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eolewyn1010 · 9 months

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Farewell, Darkover - part 9

The next section was really grating to read, as that's not only where MZB's arrogance really goes off the charts; it's also where she proves to be a real twat about the topics she's been praised for writing about. Buckle in for all the glory of her representation of strong feminist characters, homosexuals, and intersex people! ...ow.

First, there's more about individual Darkover books and a dispute she had with German translators. She casually name-drops her second husband who was just such an important partner to her - excuse me, there's the taste of bile again. Don't tell me how loving and supportive your fucking NAMBLA husband was. Onward to hard times in the magazine editing business... bitch?

"if this was the level of the competition, why was I worrying?"

Could you be any snootier?

"I resolved to try a female protagonist."

Woooow, now that's a novelty. I hate people who think they have invented fire or something. And it gets better:

"[...] Allira, the eldest, raped, and summarily married off to a bandit chief. Allira turned out to be a washout as a heroine. Try as I might to infuse her with heroic spirit, all she did was cry"

For one: That's your character. If you failed to make her a heroine you found compelling, that's really on you. And then. I find it rich enough from someone who was afaik a rape victim herself, but a rapist? Calling a traumatized rape victim who curls up to cry (a character MZB herself created, to boot) a whiny, "jelly-spined" washout? That's, uh. Sure something. Reminds me a lot of how MZB, who had her own abused children around, wrote Morgaine in MoA having very clear symptoms of PTSD and depression after being violated - and constantly waved her obvious poor emotional well-being off as not a big deal and something she really should just get over. ...Turn up the hellfire, guys.

Next is about meeting some of her fans; she refers to one "young girl" whom she still knows by name, creeping me out thoroughly. As she goes on about the ghost winds of Darkover, the creeps get worse; this worldbuilding element was one of her favorite excuses for "everyone falls into a frenzied orgy drugged beyond consent". Onward.

"Most of my readers give me credit for being far more profound than I am. I'm not profound; I simply let the reader figure out what is terrifying to him and visualize that in the blank spaces I leave in my book."

Not only are you not profound; this also testifies to your lack of creativity. "Let the audience fill in the blanks!" - how about you don't leave blanks? Hell, the entire Avalonian religion in MoA is nothing but a big blank. She sneers, in her brilliance, at the final scene of The Dunwich Horror, as describing Wilbur Whately's inhuman features destroyed the horror of it all because...

"I am not horrified, personally, by physiological abnormalities."

ExcusoWHAT? How does that fit with your rampant ableism?? Show me one single physically disabled or disfigured character of MZB's that isn't portrayed in a negative / contemptuous light! Next she dumps on the Lord of the Rings movie of her time and Japanese kaiju horror for the same reasons. I am supremely ignorant in these fields, although I heard that at least the original Godzilla did indeed play with the concept of the unseen horror because he was an embodiment of the terror of nuclear weapons, so shows Bradley's level of knowing-what-the-fuck-she's-talking-about.

"I felt that I hadn't read anything in science fiction that really excited and delighted me, not for ages; not since Stranger in a Strange Land."

Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. Stranger in a Strange Land is the main reason (albeit not the only one) why I have such a low opinion of Heinlein's writing. There's an Übermensch race superseding humanity, no concept of consent, all the homophobia, sexism and racism, Heinlein going on a long tract about the benefits of cannibalism - it's skeevy, is what it is. Call me a tasteless boor for it all you want.

After telling us "that chapter in my life was ended" (meaning writing Darkover), she... keeps blathering on for a while, about other books. Isn't this titled "A Darkover Retrospective"? Finally: chieri, and her inspirations for those.

"Nowhere in Tolkien does it speak of the elves as ambiguously sexed; I don't know where I picked up that idea, perhaps from one of the Theodore Sturgeon stories in which he explored the notion of legendary people who could appear as men to a woman, or as women to a man."

I played with that, too, regarding a Faerie creature - only they don't appear necessarily as the opposite gender of whom they encounter, but as the sexually preferred gender of said person. Meaning, yeah, my Fae is still a hot dude for my gay protagonist (and looks very similar to his ex, too, because Fae are assholes). But figures that she'd think of a hetero norm only. This is our gay literature pioneer?

Anyway, chieri are basically her Darkovan Fae, and with MoA establishing MZB's self-insert being a direct descendant of Faeries, I can only imagine that her Fae and chieri are the sort of naturally Superior(TM) Übermensch she'd love to imagine herself to be. Well, as I said, Fae are assholes, so if the shoe fits. No, I shall not interpret any of her writings in good faith.

"I decided that the sexual element in such a story [about aliens capable of switching sexes] would make it difficult to handle at all, with the kind of taboos operating in science fiction at the time."

I know which kind of societal taboos around sexuality you would have liked to have loosened. Get away from my queer community and my Sci-Fi genre, you sick fuck. Couple paragraphs later, she even mentions how her husband, the other sick fuck, encouraged her to write about the chieri, specifically the explicit sex scene in The World Wreckers. Pervy enough for his tastes, was it? Again, feels more like fetish service than decent intersex rep. Specifically, fetish service to herself. And I wish she would stop telling me about her harmonious marriage and happy home life. It makes me retch. She promised her editor that there would be "no four-letter vulgarisms" in the chieri sex scene, and that just makes me laugh. Child molestation all over the place, but she's too well-mannered to write "cock"? Well, suck it, Bradley. No, wait, she doesn't know what oral sex is. I shall write my next smut very spitefully.

"[Prior to Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness, h]omosexuality had always been a major taboo in science fiction."

Uhm. Has it? Sci-Fi up to a more recent time tended to breeze over sexual themes in general. Well, she mentions Sturgeon, but she doesn't mention Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland, Virginia Woolf's Orlando, Poul Anderson, Brian Aldiss, David Gerrold. Anyway, I'm not sure why this applies to the Keral-David sex scene at all, because that only took place after Keral, the chieri, was very graphically described as having a female body to the last detail, plus emphasis on his capabilty to get pregnant. Now, I know that there are men in the world to whom this applies. But I doubt that Bradley with her gender essentialism and Sacred Biological Maternity fetish was thinking of trans people when writing the chieri, so how does this pass for homosexuality?

"because I was the first person to attack this problem straight on, I became known as highly sympathetic; in fact, for a time, I managed to become something like science fiction's token homosexual! I had no particular aversion for this position; but I am sure that it encouraged many other writers to stop being afraid of the subject"

1st, no, you were not the first. 2nd, what with you self-identifying as a lesbian, your propensity to represent heterosexual relationships as naturally superior and the only sacred-by-universe-and-nature outcome in your writings either speaks of a severe self-loathing or of your time and age not knowing the term bisexuality. 3rd, yes, unfortunately, you were an inspiration to many. I wonder how many of them are seething at the memory as I am today. I wonder how many of them are rotating in their graves.

She did not, in fact, quit writing Darkover after that. Guess the ego-stroking was too nice to forfeit. Then it's on about how, ha-ha, her editor was wrong about the ideas he turned down, because they sold well later on, so there! ...Stephenie Meyer, is that you? More stories on individual books, her lofty stance on how every woman in Darkover Landfall absolutely had to spread her legs for the procreation of humanity, free will be damned, "Biology is Destiny" and how she thinks feminists can shove it if they don't agree with this (I hate her). Then she defends fucking Heritage of Hastur. And guess what:

"no one was upset by the picture of male homosexuals in Heritage, with a rather curious exception. I received a few nasty letters from confessed homosexuals in the Gay Activist movement, accusing me of prejudice because I, professing to be sympathetic toward homosexuality, had perpetrated the stereotype of the homosexual as brutal sadist, preying on young boys."

Yup. There were people back then who read Dyan Ardais for the gross predator that he was. And she found it curious and nasty that gay men wouldn't be happy about that rep. Here's a hint, Bradley: HOMOSEXUALITY. IS NOT. PEDOPHILIA! GAY MEN. AREN'T. LIKE. WALTER BREEN! Your husband was a freaking pervert, but the apologia isn't anything new; we know you joined right in there.

"I regard Dyan Ardais, not as evil, but as unhappy, a man desperately at the mercy of his own misery and his own obsessions; and Dyan's tragedy, I have always felt, was that he did not come to know Regis well until he had destroyed himself irrevocably in the younger man's eyes."

. . .

Yeah, no. NO. Do not go there. Do not tell me about what a tragic character fucking Dyan Ardais is and how sad I should feel that he had fallen from grace in the eyes of his victims, you utter piece of shit. All I hear is you defending your husband and yourself. I hope either of you died painfully.

I have to set a cut again. And yell at a wall for a while. Seeya.

#Darkover #Marion Zimmer Bradley #hell is too good for MZB #The Mists of Avalon #tw rape mention #tw pedophila mention #tw homophobia #books

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kitkatopinions · 3 years

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I just watched the video from twiins iink and other youtubers about toxicity in the fandom and its super cool and better late then never but its a bit late? To confront the fandom i mean. Like i remember when v5 was airing that people where actually pissed that Jaune was touching Weiss... in the healing scene and that Ruby took his hands away so he wouldnt non con touch Weiss, not to you know see what is happening to the wound. Like it was a whole thing, it wasnt one person? And now we are at v9 so i just wanted to ask your opinion if there is some hope for this fandom i guess ✌

Short answer... No, I don't really think there's hope to fix this fandom. It's gotten to the point where the fans aren't even listening to writers like Eddy Rivas and pro-RWBY youtube streamers like Murder of Birds about maybe not wanting the r/rwby subreddit mods to ban all rwby criticism posts from the subreddit.

Long answer, every fandom is toxic to some extent, but the way the RWBY fandom is, is worse than anywhere else I've seen. Every fandom has ships and characters you're expected to like and get hated on if you don't, every fandom has at least one character that people have decided it's illegal to like, every fandom has at least one character that makes mistakes but is good that gets huge and unjustified hate, every fandom has writer-worshippers who get angry at criticism or dislike or people pointing out author bias, every fandom has characters who got assigned sexualities whether or not it's canon, that results in people getting attacked for 'not adhering to it,' every fandom has an evil/bad character that has fans who will get angry at anyone who doesn't feel sympathy for said evil/bad character, and every fandom has tons of people presenting their headcanons as accepted fact. I can't think of a single one outside of the most niche/tame fandoms I've been in that doesn't have these.

But in the RWDEdom, it's considered a rite of passage to get a hate anon, it's treated as 'making it.' Even after blocking likely over a hundred people, I still see the people posting in the RWDE tag that all RWDE posters are horrible bigots. I recently have gotten several messages from someone calling me - a queer woman - a sexist homophobe for criticizing the sexism and homophobia in a man-written show, and what seems like the same person has sent similar anons to tons of other RWDE blogs.

I've openly admitted that there are bad RWBY critics and I've even gotten in arguments with and wound up blocking fellow RWDE posters. I've also disagreed with several RWDE posters who I don't block, because disagreements are just that, disagreements. I also admit that there are tons of regular RWBY fans and posters who are very nice people, who are just trying to enjoy the show, who just like the show. I don't mind, I don't have any problem with that, we just exist on different sides of this fandom and I think that's good. And you know what? Lots of them have points, because there's lots of good in RWBY. But the toxic RWBY fans will never admit that there are lots of good RWDE posters, or that some RWDE posters have a point because there's lots of bad things in RWBY, and that it's okay to disagree on some things. The toxic RWBY fans have in the past harassed and insulted even the easiest on the show, most generous towards the show RWDE blog I've ever seen. And no matter how much RWDE posters try to avoid interacting with the general RWBY fandom and especially the toxic people, people still insist that we're trying to destroy the show and force others to hate RWBY - while they themselves try to bully people into dropping their blogs and demand that they like RWBY.

Honestly, I only have a couple of working theories on why this fandom in particular has gotten so bad. Peer pressure taking over and guiding the generally accepted viewpoints is common in fandom, but I think one reason why RWBY has it worse than usual is because the fandom is smaller than other, bigger works like ATLA or Harry Potter, so while fans are just as devoted, there's less 'subfandoms,' less variety, fan theories get around easier... I don't know, it's just a theory. Another theory is that first off, the starting fandom of RWBY was already loyal to Rooster Teeth and into their content, and the people involved in RWBY have this kind of 'friendly interactive' persona with their fans that make their fans feel a deeper and more personal connection. So they feel personally criticized or feel like a friend is being personally criticized, and get offended. And it doesn't help that people involved in Rooster Teeth and the making of RWBY like writers and voice actors sometimes insult or get angry at critics themselves and make it public that they feel that way, which just encourages the toxic RWBY fans. And sometimes it feels like they put their anger at critics into the show - making Nora (portrayed as in the right) yell at Ren (portrayed as in the wrong) that Yang and Blake definitely make sense as a couple, having Yang and Blake respond to Marrow asking if they ever do missions apart with anger and coldness, having Robyn drag Clover's name through the mud after people were angry at them over queer baiting Fair Game, and turning Ironwood into a comic book level pure evil villain after some people weren't siding with Team RWBY in volume 7 - which again, just fuels the toxic RWBY fans.

Toxic RWBY fans will often say that they're fine with criticism, just not hate and bashing. Ignoring the fact that bashing is also not illegal and is fine so long as proper tags are used, and how they should just block the tags if they don't want to see it since it's their responsibility to cultivate their internet experience... The goalposts for what they consider 'allowed and good' criticism is varied, always moving, and incredibly hard to follow.

1. Criticism is fine, so long as every post with criticism also recognizes the good things about the show. 2. Criticism is fine, so long as it's completely unbiased. 3. Criticism is fine, so long as it includes no insults, no rudeness, no sarcasm, and nothing that's less than the nicest delivery - despite any actual hurt or offense the show might've caused you. 4. Criticism is fine, so long as it only is for small things and not big complaints. 5. Criticism is fine, so long as it only is for big things and doesn't include any nitpicks or personal opinions. 6. Criticism is fine, so long as it doesn't have anything to do with the moments people have generally agreed 'no longer matter.' 7. Criticism is fine, so long as it's not criticism of the main characters or other characters people 'should like' and isn't in favor of characters that we're 'not supposed to root for.' 8. Criticism is fine, so long as you criticize the actions of characters and not the writers, actors, productions, etc. 9. Criticism is fine, so long as you're only criticizing technical things and not bringing up any mistakes the writers might make on things like the portrayal of women, their people of color characters, their handling of real world issues, ableism or toxic masculinity. 10. Criticism is fine, so long as the criticism only fits the exact ideas of every RWBY fan that might get offended, and adheres to every headcanon we should have come up with and immediately accepted.

It's an impossible struggle. And I think that at this point, the toxic RWBY fans have dug in their heels so deeply that even if Miles Luna himself came to them directly and told them 'hey, stop being so irrational and just block the RWDE tag instead of bullying people,' they would say 'Miles, I'm sorry but you don't understand that these people are of the devil.'

#rwde #anti rwby #anti rooster teeth #rwby bashing #rwby hate #rwby criticism #RWDEdom #anti fndm

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bigskydreaming · 4 years

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IMO, the core conflicts in all fandoms stem from the reality that we all turn to fandom for a kind of escapism - but when we say escapism, we don’t always mean FROM the same things. There are some people who turn to fandom for escapism from the hardships of reality, but then there are others who turn to fandom for escapism from the CONSEQUENCES of reality....and these things are inherently incompatible.

In addition, an escapism from hardships is something people are ACTUALLY entitled to, whereas an escapism from consequences is something that NOBODY is actually entitled to.....which ends up creating an entitlement of need vs an entitlement of want.

Fans who want a safe fandom space free from racism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism and more might at times sound entitled....BECAUSE THAT’S ABSOLUTELY VALID. Its something they’re actually entitled to.

Fans however who want a fandom space safe for them to say and do whatever they want and free from even just the social consequences of this, also tend to sound entitled though, and this ISN’T valid and is directly contrary to the former.

And so there’s a tendency due to the overlap in the superficial, surface level reads of all this, to follow where people lead when they try and frame the two things as being basically the same and one no worse than the other.....but like, don’t buy into it because these are not the same things at all.

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lavendulaconminatio · 4 years

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Years ago I ran a blog on ace discourse: @asleepingwindow As a lesbian raised in the Catholic Church, where you can be gay just don’t act on it, I knew asexual activism had nothing to do with being gay. I know an asexual gay person is the church’s fucking wet dream. I always insisted I don’t care whether people identify that way but stop trying to say you suffer as I do as a lesbian. Stop fucking invading lgbt spaces too and making them unsafe for us! But that was a losing battle. I wonder how this time period will be seen 20-30 years from an lgbt history perspective.

Anyway, besides knowing asexual gay people are the kind of gay people straight people want, I also hated this idea that seemed to be gaining popularity about people being more oppressed simply because they weren’t seen as valid. Validity didn’t mean laws meant to protect their population, or having police see your body as human and worthy of life; they merely meant existing in popular media so people see them. There was never anything deeper than that to so called asexual oppression, which I will never think is a thing. I mean asexuality is a thing but people don’t actively hate you for not having sex, that’s a fact of fucking life. My people died by the thousands in the 80s, sometimes with only lesbians to give a shit, and some straight person says their totes oppressed because they don’t want to fuck? Yeah ok. Or if there was a basis in oppression, it was often just blatant sexism and homophobia. All men say you’re a prude for not having sex, this is nothing special, Jan.

Now years later after arguing my heart out, making a master post and closing up shop, I find myself with another side blog to combat an issue that I once again feel harms lesbians and women. Instead of being more concerned about the men that berate, beat, and kill trans women, activists are literally attacking women, especially lesbians, for not validating trans people. The level of vitriol leveled at a woman for talking about her vagina is so above and beyond any hatred for the men who have murdered trans women.

Then in some perveted irony, those same deaths are propped up as reasons to shut down women talking about sexism. Meanwhile, more women than anyone can count die every day because they are female. We don’t get the luxury of our deaths being marked a hate crime. Instead it’s domestic violence, or maybe FGM gone wrong amoung the countless other things that needlessly and horrifically kill women. And I haven’t even talked about rape.

I knew the ridiculous activism of the asexual movement would have lasting consequences but I honestly never thought the concept of validity would be taken and warped so far to try and pretend biological sex doesn’t exist and that women aren’t female just to make trans women feel better about their dysphoria. I feel immense compassion for anyone with dysphoria, I have it and struggled for a long time to figure out if I was trans or a butch lesbian. There is such an immense disconnect here about the importance of validity and what real oppression looks like. Especially when you refuse to even discuss detrans people for fear it will make you seem less valid. So their struggles don’t exist to make you feel better. Once again, all about erasing females to stroke the egos of males.

This is not the biggest issue on my plate, but it’s a recent small example of tangible consequences to prejudice. The other day I was trying to refill an opioid I have a legal prescription for but the pharmacist refused because they couldn’t find it. Despite having going through this before this woman refused to look where I suggested, and I suffered in pain for 3 days before my doctor’s office was able to tell them they had it for sure. I mean this isn’t about sexism and more about ableism (though women’s pain is often discounted more, black pain even more) In that moment, I didn’t want to be validated. I didn’t want the pharmacist to know who I am, my identity, my disabilities, I wanted her to stop judging pain patients as a whole and give me my fucking legal prescription. Every single legislation and guideline that limits opioid prescriptions are born of a prejudice against addicts and a indifference to people in pain. That pharmacist didn’t give a shit about my pain, to bother even looking, because the rules made her right and I was probably an addict anyway. That is a real tangible feeling of oppression, and like I said it’s nothing compared to other examples I just didn’t want to dig up anything more upsetting.

That is how I feel about oppression. Validity matters, representation matters, but it is not the nitty gritty of what oppression is. It’s screaming at the walls, throwing your phone, because someone with the power to judge and fuck up your life, did exactly that. And worse they feel righteous for what they did because to them you’re just a “insert slur here”. And that’s just a small nonviolent and nonlethal example.

Now unlike asexuality, I know to be trans is to be oppressed and to suffer. But you cannot lift yourself up by putting others down, you will be on a tower of dominos that can fall the moment some other group does it to you. I always said trans people obviously belonged with LGB groups because obviously bigots didn’t care if a couple was two gay men or a man and non-passing trans woman. To me it spoke to a shared history and understanding. But maybe I was wrong, maybe that doesn’t exist. I think at least the one major difference now that I can definitely see is it’s ridiculous to infer female privilege by calling us cis. One thing is for sure, LGB and trans history are not as simple as I had ignorantly assumed in the past.

I don’t want to dictate what trans life is like, I don’t want deny any adult the right to transition, I don’t have any interest in misgendering, I believe there is a difference between sex and gender. But by fucking god I will not let anyone trample on my rights, call me bitch, cunt, terf, cum dumpster, deny my oppression as a female, deny my suffering, deny my reality as a female, just so You can feel better about your body. I will not sacrifice my body at the alter of your perceptions of your body.

Society loves to say otherwise, but women don’t exist to make you feel better. We don’t exist to make men feel more like a man or for trans women to feel more like a woman. We exist for our fucking selves, leave us alone! I’m not sorry if it makes you feel less of a woman because you need to address the misogyny you have been socialized into as a male. You all reek of sexism and think being trans means you magically cannot be affected by male socialization. That is some first class Bullshit. I’m a poor disabled lesbian, and none of that erases the racial bias I was taught and raised in as a white person. I always need to be willing to confront that, and it’s no different with males. Trans or cis, all of you were raised to hate women. Own it so we can fucking get past it.

Furthermore, our society only does better when we foster discourse. Disagreeing can be enraging but it’s how you learn if your own beliefs are worth keeping or discarding. It’s how you grow. Only insecure bullies feel the need to demand loyalty, stamp out dissent, and mock their opponents than actually argue. Don’t give into this intellectual dishonesty that might be easy, feel good, gain you a moment of praise, but ultimately throws women’s liberation and equality under the bus and into a raging inferno. How dare you think your right to feel valid is more important than my right to live freely and without shame as a female.

I’m very much open to good faith discourse on this topic, but do not mistake me. I have suffered for being born with a vagina, and no male will ever get to shut me up. So the next time you want to say choke on a dick, choke on your own.

#misogyny #sexism #feminism #trans activism #radical feminism #gender critical

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myuheru-archive · 4 years

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it’s 8 in the morning but. while i do agree they are not the same there has to be a level of ignorance and privilege and arrogance that comes with thinking there are no targeted victims of the pandemic. some middle class healthy and abled white gay CAN NOT make this post as if our government isn’t pulling the same shit with the corona virus as it did with the aids crisis. they are still choosing inaction in order to let poor and disabled people die and if someone can’t see that the. that’s on their lack of knowledge and their lack of empathy.

homophobia and classism/ableism are not the same. but we can’t treat it like one is worse than the other. marginalized groups of people are still fucking dying austin.

the original post is still obnoxious and just fucking wrong like if i saw some healthy middle class person walking down the street in one of those i’d start blindly attacking. i hate capitalism. i hate privledged gays who think they’re the most oppressed group in the world

#and its another example of how vile capitalism is. imagine seeing an individuals own cry for justice and making a marketable product out of #it and applying it to the current crisis which still. not the same at its core #but our government is pulling similar shit #anyway. sorry to rant at 8 in the morning again. these ppl just cant act like ableism and classism dont exist!#they cant act like this is not some form of eugenics!#like thats also pretty bold coming from a millenial with no experience whatsoever with the aids crisis #txt

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radfem-moira · 5 years

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I'm just going to say this stupid argument about one (1!) discord server for some five six straight radfems has had some lesbians jump into straight-up wild conclusions. Them literally calling all het radfems lesbophobic bitches (an honest quote) who want to feel oppressed so badly, and still continuing this rant when all het women have been quiet for a while now. Like the whole thing started with one person wanting to talk about feeling sexual attraction toward the oppressor class, 1/4

... not because lesbians are bullies nor because anyone feels OPPRESSED for being straight? But because Idk, being sexually attracted to the same men who you know also oppress you is probably a damaging experience for many radfems and yeah, also a bit separate topic from e.g. lesbians suffering from compulsory heterosexuality or any women in general being socialized to cater to men's feelings. And like how maybe this was less about anyone trying to EXCLUDE lesbians from similar discussions 2/4

... per se, but that they didn't want to BOTHER non-straights about issues that are talked about a lot anyway, aka. being sexually attracted to men. And then the few responses that followed were retaliation to that sudden escalation, where some lesbians were literally flipping tables, saying straight radfems already have the whole world supporting their sexual attraction, as if... the whole world has ever been supportive of radfem perspectives. "A radfem wanting to talk about straightness 3/4

... in private immediately makes her and all other hets lesbophobes who want to be oppressed"? That's not the same as correcting them by "we also experience comp heterosexuality and live with men so we can talk about this together". But the first statement started the argument nonetheless. And was repeated a LOT. Like, Idk, maybe it'd help to first explain why something sounds off, before saying hets are evil and using their reactions to THAT as further proof of their alleged lesbophobia. 4/4

Here’s my thoughts on this:

1- I’m overall pretty indifferent to het radfems making spaces for themselves. Lesbians get excluded from women’s spaces and discussions literally all the time, either explicitly (as in this case) or implicitly (more common). This one example is pretty benign in comparison - like you said, there’s not a lot of people in it. However, just because I don’t feel very strongly about it doesn’t mean I won’t point out the problems I’ve seen in this situation. I don’t approve of anyone calling other women “bitches”, but as far as all het radfems being lesbophobes... I mean, yeah. Unfortunately, that’s the reality right now. Some are worse than others, but that’s just how hets behave in general. Also, het radfems are definitely not quiet. Not that they should be, but still. Citation needed.

2- Lesbians are never attracted to their oppressors, according to you? That’s news to me. I’ll go tell that to my hypothalamus. Straight and bi girls are now off-limit.

3- Yes, I’ve seen that argument being made by some. And it’s very nice of them. In many of the radfem servers I was on, we had special channels just for discussing het attraction, where lesbians didn’t go (I did see the channel because I was a mod, but I don’t think I ever had to post on it). A whole server of that wouldn’t be such a problem... if the actual reasons that the women who want to create it weren’t actually this:

And these statements - “they have no lives”, “they’re bullies”, “they’re obsessed with us” - as responses to the criticisms of an oppressed group telling you you’re doing something wrong would NEVER pass if they came from anyone except lesbians within the radfem community. Imagine if someone made an able-bodied only server, or a White-only server, and disabled or non-White radfems responded with outrage and with accusations of ableism or racism. NO ONE would be so supportive of the creators of such servers. NO ONE would allow them to just get away with saying “get a life, losers” to the women criticizing them. Or at least, I hope they wouldn’t. I’m gonna be honest, I’m starting to have doubts about that.

4- So I’m going to repeat what other lesbians have already said better than me here: if you’re heterosexual, the whole world supports your sexual attraction. Even if you’re a woman. Even if you’re a radfem. I can’t believe this is something I have to type out. If you are heterosexual, you do not have to worry about being a victim of a type of violence that is based on your sexual orientation. Heterophobic violence doesn’t exist. Misogynistic violence does. And lesbians are women, who are also victims of misogynistic violence. The risk factor of IPV (Intimate Partner Violence) for women is dating men, but a lot of heterosexual and bisexual women are not dating men at the moment. Conversely, a lot of lesbians are dating men at the moment, or have done so in the past, meaning that they also face/faced a heightened risk for IPV! So that argument in favour of an OSA-only server is really unconvincing to me, sorry.

Over my 1 year + of having this blog, I’ve faced my share of overt, unrepentant homophobia from het and bi radfems. Like, dig on my blog for 5 seconds and you’ll find radfems who literally don’t believe in homosexuality or homophobia. Our literature is dominated by straight and bi women who don’t believe in homosexuality or homophobia. And no amount of lesbians sharing their experiences will change their minds, because they don’t even believe in our existence at the most fundamental level. So forgive us for not exactly trusting yet ANOTHER group of radfems who seems to believe that excluding us is necessary for them to discuss certain feminist issues: it’s not nearly as fresh of an idea as you think it is. Like I said, we’ve all heard it before. It’s not a big deal, but it’s definitely annoying.

#asks

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skamofcolor · 5 years

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Hi! Im trying to decide which remake to watch next. I have seen the og, france (i have to say besides season 3 it was super bad) and druck. Which remake is the best in terms of representation, like how would u rank them? (I trust u wont recommend italia lol)

This is an interesting question because I’m not sure that the remakes with the “best representation” are the ones that I personally find the most enjoyable to watch? (I’m also going to assume that when you say “best in terms of representation,” you mean the most ethnoracially diverse just in terms of casting?)

So instead of doing a ranking, here’s an outline of the ethnoracial representation of each one and my brief opinion on how each show works in terms of representation:

Skam España

Season 1: Eva (Eva) / Season 2: Cris (Chris & Isak)

España is one of the least diverse remakes in terms of ethnoracial identity, there’s no denying that. Although they have a few Latin American actors on the show, there are only two characters that aren’t white (or white-passing).

However, España is my favorite remake. Season one is pretty solid and I found myself interested in all of the characters and their personalities. Season two is absolutely spectacular, and while I have a few complaints, I cannot praise it enough. They gave Isak’s storyline to their Chris Berg (Cris) character, so it’s a wlw storyline.

One of the best parts of it is how they treat their Sana (Amira). Imo España puts in way more care and effort into Amira than any of the other Skams do, including the OG. The Girl Squad actually seems to care about Amira’s religion and they make the effort to educate themselves, and Cris especially works to make Amira feel like she belongs. That’s not in spite of her differences, either, the show acknowledges how difference affects people and why it’s also a source of pride and important to a sense of self-hood. It’s the first Skam show, tbqh, where I’m not scared for the Sana season.

Most of the racism/Islamophobia Amira experiences is from outsiders commenting on Amira and through Cris’s mom. Their Vilde (Viri) is definitely sheltered and shows prejudice on a number of occasions in S1 but seems to be the one who lets go of those biases the most out of all the Vildes. Otherwise a lot of the prejudice is misogyny, homophobia/biphobia and ableism (which relates to the themes in Eva’s and Cris’s season).

Overall, I would describe España as tender.

Skam Austin

Season 1: Megan (Eva) / Season 2: Grace (Noora)

I think Austin the most ethnoracially diverse of the Skam shows. 3/5 members of the Girl Squad are WoC, and their Isak is a Black lesbian. (Yay!!!!!!)

Season one was fun but felt a bit rushed in some places. Season two started out pretty badly in terms of dialogue and characterization, but I did think it picked up well towards the middle of the season. I think it really hit its stride in the last few episodes!

All of the characters of color are fun, lovable, and get more complex characterization by the end of S2. What I do dislike about Austin is that they seem to love putting their characters of color in painful situations with very little resolution or support from other characters. I’m not sure how to get into this without spoiling things, but I was not happy with their Sana’s (Zoya), Eva’s, (Megan), Chris’s (Josefina) or Isak’s (Shay) storylines or how they wrapped up. However, when given complex dialogue and scenes, these actresses really pull out all the stops.

There’s not too much racism/Islamophobia in season 1 besides the patent Vilde-to-Sana (Kelsey to Zoya) prejudice. Megan is actually Latina but I don’t remember that really being brought up at all. I love Josefina but at points I feel like she was also just supposed to be the comic relief as well. Season 2, imo, had a LOT of racism/islamophobia, mostly directed at Zoya but a few microaggressions against the other girls as well. Kelsey seems to grow and isn’t blatantly racist/islamophobic but is still cringe-y/funny in that white-woman-who’s-trying-too-hard kind of way. Other forms of prejudice are misogyny and lesophobia (season 2 is also the Noora season, so content note for sexual assault).

Overall, I would describe Austin as campy.

Skam Netherlands

Season 1: Isa (Eva) / Season 2: Liv (Noora)

Netherlands is extremely ethnoracially diverse as well. They’re also the first remake to give us a WoC!Noora and a MoC!William.

Season one is probably my favorite season one (besides the OG). They built on so much of the wonderful aspects of the OG and went a step further, imo. Season two started out so well, but then it began to teeter off towards the end. It felt very rushed by then and some of the changes they made to the characters didn’t affect the plot at all, which was disappointing and almost nonsensical to watch. The show is very aesthetically pleasing though and I love most of the characters because they’re so... emotionally messy. lol.

Overall, their characters of color are quirky and nuanced. They’re also treated pretty well by the narrative. However... I think the show tends to not acknowledge their ethnoracial identities at all. Overall, it gives me the impression that the show did “colorblind” casting and then just either didn’t want to or forgot to engage with ethnoracial identity on any kind of level (sort of like Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella or Still Star Crossed). This… is not necessarily a bad thing? But it annoys me because I personally think that stories inherently change when you cast marginalized actors. The exceptions to this are their Sana character (Imaan, who is only in season one) and their new Sana/Linn hybrid character (Esra who is in season two).

Again, because the show doesn’t really engage with ethnoracial identity, there’s not much racism/Islamophobia besides the Vilde-to-Sana stuff (Engel to Imaan). Engel is also painted as a cutesy, just doesn’t know any better kind of ignorant and not purposefully racist like many of the other Vildes. In season two, her interactions with Esra have a different tone like she’s genuinely curious, which can still be couched in prejudice. To me though, the dynamic is different because Esra is so much older than she is, so the power is more balanced. The show mostly deals with misogyny but not in a racialized way with Liv, which I found disappointing as well. Again, season 2 is also the Noora season, so content note for sexual assault.

Overall, I would describe Netherlands as surrealist (Also, from what I’ve seen, a lot of people who like Druck really like Skamnl too).

WTFock

Season 1: Janna (Eva) / Season 2: Zoe (Noora)

WTFock is in the middle when it comes to ethnoracial diversity.

Season one starts out slowly, but the small changes they make to the plot make a lot of sense and I really quite liked. It’s underrated but I think some of the characters are extremely strong, and for some reason it gives me the most OG vibe. Their Noora (Zoe) and Sana (Yasmina) are some of my favorites. I haven’t watched season two fully yet, maybe five-six clips. I did like the ones I selectively watched because it seems like they did change things up in a way that actually impacts the storyline (unlike in other remakes, who do small changes but ultimately stick to the exact plot of the OG).

I adore Yasmina and have no strong feelings about the rest of their characters of color so far. Their Chris (Luca) isn’t as strong as some of her counterparts, imo, but I think there’s potential to really build her up. I will say though that their one MoC, Moyo (a Mahdi/Magnus?) is arguably also the worse. He’s obsessed with saying fa**ot and is pretty homophobic. I have a suspicion that WTfock is gonna pull out some antiblackness the same way Skamfr did but again, I haven’t watched most of season 2 so I feel like I can’t really say that for sure yet. The show is good so far at hinting at Yasmina’s backstory, which I also really like. I feel like Wtfock and España have been the best at giving their Sanas a life outside of their friends, where we get more about then in early seasons then we did with Sana.

Yasmina deals with a lot of racism/Islamophobia from her Vilde (Amber). Imo, Amber is the fucking worst, and I don’t know how anyone can tolerate her. She’s even worse than Kiki which is saying a lot because I really really loathe Kiki. But anyway. Season one also has a “Mexican” themed party which was atrocious to watch, and not one of the characters seems to think that’s racist at all. The show tackles with misogyny as well, and season 2 is also the Noora season, so content note for sexual assault. I’m not 100% certain because again, I haven’t watched it, but apparently a bunch of characters, not only Moyo, have also been really gross, fetishizing and homophobic towards Robbe.

Overall, I thought season one was solid. I can’t really comment on the show as a whole yet.

In Conclusion

Anyway!

I hope this was helpful, but what you’re going to like really depends on you. This is all my opinion and ofc folks are free to disagree with me. I might be missing a lot because I wrote this all off of memory, but these are the impressions that stuck with me the most.

- mod Jennifer

#answered ask

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gardenstateofmind · 6 years

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im reminded of that article i read not too long ago, i think it was pretty popular, i saw it going around a lot, and basically it was just a reporter who'd interviewed the residents of a rural PA town that had gotten publicity for being a center of staunch support for donald trump's 2016 campaign, and then the reporter went back a year later to reinterview some of those people, to see how a year might have changed things

despite the fact that things had only gotten worse for the residents-with the decline of the steel industry, poverty in the appalachian region has skyrocketed, and obviously republican measures have only exacerbated that-almost all the residents responded that they were very happy with donald trump's "progress" that they had just as much hope as before, that all of the wrongs that man had done during his short presidency were just lies spread by the liberal media, etc.

one couple shared a heartwrenching story about losing their son over the past year because of a fentanyl overdose, and the commentary on the problem of opioid addiction in the appalachian area. and the couple also had friendly conversation with the reporter, sitting down in their home, and talking about current events. they stated their disgust with the way football players were protesting during the national anthem by taking a knee, and the husband told his wife to share the joke she had about the nfl, and she said that NFL stands for "n------rs for life" and the couple laughs, and the reporter kinda just leaves it at that as like a poignant note to end on

and honestly that's just. an accurate depiction of what Most people in need are like. white supremacy and anti black racism are very specific, very real problems, but im generalizing the attitude of prejudice in general. i don't have many white family members, so most of the people ive grown up with are immigrants of color. they are probably the most horribly racist people ive ever met. i dont think they're particularly worse than the average person, i just get to see more of them than anyone else.

i have heard comments like that woman's "funny joke" before, said in heavy arabic accents. i have heard my mexican catholic family calling our arab muslim family terrorists. heard black americans hurl insults at my loved ones for being illegal aliens. etc etc. pretty much every latino ive known is conservative nd leans republican. they violently enforce gender norms, and because of that are morally opposed to gender equality, same gender marriage, respecting trans peoples genders.

people of color don't have privilege over each other, but they sure do uphold the systems of oppression that keep all of us down. people happily support a system that actively hurts them.

so i don't really care if poor white people are prejudiced or vote conservative or hate my family for "stealing their jobs" bc honestly it's te same thing ive heard all my life, and the worst homophobia, transphobia, and ableism ive experienced has been from my loved ones. people are just shitty a lot of the time. that's reality. the only difference is that some of them have entire insitutions to back up their hate, which grants them privilege. but on an individual level, no i dont see a difference. i complain about white people all the time sure, but it's not that serious. it's just a way to express my frustrations in a simple, mostly light hearted way.

but im absolutely exhausted of seeing that kind of shit in legitimate activism. thats not how it works. activism means addressing YOUR own prejudices and using YOUR societal privileges to make a difference. it means making the choice to stay committed to helping people who do not Want your help, although they need it. people who will not be grateful, who will not make it easier, who might even attack you, because in spite of all that, they still deserve to be helped. that's the sacrifice you have to make if you really want to be an activist.

you don't HAVE to do it. no one has an obligation to be completely selfless. it's okay if some people just aren't cut out for it. but please fucking stop spread even more negativity in movements that are meant to be positive. that space isn't for you then. go away. stop trying to force ur wrong opinion as objectively good politics. shut uuuuup.

#personal #long post #opinions

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beatrice-otter · 7 years

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Thoughts on racism, sexism, and fandom: How to Suck Less

I've been in fandom for almost twenty years, and here are some things that are true of pretty much every fandom I've seen: There is a lot more sexism, racism, homophobia, ableism, anti-semitism, etc., in fandom than most of us would like to admit, and the vast majority of it is unconscious. People (mostly white, etc.) THINK they're being perfectly unbiased and fair, and they really, really aren't. Their unconscious prejudices are shining through. And it sucks. We, collectively, suck. But here's something I think most people miss: when we talk about this stuff, the point is not to make people feel bad. It's not about who's a "good," non-racist person, and who is a "bad" racist. It's not about proving who's "pure" and who's not. (Or at least, if that's why you're doing it, you're a really screwed-up self-righteous asshole.) IT'S ABOUT CHANGE. Because the thing is, we are all swimming in a sea of racist, sexist, queerphobic crap all the time. We can't change the larger culture (at least not by ourselves), but we CAN change fandom. I know, because fandom has gotten better about this stuff over the last twenty years. There is still a LOT of room for improvement, but it's better than it was. And it can get better than it is. But not if we ignore the problem or sweep it under the rug or get defensive. The first step in sucking less is to realize that you suck in the first place. The second step is figuring out how to suck less. This post is about that second step. This post is about how to take the knowledge that, yes, we have some problems, and work to make those problems smaller. This post is about how to work through that, grow as a person, learn to suck less, and still have fun in fandom while you're doing it.

There are a lot of posts out there about how to be a good ally. There are also lots of posts out there about avoiding racist/sexist/ableist/whateverist tropes in fic. And there are a lot of good posts out there pointing out that fandom gets WAAAAAY more interested in able-bodied neurotypical cisgender white men than about any other character. We all know what the problems are, or at least, we should. But I think there's a need for "okay, I want to be more inclusive/suck less, how do I do it" on a broad level before we get to the nitty-gritty of "these are tropes I should avoid or be careful about." Namely, how does one get oneself to be fannish about characters that all one's cultural conditioning is screaming at you to ignore? First, some basic principles. 1) This is fandom. It is supposed to be fun. This should not be like that terrible assignment from your least favorite teacher in school, fandom should be fun. 2) We've all been marinating in a stew of racism/homophobia/sexism/ableism/antisemitism/islamophobia all our lives. Even if, on a conscious level, you disagree with any given ism, your gut has been conditioned to prioritize white able-bodied cissexual neurotypical men over everything else. 3) Racism and sexism suck, and sucking is bad, and it makes fandom NOT fun for those on the receiving end of it. We should all be trying to suck less, both as a goal in its own right and because we want fandom to be fun for EVERYONE. 4) It is possible to work at sucking less while still enjoying fandom. 5) The higher we are in the kyriarchy, the more damage your sucking causes, and the more we are protected from that damage. So, like, a white person is part of the power structure that causes and benefits from racism; we're less likely to see it, more likely to cause damage to others because of it. BUT we also have a lot more power to change things for the better. It's not up to black people or Latin@s or Asians or Roma or LGBTQ people or people with disabilities or Jews or any other oppressed group to fix things--they're not the problem. The ultimate responsibility is up to Whites to suck less. (This doesn't mean that, say, a Black person can't suck--just that they are WAY less likely to damage others through their suckitude.) So the question is, how do we as White people have fun in fandom while sucking less? Fear not! It's actually pretty simple, you just have to make that a consistent priority. Let's define Principle 1. How is fandom fun? Well, for me, fandom is fun because there are shows and movies and books that I love, and I love reading and writing fanfic and meta about them, and squeeing about them with my friends. I find all of those activities fun. I hope you all do, too. I want you to keep on finding those things fun. BUT there is a problem. We are conditioned by our society to value men more than women, Whites more than any other race, able-bodied neurotypical people more than disabled and/or neurodiverse people, etc., etc., you can all fill in the hierarchies that our society has tried to instill in us (and has probably succeeded in instilling more than you realize). The preference for white men in fandom isn't any worse than in other places in our society. It's true, and I think it's important to remember. The problem comes in when we leave it at that. "Well, it's not my fault, and anyway even if I AM conditioned to pay more attention to white men more than anything else, this is fandom so I should be able to just ignore that and go on like always." Aaaaand then you continue to have fun, but you keep sucking, and hurting people in the process. We have all been conditioned to favor whitedude above everything else. By which I mean, our society privileges stories about able-bodied neurotypical white men above stories about other people. A white man who has super incredible abilities and can do all the things is Batman, a white woman with all the same qualities is a Mary Sue, and is usually depowered to make room for the male hero, to boot. And characters of different ethnicities, or religions, or with disabilities, don't even have it that good. We think stories about white men are interesting because ... those are the stories we've read, watched, listened to the most. We're used to them. We've been taught all our lives that these are the good stories, the stories that matter. And so most of us have learned to prioritize those stories on an unconscious level. And we show that in our choices, which shows we watch, which actors/actresses we think are hot, which characters we write about. The good news is, that's conditioning. It's not some inborn genetic thing, it's how we've been trained. And we can train ourselves differently! It starts by being mindful. What we consume shapes us, right? So keep that in mind when you choose what you consume, what movies, what books, what TV shows, what fanfic. I'm not saying "don't watch your favorite show if it's got too many white men." But let's be real: some TV we watch/read because OMG ITS TEH BEST EVAR!!1! and some we watch/read because it's fun and some we watch/read because our friends are and some we watch/read because it's better than other things we could be doing. When you're making a choice between two shows/movies/books that will probably be about the same level of entertaining, go for the one that's less ALL WHITE MALE. This is the age of the internet, where our choices are much greater than they've ever been before. When you're browsing Netflix on a Tuesday night looking for a fun movie to watch, give higher preference to diverse shows. Not in an "OMG, I can't ever watch anything with white men again, no matter how awesome it is!" way, but rather in a "I've seen so many movies about White Men(tm) in my life--is this one going to just be more of the same? Are there other options I might enjoy?" way. When you've got a variety of options and they would all be enjoyable, go for the ones least likely to reinforce the WHITE STRAIGHT ABLEBODIED NEUROTYPICAL CIS MALE IS THE DEFAULT AND BEST inside your head. What this can look like in practice: I like Marvel, but I am not a big enough fan to watch all of their shows. I pick and choose and leave myself time for other shows as well. On Netflix there are two Marvel shows I could be watching that are roughly comparable: Daredevil and Luke Cage. Both are about urban superheroes, but Daredevil is white and Luke Cage is black. (Also, Daredevil has some really terrible Yellow Peril stuff.) So I watch Luke Cage. I enjoy it. I'd probably enjoy Daredevil, too, but I don't have time for everything, and so I prioritize. And I don't treat it like I'm taking my medicine and forcing myself to watch something because it's more socially just and not because I like it. I go in expecting to have fun. And you know what? Usually I do. Another example: back in 2011, I needed something new to be fannish about. I had enough time to be fannish about one television show in addition to the stuff I was already fannish about. There were two shows premiering that fall that looked interesting to me, both rather similar: Grimm, and Once Upon A Time. Both were urban fantasy. One starred a white man, one starred a white woman. I chose the one starring the woman and went in to it prepared to love the show. Not grudgingly, but "ooh, this could be fun." And I loved it. If I hadn't, I would have stopped watching it after a couple of episodes and switched to Grimm. That was always an option; I wasn't watching OUaT to be masochistic about "doing the right thing." I was choosing which of two interesting options to give brain and heart space to, and I was going in to it with a brain and heart open to being pleased. If, despite that, it didn't please me? I'd move on to the next thing. Plenty of other fish in the sea. But I started with the less-whitedude option. What this does is it gives brainspace to new possibilities. It erodes the assumption your hindbrain makes that white men matter more than other people do. It erodes the assumption your hindbrain makes that white men are more interesting. The more attention you pay to people outside the cultural norm, the more interesting you find their stories. When you do this, you are actively re-training your cultural conditioning about who matters and who is interesting. And you are having fun while you are doing it. This has two ways that it will erode your suckage in fandom-related ways. First, it increases the number of people likely to be in non-whitedude fandoms, which is a slight counterweight to the overwhelming whitedude nature of fandom in general. One more person reading the fic and (hopefully) commenting. One more person posting about it, whether you do meta/art/fic/gifs/fanmixes/videos/whatever. Second, if you do this consistently over a long period of time, you will find that your instinct to always focus on white male characters will erode. Your background assumption of who is interesting and who isn't will start to shift. Do this with the fannish content you produce, as well. You have a tumblr? Give preference to reblogging women and people of color. If you see something about white guys that is AWESOME AND SQUEEWORTHY, go ahead and reblog it and enjoy it while you do. But, you know, a lot of times we reblog stuff that's interesting but not full-on capslock squee, right? Stuff where it takes a second to decide if you should reblog or not. Where you could go either way. And in those cases, make a conscious decision in favor of diversity. Stuff about white men? If it's in that "should I reblog this?" category, don't reblog it. Stuff about anyone else? Do reblog it. When figuring out new content to post, do the same thing. AWESOME SQUEEFUL STUFF? Post away! Interesting but not incredible? Give more weight to stuff about women and people of color and queer people and disabled people and neurodiverse people and Jews and Muslims and all the rest. It's not about harshing the squee, or putting your fannish tastes through some kind of quota system. It's about balance. Trust me. The world and fandom both have PLENTY of whitedude stuff, they'll get along just fine without more. But there's a shortage of everything else, so that's where the focus should be. And you can do the same with fanfic! Again, I'm not saying "never read your favorites!" I'm saying, be mindful. Are you a big Captain America fan? Check out the Sam Wilson and Natasha Romanov and Maria Hill fic in that fandom, and keep your eye out for more. When you do so, consider filtering out Steve/Bucky stuff occasionally. (http://ift.tt/2oUmoPT) After all, presumably you already read a lot of S/B. Your goal isn't to find fics where Sam is in two scenes to get the Whitedude together or help them work out their shit, but fics where Sam gets to really shine. As himself, not just the sidekick to the whitebro. And don't do it grudgingly; do it with open heart and mind, ready to embrace Sam in his awesomeness. This isn't to say you should never read whitebro fic, if that's your thing, but rather that there should be a health(ier) balance. This isn't about forcing you to choke down your bitter fannish medicine; it's about expanding the things you love. It's about creating more opportunities for joy and squee. And when you read those fics, comment on them! Spread the love! Authors who write about women or people of color tend to get fewer comments on those fics than on stories focused about white male characters, which is discouraging. Share the love; kudos and comment. A comment saying "Good fic" is great, it doesn't have to be long and involved. This holds true for all your fic, by the way, not just the fic where you're consciously diversifying your reading habits. Reading a Steve/Bucky fic and the author wrote Sam well, or Natasha, or Maria, or Rhodey, or Dr. Cho? Tell the author! Point that out specifically. Doesn't have to be elaborate; "I liked Sam" is fine. The point is to reward people for being more inclusive. When you find a particularly good fic based on a certain woman or character of color, check out the author's page. Chances are, they've got more like it. If they do, and you like their work? Subscribe to them so when they write something, you see it. Again, the goal is to still have fun with awesome fic, but shifting what you consume to be more diverse. Because that will shift your internal default away from the Straight White Neurotypical Ablebodied Man that our society tries to push as the default. And that will affect how you see the world both in fandom and out of it. Part of the fun of fandom, for many of us, isn't just about consuming content, it's also about creating it. I love writing fanfic. And here's where a lot of peoples' asses start to show, and where they start whining about how they just write what they write and they only get plotbunnies for whitebro. And that may be true, but again, this is something you can actually change. If your brain doesn't come up with plotbunnies for characters of color, or for women, or for lesbians, or for a mixed-race canon couple, or for disabled or neurodivergent people? You can work on coming up with plotbunnies on your own and train your brain in the process! For example! Say you are a fan of The Flash. For every episode you watch, come up with one plot bunny for a non-white male character. You don't have to write it; that's another step down the road. It doesn't have to be something huge. The first step is getting your brain used to generating plot bunnies for characters you normally wouldn't. If Iris had a big part in that episode, think up a story idea for her. What was she doing while Barry was fighting the villain of the week? How's things going at work for her? If Joe had a big part, think up an idea for him. If there was an Iris/Barry moment, think up a story idea for that pairing. Wally, Cisco, Caitlynn, Lisa Snart, you get the idea. If you're a Supergirl fan, come up with a story idea for Hank or James or Renee Montoya or M'Gann each episode. You don't have to write it, the goal for this part is to get you used to thinking of these characters as people with stories. People you are interested in. I mean, if you get a great idea and want to write it, awesome, but step one is to get your gut and your hindbrain primed to think about these people and care about their stories. You've already been primed to care about and think about white male characters by everything you've seen and read and heard since you were a baby, but there's been precious little priming you for everybody else, so a little extra effort is probably going to be needed. The next step is similar to the choosing-fandoms step, only for choosing plotbunnies. You will probably have some ideas that just yank you over and demand to be written, so write them. But if you are anything like me, there are also times that you want to write and have a lot of different ideas you could write, you just have to decide which. And in that case, you can probably guess by now, give more weight to the non-whitebro options. If you have four plot bunnies you could write, and two of them are about white male characters and one of them is about a white woman and one is about a character of color? Give more weight to the woman and (especially) the character of color. I'm not saying "you can never write white men again!" I'm saying that in your decision-making process, recognize that the rest of the world is weighted WAY THE FUCK IN FAVOR OF WHITE ABLE-BODIED NEUROTYPICAL CIS MEN, so to provide balance, we should be weighting in favor of everyone else, and giving the most weight to the people that society gives the least weight to. The things I've outlined in this post don't magically get rid of all that social conditioning overnight, and they don't magically fix everything. What they do is they give you a place to start, and aim you in a direction so that, if you work on it over time, you will suck less while still having fun in fandom and making it more inclusive. And the more people who do stuff like this, the less fandom will suck over time.

comments Comment? http://ift.tt/2oUnZoO

#fandom

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reactionaryhater · 7 years

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Field Guide to No MRAs

This is the second part in a freeform response to @randomshoes‘ “Field Guide to MRAs” and I’ll just jump into the next group, it’s a wild ride.

Level 3, The Wounded Dog

What Level 3 Is: Someone who has actually been hurt by a woman, or screwed over by misandry, in a significant emotional, social, and/or physical way. (Not an MRA… though experience with abuse of men has encouraged many MRAs, MHRAs, FRAs and so on.)

What she says: “One woman hurt me or someone I know”

“this feeling can range from the MRA having been legitimately severely abused by a female partner or relative all the way to being unfairly passed over for a job or promotion in favor of a woman”

“My life is shit because I’m poor (or non-white or non-straight)”

““I feel powerless or have felt powerless in relation to women”

“you found some very bad thing that happens to men more than women”

What I say: My god. Ableism, classism, racism, homophobia, you really have it all here. How dare someone complain about being disadvantaged? Or worse yet, personally abused? Oh but men, my plebeians, feminism is helping you!… Except that feminism is centered on women. How dare you bite the hand that feeds your sisters.

Randomshoes, go yell at homeless men, real homeless men, you know, the majority of people living on the street, about how they’re privileged.

Furthermore, I’m hereby bestowing upon you the Claude Frollo Award for Masking Delusions and Sociopathy with Ostensibly Virtuous Ideology.

Level 3.5, The Nice Guy

What Level 3 Is: Unspecified, someone who is seeking a simple external answer to their own social shortcomings. If this escalates to a lifestyle level it becomes PUA. (Not an MRA.)

What She Says: “Same as Level 3, except that the woman or women “hurt” the MRA by denying him sex.”

“for the safety and comfort of women everywhere, DO NOT encourage their belief that they have been wronged”

“These are often the people who buy pickup artist books”

What I say: Firstly, wow, someone who still cares about the “Nice Guy™” stereotype / meme. Did you go into hibernation fifteen years ago, or during its pitiful revival four years ago? So, you sincerely believe these people pose a threat to women. If I say “um, data please” am I going to get anything more substantial than “here’s Elliot Roger” or did I just guess your entire dataset?

Oh, and I forgot one quote…

“The Nice Guy is a difficult species to reason with; sex is a powerful motivator.”

Level 4, The Reasonable Man

What Level 4 Is: Traditionalist, someone who believes things were better in the past. (Not an MRA.)

What she says: “Women were happier in the past blah blah blah biology blah blah blah gender roles blah blah blah good at different things.”

“In response to the bit about women being happier before feminism, um, data please?”

“The most likely of the MRAs proper to be female, although the female variant of this will probably self-identify as anti-feminist or “a wife and a mother.” In particularly egregious cases they will claim to actually be a feminist.”

What I say: Your writing is really starting to deteriorate. We reached Big Red levels of condescension at Level 3, but now we’re breaking Big Red levels of incoherence. I explained the traditionalist - MRA difference earlier. A key point here is apparently women aren’t to be believed when they tell you what makes them happy, especially if it is the life they are living. Also bringing back your insistence that the Level 0 “most likely to be female” gender egalitarians need to identify as feminists.

Level 4.5, Father Knows Best

What Level 4.5 Is: Conservative and Fundamentalist Muslim or Christian, or conservative member of other religious denominations (Not an MRA).

What she says: “Like level 4, but without the equal part. Women are naturally inferior to men and should defer to them and be an extension of them.”

“they may use a sort of pseudo-Dharma, everyone-has-their-place-in-the-whole-even-the-streetsweeper argument”

“Has the same atheist-religious split as level 4, but with a somewhat higher percentage of religious specimens“

What I say: Everything about this post is dripping with religious undertones, starting with the God-symbolism of the title “Father [not husband] Knows Best” and the Hindu graphic (OP notes it’s from the animation “Sita Sings the Blues”) to the major trait being essentialism and relating it to traditionalists (Level 4). Perhaps randomshoes has some reason to target Hindus for this label, but it’s absurd to suggest there’s a significant atheist population with traditionalist essentialist beliefs that talks about Dharmas, although religious people may argue for it using a secular palette. This isn’t even all religious folks, as I say above, it hearkens from fundamentalist interpretations (which seem to be over-represented in governments today).

#field guide to mras #mras #men's rights #anti feminism #misandry #misogyny

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anautisticdragon-blog · 7 years

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Your Privilege is REAL, Dipshit!

That's the only way I could possibly title this post. It's a topic I have to talk about and people need to read this. I recently called off a friendship with an extraverted, neurotypical friend. I've often viewed extraverted NTs as special, self-absorbed, pretty snowflakes who've absolutely no Theory of Mind whatsoever. I've never encountered a neurotypical that has any level of self awareness. Self awareness requires introspection, the two go hand in hand. You need to be able to look inside yourself to be able to be aware of yourself, if you can't do that, there's no way you can be self aware. Extraverts, to me, often come across as drones, zombies, or worse who're easily brainwashed into cult-like thinking. The MRA cult, the Alt-Right cult, and every other hate cult thrives on brainwashing simple-minded, tribalistic extraverted NTs who don't have the self awareness to be able to resist them. So what often happens is that every extraverted, neurotypical, white, straight male is going to sound like a copy of the MRA manifesto. I swear, this is a thing and it drives me crazy. They all sound like brainwashed cultists. And if you think groups like the MRA cult and Alt-Right cult aren't cults? You're oh so gullible, and wrong. You see, the prissy, beautiful white snowflake that is the white man is scared. They're used to having everything handed to them on a silver platter, delivered unto them solely because they were born into the virtues of being straight, white, and cis-gendered men. They don't actually know what discrimination is like. The extravert I spoke of thinks that discrimination is people saying bad things about him behind his back. NO, REALLY. This dipshit actually has no idea what discrimination is, he's just another mindless drone. So, this is about the Google anti-diversity Manifesto. Which is basically just the MRA Manifesto that all MRA cultists are brainwashed to memorise on entering the cult, as I swear every MRA person I've ever met can recite this shit off the top of their head as though it were some creepy bible. And according to the MRA dipshits, what happened with Google is taking jobs away from straight, white men, which is unfair. Oh no! Okay, let's look at why this is. The brainwashed MRA mindset thinks that everything is 1:1, they believe that everything is already equal so that any change is just hurting white men. They're simple like that. The one way I discovered this is that the extravert I used to talk to -- before I tossed them like the garbage they are -- believes that black supremacy is a problem, and that white supremacy isn't any more of a problem than that. What they purposefully don't realise, and don't tell you, is that things aren't 1:1. Let's say you have 10 per cent black people and 90 per cent white people living in a town, yes? That's generous to the number of black people that might actually be living there, but we'll say that it could be that many. Okay? If white supremacy is a thing, it has teeth due to the vast majority of white people. The black people would have to bow their heads, be subservient, and obey their white overlords or face the consequences. The beautiful, prissy, Aryan white people would turn their head the other way and just 'not see' if a bunch of their white cops decided, on a whim, to just beat the shit out of some of those terrible black people. They probably deserved it, right? So the black people live in fear. Nothing is ever going to be done supporting them, this is is their life. Now this is what a town of regressive white supremacists and everyday black people would look like. Let's turn that around. How would this be if the white people were everyday folks and the black people were regressive supremacists? Would it be unambiguously the same, down to the precise detail, with only a pallete swap of the colours of skin in play? Haha, no. No it wouldn't. The black people would be afraid to exercise their self-assumed superiority due to the vast majority of white people, and even if they were low-functioning enough to even try to enforce their ideologies? They'd be arrested by white people in short order and thrown into prison. Even if black supremacy were to exist, the fact that black people are a minority means that it has no fangs. So in the most real sense it cannot exist because white people have the numbers. That's not how it is in the mind of brainwashed simpletons like these, they genuinely believe it's 1:1, and they're dualistic thinkers who think of it as 'our tribe,' versus 'their tribe,' an unending struggle between the two. That's how they've been brainwashed to think due to a lack of Theory of Mind. I've never met a very racist, very sexist introvert, but I have met very racist, very sexist extraverts specifically BECAUSE they lack self awareness, BECAUSE they have no Theory of Mind. My partner's parents are hopelessly extraverted and also the most racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist people she's ever known. This isn't uncommon. ASD people have more Theory of Mind than this! So, back to tribalism. This arsehole thinks both tribes are equal and set against one another, so if the enemy tribe (let's call them Bunga, because I'm having trouble seeing neurotypicals as anything more than cave people, these days) says bad words about their own tribe (who we'll call Unga)? Well, that's not on! It doesn't matter that the Bunga tribe has only 10 per cent of the people that the Unga tribe has, does it? It doesn't matter that they might be eradicated, committed crimes against, or even genocide for their 'bad words.' No, because everything is already equal. Except it fucking isn't. So, brainwashed and crazy tries to tell me that the MRA cultist who was fired from Google was in the right. Apparently Google has an even spread of all employees, it's an idyllic workplace where everyone is equal forever. So now that they're doing this it's taking jobs away from poor, straight, white, cis-gendered male snowflakes. Awwwww, bless. Let's pity the poor widdle white snowflakes. You see, they feel as though their potential is being squandered, they'll never get to show the world how incredibly awesome they are! Not only is this sickening levels of egotistical and narcissistic that, once again, displays a distinct lack of Theory of Mind? But it also tells us what's going on, here. The straight, white, cis-gendered man is afraid that everything won't be handed to them on a silver platter any more. They're so very afraid that they won't just be given the best positions because of their skin colour, birth gender, and sexual preference. It unnerves them that they won't automatically be in power any more because there are people who actually have Theory of Mind (hello!) enough to know what's going on, here. They're afraid of those who aren't just simple-minded zombies, who might take their easy, blessed, charmed lives away from them. Oh nooo!!! Prissy little lily-white brainwashed zombies. And this makes perfect sense to them because Google is a 1:1 employer, they have an even spread of all kinds of employees. They must in order for brainwashed and crazy to even believe what he believes, right? Uh, no. Google is under investigation by the US Dept. of Labour for having a massive gender gap. 70 per cent of Google employees are your ordinary, everyday, straight, white, neurotypical, cis-gendered, healthy, everyday men. The other 30 per cent? Everything else. Including other minorities and genders. That's a grotesque majority. Guess what? Even if it was only 50 per cent, the white men would have a grotesque majority because that's still only 50 per cent everyone else. Even if the white men accounted for 35 per cent, they'd still have a majority! Sadly, the MRA zombies are too simple-minded to actually understand math (and they claim to be proponents of STEM, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, oh my sides). They don't get why this spread is problematic, they don't get why Google is being investigated. They just see it as jobs being taken from beautiful, white, male snowflakes whose contributions will be missed. Contributions which are clearly, clearly superior. AND THAT'S THE THING. You see, Google's systems don't actually make the hires more diverse. Just the applicants. So the problematic systems could keep Google's status quo even with these new systems in place. What problematic systems have kept straight, white, cis-gendered men in a privileged position? Every fucking prejudice ever. Racism, sexism, ableism, transphobia, homophobia, and the list goes on! These bigoted prejudices create hiring biases. It's these selfsame biases that create inequality in the first place, and our brainwashed and crazy cultists can't realise this because they're not smart or self aware enough to. There was a thing on Tumblr I saw a while back. It was interesting. Effectively it had two people in tech support, they shared accounts, they were good friends. One a man, the other a woman. The boss often complained about how the woman in question was slow to solve the problems of clients, versus his male employee. One day, because they tend to share accounts, the guy forgot to sign out of hers. He spent most of his time arguing with a client and trying to prove that he actually had enough knowledge to solve the problems at hand, he had to fight for every inch to prove he was qualified. He couldn't understand why. He'd never actually dealt with a client like this before, it was aggravating and annoying! It drove him up the wall. And then he realised he was signed in on his partner's chat name. A lightbulb popped into existence above his head. He sat for a moment, thought about it, then told the client that he would go and fetch 'her partner' and that 'he might be able to help you solve the problem better.' Notice that he was still representing himself as female, and the upcoming account switch as a new person who'd be male. The client was irate, but they agreed to wait. They simply signed out of that name and signed into their own name and entered the chat. The difference was like night and day, the client listened and believed him, the client was obedient and played along with what the guy told him to do, and the problem was solved within minutes. This gave him an idea. He asked his colleague if they could switch names for a week, to see if his hunch about sexist biases was causing her to have to fight for every inch, just to even prove to these idiots that she was qualified. She agreed. Guess what happened? She had the most productive week she'd had since she started at the company! He had a week of pure hell, one that made him feel like he wanted to quit on multiple occasions, but he stuck it through just so that they could compare notes at the end to see how their statistics looked. It turned out that she now looked much faster, that she was solving these problems faster than he was, not that their boss would know since they swapped names but they both knew and they took this to their boss. The constructs of sexism and racism create cognitive biases in the minds of people who lack Theory of Mind, who lack self awareness, which is basically every, single extraverted neurotypical I've ever met, frankly. They all seem to be on the lower end of cognition, and on the far higher end of sociopathy. I've explained my thoughts on this before, and I've cited sources to show I'm not just inventing this. It's funny how autistic people are regularly accused of a lack of Theory of Mind when, in reality, it seems like it's the neurotypicals who're really sorely in need of a dose of self awareness. So this is what brainwashed and crazy couldn't wrap his head around, that things aren't 1:1, that the systems created by racism, sexism, and other prejudices actually make it so much easier for straight, white, cis-gendered, male snowflakes to get jobs, because of the cognitive biases of employers. The kinds of biases that had Google investigated for their gender gap in employees, which lead to a new initiative to diversify their applicants. And guess what? Diversifying their applicants doesn't diversify their hires, there's still no systems in place to do that at Google. So brainwashed and crazy tells us that the hires are already diversified, that they will already pick women and minority males over the beautiful, wonderful, prissy, incredible thing that is the straight, white, cis-gendered male (who's so prejudiced against and so disallowed to show their incredible contribution that no other gender or ethnicity could offer, don't you know?). My partner and I asked brainwashed and crazy how they knew this, and they had no answers. They just fought a war of obfuscation, filibustering, and semantics as a means of attrition to try and wear us out. That's what these cultist zombies do when they have no facts. My partner and I are both as autistic and fuck and we were both so painfully aware of how much this zombie lacked the introspection necessary to be self aware. If an extravert only has extrospection, how can they even be self aware? In my experience, they pretty much Universally can't. It's what leads to these situations of dealing with brainwashed and crazy zombies who form MRA and Alt-Right cults. It just vexes and baffles me when neurotypical psychologists tell me that autistic people have no Theory of Mind when everything I've seen in reality shows that the opposite is true, it's baffling! Anyway, brainwashed and crazy continued to go on and on about how there was some biological basis for these disparities, never social or societal, which we debunked time and again using actual studies. They were backed into a corner more and more as time went on, with no real argument to make they continued to get more vague, insulting, political, and manipulative in order to 'win.' All we wanted was to show him that he truly is brainwashed and crazy, that he's an MRA cultist and that that shit needs to stop. We weren't fighting to 'win.' We were fighting for sanity. And finally, the truth came out. He actually slipped up and admitted that he believes that both women and minority males are biologically INFERIOR to white, cis-gendered men. Yeah, you read that right, and I'm sorry. We were just as angry with brainwashed and crazy as you likely are right now. It was infuriating. He tried to cite oh so much pseudoscience to 'prove his point,' though we kept showing him that it was, indeed, pseudoscience on par with Creationism or climate change denial. He just got more and more angry and tried to undermine us more, to manipulate us, but ultimately the truth had come out and we were done with him. He believed himself innately, biologically superior to women and non-white men. Not only brainwashed and crazy, but a brainwashed and crazy Nazi. So Aryan. If you don't know what the Aryan ideology is, look it up. All of these brainwashed and crazy cultists believe in it. That there's some innately biological superiority to men, and this is only true if they're white as well, of course. Bonus points for blond hair and/or blue eyes. This is the kind of shit that these brainwashed and crazy zombies believe, because they don't have the self awareness to challenge the brainwashing, they don't have the intelligence to realise that the 1:1 math is bunk. And knowing this, I would love for any neurotypical (and probably also brainwashed and crazy) psychologist to tell me that autistic people lack Theory of Mind. From where I sit, autistic people have self awareness in spades, it's the brainwashed and crazy extraverts who always turn out to be nutjob cultists who lack it. Due to a lack of introspection! Introspection means you EXAMINE YOURSELF, you QUESTION YOURSELF. That's the purpose of it! And that's something that all introverted and autistic people have, it's a very Universal feature. But oh no, guys, because we don't talk to the prissy, beautiful, brainwashed and crazy neurotypicals, we're lacking in self awareness. Or... It could just be that we see neurotypicals as fucking monsters who make us nauseous. That too. I have to add as a footnote that when I say 'neurotypical' I don't include introverts. I see introversion as the non-clinical end of the autistic spectrum, and this is a theory that's been gaining steam, lately. Both autistic people and introverts have spades of introspection, it's a quality they share. That's why they have self awareness and Theory of Mind versus the neurotypical extraverts who're painfully lacking in it to the point where they become brainwashed and crazy zombies. And thanks to this, we live in a world where prissy straight, white, cis-gendered men believe that discrimination is people saying nasty things about them behind their back. I might violently facepalm at this and hurt myself, so I need to stop thinking about it, soon. Hopefully you, the reader, understand what prejudice is. They don't. And you can't explain it to them because they take it as an attack on their innate biological superiority, of course. This is the world we live in, and this is the fight we're forced to be a part of. So, yes. Prissy, white, straight, cis-gendered, male snowflakes? Your privilege is REAL. Every time you were chosen over a black person, a woman, a gay person, or any other minority it's generally because of the systems of prejudice that PREFER YOU out of mindless bigotry, there's no innate superiority you fucking Aryan whackjobs. There, I've said my piece. I hope people read it. I'm going to tag this in a way that I hope it'll get read by a lot of people, even if I get banned for it. That's because I'm making a stand against this kind of toxic cancer called 'ideology.' It has to stop. Together, we need to make this stop. And I'm all too happy to take risks for that to happen. So if my account gets deleted, if I get banned, it doesn't matter. At least I'll have gotten my thoughts out there. Just another minority living in fear of speaking out, eh?

#google #sexism #racism #neurotypicals #mod post #yeah i'm placing myself on the firing line but i'm really sick of this shit

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bebopjared · 7 years

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The Story of Hip Hop and it’s Inherent Problems (and maybe how to solve them)

The story of Hip Hop is one that I find to be an immensely interesting and beautiful story. It’s a story that shows that out of struggle, the most amazing things can happen. It also shows that the problems within the culture, that created this amazing thing, will follow into that product.

The 1970′s were a hard time for Black people. Richard Nixon had won election then re-election by using coded language to tell southern Whites that the civil rights advances in the 60′s would not be continued into a Nixon presidency. The Black Panthers saw their organization attacked from all sides and the FBI began killing and arresting Panthers to attempt to destroy the organization. They would be successful with Huey P. Newton being killed during a drug deal in Oakland, Eldridge Cleaver went into exile in Algeria, Cuba and France and returned a born again Republican and endorsed Ronald Reagan for president, and Bobby Seale left the party after an unsuccessful run for mayor of Oakland. The party had become too divided for him and left. The Vietnam War also affected the black community during the 60’s and 70’s. The draft was not as kind to young black men as it was to white men, giving much less access to deferments to black men. A white man’s war that didn’t have anything to do with black people was fought in large part by young black men who had no idea what they were really fighting for. Along with police brutality continuing to kill black people in their own communities all across the country, the 70′s remain to be one of the worst times in modern African-American history. And when you look at the local level, the story only gets more depressing.

The city where Hip-Hop came from, New York City, was not the shining example of metropolis it now claims to be. The city was going broke and the federal government cared little for it. People were leaving in droves, seeing the city as a lost cause. After the federal government finally gave the city a few loans, the city turned to its black and brown citizens to pay for the rest of rebuilding New York. Austerity measures took place as an attempt to save money by cutting funds from places the city deemed wasteful. Some of the most outrageous of these cuts was seen in the South Bronx, one of the poorest districts in the United States at the time(and still is).

The Bronx was burning in the late 70′s. But what does that actually mean? People living in the South Bronx were some of the poorest in the nation and they struggled to pay their rents. Landlords realized that if they burned down their buildings, they could make more money from collecting the insurance by claiming the fires were either accidents or arsons(often set by gangs paid off by the landlords themselves). People were dying in these fires and those who were not in the buildings when they went up in flames, were left without a place to sleep at night, let alone call home. You would think that any government would crack down on the fraud being committed and provide relief to some of the poorest people in their city(let alone the nation). But you don’t, because you know the United States government has only been interested in helping white men who are straight, cis and rich. New York City’s government is the same and instead of helping, constantly cut firehouses specifically in the South Bronx to save money, making the job of putting out fires to try to make sure the buildings could remain stable even harder. Buildings in the South Bronx fell one by one, as landlords increased their efforts as land values dropped and the insurance money was always going to be more profitable than the rent they were getting from their tenants. Whole blocks could be seen burned down to the ground, the only thing remaining being rubble, some still burning. The South Bronx was turned into a warzone, gangs ruled the streets and the police did not give a fuck about the suffering happening, they only made it worse.

Anyone would think this environment would break a people. But not black and brown peoples. Struggle has been our existence so burning buildings and fucked up police would not break us. Often out of struggle, beautiful things are born. Out of the burning Bronx, came Hip-Hop. Kids that were growing up there wanted to do something to get away from the struggle of their daily lives. What better to do than party? But they need music to do it. Disco was the main craze at the time but the poorer kids were not allowed into the disco halls as they did not have the attire to get in. So they need their own music. So they took the parts of modern music at the time that had the best sound and no words and mashed a bunch of these together and created the sound of Hip-Hop. They would rip out the electrical cords from lamp posts and use them to power their speakers and turntables, giving them the power to make a whole block get up and dance to some dope ass music. Soon, MC’s became as popular as the DJ’s. Groups of DJ’s, the ones would would spin the records and MC’s, the ones who would rap over the music began to form, like Afrika Bambaataa’s Zulu Nation and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

Hip-Hop started as party music. It was just black and brown folks trying to escape the struggle through music and having fun. Oppressed peoples have to find something to focus on besides their struggle, they need an outlet. And for a lot of black and brown folks, Hip-Hop was that outlet. Hip-Hop began coming up in the music industry during the 80′s. A lot of amazing records would be released during the 80’s and a lot of arists and groups would come up. Run-DMC, founded in 1981, would create some of the most iconic Hip-Hop tracks(one of my personal favorites in Christmas in Hollis). But, Hip-Hop would take a step forward when N.W.A. released their album Straight Outta Compton in 1988.

Straight Outta Compton changed Hip-Hop forever. N.W.A. (which stands for Niggaz Wit Attitude) was formed in 1986 by Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, MC Ren, DJ Yella and Arabian Prince. They released tracks here and there in the two years before their main album, notably Dopeman and Boyz-n-the-Hood. But their most famous songs would come when Straight Outta Compton was released in 1988. It opens with the title track, Straight Outta Compton and starts with the line, “You are about to witness the strength of street knowledge.” A line that would begin an album that would change Hip-Hop. The next track, Fuck Tha Police would be a protest song that would give a voice to millions of black and brown people from Compton to New York City. It would gain the attention of the F.B.I. and spur them into writing a letter to N.W.A., asking them to not perform the song. Famously, Detroit police officers told members of N.W.A. before a concert that they would not allow Fuck Tha Police to be played. They did it anyway and were arrested. Straight Outta Compton began what would become Gangsta Rap and was the first popular rap music that talked about life as it was in the hood.

But, sexism and homophobia infiltrated the music, almost becoming a staple of the music. The word woman was pretty much replaced with the word bitch and the word faggot was fairly common. In Fuck Tha Police, there is a line that I cringe at every time I listen to the song, “…I don’t know if they fags or what, search a nigga down and grabin’ his nuts…” It’s an unfortunate reality that black people had been trained to be homophobic and sexist a long time ago. Slavery cemented a legacy of emasculation of black men and of making black sexuallity taboo. These, among many other factors, still affect black people today, as integration into American society after the Civil War ended did not include therapy for 300 year of generational abuse. So these unresolved mental health issues formed into modern black homophobia. That being said, the myth that black people are so much more homophobic than other groups of people has never been proven(not like you could prove that anyway) nor does it take into account the legacy of slavery as an explanation for it.

Hip-Hop is still populated by very sexist, homophobic and transphobic lyrics and even ableism, as seen in Drake’s most recent diss against Kid Cudi. How do we solve these issues within our music and our culture? Can it ever really be fixed?

These are all important questions. And I’m not really sure how to answer them. But I do see the music shifting in some places. J. Cole’s most recent album 4 Your Eyez Only had much less sexist and homophobic language than his album before that 2014 Forest Hills Drive and less than Born Sinner. There is progress. But that is only one rapper. I couldn’t say whether or not rap has gotten better. But I do think that Hip-Hop can be healed, if black people can get the therapy we so desperately deserve and if we can take ownership of our music back. White men have taken control, it’s time we take it back.

#History #Hiphop #nyc #bronx

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