shortforemily - Tumblr blog

shortforemily · 7 months

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GET THEM NEON

I just deactivated my Twitter account, but I wanted to address false claims that I am "racist against Thea Guanzon (who I know primarily as diasterisms on AO3) for being Southeast Asian (SEA) / BIPOC / POC" in this tweet below, among other ones.

This is going to be a very long post, but one that I feel is necessary. I strongly advise you to please read the entire post through to the end before retweeting or commenting.

Firstly: No, I am not "racist" towards Thea Guanzon. None of my comments about diasterisms' Landscape With a Blur of Conquerors (LWABOC) have ever involved, nor been about, Thea Guanzon's race or ethnicity, nor was I aware that Thea was POC or SEA (Southeast Asian) - or even that she was the same person as "diasterisms" on AO3 - before discussing my constructive criticism of LWABOC with one of my close friends on Twitter a while back.

I also don't really like people using what I currently consider to be my "deadname" in tweets like this, or deadnaming me on purpose, simply because they happen to dislike or hate me. I've stated on my Twitter account many times that I identify as nonbinary/agender, and I changed my name to "Obversa" on my Twitter account some time ago, partly to reflect this. While it is a feminine form of Latin, it also reflects my experiences as a nonbinary/agender person.

I've also stated quite a few times on Twitter that I don't like people using my old name - my birth name - on social media, and prefer to go by "Obversa", at least for the time being. However, accounts like this have blatantly ignored this, and deadnamed me anyways, despite the account in the screenshot claiming to be "anti-TERF".

I've kept this private until now, but because a transgender Reylo fan asked me about my gender identity and pronouns on Twitter in reference to this tweet, I feel like I have no choice but to "out" myself due to this.

For reference, I also use "she/they" pronouns, not "she/her". However, I almost always see accounts who dislike or hate me only use "she/her", and never "they/them".

That being said, I want to make one thing clear: Just because someone happens to be white, or appears to be white, does not mean that they are being intentionally "racist" when they criticize a POC person's work(s) or writing.

If that is the case, then every white critic who will up giving Thea Guanzon's The Hurricane Wars a mixed or bad review - and trust me, that can and will happen when the book is released, because it already happened with Ali Hazelwood's The Love Hypothesis - is "racist" because "they gave a BIPOC / Asian author a mixed or bad review".

You can't just dismiss critiques or criticisms by white critics with "they're just a racist POS who hates BIPOC and Asian people", especially if there is no evidence if them being racist to the author whose work they critiqued or criticized.

In the vast majority of cases - including mine - the critique or criticism has nothing to do with the author's race or ethnicity, and only addresses the quality and content of their writing.

When I originally critiqued or criticised LWABOC, I only knew Thea Guanzon as "diasterisms" - just her AO3 handle - and had no idea who she was in real life, much less that she was BIPOC / Asian. I gave what is called a "blind critique", which means that I read and gave my thoughts on the fanwork without knowing who the author is.

Thus, claiming that my critique was "racist", when I was unaware of what race "diasterisms" even was at the time, is also blatantly false, as well as a misrepresentation of what actually happened.

Also, to clarify, since this tweet also accuses me of "getting into it" with Thea Guanzon: I've never directly interacted with Thea Guanzon, to my knowledge, except to leave positive comments on LWABOC a long time ago. Saying "I have beef with Thea Guanzon", in my view, is like falsely claiming that "Thomas Edison was an evil asshole who hated Nikola Tesla", even though Edison also praised Tesla and his work.

This isn't a black-and-white, "good vs. evil" situation. I am not the "Devil", nor is Thea Guanzon "God", to quote this Forbes article by Alex Knapp: "Nikola Tesla Wasn't God And Thomas Edison Wasn't The Devil"

I only indirectly criticized LWABOC, as written by "diasterisms on AO3", once on my Twitter account, which quite a few angry and upset Thea Guanzon / diasterisms fans then attacked en masse me for. Many of them harassed me and sent me vile, nasty messages for several consecutive days across multiple social media platforms, despite me locking my Twitter account to try and prevent harassment.

Some of them also made absolutely disgusting posts on Twitter that victim-blamed me for being in a past romantic relationship with someone who turned out to be a sexual predator, even though it had nothing to do with my criticism of LWABOC. This included blaming me for "not doing enough to mitigate" this predator's actions, even though I did confront the predatory individual in question - multiple times - about how their actions were predatory over PM/DM.

The claim of "racism" - or that I have "racist motivations" - is also a massive over-exaggeration and misrepresentation of what actually happened: An "anonymous person" sent or messaged my critique in a conversation with my friend directly to Thea Guanzon on Twitter - presumably, to cause drama, or to try to get her to make a "callout post" - and Thea got upset as a result.

I stated many, many times on my Twitter account that I do not hate LWABOC; that I think it is well-written, and absolutely worthy of being turned into an original novel. The tweet in the screenshot refers to multiple Reylo fanfictions-turned-novels, not just LWABOC, including several fanfictions-turned-novels by white authors, such as Ali Hazelwood, et al.

I do not single Thea Guanzon out specifically in the screenshotted thread, and this person's claim that I did single out Thea Guanzon specifically is also false.

My true opinion? I think it's great that Thea Guanzon is publishing The Hurricane Wars. It's great to see POC representation in romance novel publishing, but I feel that it isn't my place to comment on Thea Guanzon being a POC, because I'm not a POC or Asian myself. I'm just a white person who knows nothing about being POC, much less about being SEA, or SEA culture.

I also publicly retracted my early criticisms of The Hurricane Wars when someone pointed out to me that the book used SEA folklore.

To add to this, I specifically went out of my way not to interact with Thea Guanzon after some fans of LWABOC got upset with me for critiquing the fanfic in a discussion with one of my friends on Twitter.

This is because Thea Guanzon seemed to be distressed about my critique - which, again, an "anonymous person" went out of their way to share with her, despite me not tagging her - and I felt as though reaching out to her would have negatively impacted her mental health more.

I also did not want to cause, or instigate, more drama or issues on Twitter. My actions were done out of concern for Thea Guanzon's safety and well-being, as well as to allow her to continue to promote The Hurricane Wars on Twitter and other social media platforms without any perceived negative criticism, critique, or interference by me.

I'm not "getting into things" with Thea Guanzon here. I have no problems or issues with Thea Guanzon whatsoever. I've never blocked Thea Guanzon on any social media platform, not have I ever harassed or @'d her, because doing so would be shitty behavior.

Thea Guanzon seems like a lovely person and human being, and I genuinely regret causing her unnecessary distress due to my previous tweets.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same for some of Thea Guanzon's fans, whom have been treating anyone who critiques or criticizes Thea's work absolutely horribly.

The ones that seem to be causing problems and issues are the accounts falsely accusing me of being "racist" towards Thea Guanzon - when, in fact, I have never once said anything remotely racist towards her - and going out of their way, as the account in the screenshot did, to purposefully harass and @ me, despite me privating my Twitter account, to tell me things like "you're a racist cunt" and "kys".

Sending harassment, abuse, threats, and even suicide bait to anyone who criticizes or critiques Thea Guanzon's work - regardless if they happen to be BIPOC or white - is also absolutely unacceptable.

This also includes harassment on other social media platforms, like Reddit, despite my Reddit account and its content largely having little to nothing to do with my Twitter account.

As always, I support BIPOC authors, including Asian authors. However, "support" does not equal "never criticizing or critiquing a work by a BIPOC or Asian author, ever". Critique and criticism is not always done in "bad faith", nor is most critique and criticism done to malign, smear, or personally attack the author.

Criticism and critique is not always a personal attack on the author, and I need people to understand this. This has been discussed many times before on Tumblr when it comes to criticism and critique of popular work(s), including here, here, and elsewhere.

I can understand, and agree with, the stance of "don't give unsolicited criticism and critique on fanfictions and fanworks" - I already largely honor that as part of my personal code when interacting with fanfiction authors - but this does not in any way, shape, or form apply to original novels, even if they happen to be former fanfictions.

They are no longer fanfictions, but novels marketed for a much wider audience and mass appeal - and people can and will criticize and critique them, as seen with The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood.

Going after every person who criticizes or critiques The Hurricane Wars - or LWABOC, for that matter - on Twitter, Goodreads, YouTube, or any other social media platform or website should be unthinkable. Yet that is what is happening on Twitter, with some of Thea Guanzon's fans attacking, or even harassing and threatening, anyone who criticizes her work.

I need people to realize that, while you might have good intentions - or think that you're "defending Thea Guanzon and Asians in the publishing industry" by doing this - this just makes you, and Thea Guanzon by extension, look bad.

While your goal here is likely to try and "reduce harm" to Thea by attacking and silencing her critics, in the short term, I need you to understand that what you are doing is actually causing more harm to Thea Guanzon - and Asian representation in media - in the long run by doing this.

I also feel that the mentality here of "criticizing a BIPOC person's work for any reason is inherently racist" is in itself problematic, because it implies that BIPOC authors cannot speak for, nor defend, themselves in the face of critique and criticism - even if they are professionally published, successful authors who don't need their fans to defend them.

It also places BIPOC authors and their works on a pedestal solely due to their race and ethnicity, which is inherently unhealthy, instead of treating them as human beings, and people - and writers - with both strengths and weaknesses.

Last, but not least, it also assumes that any and all criticism of a work by a BIPOC / Asian author by a white critic is inherently "bad faith" criticism - which is decidedly not true.

I would personally recommend reading up on the concept of "Death of the Author", as well well as "separating the art from the artist", which many - if not most - critics apply to published original novels. While many on Tumblr do not "separate the art from the artist", I personally ascribe to "Death of the Author", and my criticisms and critiques reflect that.

It also means my critiques and criticisms are directed specifically at the work, not the author. This means that even though, yes, authors like - for example - J.K. Rowling, et al., can be racist, transphobic, ableist, and anti-LGBT, I feel that Harry Potter should also be judged separately from J.K. Rowling.

A BIPOC - Asian, in this case - author is not solely defined by their work, nor is their work solely defined as being "written by a BIPOC / Asian author". I feel this does a great disservice to LWABOC and The Hurricane Wars, because Thea Guanzon's work is so much more than just "BIPOC / Asian representation".

Solely boiling her work down to "You have to praise her work(s) because she's BIPOC / Asian, or else you're a racist bitch/cunt/POS!" feels not only false, disingenuous, and performative - that is, not truly supporting Thea Guanzon's work based on its own high quality and merits, but solely because "she's BIPOC / Asian" - but it also doesn't actually address the quality of her work(s) outside of her ethnicity.

To clarify: I firmly believe, and always have, that Thea Guanzon is a worthy novelist who deserves to have her published work(s) be successful. The romance genre does need more BIPOC / Asian representation. No amount of fans who hate me and call me "racist", and telling me to "kys", over what amounts to maybe one or two criticisms or critiques on Twitter is going to bait me into saying or thinking otherwise.

Nor is a single criticism or critique by me going to change that Thea Guanzon can and will be very likely achieve success with the release of The Hurricane Wars; as far as debut novels go, it's an excellent start. In fact, I would have never criticized LWABOC to begin with if I didn't think that it already stood on its own merits as a high-quality fanwork, and would go on to succeed in spite of my mixed-to-positive feelings and personal opinion(s) on it.

LWABOC and The Hurricane Wars are well-written, interesting, intelligent works with a lot of love, foresight, and care put into them by their author, with The Hurricane Wars also using SEA folklore and mythology. LWABOC is near-universally beloved by the Reylo fandom, being the #1 most popular Reylo fanfiction (not counting a troll fanwork posted by an anti-Reylo), and for good reason.

Both stand on their own value and worth as high-quality works, completely regardless of Thea Guanzon's race and ethnicity. (LWABOC especially, since that heavily borrowed from Star Wars Legends EU lore that was created by white authors, before being changed to SEA folklore in The Hurricane Wars.)

Anyways, I have no ill-will towards those who dislike or hate me - more sadness and disappointment - but I feel as though maybe some you should stop and think about what you say before posting on Twitter. I've been seeing fans who are way too quick to jump to (often false) conclusions or assumptions about people based on little to nothing, and attack them for that reason. This isn't healthy behavior, and it often contributes to drama and toxicity in the fandom.

It's partly for this reason - as well as the toxicity of Twitter as a platform in general, and how it "sucks you in" - that I permanently deactivated my Twitter account as well. Quite a few Reylos seem to be too reactionary, and take things too personally, when it comes to Twitter and social media, and that's not good for everyone involved.

As I see this as a "no-win" situation for all involved, I have opted to not engage with the fandom - that also includes not responding to the accounts trying to rage bait me into responding to their tweets on the platform right now. I originally joined Twitter to enjoy Reylo with other Reylo fans, as well as to discuss Reylo fanfiction and fanworks, not to fight and argue with other Reylos.

I personally feel that Twitter has changed some people in the Reylo fandom for the worse - something I am not immune to, and I freely acknowledge my mea culpa here. I also noticed that, despite my own good intentions, it was making me more volatile, inconsiderate, and generally negatively impacting my mental health and mindset.

Due to this, I did harm people, both indirectly and directly, despite it never being my intention to do so.

For that, I genuinely apologize, and feel guilt and sorrow for my actions. If I could go back in time, I would tell myself to never post any criticism or critique to begin with, as well as to ask questions before commenting on an author that I don't know much about. My comments were also ignorant, misguided, and ill-informed.

To those who were harmed: I apologize, and acknowledge that my actions were hurtful. Even though you may dislike or hate me, I am genuinely not trying to hurt or harm other Reylo fans - you and included - out of malice. I'm trying to help you, as well as to help myself improve, both as a person and a writer.

I am still trying to learn, as a white person, how to identify and acknowledge my own white privilege, as well as how some of my words and actions may unknowingly come across as harmful and hurtful to BIPOC / Asian folks.

However, as I feel that the Reylo fandom seems to be increasingly having problems and issues with toxicity - especially since the centralization of the fandom on Twitter - I'll be moving on to other IPs, fanfictions, and fanworks outside of Reylo that bring me happiness, joy, and fun, while also staying away from Twitter.

I'm not going to let someone else's words bring me down - and I suggest that you don't, either. No matter what, you are a human being who is worthy of love and respect, and your thoughts, feelings, words, and experiences matter. That is still true, even if not everyone agrees with your opinions on something you love.

Above all, do what brings you joy and happiness. Life is too short to allow one's mind to become clouded by negativity and hatred. As Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) once said in The Last Jedi: "That's how we'll win - not by fighting what we hate, but by saving what we love."

Wishing you all the best,

Obversa (she/they)

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