continuing the Hux Is A Symptom rant
Apr. 30th, 2016 12:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/1SQSr9W:
And like. I’m not saying that nobody should do any hard self-examination about who they ship and why. I have a billion things in progress, many of which are noodling along in spare moments with no particular direction to them.
But.
That doesn’t mean I periodically don’t step back and say “why doesn’t Finn have any lines in this?” And maybe in the end I leave him out of stuff, but it’s not going to be because I just can’t think of anything for him to say. No. It’s going to be “well the things he’d do don’t fit with the story, so I won’t use him as a character”.
You have to deliberately do that. You do! Look at underrepresented characters and remind yourself that to be fair, they should be in this story. It’s not effortless. It’s not magic. But it’s not innocent if you exclude them. “But I’m just doing this for fun!” listen. Listen. Literally everything is better if you apply some discipline to it. And this is a form of discipline. If you always write pretty white boys doing stuff to each other because that’s always been your source material, that doesn’t make you a bad person. But if you have, for example, a pretty black boy in your source material now, and you don’t naturally think of including him– still not a bad person, but you need to apply some discipline and think about it. Step back and remind yourself. We were all super excited to get a black lead. Revisit that, and remind yourself, and put some thought into it. You have to kind of affirmative-action your shit because you’re so used to there not being any option that your thoughts are in grooves.
It takes thought to break those. It does. Think about it. (We live in a racist society. Every one of us is racist. It doesn’t make you bad unless you don’t choose to fix it. You gotta fix your shit. But that’s not just racism, that’s literally everything. Everything is always a work in progress. You have to be always trying to fix your shit. Internalized misogyny, classism, ableism, racism– all that shit will make your stories weak and careless and make your life dull and icky, and it is a constant process to unpick those things and try to fix your shit.)
Don’t be a dick. Fix your shit.
And if you’re not a writer, make more of an effort, seek out the stories that have the representation you want. Offer support. Rec those stories. Encourage those authors. If your favorite author doesn’t have much Finn in their story, maybe gently ask about it. When people ask for prompts, submit Finn ones. If they answer Finn ones, like and reblog.
I know Individual Activism stuff is a little mealymouthed but it’s a fuckload more effective than chain-reblogged rants about systemic problems, and angry attacks on People Who Are Doing Fandom Wrong.
If we’re all obsessed with white dick because that’s all we’ve had before, it takes a bit to adjust. Remind yourself, and indulge in some introspection, and be the change you want to see.
And like. I’m not saying that nobody should do any hard self-examination about who they ship and why. I have a billion things in progress, many of which are noodling along in spare moments with no particular direction to them.
But.
That doesn’t mean I periodically don’t step back and say “why doesn’t Finn have any lines in this?” And maybe in the end I leave him out of stuff, but it’s not going to be because I just can’t think of anything for him to say. No. It’s going to be “well the things he’d do don’t fit with the story, so I won’t use him as a character”.
You have to deliberately do that. You do! Look at underrepresented characters and remind yourself that to be fair, they should be in this story. It’s not effortless. It’s not magic. But it’s not innocent if you exclude them. “But I’m just doing this for fun!” listen. Listen. Literally everything is better if you apply some discipline to it. And this is a form of discipline. If you always write pretty white boys doing stuff to each other because that’s always been your source material, that doesn’t make you a bad person. But if you have, for example, a pretty black boy in your source material now, and you don’t naturally think of including him– still not a bad person, but you need to apply some discipline and think about it. Step back and remind yourself. We were all super excited to get a black lead. Revisit that, and remind yourself, and put some thought into it. You have to kind of affirmative-action your shit because you’re so used to there not being any option that your thoughts are in grooves.
It takes thought to break those. It does. Think about it. (We live in a racist society. Every one of us is racist. It doesn’t make you bad unless you don’t choose to fix it. You gotta fix your shit. But that’s not just racism, that’s literally everything. Everything is always a work in progress. You have to be always trying to fix your shit. Internalized misogyny, classism, ableism, racism– all that shit will make your stories weak and careless and make your life dull and icky, and it is a constant process to unpick those things and try to fix your shit.)
Don’t be a dick. Fix your shit.
And if you’re not a writer, make more of an effort, seek out the stories that have the representation you want. Offer support. Rec those stories. Encourage those authors. If your favorite author doesn’t have much Finn in their story, maybe gently ask about it. When people ask for prompts, submit Finn ones. If they answer Finn ones, like and reblog.
I know Individual Activism stuff is a little mealymouthed but it’s a fuckload more effective than chain-reblogged rants about systemic problems, and angry attacks on People Who Are Doing Fandom Wrong.
If we’re all obsessed with white dick because that’s all we’ve had before, it takes a bit to adjust. Remind yourself, and indulge in some introspection, and be the change you want to see.
