Who gets the benefit of the doubt in fandom?

[ljwrites]

One way that the racial empathy gap shows itself in fandom is that fans often straight-up make things up about some (read: white male) characters to be able to call them marginalized--somehing lb_lee has pointed out--while making interpretations and inventions in the other direction about characters of color to "justify" their own lack of interest/sympathy.

This is endlessly hilarious on its face because, for one thing, you don't need some social-justice-based reason to obsess over, or rationalize your disinterest in, a character. It's even more laughable when the effort to be enlightened in your preferences so transparently favors RL privileged groups while disfavoring people who are marginalized IRL.

Here's an example from SW sequel trilogy fandom: I have seen people say about Kylo Ren, the main villain of the trilogy (his hardcore fans dispute this characterization), that he is "femme-coded" and his detractors are mysoginistic. I've seen people say they relate to him because he is so emblematic of trans male experiences. His fans say he has BPD and is not responsible for his actions, that he is a victim of child abuse, etc. etc.

And of course, these same fans tend to do the reverse for Finn, the Black male lead of the trilogy (also a disputed characterization, sigh). Finn is unrealistic because child soldiers can't tell right from wrong (an outright and hurtful lie, of course), Finn is a sexual harasser because he took Rey's hand, Finn is mentally stable and well-adjusted (really?) and therefore unrelatable as a victim of abuse, Finn killed more people than Kylo, Finn is abusive to Rey and so on and so forth.

I have seen this in other fandoms that I am not as much involved in. In the MCU, for instance, Loki gets described as a child abuse victim with PTSD while Valkyrie is dismissed by some fans as being "male-coded" and having a stereotypical male veteran's story.

So why is any of this a problem? Can't people imagine things for the characters they like, or might not care as much about for that matter? Isn't that the point of transformative fandom?

They have every right to, of course. I have as much of a ball as anyone else theorizing and imagining about fictional characters. What fans are not entitled to is freedom from criticism, especially when their imaginings touch on real life. If you're making a statement like "child soldiers can't have a conscience" or "people with BPD can't be held responsible for their actions" you are making statements about real-life people and not simply being fannish.

You are entitled to your opinions. You are not entitled to agreement. You are entitled to be free of harassment. Disagreement is not by itself harassment. I hope these parameters are clear.

It also becomes a problem when people convince themselves that their headcanon is actually canon and come at people for not subscribing to their headcanon--one that was repeatedly debunked by the unwitting originator, in this case. These headcanons can take on such a force in fandom that large numbers of fans can convince themselves of their canonity, prompting the creators themselves to confirm that some popular headcanon is, in fact, just a fan theory.

Most fundamentally, though, it shows the gap between the characters fans are willing to do the work of imagining oppressed identities for to make them more relatable, and the ones they are not willing to do the same work for, and in fact take efforts in the exact opposite direction. Again, I can't believe this even needs to be said but this doesn't meant they don't have the right to their own imagination, or that people who do this are Bad People who need to be bullied. It does mean that this gap in empathy can make fandom a hostile place for many fans of color, and yeah, it's kinda racist.

Comments

[hebethen]

Sometimes I hear countercriticism to the effect of "well it's because [canon] makes the white male characters more relatable by spending time on them and giving them unique characteristics! why don't you go after them!?"

To which I say absolutely nothing because why bother. But, like...

1. False assumption (that a given person who critiques *ist fandom trends doesn't also critique the same issues in mainstream entertainment)
2. Different circumstance. The creators of mainstream entertainment are not all up in the fandom grille directly interacting with fannish people on a peer-to-peer basis and, e.g., "coming at" individuals for disagreeing with them
(2b. Mostly, anyway. Anne Rice type situations are... Extra Badde with Side of Yike...)

[talewisefellowship]

Forgot to say but this is a hella good post! We definitely saw that trend about Finn, it's really disturbing and upsetting.

Sorry dont really have much to add aside from that!

--Hikaru

[askalis]

I have seen people say about Kylo Ren [...] that he is "femme-coded" and his detractors are mysoginistic.

That... is one helluva take. Even by Star Wars Hot Take standards. o_O

Also I'd bet anything it's lifted whole-cloth and unexamined from the same argument that used to get made about MCU Loki (where it at least has some mythological underpinnings, so it's not just like "lawlz long hair, long robe-dress-coat = femme!" or whatever). >_

[loopy777]

Wow, wouldn't it just be simpler to admit when we like a character purely because we feel sexual desire for their visual representation? This whole process of finding a Woke reason to be a fan of the character sounds exhausting.

[lb_lee]

I know we've talked about this a ton of times before, and god knows I've seen it in fandom, but it still saddens me, because it feels like a lot of really cool characters get short shrift.

For a little while, I was kinda on the edge of Pacific Rim fandom. Now, my favorite character in it, hands down, was Marshal Pentecost. (Probably not a huge surprise.) I found it awesome to see this character, this chronically ill, TERMINALLY ill character, surrounded by angry loose cannons. He wasn't the boss because he was the biggest cowboy; he was the boss because he had discipline and control and sheer force of personality. I feel like that's a character type I don't see very often in American action movies; there, the bosses are usually antagonists, the Man keeping the loose cannon from flying free.

But I didn't get to see many representations of him as a disabled character. Folks seemed to focus more on the two scientists, Gottlieb and Geiszler. And sure, Gottlieb totally is disabled, but as far as I knew, with Geiszler it was entirely headcanon. But I saw so many people projecting their own experience onto Geiszler--oh, he's autistic, he's ADD--when for me, Marshal Pentecost jived more with my image of myself as a disabled person. (Or more accurately, the kind of person I would LIKE to be.)

When I think about it, a lot of the disabled characters I saw myself in tended not to be white. And it seems kinda weird to think about, because how many canon disabled POC are there in media, right? That seems like it'd be a pretty small piece of the pie. But it seems odds are decent, somehow, at least with cyborgs. Cyborg from Teen Titans, Em from the Portals Series, Honesty from Miles and Honesty... I guess maybe cyborg stuff could be used as an analogy for racism, so it was considered a natural combo. (Sometimes with gross results--looking at YOU, 'Almost Human.')

I also find myself thinking about how I've never been deep into fandom, but I've kinda pulled away from it recently. I find myself impatient; I want REAL trans or queer or disabled characters, not headcanons and fandom twists on existing characters. As much as we'd like to pretend, Marvel is NEVER going to allow Captain America and Bucky to kiss--except maybe in some Elseworlds mini-special. And I'm lazy! I don't want to have to do all the work of imagining the demographics I want to see represented! That's what FICTION is for, eesh!