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Ethical Consumption of Woobie Villains Under Late Stage Capitalism by cephiedvariable, which stands alone pretty well but I had extra thoughts.
Something I think feminist etc media analysis really needs to address more directly is that for all that representation is important, sexist messages can be damaging etc, there isn’t a Single Correct Interpretation of any story by which all other interpretations can be judged. I don’t think it’s quite as simple as people swallowing the morality of stories uncritically, for example The Correct Interpretation of Twilight is that Edward is terrible. Off the top of my head I feel like the way it works is that the Bad Guys are always exactly as bad as the narrative says, but sometimes some of the Good Guys are bad too, for sometimes rather arbitrary reasons. Which isn’t really better.
I hadn’t thought of it this way before but it reminds me of the kind of Christian who thinks Satanists must be pro-Satan as understood by Christians, into murder and evil for it’s own sake etc. When Satanists actually have their own Satanist Bible which reinterprets events so that Satan is a decent dude who just wants what’s best for people. I’ve never quite grasped how the theology of that works, but as an ethical system it ends up being as against murder, cruelty etc as any other.
And I can’t see why we should be any more respectful of the text and perspective of Star Wars or whatever. It’s annoying when people just create and enforce a different Single Correct Interpretation, since these are generally just as bad if not worse than the more conventional Single Correct Interpretation on every level. But if someone wants to write What If Bellatrix Lestrange Is Secretly Nice fanfic then that doesn’t mean they are just too dumb to have picked up the subtle message that the Death Eaters are the bad guys, or are in favour of mass murder and fascism. I mean they might be, but chances are they, and their version of Bellatrix Lestrange, are against those things, they just felt like telling a different version of the story.
And afaict actual fascists are just as likely to identify with the heroes of these simplistically anti-fascist narratives as anyone else. It’s just that in their head, like, Death Eaters=The UN. Emotional responses to fiction are complex, even when the fiction itself is simple.
Something I think feminist etc media analysis really needs to address more directly is that for all that representation is important, sexist messages can be damaging etc, there isn’t a Single Correct Interpretation of any story by which all other interpretations can be judged. I don’t think it’s quite as simple as people swallowing the morality of stories uncritically, for example The Correct Interpretation of Twilight is that Edward is terrible. Off the top of my head I feel like the way it works is that the Bad Guys are always exactly as bad as the narrative says, but sometimes some of the Good Guys are bad too, for sometimes rather arbitrary reasons. Which isn’t really better.
I hadn’t thought of it this way before but it reminds me of the kind of Christian who thinks Satanists must be pro-Satan as understood by Christians, into murder and evil for it’s own sake etc. When Satanists actually have their own Satanist Bible which reinterprets events so that Satan is a decent dude who just wants what’s best for people. I’ve never quite grasped how the theology of that works, but as an ethical system it ends up being as against murder, cruelty etc as any other.
And I can’t see why we should be any more respectful of the text and perspective of Star Wars or whatever. It’s annoying when people just create and enforce a different Single Correct Interpretation, since these are generally just as bad if not worse than the more conventional Single Correct Interpretation on every level. But if someone wants to write What If Bellatrix Lestrange Is Secretly Nice fanfic then that doesn’t mean they are just too dumb to have picked up the subtle message that the Death Eaters are the bad guys, or are in favour of mass murder and fascism. I mean they might be, but chances are they, and their version of Bellatrix Lestrange, are against those things, they just felt like telling a different version of the story.
And afaict actual fascists are just as likely to identify with the heroes of these simplistically anti-fascist narratives as anyone else. It’s just that in their head, like, Death Eaters=The UN. Emotional responses to fiction are complex, even when the fiction itself is simple.
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Emotional responses to fiction are complex, even when the fiction itself is simple.
That's very much where I'm at with SW fandom in particular (when Star Wars is more complex and nuanced than swaths of fandom will allow actual human beings to be ... jfc) and fandom in particular.
It’s annoying when people just create and enforce a different Single Correct Interpretation, since these are generally just as bad if not worse than the more conventional Single Correct Interpretation on every level. But if someone wants to write What If Bellatrix Lestrange Is Secretly Nice fanfic then that doesn’t mean they are just too dumb to have picked up the subtle message that the Death Eaters are the bad guys
+1 on this, too. Single Correct Interpretations are always intensely irritating, all the more as they gain influence and weight until they turn into Gatekeeping 101, and they're worth resisting/qualifying/elaborating, but the idea seems so often to be that it's—the problem isn't proposing Single Correct Interpretations but proposing the "wrong" one, where "proposing" can mean everything from actually arguing for it to wish-fulfillment fic to offhand jokes.
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I know. I appreciate seeing you continue to fight the good fight regardless :)