Listen She's Not Wrong
Apr. 16th, 2021 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingTwitter is garbage, and so can you.
This gets really interesting for about ten minutes around the twelve minute mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7aWz8q_IM4&t=2s
I'm going to get myself super canceled for a moment and say that this is one of the main reasons I stopped posting on my book review blog.
The truth is that there are horrible inequalities of power in the publishing industry, and these inequalities lead to a lot of mediocre work being highly praised and publicized, often at the expense of more interesting and (I think) more deserving work that is frequently ignored by everyone, often including the press itself. Unfortunately, the internet hate machine has now gotten to the point where saying something like "this translation isn't great" can be regarded as full-stop problematic when the original author isn't white, even if the translator, editor, and publicist are all straight white American or British men who are using "diversity" as a mask to legitimate work that would otherwise be extremely objectionable.
And even when reviewing a book I actually enjoyed, to offer a small criticism like "there's a touch of transphobia in the treatment of a certain minor character" can become a discursive landmine. I know this because it happened to me, and both my delicate feelings and my sense of identity as a nonbinary gay person took serious damage in the process.
I'm not trying to suggest that sensitivity to issues like cultural relativism isn't pertinent to reading stories originating outside of mainstream North American corporate media, but rather... Idk. I've seen people on Twitter get in prolonged debates over whether not allowing people to wear agehao clothing covered with goofy manga orgasm faces at anime cons (that aren't actually happening this year because of the pandemic) is "cultural appropriation," and I just don't think these sorts of absurdist flamewars benefit anyone other than Twitter itself.
Anyway, best line: "Actually *wink* it's about ethics in fanfiction."
This gets really interesting for about ten minutes around the twelve minute mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7aWz8q_IM4&t=2s
I'm going to get myself super canceled for a moment and say that this is one of the main reasons I stopped posting on my book review blog.
The truth is that there are horrible inequalities of power in the publishing industry, and these inequalities lead to a lot of mediocre work being highly praised and publicized, often at the expense of more interesting and (I think) more deserving work that is frequently ignored by everyone, often including the press itself. Unfortunately, the internet hate machine has now gotten to the point where saying something like "this translation isn't great" can be regarded as full-stop problematic when the original author isn't white, even if the translator, editor, and publicist are all straight white American or British men who are using "diversity" as a mask to legitimate work that would otherwise be extremely objectionable.
And even when reviewing a book I actually enjoyed, to offer a small criticism like "there's a touch of transphobia in the treatment of a certain minor character" can become a discursive landmine. I know this because it happened to me, and both my delicate feelings and my sense of identity as a nonbinary gay person took serious damage in the process.
I'm not trying to suggest that sensitivity to issues like cultural relativism isn't pertinent to reading stories originating outside of mainstream North American corporate media, but rather... Idk. I've seen people on Twitter get in prolonged debates over whether not allowing people to wear agehao clothing covered with goofy manga orgasm faces at anime cons (that aren't actually happening this year because of the pandemic) is "cultural appropriation," and I just don't think these sorts of absurdist flamewars benefit anyone other than Twitter itself.
Anyway, best line: "Actually *wink* it's about ethics in fanfiction."
no subject
Date: 2021-04-16 06:30 pm (UTC)What a fucking hill to die on wow
Also I'm so sorry that mentioning things like "hey this feels a bit transphobic" results in catastrophic bullshit. It's a fucked up feeling, especially as a queer person just trying to give insight :\ *the gayest of hugs* and legit don't blame you for stopping your book review blog. That's awful.
Also also it's been a while since I've watched one of Lindsay Ellis' videos, so thanks for passing that link along!
no subject
Date: 2021-04-17 11:45 am (UTC)I have to admit that I haven't watched all of this video. It was extremely interesting to me until about the 35 minute mark, at which point it transitions into an item-by-item treatment of the list of things she was "called out" for. As far as I can tell, it's all stupid bullshit - the usual taking things severely out of context and applying the worst possible bad-faith interpretation in order to twist the original meaning and intention into something terrible. It's a dissertation on the absurdities of how online canceling works in its demonstration of how general patterns emerge through specific examples, but it's almost two hours long and impossible to watch without getting upset.
I appreciate her courage, though. Her demonstration of how unhinged the discourse itself is makes me feel less personally unhinged for getting upset about it. Her willingness to embrace specificity is also inspiring. I think I'm going to start posting on my book review blog again, and I think it might be worthwhile if my reviews are a little more specific about cultural history and context, even if that makes them less "accessible."
Honestly, I'm starting to get to the point where I'm thinking that maybe a moderate amount of gatekeeping might not be so bad. Nobody *needs* to be an asshole, but setting boundaries isn't inherently bad, especially when it comes to weeaboos on Twitter.
Anyway I am going to incorporate "the gayest of hugs" into my vocabulary, thank you for that!