[ SECRET POST #2210 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2210 ⌋

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

01.


__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05.


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.


__________________________________________________



08.


__________________________________________________



09.


__________________________________________________



10.


__________________________________________________



11.


__________________________________________________



12.


__________________________________________________



13.


__________________________________________________



14.


__________________________________________________



15.


__________________________________________________



16.


__________________________________________________



17.


__________________________________________________



18.


__________________________________________________



19.


__________________________________________________











Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 06 pages, 101 secrets from Secret Submission Post #316.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

19. http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/7756/blackface.png

[(Anonymous)]

I have no idea what this secret is even about. I was too hypnotized by the horrifying, wide-eyed face happening in the background. WTF is going on in this picture.

[(Anonymous)]

Blackface is what's going on. Horrifying, horrifying blackface.

[fenm]

You can actually see the picture behind all that text?

Though now that you describe it, maybe it's better that I can't... O_O

OP

[(Anonymous)]

Would you like to see the original? http://api.ning.com/files/fiYzkPXujKKWCManutrayrTZVRyvirwovxemcoNfEHSZ-RwhTRoXhBHxFywiRAz7pZTAcsohtAcVdpIyx8hEnQ80f-gHSYHI/blackface.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

You are me, anon. I seem to be unable to distinguish between racist and stereotypical portrayals of characters of colour, so I'm often left all, "Why is there not more wank about Character A? What they said about him/her in that episode was totally racist and offensive!" (Modern Family and Big Bang Theory, I'm looking at you) or not being bothered at all by a show fandom at large proclaims to be super racist. (Strangely, the same does not happen to me with misogyny/sexism.)

[(Anonymous)]

Well, I don't think Modern Family and Big Bang Theory are great with race generally. So, I'm probably with you on that.

[visp]

Well, obviously everyone has their own views on what's offensive, so who's to say you're wrong and the others are right. However, maybe the problem is that you're just not as good at picking up Author Proselytizing, AKA when the author isn't telling a story so much as his/her thoughts on yaoi. I find, personally, that my metric tends to be "is this bad thing a character opinion, or the author's?" When it's the author's, I feel more offended.

[(Anonymous)]

+1

It can be hard to pick up on, and people don't always agree on when it is/isn't happening, and then you get the readers/viewers who just don't care because anyone who creates something containing position X must also advocate that themselves, or why else would they create that thing?

It gets particularly muddled when you're talking about porn/erotica. (See fictional non-con, etc.)

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe you should just stick to reading and watching things you enjoy and leave all the analysis to other people. It's not as though you have to pick through your experience. You can just let it be entertainment.

[insanenoodlyguy]

I think they are saying that they have a problem with that though, since I honestly can't figure out how the "be a fan of problematic things" author is offensive in the least. Unless I'm thinking of the wrong article.

[avatarmn]

I'm startled this didn't get the failbar for personal attack. And even more startled that this got posted almost a whole day ago, and no one else made this comment.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm pretty sure it's been up for maybe a few hours.

[dethtoll]

you lost me

[republicanism]

wow i thought i was the only person who hated "how to be a fan of problematic things." anon let's be friends. i'll tell you what you should be outraged about, you write the blog posts about how outraged you are and then BAM

kickstarter

[fuchsiascreams]

I'm not sure what this secret is trying to say.

[diet_poison]

Why do you hate the "problematic things" article/author? jw

Maybe an unpopular opinion...

[(Anonymous)]

I dunno OP. As a writer, tackling taboos or issues of hate (especially systematized hate) is one of the most fascinating parts of writing in general.

I view a story like a psychological playground: I create a person from a background who may not have the education or cultural values I am accustomed to, and I attempt to profile them as closely as possible to match the behavior I might expect when thrown into delicate or stressful environments. It can be very successful if you have a tactful and unromanticized portrayl, and the best outcome is when it forces me or my audience to examine their own cultural values critically.

I mean, I also understand the appeal of writing for shock value; incest, systematic racism, sex crimes, human trafficking... these acts are intrinsically fascinating to people. A literary representation of phenomena we know, intellectually, exist in the world but which we may have very little experience with is just something that attracts and keeps a reader's attention. I get that an author might want to employ that in order to "liven up" an otherwise dull narrative. They also might be a little too repulsed to want to explore it deeply.

What I'm trying to say is problematic topics in writing don't necessarily reflect an author's personal views. Sometimes glorification of issues can even be used subversively or as juxtaposition to a greater theme (see: A Clockwork Orange). Sometimes they obviously do, and it's fine to not want to continue being a fan of someone's work when that's the case.

My point is that it's not immediately bad to want to read about this sort of thing, and it doesn't make you a bad person to be interested in these topics. The key is in being able to tell the difference between a mature interrogation of a topic and hate speech on paper. If something is too ambiguous then it's often wise to take a step back and consider whether or not this is something you want to support.

Hope that helps, OP.

[silverau]

You don't have to be offended by the same things as everyone else, OP.

[dancing_clown]

My general thought about offensive fiction is that IT'S FICTION not a personal memoir of all the author's thoughts and beliefs.

[stainless]

I think social justice types tend to act like we all have the same filters, but we don't. Like, there's a much beloved fic in my fandom that is really, really well-written, but some of the portrayal of disability in it bothered me. I said so and people just completely couldn't believe I would "attack a good fic."

I actually thought the fic was fantastic, but that in itself was part of my problem. I was like "this is rightly going to get accolades for its general amazingness, but is there some way to append a little asterisk with *but the disability stuff may not be so well researched, just bear that in mind?" But people thought I was calling it "badfic." I wasn't -- I was trying to start a dialog about what we do say when goodfic, when oh my god wowie kazowie bestoffandomfic has something really weird in it.

But nobody saw what I saw, so I was just that crazy weirdo whining about disability.

So I think part of the problem is that SJ stuff tends to -- crystallize -- around popular issues or points of view, and if you happen to see the stuff that most people don't see but not be the best at seeing what everyone does, you're kind of up a creek.

[citrinesunset]

Well, one thing that I think has gotten lost in the more extreme discourse about social justice in the media is that a lot of this stuff is open to interpretation, and people's reactions are often influenced by their own experiences and views. It's also okay to have different opinions than other people, as long as you're willing to listen to other people, too, and reevaluate things if you learn something that you hadn't thought of before. But you don't have to have the "right answer." A lot of times, there isn't one right way to see something.

[(Anonymous)]

I haven't read "How To Be A Fan Of Problematic Things" so I can't say anything on that, but overall, I agree with you.

There have been so many times that something made me massively uncomfortable and I came online expecting outrage but there was only one or two other people, if that, who also found it offensive, while everyone else thought it was hilarious.

And then the opposite, there have been times where I thought something was clearly a joke and people got really upset about.

I guess everyone just has different things that offend them.

[(Anonymous)]

"How To Be A Fan Of Problematic Things" ?!

[(Anonymous)]

I DEFINITELY agree about How to Be A Fan of Problematic Things and with you in general. I tend to love something, or have something stand my hackles up, and then be told the exact opposite is true by the general public. It's frustrating.

As for How To..., I am going to suggest this bloke's rebuttal:

http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.ca/2012/09/things-arent-problematic-people-are.html?zx=3cf59dc2368b63d7

The content warning is for bad language. The blog name is due to the fact that...he's a porn star that gets together with other geeky porn stars and plays D&D. The content is not about porn, but is in fact a direct rebuttal to HTBaFoPT.