lokeanrampant (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lokeanrampant) wrote2019-04-13 10:55 pm
lokeanrampant) wrote2019-04-13 10:55 pm
Entry tags:
Truth in Fiction...and Society's Role
I was informed of some hatred in another site and decided to pull this out on its own. Humanity is constantly barraged by media. It informs and molds us. It shows us things we like and dislike. Society creates the cultural norms. And morality? Well, that is a combination of how society trained you and who you are as a person. But we have a choice to make about what type of things we want to see in that media.
The key to this topic is this: CONSENT.
If the issue involves active consent between parties doing whatever it is, legally, then if you don’t like it - don’t read it, don’t watch it, don’t listen to it, don’t consume it. But if there is consent? What business is it of ours? We don’t have to spend our time, our emotions, our money on it. It’s not made for us. And that’s okay.
If the issue involves NO consent between parties, then there is a problem. Because without consent, it is abuse, it is taking without permission, it is doing something/anything without permission. And that is wrong. This also allows us to see things that ARE openly abusive and see that there is no consent between parties and yes, we may step in and say this is wrong. We may have the opportunity to help someone unable to help themselves.
This is why some of us in varying fandoms keep responding negatively to oppression, subjugation, abuse, torture, and more, even in fictional media, because IT HAS AN IMPACT. It shows, clearly, that there is no consent between parties. It is even more true when it is in a media where the reader has the active ability to decide the outcome - say, choices in a video game - and these participants are no longer on the sidelines, but can side with those seeking to oppress or those seeking freedom from oppression.
But we also read, we watch, we listen. We can decide what we want in that media. There is a great deal of personal responsibility there, however. If you don’t like it, don’t consume it. Don’t go into something you hate just to stir controversy if it harms none. If you hate what a movie, book, or song is about, don’t consume it. The greatest ability you have to change a medium is not to buy into that medium.
It can be tricky. If it is something you like or love, but it is showing something or doing something which is considered globally wrong, that? Causes issues. In my case, I adore the Dragon Age Universe - games, books, art, lore, the works. However, the plight of mages and several races? It’s full-on religious and militaristic oppression, subjugation, abuse, torture, murder, and more. Because it is a game with choices, we can choose to oppose that regime of hated or support it.
Obviously, I oppose it because it goes against basic human rights. I don’t care that it’s in a video game… That doesn’t make it less wrong. And because I oppose it, openly, I get shit thrown my way, and some of my favorite characters are assassinated in more ways than one. But lack of consent is lack of consent. And this media and many others shows very clearly what that lack of consent can be, what types of outcomes it can have.
I realized this may seem to negate dubcon and similar genre. Talking about the effects of dubcon, talking about impact of rape and rape survival, survivors of any abuse - GOOD, therapeutic, relating your stories to others, not feeling alone, healing. Those things as plot devices start to wander into grey territories, but they can be kinks and I won’t kink-shame. Again, if you read/consume it, you are consenting to do so. So if you go in and read something you don’t like, KNOWING full well it was something you don’t like, STFU, cause you implicitly GAVE CONSENT. If it wasn’t tagged, stop reading it. If dubcon is a personal kink in your personal life and you want to RP that with CONSENTING parties with a safe-word? Go own your merry kinks and go for it. But even then, there is consent, there is trust.
But it is more than that. To hand-wave away a topic because it displeases you is wrong. It is the WORST form of willful ignorance. I dislike rape on every aspect of the idea, but to say we should never discuss it at all in any medium places it firmly behind closed doors and creates this hushed society around it. That is how things become hidden. We CANNOT hide topics away from the populace because they are uncomfortable. That is exactly how darkness spreads. That is how people become shunned and hurt and disregarded because their LIVES become shunned and disregarded, their truths become hidden because the pain of those truths made someone feel uncomfortable.
GOOD. You should feel uncomfortable by some things. Denying those things exist is childish. It's closing your eyes to the dark and screaming out that if you can't see the bad things, they can't see you. To understand something, to make it better, you MUST see it, you MUST talk about it. Closing your eyes to some of these topics, these topics that address what lack of consent at its most basic form does to others, creates that closed-door mentality and zealotry on both sides of the spectrum. It creates division. It creates hatred. If we had closed our eyes, we would never have learned how to treat illness, disease, mental afflictions, almost anything - because those things were terrifying and different and someone in society said they were bad. But others decided there was more to the mystery and they LEARNED. I have studied multiple accounts of mass murder, serial killings, and man's overriding need to be inhuman to fellow man, and though I have yet to account for this mindset beyond being the worst aspect of humanity that has persisted through the ages, it doesn't mean we shouldn't study it to see what makes this work in some people, what makes it abhorrent to others. It tells a tale of how society and how our psyche works.
You cannot hide away from what society IS. You cannot close your eyes and wish it away. You have to know it, you have to understand it. If someone wants to delve into a genre that fascinates them for whatever reason - maybe it's just curiosity on how it works, maybe it's a kink, maybe it's doctorate-level research, who knows - to bully them into not doing so, when they plainly stated they were doing so and if you weren't okay with this, not to read this, then that just makes you an ignorant bully, one of the mobs of old, pointing fingers and screaming at those people you didn't understand because they made you feel something you didn't like, and rather than addressing it like an adult capable of understanding complex subjects, you chose to cast them out, demonize them, and ostracize them. That's not on them. That's on you.
If we had closed our eyes to things that made us feel uncomfortable, we would never have moved into the enlightened age, the technological age, and we certainly wouldn't be discussing it on a global multi-media platform that transmits data in mere instants.
The key to this topic is this: CONSENT.
If the issue involves active consent between parties doing whatever it is, legally, then if you don’t like it - don’t read it, don’t watch it, don’t listen to it, don’t consume it. But if there is consent? What business is it of ours? We don’t have to spend our time, our emotions, our money on it. It’s not made for us. And that’s okay.
If the issue involves NO consent between parties, then there is a problem. Because without consent, it is abuse, it is taking without permission, it is doing something/anything without permission. And that is wrong. This also allows us to see things that ARE openly abusive and see that there is no consent between parties and yes, we may step in and say this is wrong. We may have the opportunity to help someone unable to help themselves.
This is why some of us in varying fandoms keep responding negatively to oppression, subjugation, abuse, torture, and more, even in fictional media, because IT HAS AN IMPACT. It shows, clearly, that there is no consent between parties. It is even more true when it is in a media where the reader has the active ability to decide the outcome - say, choices in a video game - and these participants are no longer on the sidelines, but can side with those seeking to oppress or those seeking freedom from oppression.
But we also read, we watch, we listen. We can decide what we want in that media. There is a great deal of personal responsibility there, however. If you don’t like it, don’t consume it. Don’t go into something you hate just to stir controversy if it harms none. If you hate what a movie, book, or song is about, don’t consume it. The greatest ability you have to change a medium is not to buy into that medium.
It can be tricky. If it is something you like or love, but it is showing something or doing something which is considered globally wrong, that? Causes issues. In my case, I adore the Dragon Age Universe - games, books, art, lore, the works. However, the plight of mages and several races? It’s full-on religious and militaristic oppression, subjugation, abuse, torture, murder, and more. Because it is a game with choices, we can choose to oppose that regime of hated or support it.
Obviously, I oppose it because it goes against basic human rights. I don’t care that it’s in a video game… That doesn’t make it less wrong. And because I oppose it, openly, I get shit thrown my way, and some of my favorite characters are assassinated in more ways than one. But lack of consent is lack of consent. And this media and many others shows very clearly what that lack of consent can be, what types of outcomes it can have.
I realized this may seem to negate dubcon and similar genre. Talking about the effects of dubcon, talking about impact of rape and rape survival, survivors of any abuse - GOOD, therapeutic, relating your stories to others, not feeling alone, healing. Those things as plot devices start to wander into grey territories, but they can be kinks and I won’t kink-shame. Again, if you read/consume it, you are consenting to do so. So if you go in and read something you don’t like, KNOWING full well it was something you don’t like, STFU, cause you implicitly GAVE CONSENT. If it wasn’t tagged, stop reading it. If dubcon is a personal kink in your personal life and you want to RP that with CONSENTING parties with a safe-word? Go own your merry kinks and go for it. But even then, there is consent, there is trust.
But it is more than that. To hand-wave away a topic because it displeases you is wrong. It is the WORST form of willful ignorance. I dislike rape on every aspect of the idea, but to say we should never discuss it at all in any medium places it firmly behind closed doors and creates this hushed society around it. That is how things become hidden. We CANNOT hide topics away from the populace because they are uncomfortable. That is exactly how darkness spreads. That is how people become shunned and hurt and disregarded because their LIVES become shunned and disregarded, their truths become hidden because the pain of those truths made someone feel uncomfortable.
GOOD. You should feel uncomfortable by some things. Denying those things exist is childish. It's closing your eyes to the dark and screaming out that if you can't see the bad things, they can't see you. To understand something, to make it better, you MUST see it, you MUST talk about it. Closing your eyes to some of these topics, these topics that address what lack of consent at its most basic form does to others, creates that closed-door mentality and zealotry on both sides of the spectrum. It creates division. It creates hatred. If we had closed our eyes, we would never have learned how to treat illness, disease, mental afflictions, almost anything - because those things were terrifying and different and someone in society said they were bad. But others decided there was more to the mystery and they LEARNED. I have studied multiple accounts of mass murder, serial killings, and man's overriding need to be inhuman to fellow man, and though I have yet to account for this mindset beyond being the worst aspect of humanity that has persisted through the ages, it doesn't mean we shouldn't study it to see what makes this work in some people, what makes it abhorrent to others. It tells a tale of how society and how our psyche works.
You cannot hide away from what society IS. You cannot close your eyes and wish it away. You have to know it, you have to understand it. If someone wants to delve into a genre that fascinates them for whatever reason - maybe it's just curiosity on how it works, maybe it's a kink, maybe it's doctorate-level research, who knows - to bully them into not doing so, when they plainly stated they were doing so and if you weren't okay with this, not to read this, then that just makes you an ignorant bully, one of the mobs of old, pointing fingers and screaming at those people you didn't understand because they made you feel something you didn't like, and rather than addressing it like an adult capable of understanding complex subjects, you chose to cast them out, demonize them, and ostracize them. That's not on them. That's on you.
If we had closed our eyes to things that made us feel uncomfortable, we would never have moved into the enlightened age, the technological age, and we certainly wouldn't be discussing it on a global multi-media platform that transmits data in mere instants.
no subject
My tastes in fanfic have changed drastically over the past 7 years, partly because of what's going on the in the real world and partly because I've been working through the neglect and abuse of my childhood. I used to read just about anything, but no more. I prefer to read about people working together, being productive and happy, having loving relationships, dealing with conflict in constructive ways. I want to relax with media, and I'm more selective about what I find to be relaxing.
I'm uncomfortable with writers who force readers/viewers to become voyeurs. I no longer enjoy the vast majority of mysteries, police procedurals, and detective fiction because my boss, a woman, was murdered. It woke me up to how commonly the murder (or rape) of a woman is used for "entertainment" value in media. For me, it's sexist, it perpetuates stereotypes, and I do not want to see it. I won't watch Game of Thrones because rape is so pervasive, and it's mainly women who undergo character growth as a result. I refuse to see movies with fridging. I never saw Thor: Dark World because I don't want to see Thor brutalizing his brother.
But I do understand that people process things differently than me. Some of my coworkers, for instance, started reading murder mysteries and true crime for reassurance that order exists in this chaotic world, for insight into why people kill, and to understand what makes good people take on the difficult but necessary jobs of finding and stopping bad people.
I want consumers to think about the media they're consume, but I understand they can't be forced to do so. Maybe people consume mindlessly because they were forced to think about what they read and viewed in school, and it's too much work to do that when they're trying to relax. I opposecensorship, even though there's problematic content out there. That's why I think critics are so important as buffers, and I wish people would read reviews more often. Persuading someone that a book or film is sexist or racist or whatever is one thing, but outright censorship is another.
I would like creators to think about what they're doing. I want violence to have a point, just like I want female superheroes to wear a costume for practical reasons, not just to be titillating for the male gaze. I want creators to think about who is consuming their works, and why. I follow creators who have gained my trust, and I drop those who violate that trust.
I've offended writer friends by telling them this. They were shocked I wouldn't read their non-con or dub-con, or whatever and found it so offensive that they no longer wanted to be friends with me. I guess they only wanted to be friends to boost their egos, not for the kind of feedback that helps friends grow.
I suppose that's no different, though, than what happened with Loki's Resistance. There we were, pointing out the problems some of the Marvel films, and we had people telling us we were wrong and we should shut up because we were ruining their fun. It became clear to me that many fans don't want to think about what they read or watch. One person accused me of shaming them because they in real life had verbally and physically abused their mentally ill sibling and saw nothing wrong with Thor berating and physically attacking Loki. Other people didn't like what we said about raising a child of another race, which made me very worried about what was going on in their families. People didn't want to know anything was wrong with the films, they didn't want to put themselves in someone else's shoes, and they preferred to bully and try to make us shut up than to block us.
Life is complicated, especially in a free society. Too many people don't want to negotiate, they don't want to persuade, they want to rant, to make people shut up, to gloss over instead of facing problems. There are too many people trying to impose their views, unwilling to think how other people feel, secure they have all the facts and everyone else is wrong. They don't want to open their eyes.
The best the rest of us can do is to try to inform, to work for freedom of choice, oppose censorship, try to open their eyes, understand that the job never gets easier. We need to work together, to give each other time away to relax and recover. I think we need to recover the attitude of earlier generations that we need to constantly work to make our society better, it's not just a matter of voting. It's something we need to do in our friendships, at work, with our families. Freedom is a verb, and it needs to be exercised every day to remain healthy and vigorous.