalized people to shut up for everyone else’s sake in any situation).
So I mean, if you’re complaining about what people say and think they should stop because, “it’s just the internet,” maybe you should take your own advice and turn off your own internet instead of complaining about people expressing themselves.
Or don’t. I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning, what can I say.
This is an awesome post, especially the “STFU about ‘it’s just an X’.”
Kirkwall Was Totally Built On a Hellmouth 