That's entirely reasonable. My understanding of historiography is pretty
shallow, but I feel you can never have a single objective view of past
events and the best you can hope for is a range of different perspectives.
My experience was absolutely influenced very heavily by the particular path
I took, as well as the kind of person I am.
It didn't come up in my posts, but I do absolutely respect the amazing
place slash fandom has been for a great many people, especially women, to
express their (often queer) sexuality in an open unrestricted way. It's
even worked that way a little for me, though only somewhat since I don't
naturally connect with m/m and have a lot of sex related squicks and
triggers. I HATE that our two options seem to be "people who want labels
for noncon are mocked" and "people who write noncon risk being drummed out
of fandom", but as someone who needs labels for noncon the former situation
suits me better personally, even though the latter still upsets me.
And thinking about it, part of my belief that things are better now is very
much the same "well things are better for ME" I complained about other
people doing: I am a happier person in general, have found more fandoms I
like, and am better at surrounding myself with people who suit me. I don't
think that's all of it, but it's certainly some of it, and I don't think
you have to be a Problematic Fan to have preferred many of the ways things
used to be. And maybe if someone had steered me sharply towards Sailor Moon
fandom with promises of animated canon f/f back in 2006 this would be a
different post. I still do think things are overall better, but can see how
you would disagree, and am not sure there's really a right answer.
they got away with condemning their targets as bad writers or pathetic
wankers, not pedophiles and abusers—the motives may be the same, but the
results are not
That is a good point. Hmm.
Also: I actually agreed with a lot of franzeska's meta. It was like "Yep,
yep, OH GOD NO, yep, that's very well put, not exactly, NOoooo" etc. That's
actually one of the things that annoys me: by mixing in a bunch of good and
even important ideas with some really terrible ones she just furthered the
divisions she was trying to heal, eg by expressing a (generally pretty
decent) defence of slash in a cluelesly racist way ("Why are All of the
Slashers Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" Really?) she just
reinforced the idea that Slash Fandom is Racist. If you, as a white person,
are going to defend your fandom against racism, you have to be super
careful to avoid the sort of microaggressions her essay is littered with,
or you are just going to make things worse. If she was entirely wrong noone
would be defending her, but because a lot of what she said was reasonable
her defenders are, well, defensive, and not acknowledging the stuff she
said that was bad, and that just makes the people they're arguing with more
upset. Nobody wins.
nb I don't feel the same way about ffa. I wish it didn't have the aspects I
don't like, but don't think they undo it's good aspects the same way.
no subject
That's entirely reasonable. My understanding of historiography is pretty shallow, but I feel you can never have a single objective view of past events and the best you can hope for is a range of different perspectives. My experience was absolutely influenced very heavily by the particular path I took, as well as the kind of person I am.
It didn't come up in my posts, but I do absolutely respect the amazing place slash fandom has been for a great many people, especially women, to express their (often queer) sexuality in an open unrestricted way. It's even worked that way a little for me, though only somewhat since I don't naturally connect with m/m and have a lot of sex related squicks and triggers. I HATE that our two options seem to be "people who want labels for noncon are mocked" and "people who write noncon risk being drummed out of fandom", but as someone who needs labels for noncon the former situation suits me better personally, even though the latter still upsets me.
And thinking about it, part of my belief that things are better now is very much the same "well things are better for ME" I complained about other people doing: I am a happier person in general, have found more fandoms I like, and am better at surrounding myself with people who suit me. I don't think that's all of it, but it's certainly some of it, and I don't think you have to be a Problematic Fan to have preferred many of the ways things used to be. And maybe if someone had steered me sharply towards Sailor Moon fandom with promises of animated canon f/f back in 2006 this would be a different post. I still do think things are overall better, but can see how you would disagree, and am not sure there's really a right answer.
they got away with condemning their targets as bad writers or pathetic wankers, not pedophiles and abusers—the motives may be the same, but the results are not
That is a good point. Hmm.
Also: I actually agreed with a lot of franzeska's meta. It was like "Yep, yep, OH GOD NO, yep, that's very well put, not exactly, NOoooo" etc. That's actually one of the things that annoys me: by mixing in a bunch of good and even important ideas with some really terrible ones she just furthered the divisions she was trying to heal, eg by expressing a (generally pretty decent) defence of slash in a cluelesly racist way ("Why are All of the Slashers Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" Really?) she just reinforced the idea that Slash Fandom is Racist. If you, as a white person, are going to defend your fandom against racism, you have to be super careful to avoid the sort of microaggressions her essay is littered with, or you are just going to make things worse. If she was entirely wrong noone would be defending her, but because a lot of what she said was reasonable her defenders are, well, defensive, and not acknowledging the stuff she said that was bad, and that just makes the people they're arguing with more upset. Nobody wins.
nb I don't feel the same way about ffa. I wish it didn't have the aspects I don't like, but don't think they undo it's good aspects the same way.