fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2188 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2188 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 05 pages, 102 secrets from Secret Submission Post #313.
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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Is this in response to the brony backlash secret that popped up recently? Because it really feels like the same sort of dynamic.

I was wondering that too. (I was in that thread.)

If that is so: OP, by "shunning" I, at least, meant that the community ought to admonish the following creepy behaviors until either the culprits stopped or simply left: the people defending a rapist even after he admitted to the rape and then slut-shaming the underage victim; people unironically using the N word and complaining at fanartists for making fanart of Twilight Sparkle as a dark-skinned human, people sending death threats at a fan for daring to voice how she thought the name of a fan character was ableist, etc. and then hiding under the rest of the brony community as a defense. That sort of terrible things.

Not things like, calling someone a terrible woman-hating scum that ought to die in a car crash and then burn alive for using the word "bitch", or saying that people calling themselves "bisexuals" are terrible because so and so, etc., like people mentioned in this thread.

Those are terrible things. And I'm not anywhere near the MLP fandom. Everything I know about them comes from this comm. Reading that thread, I wasn't hearing that the community was using its majorities to dogpile opinions that, in most of my fandoms, would be mainstream. I was reading a disturbing amount of "oh, them. They're shit. And any fan who doesn't want to be called shit had better go shame and ostracize the people we disapprove of."

From what you're describing, I think we're seeing an intersection between "what (not socially aware) straight men think okay behavior looks like" and "fandom women's culture." The long-term effect of chronically adjusting your social group to be with people who agree with you has been that there are circles where it's completely normal to joke about rape, and circles where *ever* suggesting that the survivor might have done something ill-advised is bad/wrong/blaming/cause-for-immediate-shunning and unthinkable. And there are countless other circles in between. Most of the people who inhabit them only know in theory that the others exist. It's a shock to meet someone who actually thinks X.

I've seen male parts of fandom tolerate and encourage a lot of stuff that looks outrageous to me, because I'm used to predominantly female spaces and we tend to fight in other ways. But. Fan cultures that used to be more or less unaware of each others' existence are coming into contact a lot more than they used to. There is already increased social rub, and there will be more. It's partly up to us to determine if that's going to devolve into insults, arm-twisting, and "which side is bigger?" or lead to grudging respect and dialog. I'm not saying that being brainwashed by the patriarchy and siding with rapists is in any way alright. But I am saying that reasonable people can hold some pretty unreasonable views, and just punishing indiscriminately (or attempting to) doesn't have the salutary effect you might hope for.

When you exhort someone to stand up to their community, you're asking a lot. It sounds like MLP fans that *get* the things you want them to get are vastly outnumbered by ones who don't and potentially don't even want to. A would-be activist would need resources on how to ague eloquently when they're in the minority and change people's thinking, at the very least. If there are only a few outliers, you have the option of insulting and browbeating them. (Whether you should is another matter.) But this sounds more like ... they could shut down anyone who tried.

It's in response to a number of fandom trends that have been accumulating in my mind for a while, and starting to look like different facets of the same unsavory thing. I mentioned bronies because reading that thread was sort of a tipping point. It crystallized *why* saying "if you don't want to be painted with the same brush, go on a social justice crusade against the thing your whole fandom is being accused of" felt manipulative and fail-y to me. But it's not about them. It's about people who don't consider themselves SJWs still feeling, to a lesser degree, like they have a right and an obligation to punish outliers, and frown on any fandom that doesn't.

[ SECRET POST #2188 ]

no subject

tw: mention of rape, racism, slut-shaming

OP (could probably also use the tw)

OP (whoops, meant to post this before)