Tag Archives: our series is problematic
Oh my gosh, well… I waited 6 hours, but there was no further message, so I’m just going to answer now.
“I don’t know how to feel about Anne…”
Respectfully, I’m not going to tell you how to feel about Anne Rice. I must regretfully decline.
I know how I feel about her: that she has given us a wonderful gift and that she has committed no actual crime for which she would deserve to be boycotted. We can poke fun at her, at her books, we can critique them, bc she has set herself and her works for public review. We can feel distrustful for her past behavior towards the fandom and distrustful of her handling of her own characters. Those are all within our rights as a critical public.
I always recommend that people read the books and draw their own conclusions about them on their own merits. It’s part of what makes fandom great, that we can agree on some things, disagree on others, and have lively discussions about it all.
What I will tell you is that you don’t have to like Anne Rice to read her stories. To my knowledge, she has not committed ANY REAL LIFE ACTUAL CRIMES. People boycott actual criminals bc we do not want to financially or morally support them. IMO, Anne Rice should NOT be lumped in with REAL LIFE ACTUAL CRIMINALS.
It is not a crime that she waged war on fanfic. It was incredibly painful and it shattered the fandom, and drove us all underground for years ;A; But she was within her legal rights. Keep in mind that fandom was not really socially acceptable or understood like it is today, authors understand now that fanworks are types of fan engagement with canon and each other. She seems to understand that now, or if not, she at least ignores fanfic.
It is not a crime that she waged war on reviewers. Also painful and oppressive at the time, AR used to be very offended by critical or negative reviews of her books, and would sic her People of the Page on reviewers. Again, she now seems to understand that people are within their rights to critique her work and she can ignore them.
What she writes is not an actual crime. She has problematic elements and explores taboo subjects in her writing, refuses any editor’s advice, refuses anyone’s idea of what she should write. That’s her prerogative as a ‘music maker,’ as a ‘dreamer of dreams’ (<– like Willy Wonka!). To argue that any of her writing is a crime is, to me, a form of censorship, and I do not believe in censorship of fiction.
^^^^None of these are Real Life actual crimes. Personally, I may not accept all of her writing as canon, and I may poke fun at it, too, that’s my prerogative as a reader.
The idea that all art should be entirely unproblematic all the time…kills art. Like, I really don’t think we as readers have some all-solemn duty to constantly make sure we’re only having the ~right~ kind of fun.
But that’s just my opinion. You’ll have to draw your own conclusions and decide whether you want to financially/morally support Anne Rice by buying/reading her books, or not.
me, banging your pots and pans together at 3am: the assumption that liking problematic characters means you share their views is toxic. people should not have to constantly defend their views simply because they enjoy a character of questionable nature.
you, attempting to wrestle them from me: indeed, but there comes a responsibility with enjoying problematic characters and it is on those who consume that media to recognize and constantly acknowledge the faults of it rather than sweep them under the rug with a general “i know it’s problematic don’t worry”.
me: it seems both our sides of the argument are valid and hold merit.
you: will you please get out of my house now
your neighbor, shouting through the wall: however when the person enjoying the problematic material is constantly harassed and called out for that content and has to face regular demands to justify their appreciation of that media, then the other party needs to step back and ask what they even want from this confrontation they keep perpetuating. they need to ask themselves if they will be satisfied with any given answer and if not, they need to disengage and deal with their own issues instead of forcing other people to answer for them.
Okay, while I’m on a fucking role here:
Fandom is not activism.
Stop condemning and judging people for their fucking ships. What you like to read about does not reflect what you care about, approve of, or want for yourself in real life.
Can people be skeevy about ships? Certainly. Are there fandom trends that reflect the racism and sexism of society at large? Definitely! Does harassing individual fans for what they like help any of that? No.
Promote the ships you like, instead of using them as a stick to beat other people with.
Meanwhile, people have been into fucked up ships forever, and somehow the internet hasn’t burned down in an inferno of abuse apologism.
And do you realise what you’re saying, when you talk about young girls and women being drawn into abusive relationships because of the fic they read, or the art they draw, or the meta they write?
You’re telling them it’s their fault.
THAT. LAST. PART. I’ve been saying this for ages. Women and girls do not have to be protected from their own fantasies, and telling women that they are putting themselves at risk for liking “impure” ships or fictional relationship dynamics is 100% victim-blaming bullshit that is also pretty fucking condescending.
“Fandom is not activism” is now my life motto.
the worst thing about tumblr fandom is that thing where everyone acts like fiction is reality and carries the same weight as reality and that if you like things in fiction you must be a Very Bad Person who is possibly abusive or a pedophile and there’s literally no acknowledgement of the fact that fiction is quite fundamentally not reality at all and that people have been exploring the darker aspects of life in fiction for thousands of years and these things have no bearing on one another AT ALL but oh no you like THAT CHARACTER? you must be SICK.
I-want-my-IWTV 