road-rhythm:One of the things that bothers me about moral panics about fiction is that there really.

[dragonlady7]

via https://ift.tt/3navTXX

road-rhythm https://road-rhythm.tumblr.com/post/663401381122752512/one-of-the-things-that-bothers-me-about-moral :

One of the things that bothers me about moral panics about fiction is that there really are conversations we need to be having about the ways some kinds of media—algorithmically driven ones in particular—are indeed constructing our reality to a degree never before seen, and what it means to exist as a human being in an era where the internet has become infrastructure nearly as essential and ubiquitous as roads but is created and governed almost entirely by highly corporate entities that concentrate capital on a virtually incomprehensible scale and have absolutely no incentives to prioritize anything other than profits. Like, yes, under surveillance capitalism, there is a meaningful sense in which your consent to what content you will be exposed to is being coerced on a regular basis.

But fiction isn’t where it’s happening. It’s just not. If anything, recreational fiction is the one place where your freedom to nope out of something uncomfortable remains intact.

Exercise it. (Your picture was not posted)

Comments

[minoanmiss]

I was thinking about this.

A lot of the moral panics seem really silly to me -- no one who writes Thor/Loki is doing so to advocate for actual romantic relationships between siblings.

But on the other hand ... so, as an example, back in the heyday of Star Trek AOS fandom, there were quite a few stories that talked about how conceited and ugly [the author thought] Uhura was, including comments about how she "looks masculine" or "looks like a man in a dress". Those comments harken back to ideas that Black women can't be beautiful because we look "masculine", and so were definitely real-world attitudes brought into fanfic.

Fanfic isn't where those attitudes started, of course. But, not least as a Black woman, I found that simply noping out of such a story, which reminded me that even in my hobby I couldn't escape people who hated me for being Black, just... wasn't quite enough. "Don't like, don't read" doesn't seem to be enough when I find myself wondering if fandom at large wants to include my voice.

Does that make sense?

[(Anonymous)]

ooh i have to fix my Dreamwidth password issue so I can respond, I've been way too lazy about it.
you're right about that!! in case it wasn't clear this is a reblog, which i did sort of impulsively without any tags or commentary, so yeah no it's not particularly nuanced.
-- B, it's really B, I can't figure out my fucking DW password STILL and have been avoiding resetting it for MONTHS because my password managers are AWFUL

[minoanmiss]

Oh no! I'm sorry you still don't have your password back. If I find out any info on facilitating that I'll let you know.

[(Anonymous)]

oh no i just have to reset it. it's because my dueling password managers both saved incorrect ones, and i can't find the real one. and i don't want to reset it until i get a new password management system set up, but i have been procrastinating on that for the entire holiday season.