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veridium · 4 years

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fuck it, queer meta.

About a year ago I wrote one of my first and largest meta posts about why I consider Cassandra a prime example of queerbaiting despite her being a character who explicitly says she is heterosexual. This lead to quite the day of inbox hate mail from people throughout the fandom. Most were upset I used the “q slur” and left it untagged as such in the big DA meta tags. I can imagine for those folks, the substance of what I had to say mattered little as a result.

I deleted most of those messages and my responses soon afterward. They upset me greatly even as I took it all in stride. However, given that it’s been about 365 days since that fiasco, and some interesting events have happened with regards to current and former DA writers, I thought it would be “fun” to write a recap and reflection on why, generally, I still feel the way I did when I wrote that post. With some changes and growth, of course.

The gist of it is, as we have come to learn in past, recent, and ongoing discourses in fandom, that much to the chagrin of a lot of folks in this fandom: BioWare, and in this instance DA writers, are not your SJW Icons. Furthermore, they never should have been, or should be, considered as such.

The gist (part two) for me, is: for as much as diverse characters, worlds, and societies are being uplifted by Games these days, the counterbalance of bullshit is still there. And I think it survives most sturdily in the kind of logic the BioWare writing culture throughout the years. This sense of egalitarian, “of course” logic, that appears to make socially deviant identities normalized but really just falsely positions those identities as meant to be in lock-step with the norm. Representation to gaming, and most of media writ large, all-too-easily falls into the trap of “we want what the privileged have,” which it to say, we want our existence to be a no-brainer, even if it means we lost the essence of why our stories are so profound, important, and necessary to do justice.

I really can’t imagine accepting the way characters like Cassandra were written because I don’t accept the writer(s) who wrote her. Why?

Come with me, and we’ll be, in a world, of pure fuckery...but with citations...because I’m an Academic and that’s my roll.*

*Please see tags for pertinent content warnings before clicking.**

**if you reblog and tag this shit with “q slur,” I will take all the reserves of understanding I have as a DA fic writer for all of the enraged womxn in the series and express it accordingly. And, as a femslash-oriented author, I can promise you: that expression will be consumptive.

Hm, I wonder, what with the predominant writer for her character inquires on Twitter for “lesbian fanfic porn” recommendations for writing “research,” but seems to be unable to hire appropriate creatives to write, consult, etc. for the project.

Or that the writers room made, and continues to make, space for a writer who continually does Black and queer characters dirty with his mediocre-at-best work, in both game and novel form (because, plot twist, he’s a shit writer) (1) (2) (3).

Or that the writer’s room, and specifically Ga*der, attesting that the development of the Qunari was based on Arab cultures around the time of “Medieval Europe,” which is somehow his way of getting out of the thematic botching of the Qunari language, social structure, etc. from Islamic tradition.

Or, the writers who intentionally shaped the story so that Vivienne, one of the limited number of Black women characters in the entire series to have a role as an ally, to be a red herring of an distrustful and conceited antagonist, to the point where her treatment by fandom has been incredibly racist, heinous, and lazy for years.

These are a few of MANY reasons, with thorough exposition, why the veneer of “progressive inclusion” studios like BioWare claim to be authentic. Having “diverse” writers in the room -- and I’m using that word incredibly tenuously here -- didn’t change the result of any of these harmful scenarios. In fact, it created them. This, combined with the tale as old as time: toxic fandom culture with white, anglo-centric, cisheterosexual masculinist ideals at the fore, have gotten us here.

So, do I hold all of the reasons why I am angry about Cassandra’s character writing the same way now, as I did then? No. Certainly not. In fact, there are parts where I would correct myself. On the other hand, the thesis for me remains largely preserved: I revile G*ider, I revile that he gets the accolades he does by fandom for his “diversity” of characters when he exploits, erases, and uses slippery morality to get out of admitting he has shortcomings in his work. I hate that the exaltation for representation still funnels itself onto the heads of white writers and predominantly white-staffed studios.

And, underneath it all, I am mad that some of ya’ll see no problem with that. Because what does it matter, if you do not come from communities, cultures, and coalitions that get the brunt of this misrepresentation? What does it matter if it angers a lesbian fan that the writers who have a long history of misusing and conveniently copping themselves out when they write women and queer characters, seem to use that “expertise” as permission to do what they are supposedly combating?

G*ider, the hero himself, is on written record saying that it should not be second guessed as to why Cassandra is straight, just as he thinks it should not be second guessed that Dorian is gay. Yet, when he asked on Twitter if there was some moral significance to people modding character’s sexuality (in this specific instance, Dorian, actually), G*ider said that in the end, people’s mods “do not change” what he wrote, and that unless they claim their changes “supercede” canon, there’s no harm done.

So, really, I’m just over here like -- is this ya’lls hero?

Why in the fuck would someone be modding a gay character to be bisexual or heterosexual, if they didn’t somehow believe that version “supercedes” the canon rendition? Secondly, where is the attention to the fact that, in an ensemble of multiple romanceable characters, Dorian has to be the one that has to be sexually and romantically accessible to those outside of his canonical realm of attraction?

I mean, for fuck’s sake, it’s the whole virtue grounding his companion side quest, the fact that he is estranged from his Father who tried to magically change his orientation! This is a crucial part of Dorian’s entire journey to serving the Inquisition, and serving Tevinter as a dissident.

But, you know, it doesn’t change what G*ider wrote. And he’s correct, it doesn’t change what he wrote, which he got credit, money, and esteem for. It doesn’t change that if you load up the base game, Dorian’s gay. In G*ider’s head, that is the protective force: the parts where he has ties, and not the culture of the fandom, the culture the fans who helped fill his pockets from that game have to dwell within. This isn’t revolutionary, this isn’t good-faith representation. This is getting a piece of the rotten-sweet pie and saying “let bygones be bygones, you toxic, funky heteronormative assholes!”

But, where are my manners. I’m getting heated, aren’t I?

Basically, if you condemn queer fans for calling out queer bating -- or any marginalized fan for throwing up the alarm for bullshit -- and your first reaction is to side with folks like G*ider who got theirs and said screw everything else, fuck off. Literally, fuck off. I call Cassandra’s circumstance queerbaiting because she’s one example of writers getting their cake and eating it, too. If they are so aware of just how much of their fanbase is marginalized folks, they don’t get to say they don’t have fingerprints on things like queerbaiting. You don’t get to be acclaimed and excused for the shit you say you are combating, which is the source of that acclaim. And if your claim is happy ignorance, then you definitely don’t get to blithely equivocate when fans do ask you why the story happened the way it did.

I also just want to keep in mind here that there’s a deductive conclusion to be had about this, given how La*idlaw explicitly stated they endeavored to make Cassandra extremely hot, “really enticing.” That conclusion is:

(1) Either they aren’t/weren’t nearly as attuned to their queer audiences as they generally claim to be, or

(2) They were, and had no intention of developing compassion or empathy passed G*ider talking out of his ass about why Cassandra was developed as straight. Which, ultimately, does coincide with conclusion (1) more than not.

No matter what, the contour to the conclusion is: wow, a taste of nauseating objectification, in the BioWare writer’s room. Who knew!

It’s no wild accusation to make to a writer like him and his colleagues, that they don’t know how to handle sapphic, wlw, and/or queer-related storylines, especially with women. Especially when the answer seems to be, “well, it was decided before I took the lead, and in any case, why question it! You wouldn’t question a gay character’s orientation!”

But that’s just it, you complete and utter turnip. People did question Dorian’s sexuality. People do question Dorian’s sexuality. That fantasy world of equal bearings is as insincere as it is out-of-touch. And why not, when, as you said,

it doesn’t change what you got paid for.

The ethos seems to be crudely reflexive: people’s phobic interpretations and alterations of the canon do not matter, but then again, why would you even question why a character is straight? Why would you question my narrative vision, in all of its beautiful shittery?

It’s all a game of dodge, ya’ll. Dodge, dodge, dodge. With a strong and acidic dose of vanity.

So. In summation, folks: I could care less for your false equivalences. I could care less about my contribution of queer content fucking up your good time in the meta tags. Obviously you aren’t there to actually engage in creative, exploratory thought, so why bother reasoning. There is more to the possibilities of queerbaiting than stringing along a could-be, would-be, should-be queer storyline directly. There’s knowing your audience enough to exploit your good graces with them. There’s benefitting from a charade of liberal progressive clout. There’s the ability to foresee that queer people will cathect to a given character, and not only denying an experience they could have, but denying it so harshly that the character says they can’t love yours because you’re female.

And I am so, so, so sick of these people continually enriching themselves off of the “nobody’s perfect” grace. To me, that grace is the promise of good faith, and the intention to do right by people. When that isn’t there, the grace isn’t going somewhere where it’ll be appreciated, that it will be nourished by. I mean, fucking hell, people, this is rainbow capitalism: don’t you taste it?

That’s that, then. “Cassandra and Queerbaiting Rant,” one year on. An extra dose of salt, just for the haters.

#da meta #cassandra and queerbaiting rant #one year reflection?#yeah #so #queerbaiting #cassandra pentaghast #bioware critical #bioware bullshit #cw: lesbophobia #cw: homophobia #cw: queerphobia #cw: discussion of Dorian's experiences with his family

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veridium · 5 years

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when you say a white writer has no business writing a POC, do you mean due to our world's inequality issues, or under absolutely any circumstances? e.g if there was a fiction AU world where there was no differences between the races whatsoever and never had been, would you apply it to that as well?

You know. I sat back and thought about this, and TL;DR my answer is those two reasons are inextricably linked. White creators have no business writing POC in stories because of our world’s inequality issues and because their liberty in doing so is won after centuries of international, settler-colonial genocide and abuse.

And I’m just gonna have this out in the open: one of my characters in my fiction is a Black woman. I do not talk about this with the presumption that I exist outside of this situation. I also know that we as fandom creators make characters of different races and ethnicities all day, every day. My critique here is with the industry, the flow of economic and social capitol that functions to privilege whiteness, neurotypicality, heternormativity, etc. I don’t get paid to write Naomi, and I don’t get industry clout for writing her in my fanfic as a character. I still try my best to consider how her world could be shaped and how her life happens with all facets of her identity configured, but I never ever claim nor want to claim that my writing her is an organic meditation on racism through a closed read.

CW: racism, settler-colonialism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia.

Here’s the thing – universes and worlds are places of endlesspossibility, right? But if we are talking worlds with societies, cultures, andother staples of anthrocentric environments, a utopia is inherently paradoxical.You cannot have a world of groups, societies, and governments without identitiescoalescing and diverging from one another in both interest and history. No matterwhat, whether it be on the basis of skin color, origins, traditions, norms,values, ambitions, social organization will manifest itself.

And here’s another thing: 99.99% of the time in games, movies, tvshows, utopian worlds where race, class, gender, and sexuality are “unimportant”is a half-assed narrative style. Why? Because we don’t know what that actually lookslike without getting our perspectives and experiences on them like muddyfingerprints. If we’re simply talking Dragon Age, and specifically Inquisition,we have one Codex entry – “Sexuality in Thedas” – that discusses sexualidentity in several different cultures as being more behavioral quirk than anything.And yet:

1. Dorian is threatenedwith blood magic as a form of identity conversion therapy,

2. Cassandra objects toromance with a F!Inquisitor due to her gender and her faithful morality, and

3. We see social stressorstake place wherein people who are LGBTQ+ are seen as philandering, sexuallypromiscuous, etc.

It is a similar botching when it comes to race, because eventhough skin color isn’t supposed to be theoretically consequential, Vivienne isfaced with misogynoir that gets violent from the Imperial Court, and Elves areoppressed by virtue of their race.

Creating fictional worlds where identities marked by skin color, anatomy,economic class, etc. is nice to think about because it removes the stress ofhaving to construct and reckon with the violences of inequality. And who doesthat most benefit? White people of Anglo-European descent. It is no surprisethat in media industries unjustly dominated by white, cisgender, heterosexualmen, utopianism is an uncritical broad-brush tool used in narrative to removeresponsibility for the creators to flesh out and consider alternative perspectivesoutside their positionalities.

These worlds, these narratives, come from us, and we are in thisworld. This planet, wherein colonial white supremacist genocide has wreaked havocglobally for centuries and continues to do so. I don’t care if Steve Stevenson fromGlendale, CA with his Prius and polo shirts can write his pants off for acharacter who “just happens” to be a person of color. The fact is and willalways be that he gets money deposited into his bank account for it that couldhave gone to a Creative of Color to write, construct, design, illustrate, etc.instead of him.

More often than not, Utopian AUs are the playgrounds of privilege.We dissect this in social theory and ethnic studies, how the concept of a “Utopia”presents itself as disconnected from past and futurity, suspended inegalitarian stasis. It proposes a place where generationally inherited anger, poverty,abuse, cultural erasure, etc. have no bearing on the community or the individuals’identities. Who has the most to benefit from that? Who has the most to benefitfrom subjugated identities not having reason nor evidence to thedisorientation, persecution, and estrangement they feel from the body politic?

So, no, I don’t think white creators have any business writingcharacters of color. I don’t think cishet creators have any business writing LGBTQ+characters. I don’t think able-bodied or neurotypical people have any businesswriting neurodivergent and/or disabled characters. But that’s the thing: theydon’t have the business, but they still do it, and get paid and awarded for it.Because societies do not exist without someone being more susceptible than theother, and more apt to be exploited and marginalized.

In the United States alone, Black families on average have afraction of saved wealth that white families do, due to hundreds of years ofunpaid labor. Their descendants have less inherited wealth to invest inhousing, education, healthcare, and travel. That means generations of Blackcreatives have had a starting line dozens of miles behind their typical White peer.Indigenous peoples in this country are the descendants of communities activelytargeted with genocide and are still enduring tactics of it in environmentaland land-grabbing public “policies.” Trans women of color’s average expectedlifespan is ~35 years.

There is absolutely no fucking reason why characters who look likethem, who come from experiences they have had, who are products of theimaginations in this world, should be coming from anywhere else but them. Thetalent and skill are out there, the content is out there, and they are workingtheir asses off in a system that does not serve them and in fact repressesthem.

But I think all in all, my statement should be more precise: Thereis absolutely no fucking reason why white cishet people should have theliberties they do in creative fields to write racism, racial sexism, colorism,misogynoir, that they do. The fact that a white person can make a movie, writea book, make a TV show about racism, or a cishet person can make content about homophobia/transphobia,and be paid for it, and take credit for the work those communities do, shouldtell you they have no business. And yet. People from those communities andgroups die in the streets, in detention centers, in prisons, etc. and yet theirexperiences don’t matter as much as the hot new story on the movie posters orin the game trailers. This is the social product of hundreds of years of imperialismtaking stories, taking cultures, and taking heritages, and claiming ownershipover them. Popular culture and media does not exist outside of theseideologies, and in fact they are blunt results of them.

#asks #anon #cw: colonialism #cw: racism

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