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EDIT: I seem to have expressed this really badly. I'm not against ALL satire involving stuff like racism. I'm not even against all satire which offends (some) people from marginalised groups. I'm against a very particular brand of "satire", as described below. See the comments for further clarification.
A lot of the time I'll find something angry-makingly Xist etc and when I complain people say "But it's satire". And I'll admit, sometimes I really am being obtuse, but a lot of the time I think this is crap, because it hurts the people it's supposedly helping and is amusing to those it's supposedly challenging. I've been trying to articulate this for ages, there's probably holes in my argument.
I'm going to talk about racism since this seems to be where it comes up the most and I want to cut down on my "etc"s, but it comes up with disability, sexuality etc all the time too.
So. An action is racist or not based on it's effect, not your intention.
If your satire:
-makes POC feel attacked
-makes very racist white people think you agree with them
-makes less racist white people laugh at the more racist white people and thus feel good about themselves
How is it in any way anti-racist? Or even racism neutral? (since not all art needs to have a positive social effect) How is it less racist in effect than a deliberately racist action intended to make POC feel attacked and agree with very racist white people?
Real satire makes the people you are satirising uncomfortable. A real anti-racist satire doesn't make racists laugh, it makes them uncomfortable and angry. If you're too intellectually lazy to make the people with power angry with your satire, and would rather take potshots at those with less power since it's safer and easier, then stop playing with the grownup toys and go make fart jokes where you're not hurting anyone.
Of course it's not always as clear cut as that: sometimes it makes POC and racists uncomfortable, in which case it's more ambiguous and the "art needs to be free to make people uncomfortable" argument may (or may not) come into effect.
Some related links:
Also More thoughts about Art and responsibility and Politeness gone mad! Basic human decency taken too far! go into why "But you're putting restrictions on their True Artistic Vision" doesn't cut it as an excuse.
A lot of the time I'll find something angry-makingly Xist etc and when I complain people say "But it's satire". And I'll admit, sometimes I really am being obtuse, but a lot of the time I think this is crap, because it hurts the people it's supposedly helping and is amusing to those it's supposedly challenging. I've been trying to articulate this for ages, there's probably holes in my argument.
I'm going to talk about racism since this seems to be where it comes up the most and I want to cut down on my "etc"s, but it comes up with disability, sexuality etc all the time too.
So. An action is racist or not based on it's effect, not your intention.
If your satire:
-makes POC feel attacked
-makes very racist white people think you agree with them
-makes less racist white people laugh at the more racist white people and thus feel good about themselves
How is it in any way anti-racist? Or even racism neutral? (since not all art needs to have a positive social effect) How is it less racist in effect than a deliberately racist action intended to make POC feel attacked and agree with very racist white people?
Real satire makes the people you are satirising uncomfortable. A real anti-racist satire doesn't make racists laugh, it makes them uncomfortable and angry. If you're too intellectually lazy to make the people with power angry with your satire, and would rather take potshots at those with less power since it's safer and easier, then stop playing with the grownup toys and go make fart jokes where you're not hurting anyone.
Of course it's not always as clear cut as that: sometimes it makes POC and racists uncomfortable, in which case it's more ambiguous and the "art needs to be free to make people uncomfortable" argument may (or may not) come into effect.
Some related links:
- Humour is an 'act of aggression' Humour is an act of agression and telling jokes is a method of reinforcing a social hierarchy, according to a German study.
- Mommy's All Right, Daddy's All Right: Or, Why "Hipster Racism" Was Invented By Your Drunk Grandpa At a certain point, the privilege and prejudice of the middle class got projected onto the working class, because it was an undesirable characteristic and we love attributing those to poor people.
- Jonathan Swift is not amused Instead of asking not to take a problem seriously by hiding it from sight and pretending it’s not really there, it bombards us with self-consciously irreverent mockery of it, with the underlying message being that, yeah, it happens, but it doesn’t really matter and we’ve all gotten over it. Or, rather, all the cool people have gotten over it, and anybody who does seem genuinely concerned is unreasonable and overreacting.
- stuff white people do: act like a racist in order to demonstrate that you're not a racistWhite hipster humor about race is often meant to point out racism, but not in order to fight against it; the goal instead is ultimately narcissistic.
- 'Hipster' racism, and some linkage Has some interesting discussion in the comments
Also More thoughts about Art and responsibility and Politeness gone mad! Basic human decency taken too far! go into why "But you're putting restrictions on their True Artistic Vision" doesn't cut it as an excuse.
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