Looking at Finn's material in TROS, I am very excited and emotional how he grew his hair longer and is finding his own style in clothing as well.
( Star Wars feels! )
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stitchmediamix and diversehighfantasy, two of the most insightful commentators on fandom racism, were having a Twitter conversation on the racial empathy gap until, in a development so meta it feels like surrealist parody,(1) someone felt the need to add one of those "actually I'm not racist because..." replies.(2) In this case they evidently lost empathy for Finn when he "started firing on his own side."
Stitch has the post-game of this exchange, including responses that are on other threads and/or deleted later on, so refer to that thread for an analysis on why this bit of idiotic derailment is so indicative of fandom's problem with racism.
Ways I relate to Finn
Feb. 28th, 2019 03:39 amAn incomplete list of the ways I relate to Finn, movies and Before the Awakening canon:
Finn as a cult survivor
Feb. 7th, 2019 12:19 amOne of the criticisms Finn's writing has received is that he recovers too quickly from a lifetime of brainwashing by the First Order, and is overall written as too well-adjusted to be a victim of lifelong abuse.
It would take too much space to go into all of the ways Finn is still visibly traumatized in TFA and also TLJ, but I'd like to focus on one way that Finn has emphatically not recovered with lightning speed from brainwashing: The major moment in TFA that can be interpreted as Finn showing cult survivor behavior, that is, his speech to Maz and the others that there is no fighting back against the First Order and they all have to run.
( Finn and the damage from mind control )
These reactions and lines of dialogue strengthen the case that Finn's pivot from a kind of calm despair back to a willingness to fight isn't inconsistent writing, but rather symptomatic of his being a survivor of the mind control cult that First Order indoctrination was for Stormtroopers like him.
It would take too much space to go into all of the ways Finn is still visibly traumatized in TFA and also TLJ, but I'd like to focus on one way that Finn has emphatically not recovered with lightning speed from brainwashing: The major moment in TFA that can be interpreted as Finn showing cult survivor behavior, that is, his speech to Maz and the others that there is no fighting back against the First Order and they all have to run.
( Finn and the damage from mind control )These reactions and lines of dialogue strengthen the case that Finn's pivot from a kind of calm despair back to a willingness to fight isn't inconsistent writing, but rather symptomatic of his being a survivor of the mind control cult that First Order indoctrination was for Stormtroopers like him.
In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.
-Anatole France
I have written before about how Finn’s decency was an act of subversion against the militaristic totalitarianism he grew up under. There’s another character in TFA who is also kind and selfless in an unjust system, and that’s Rey. The difference is the kind of oppression these two characters lived under, which are diametrically opposed but just as corrosive in their different ways.
Finn was a slave soldier of a totalitarian dictatorship, while Rey was an exploited worker under a capitalist who could rob and swindle people in the absence of law and order. To put it in a simplified way, Finn lived in a system with no freedoms while Rey lived in a system of unchecked freedoms. And while freedom without any restriction might sound like a wonderful thing, in practice it tends to mean that people with power and capital get to restrict the freedoms of people without such advantages.
( A comparison and contrast of Finn's and Rey's backgrounds )(This essay was originally posted to Tumblr on January 26, 2017.)
Finn’s subversive decency
Jan. 2nd, 2019 12:05 amChoosing to be kind is not choosing to be passive. It’s choosing to end the cycle of abuse . . . It’s a courageous act in itself.
-Melissa Grey on Cinderella
It’s amazing to me how some parts of the Star Wars fandom have no sense of nuance when it comes to Finn’s character, seeing him as either a naive child who can hardly function in the real world or a ruthless killer who showed no regrets or conflicts whatsoever about killing his former comrades.
Both extremes are fairly dehumanizing and distorted portrayals of the actual character, because the core of Finn’s character is that he is innocent when he has no business being so. He’s a character whose innocence and purity are not oblivious naïvete but qualities he had to fight to keep and attain. His morality is not based on an ignorance of life’s harsh realities, but rather on an intimate knowledge of brutality and the will to break free of it.
( I love this character a lot, okay? )(This essay was originally posted to Tumblr on January 2, 2017.)
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.
( Examples from SW and MCU, mentions of mental illness, misogyny, child abuse etc. )
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.
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.
( Examples from SW and MCU, mentions of mental illness, misogyny, child abuse etc. )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.
