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essayofthoughts · 6 years

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Y’know, I’d hoped I’d never see this in the Wanda Maximoff Defense Squad tag, but hey look at the world.

This ^^ is gatekeeping. No, I’m not telling you who posted it - the tag knows and the tag has manners, and the person who posted it knows, and thats enough; lets not send bitchy anon hate - just know that it has been posted and that its gatekeeping.

Thing is, I do understand the position the OP probably made it from. After years of the fandom ragging on Wanda, shitting on Wanda and generally being awful to our fave the sudden fandom turn around as of AIW is not just galling but insulting. We, the fans of Wanda, have known all this time that she is worthy of love and a worthy character to love, and yet it is only now, after everyone has spent years bitching about her, dissing her, being massive hateful antis and Marvel’s killed her off within the MCU... that they suddenly turn around and change their minds. Its really hard not to be bitter about that. I get it. There’s something else in the MCU fandom right now that I’m incredibly fucking bitter about.

But you’re not going to see me going into the character’s tags in order to bitch.

Because that is what we in the fandom know like to call a dick move.

There’s three parts to why this post is bullshit, and I’m going to break it down for you.

1. “Appreciate Wanda in the movies before [etc.etc.]”

This is gatekeeping right off the bat. The rest has gatekeeping aspects and are bullshit on multiple levels but this is just straight up gatekeeping. “You aren’t a proper fan unless you liked her before AIW”.

My dudes, I’m gonna tell you a secret.

I’m a fake Wanda fan! I know, I know, I love her and I’ve loved her a while, but I only started to love the character after AOU! I know! Shocking! When she’s existing in comics for decades and been a part of multiple versions and storylines and separate universes! I only became a fan a few years ago! Aren’t a silly faker.

Except... I’m not. Just because I came to like Wanda later on in no way invalidates my like of the character. My love of the character. That I only really paid attention to Wanda after AOU is a credit to AOU because it made me see something in the character that I hadn’t before. Something that made me go back over the cartoons and buy several of the comics and see those things in those versions of Wanda as well. I started liking Wanda because of the whitewashed traumatised experimented-on mutate version before I ever took a proper look at the Jewish Rroma witch of the comics.

But you know what? I love those versions of her as well. I’ve increasingly incorporated those aspects of her in my fanfiction of MCU Wanda. Why? Because AOU made me love one version of Wanda, and I went looking for more.

I’m no more a fake fan that anyone who started loving Wanda thanks to AIW is a fake fan. My love for her is no more or less valid than someone who started to love her because of AIW.

We are all consumers of this fandom and this character. We’ve all spent that money and that time watching that media. And sure, maybe these new fans only like her because of AIW, but that doesn’t mean thats the be-all and end-all forever. That doesn’t mean that those new fans might not, as I did, go back over other older media featuring Wanda, and find the traits they find compelling there as well. It doesn’t mean that those fans might not find more things to love about Wanda than just those things.

Doing this ^^ however? Dismissing and gatekeeping? Is only going to send them away. Make them feel dismissed and unwelcome and hated.

And given how few fans of Wanda there are, we really don’t need our own side helping the antis.

2. Ship dismissal!

Much as I hate to say it there is no wrong or right way to ship. I personally tend not to ship at all, because I have issues with it, but nonetheless: everyone is entitled to ship what they want, even if you don’t like it. I reserve the right to hate one (1) ship, and thats not even in this fandom and even then I’m not going to go into the tags for one of those characters and express my unabashed hate for a ship including them! That is, to use the same technical term as above a dick fucking move.

Thing is, while I don’t tend to ship, I find WandaVision pretty compelling. I think its interesting to take the girl who’s increasingly moved away from humanity, and the synthezoid slowly moving towards humanity and bounce them off each other. I think their perspectives are interesting and their attitudes mesh well. I think they can work as a ship.

And here’s something else that the OP of that post doesn’t - and of a number of other OPs of various anti-WandaVision posts in the tag don’t - know. Lots of fans of Wanda are actually ok with WandaVision. This isn’t a case of dismissing a secondary minor ship that only has about five fans, this is a relatively big ship with a large number of fans, and this person has gone into multiple tags for one of the characters just in order to dismiss it! This is baiting. This is ship policing.

This is bullshit.

As I said above, I reserve the right to hate one (1) ship, but I’m not going to pull this^^ over it, because it is a dick move. It is rude! It violates fandom etiquette. Because there is no right or wrong way to ship.

Even when you dislike a ship you do not get to tell people that they are wrong to ship what they ship. I don’t get WandaSteve or WandaNatasha but I’m not going to tell people that they’re wrong to ship it, indeed, I’d rather actually discuss with them what it is they find compelling about it and see if I can get behind it as well. I’m not going to go into a tag and bitch about a ship because I don’t like it!

And, even if I were I would not describe it as OP has here, which is a blatant misrepresentation at best and pure lies at worst. Lets look at how they described it, hm?

a Stockholm-d Stepford Wife to the creation of the man who killed her family/the creation that held her hostage & made her hate herself & creeped on her

Part the first: Stockholm Syndrome. I do not. Even know. How this conclusion was reached. While, yes, Vision did hold Wanda prisoner in the Avengers Base she did not sit passively by and just let it happen. She asked him. She made it relatively clear that she was not pleased about this. And when she was offered a chance to get out she took it. And, when Vision tried to stop her, tried to convince her to stay by appealing to her worries that people would fear her, she countered with both words and power to make clear why she was leaving, why her perspective differed from his, and that he would be unable to stop her.

That’s not Stockholm Syndrome. That’s kind of it’s fucking opposite.

Part the second: “the creation of the man who killed her family”. Way to dismiss Vision as a person! Way to dismiss the way in which multiple other people played a part in Vision’s creation! Ultron is a more direct creation of Tony Stark than Vision is. And, yes, Ultron went on to make Vision, but you know who also worked on both? Bruce! Who is a pretty lovely and all-around decent person. Who else had an impact on both, hmm, I wonder... Oh yes! JARVIS, the natural language UI. Again, yes, made by Tony, but also an entity which has expressed concern and counterpoints to Tony. An entity far more agreeable to many than Tony reliably is. What else had an impact on both hmm I know there’s another, its a pretty big one, really significant...

Oh yes, the fucking MIND STONE. Which was used to help make a basis for Ultron’s consciousness, yes, but was also literally embedded into Vision’s head and is an active part of his mind.

As for others who played a part in Vision’s creation, let us not also forget that it was Wanda herself who set the whole series of events into progress, nor forget Helen Cho, who made Vision’s body and shut off Ultron’s download into it, and Thor, who brought the lightning which woke Vision as his own separate entity.

Made by Tony Stark Vision may be, in part, but we do not see him acting as Tony Stark’s son. Ally, yes, but no more or less than Natasha or Rhodey.

Part the third: “the creation that held her hostage & made her hate herself & creeped on her”

Hoo boy.

a) He didn’t hold her hostage. He kept her from leaving the base at Tony’s suggestion under the belief that her out and about might spark attacks on her person or make her lash out against others. It was wrong, yes, but it wasn’t a hostage situation, besides which, Wanda got herself out of the situation and made it pretty fucking clear to Vision what would happen if he ever tried to do so again.

b) He didn’t make her hate herself. Wanda was doing that pretty effectively on her own:

If you fuckin’ remember. As for creeped on her... what? He walked into her room without knocking and through a wall, but he also makes it clear he thought it was ok because the door was open and Steve was there. Yes its not the greatest behaviour but its not creeping any more than your flatmate wandering into your room when you left the door open is!

I get being unhappy that some people may only like Wanda because now she’s part of a heterosexual ship, sure. I get why after CACW where she ended up locked up in a straitjacket the idea of her dating someone who helped put her there - no matter how apologetic he was - might be galling.

But you don’t get to tell people that they’re wrong to enjoy the ship, or that they’re fake fans because of it.

3. “Challenge”

This is honestly the bit which most pisses me off because its the most subtly gatekeepy of the lot imo. The suggestion that this is a challenge, for people to be fans of Wanda prior to AIW and without liking WandaVision...

Except lots of fans prior to AIW and even prior to the films liked WandaVision. Except that just because someone ships something you don’t or started liking a character after you did in no way invalidates their love of a character.

There’s lots of reasons to love Wanda in AIW!

What about this?

Or, hmmm, this?

Wanda is strong as all hell. She’s willing to fight for what she believes in. She steps in when she has to - even if that means breaking orders - because she won’t stand by and let people get hurt. She held off a five-stone Thanos with one hand while destroying the other set in the head of one of her only close friends with nothing but her sheer strength and force of will, even when she’d lost so much already.

There’s plenty to find admirable about Wanda in AIW, OP.

Conclusion

The thing is, I get the specific kind of bitterness that likely fuelled OP’s decision to make this post. I do, I really do. But the thing is, this kind of gatekeeping and fandom policing only makes fandom smaller and more insular - it doesn’t welcome in new people or spark open and positive discussion. It makes people feel unwelcome and as though they’re outliers. As though no one wants them there and if no one wants them there, whats the point?

What’s worse is that the Wanda fandom has already experienced this! Pretty strongly! After AOU and especially after CACW fandom hated us, but that never stopped us! We didn’t let that make us this level of bitter! This kind of policing and gatekeepy! So why should we now?

And also... this kind of post - and those which have come before - show a bad trend. Its the same way that the Tony Stark Defense Squad tag has gone - yes the tag that I have to plug my nose and put my diving goggles on before I go anywhere near - because people decide that fandom should be more about hating characters rather than loving them. Because people decide that there are “right” and “wrong” ways to be fans. Because people decide that they’re better than others and everyone else should know this.

I’m not a perfect fan. I can be bitter as fuck and fighty as hell, but I hope that I’m at least willing to listen to other people and that I won’t force people to alter which characters they love and how they love them just because I say so.

Be a fan how you like, but please by all the gods, don’t try to force other people to be fans how you think they should be.

XKCD once made an excellent comic that I think is relevant here.

If you mock people for not knowing something, or not loving something, then thats not going to make them want to learn about it or love it. Its going to make them feel ashamed and small and turn away from you.

But if you treat it as a chance to learn? You open up a whole new dialogue, and get to help fans learn what it is they love and why it is they love and maybe find more likeminded individuals.

Don’t bitch or shame or hate. Welcome and love.

And if you really really need to vent, do as I do and privately bitch to a friend. Do as a friend of mine does and vagueblog about it. Do as another person does and post it untagged or with / tags so it can’t be found.

Don’t go dumping it into the character tags. That’s just a dick move.

#wanda maximoff #scarlet witch #wanda maximoff defense squad #mcu meta #fandom meta

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