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Social Justice Activism in Fandom
Jan. 25th, 2011 10:37 amI've been sick the past few days so I haven't been up on the happenings. When I scrolled through a few of the journals I read consistently, I started seeing links to the latest in the feels-like-it's-eternal game of "if I whine enough about how hard it is, I can justify not thinking of others". I do not feel compelled to link to the entry itself. If you've read it, you've read it and if you haven't, you aren't missing much - and I hate to give her any more attention. Sometimes I feel like linked traffic is our online currency and I wind up feeling torn between pointing people at a horrible thing to protest it and refusing to give it any more time.
***
I keep writing out these reasonable, articulate opening paragraphs but, really, to hell with that.
Here's the deal: I'm a white, middle-class, cisgendered, able-bodied woman. This comes with scads of privilege that I work to acknowledge and be aware of. I do social justice activism work in my non-anon, non-fan life and, frankly, a fandom space that doesn't have similar values is of zero interest to me. I have privilege; I think that makes it imperative for me to engage on these topics.
And these topics crop up everywhere. There is no magical unicorn wonderland where racism or ableism or transphobia or etc doesn't exist. There is no magical unicorn wonderland where a person can say any damn old thing without it having an effect on people. And isn't that what we're going for anyway, as writers? The goal is to affect people, to make them believe in the worlds we create.
The worlds I create, even the nastiest of mirror universes, aren't just for white, middle-class, able-bodied and so on readers who are just like me. If I'm doing my job as a writer correctly, they are for all sorts of readers who bring all sorts of characteristics to the table.
If you think it is too hard, if you feel you are being stifled by the "PC police" because someone - regardless of their tone - has asked you to consider a word or a joke or a character or an assumption? Then you are not only failing as an empathetic human being who ought to give at least half a shit about how you make other people feel but you are failing as a writer.
"Political correctness" is a pejorative term. It's used, pretty much 100% of the time to denigrate efforts towards inclusive language.
Inclusive language is an effort to shift "normal" from an assumed default. I'm a white, middle-class, cisgendered, able-bodied woman. There's no reason other than systemic oppression for me to be all I AM THE NORMAL ONE HERE FREAK. There's all the reason in the world for me to work toward dismantling that.
It's important to have these conversations. If you don't have the energy for it, bow out. If you think a particular conversation has gone off the rails, that is within your rights, 100%. But it's within the rights of other people to have that conversation. If you want to rail against other people having that conversation, if you want to shut it down because you think it's dumb, then you are part of the problem. You are actively contributing to the perpetuation of systems of oppression.
And but so, tl;dr: this is a fan journal where I post filth and RP. Filth and RP are for everyone - which means inclusive language is just as important here as it is anywhere else. If I fuck it up, I want to know about it. If you fuck it up, I hope you also want to know about it. We're all, inevitably, going to fuck up.
Instead of shutting down the conversation, I'd much rather keep trying. My tiny little corner of fandom? Is committed to keeping social justice in fandom.
***
I keep writing out these reasonable, articulate opening paragraphs but, really, to hell with that.
Here's the deal: I'm a white, middle-class, cisgendered, able-bodied woman. This comes with scads of privilege that I work to acknowledge and be aware of. I do social justice activism work in my non-anon, non-fan life and, frankly, a fandom space that doesn't have similar values is of zero interest to me. I have privilege; I think that makes it imperative for me to engage on these topics.
And these topics crop up everywhere. There is no magical unicorn wonderland where racism or ableism or transphobia or etc doesn't exist. There is no magical unicorn wonderland where a person can say any damn old thing without it having an effect on people. And isn't that what we're going for anyway, as writers? The goal is to affect people, to make them believe in the worlds we create.
The worlds I create, even the nastiest of mirror universes, aren't just for white, middle-class, able-bodied and so on readers who are just like me. If I'm doing my job as a writer correctly, they are for all sorts of readers who bring all sorts of characteristics to the table.
If you think it is too hard, if you feel you are being stifled by the "PC police" because someone - regardless of their tone - has asked you to consider a word or a joke or a character or an assumption? Then you are not only failing as an empathetic human being who ought to give at least half a shit about how you make other people feel but you are failing as a writer.
"Political correctness" is a pejorative term. It's used, pretty much 100% of the time to denigrate efforts towards inclusive language.
Inclusive language is an effort to shift "normal" from an assumed default. I'm a white, middle-class, cisgendered, able-bodied woman. There's no reason other than systemic oppression for me to be all I AM THE NORMAL ONE HERE FREAK. There's all the reason in the world for me to work toward dismantling that.
It's important to have these conversations. If you don't have the energy for it, bow out. If you think a particular conversation has gone off the rails, that is within your rights, 100%. But it's within the rights of other people to have that conversation. If you want to rail against other people having that conversation, if you want to shut it down because you think it's dumb, then you are part of the problem. You are actively contributing to the perpetuation of systems of oppression.
And but so, tl;dr: this is a fan journal where I post filth and RP. Filth and RP are for everyone - which means inclusive language is just as important here as it is anywhere else. If I fuck it up, I want to know about it. If you fuck it up, I hope you also want to know about it. We're all, inevitably, going to fuck up.
Instead of shutting down the conversation, I'd much rather keep trying. My tiny little corner of fandom? Is committed to keeping social justice in fandom.
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