Consuming Media Is Not Activism

First, you don't have to read anything that hates you.

Second, you don't have to read anything that makes you hate yourself.

It doesn't matter who wrote it, or why. Consuming media is not activism.

I've often had this problem with the sort of Japanese male writers that American and British men seem to enjoy translating. Like, they'll pick the worst and most disgusting writers - mainly bestselling authors who are unironically into rape, pedophilia, and being racist against China and Korea - and try to pass off their sensationalist garbage as literature because "that's their culture."

But also, there are a lot of Americans who hate women and super hate gay people, and they justify their hate by making it about race or ethnicity. I completely understand why that sort of work is trendy right now, and why critics are so quick to praise it, but I still don't think it's "woke" to hate broad categories of people because of their gender or sexuality.

I've found myself reading a lot of work that's not written in English during the past two years. This may seem like escapism, mainly because it is. I'm definitely interested in diverse stories from diverse voices, but I also need to live my life without feeling forced to read highly praised books written by people who don't make any secret of the fact that they would cross the street to get away from me.

Re: Consuming Media Is Not Activism

> I've found myself reading a lot of work that's not written in English during the past two years.

Despite the stories I write, I am not interested in Evil Sexymen in real life.

But damn if I haven't found myself in an intense relationship with Amazon Dot Com, which uses its massive wealth and power to ship me books from around the world for a fraction of the cost of buying from a local indie bookstore.

It's actually one of my dirtiest secrets that I'm not a fan of small bookstores, and don't even get me started about libraries. I know how bad this sounds, but listen. Anyone who treats you like trash because you can speak and read languages other than English can go fuck themselves.

And anyway, I use the money I save on not paying some pretentious hipster's rent to buy zines and chapbooks and Kindle singles, many of which are much more interesting than professionally published books to begin with.

I just think that, if Amazon works for Dr. Chuck Tingle, then it works for me.

ETA: I should add that this does not apply to comic book stores. I love comic book stores, mainly because they stock zines and small-press comics but also because they tend not to be owned and staffed by assholes.