How to be a fan of problematic things

[firecat]

http://www.socialjusticeleague.net/2011/09/how-to-be-a-fan-of-problematic-things/

One could also describe this post as "how to be a fan of things that have problematic elements, without necessarily being a fan of the problematic elements themselves." And/or "how to be a fan of what you're a fan of without attempting to defend it as perfect and without badgering other people to consume it if they have decided they don't want to."

Liking problematic things doesn’t make you an asshole. In fact, you can like really problematic things and still be not only a good person, but a good social justice activist (TM)! After all, most texts have some problematic elements in them, because they’re produced by humans, who are well-known to be imperfect. But it can be surprisingly difficult to own up to the problematic things in the media you like, particularly when you feel strongly about it, as many fans do. We need to find a way to enjoy the media we like without hurting other people and marginalised groups. So with that in mind, here are my suggestions for things we should try our darnedest to do as self-confessed fans of problematic stuff.

Comments

[roane]

Thank you. I totally needed to read that. There's a major quarrel going on with Sherlock (the BBC show, not the recent movie) fans at the moment over whether or not the latest portrayal of Irene Adler is sexist or not. I was starting to feel weird for thinking not, like I was being a bad feminist.

[elleth]

This makes me so glad I'm staying out of the fandom, and fwiw, while I thought there certainly were some problems with Adler, it wasn't damning, and definitely less problematic than the portrayal of Sherlock all the time. Everything can be glossed as sexist if that's the intention of the recipient, and Steven Moffat seems to be attracting that sort of criticism for a reason I don't understand.

Edited to clarify: I'm not trying to voice a blanket disapproval for all people who think Adler's portrayal was sexist. I just fail to understand the practice of turning into a program in order to prove that it is sexist when there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. That's like setting out to write an academic paper to prove point A while ignoring points B, C, D and E.

[owlmoose]

This article is fantastic. Thanks for sharing it! It's always good to have a reminder that it's okay to be a fan of problematic things, but we need to allow room for discussion and diverse interpretations.

[hobbitbabe]

That's a really great article. Thank you so much. I liked that it allowed for the situation of different people reading things differently, and also pointed out that someone who keeps prodding other people to watch/read something that bothers them is a jerk.

[clever_doberman]

well, that article took me way out there in some interesting loops of opinion and commentary. it was fun, but a bit dizzying. I guess I have a lot to learn about reading the words of others, as the abundance and interwoven-ness is far more complex than I knew.

as for the content, I'm reminded of an evening a few weeks ago where several of us were trying to pick a movie to watch on cable pay TV and we considered "The Help." all but one of the folks in the room were people I used to spend a lot more time with in the past, and with whom I've had numerous good, deep conversations about race politics. So I suggested that while I'd heard/read that there were a lot of concerns about the movie, that we'd be a good group to watch it with so we could have a good discussion afterwards, which would include figuring out which things we liked and which things we had problems with. when I said that out loud, the most vocal of the group said she didn't understand what I was saying, and the rest then said no, they didn't want to see the movie. it really let me know that our window of trust and open space for having difficult conversations had closed, the end of an era (which probably ended a while ago, but that's another story). so I guess being a fan of problematic things is also relative to who you are conversing with, though I know that at least I am going

to continue to ask the hard questions, even if I'm conversing with myself.

[jjhunter]

Excellent article - thank you so much for sharing it!

[laughingrat]

I liked that article--it's really civilized.

[flarenut]

Thanks for posting that. I was fascinated by some of the discussion in the comments, which came perilously close to derailing, about the problem-or-not of writing characters who can be read to conform to their racial/gender/etc stereotypes. (It's a cleft stick for me, because if you write a character to play against stereotype, it's still the stereotype that informs the writing and the reading. So patriarchy/racism/bigotry spoils it for everybody.)

This has also been kind of a deal for me lately because I've been reading a lot of old mystery novels lately, and although I can be charmed by the quaint attitudes toward women (!) it's a little harder to read smoothly through various comments about The Jew.

[firecat]

Yeah, I know what you mean about the old mystery novels.