it frankly pisses me off that what is essentially “rapists and abusers should be depicted as monstrous caricatures because humanizing them is inappropriate” is considered a very moral and enlightened position to have on art by so many people. a rapist can feel pain, have moments of vulnerability, be amiable and charming, express remorse and compassion at times, be a victim themselves, and so on in real life. they are even capable of doing good things. they can have different sides to them and have individuals in their lives that they are kind to or have a decent relationship with. they will be a human being, and that fact encompasses a lot. conflating that with the claim that they deserve forgiveness or absolution is an issue. nurturing a mindset that believes they need to be one note and uncomplicated to be a correct and tasteful depiction of a rapist inadvertently falls in line with the logic of “how could they have possibly raped you? they are so normal and kind to me. they did all these good things here and there.” ok that doesn’t change that they are a rapist.

it's crazy to me that there are people out there who still think that media and fiction do not affect how people think at all

people who say that we should not create or interact with problematic media lack basic understanding of how we as a society learn and analyze media. i dont mean that in a 'fiction doesnt affect reality' way, but in a 'fiction comes from reality, is shaped through us as a collective, and is a reflection of some of the deepest, truest parts of people'. if we ignore, if we condemn, if we ban media that has uncomfortable topics, we will never learn. we learn by looking at it and seeing why it is wrong. we hate by understanding it, not by just learning 'oh this thing is wrong so i have to hate it'. maybe for children who aren't ready to learn all of the deeper parts, or lack the comprehension skills to look at media critically. hate films made by bigots are awful, but banning them isn't going to fix the problem. if you don't want to watch them, you don't have to! but it's important for us to see why they were wrong. and see how that hatred spreads into our lives without us realizing it. same reason we study the holocaust (the nazis, btw, burned media that didn't agree with them. i'm not saying that people who say we should ban/hide information on topics that displease them are authoritarian right extremists but i am saying its a worrying connection). and commentaries that are about vile things happening by/to the protagonist (most of the time) are not encouraging the vile acts! if written well and written by the right people, commentaries are an insight to how these people actually think/feel, even if through prolonged allegories. we should not be crucifying some of the greatest social commentaries just because they're uncomfortable, because that is how we lose. if we do not understand, we cannot overcome! this is NOT me saying that people should just write about pedophilia, or incest, or anything of the sort just for fun. i do think that's gross at it's core, but that does not mean the writing/filming/ect is not important for us to look at as a society and go Hm. How Did This Happen?

only on tumblr do you get people so absorbed in their toxic online echo chambers that they think killing animals is no big deal and that posting about incest and pedophilia and shit is “fine” because it’s all “fictional” and “fiction has no bearing on reality” and “i’m a victim of these things so it’s cool for me to ‘cope’ by consuming this content and i’m totally not normalizing and excusing its existence”

not to poke my head in on a convo but i will say that as a disabled person, if i see ppl using disability/physical conditions purposefully to dehumanize a tiny character i will personally claw your eyes out

Hate it when 90% of a fandom misgenders a canonically trans character because "ThE cHaRaCtErS iN tHe ShOw Do iT tOo!!"

theres like, two levels of “playersexual”.

the first is the authors making all the romance options bi, which. like technically it can often stem from the same mechanical reasoning as “true” playersexuality (omfg im gatekeeping?????), that its easier, more efficient, or more equitable to just have all the options available to any character setup. in that sense theyre absolutely taxonomically related, but from a semantic and ethical point of view it seems kinda dogshit to reduce textually bi (one way or another, theres a lotta ways to do that) people to a mere practical development choice? like dude i think that characters just bisexual its kinda fucking wierd to frame his ability to be attracted to [character in context thats not the pc’s gender] and also romance the player character as some sort of “lazy writing shortcut”.

the second is far more nebulous as it exists more in what is LACKING than what is there. the anomalous ‘real’ “oh actually this was just a studio being either programming/writing lazy or like. genuinely just bizzare on a spiritual level”. skyrim romance is roughly egalitarian in implementation but there is effectively 0 external queers aside from two dead guys on an island and Possibly this one vampire from the morthal quest who seems like shes grooming a child? its a world absent of same-gender relationships but incapable of recognizing the player as anything extraordinary in that respect. romanceable npcs showing attraction to other npcs is rare in general, even, though going back over it in my head my initial presumption of it being completely absent is verifiably false. i think. ANYWAYS this theoretically would also include characters whose textual sexuality CHANGES to match the player character, which -discounting allowances for potential watsonian mischaracterization (i.e. a character being labeled gay by an unreliable commentator in a save in which they end up in a same-gender relationship, and other such things) can show up in really weird ways like ok in stardew valley i’m not actually saying Leah’s ORIENTATION necessarily changes but her ex’s gender specifically changing to match the player is SO FUCKING WIERD WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT. LIKE WHAT IS THAT EVEN IMPLYING?! WHUH?!!?

So, obviously, fiction affects reality in many ways, mostly because fiction reinforces and builds on existing culture, and authors do to some extent have a responsibility to consider what their works are saying… but one thing I find very interesting is entirely unforeseen ways fiction can affect reality, and what authors owe to those unforeseen circumstances. For example, how much responsibility does satire have is a hard question, given as one of my favorite tumblr posts phrases it; “you could name a movie Portrait of a delusional abuser ruining his own life in pursuit of a fictional standard of manhood and 89% of its fanbase will consider him a role model”, but an even harder one is… how much responsibility does fiction have to tell you it is fiction? 

After all, yes, we have unreality as a term that we can tag things as now, but how much responsibility does a TV show have, or a movie? I mean, I feel like it’d be pretty not fun if a movie or series constantly took the time out of their limited amount to go “HEY, REMINDER, EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS IN THIS IS FICTION”… especially since I’m fairly certain a portion of the audience who could harbor problems distinguishing fiction and reality would see that as suspiciously specific denial.

I was thinking about this after looking at a Wikipedia article on The Truman Show delusion, a phenomenon that connects to how delusions are almost always affected by the sociopolitical climate of the day, and specifically to the movie ‘‘The Truman Show’, about a man who learns his life is actually all a TV show written and scripted by someone else, after which over a hundred cases of similar people becoming convinced that this is true of themselves as well.  So how much responsibility does a piece of fiction have to prevent that from happening? Can it? Does it have any? 

Does art have the responsibility to ruin its own premise/mystery for the safety of others and is it selfish to value that premise over those people’s mental health? How do you communicate it in visual or audio format without ruining the illusion? And furthermore, what of the series that do explicitly state they’re fiction and still receive delusional fans discussing them believing they are real, films that have behind the scenes and yet still have dedicated followers who believe the illusion?

What is the line and where does it stand?

Oh to be able to block tags on ao3,,,,,

my opinions on shipping discourse crossed through multiple extremes and middles and labels for like a year and a half but i have seen the light and can say i proudly identify on the side of [LOUD FOGHORN SOUNDS]

Anyways once this poll is over and Swerve wins I'm not participating in other polls

I think what a lot of people don't get is that being aware of the potentially bigoted and harmful parts of a piece of media isn't about punishing yourself for liking it. It's really, really not. Someone can be aware of the harmful parts of a piece of media without like, bearing it like an anchor. Also, I think you are obligated to be aware of the harmful parts of media, because awareness isn't about punishing yourself or limiting your enjoyment of the media. Casting off awareness of the ways the media you consume isn't just casting off moral Puritanism, because awareness isn't about punishment. It's about how media affects you.

Yes, media affects people. Including mentally healthy adults. You don't have to be a child or "delusional" to be affected by media and I'm tired of hearing those arguments and the weird ableism in then. The whole point of media is to affect us, in a wide variety of complex ways. It's not like hypnotism forcing you to do things, but it's also not like it exists in a complete bubble away from the rest of your personality and beliefs. Media presents the world a certain way and that helps us all build and construct our perceptions of the world. Representation in media directly affects how many people perceive the world. And the easiest way to be in more control of how media affects your perception is to be aware of it.

The thing is, if media defends and minimizes racism and you watch it without being aware of it at all you're really likely to internalize that defense and minimization. And I have seen this. I have seen people defending racism/antisemitism/misogyny in media by literally repeating arguments also used to defend real life racism because those were built into the media and people aren't aware of it. These can be people who are already blatantly bigoted, but they can also be people a little blinded by their privilege who think of themselves as an ally and good person.

One example people repeating stuff like "but they're contented and happy being slaves!" To defend slavery being cool in fiction when those arguments were also used in real life. Just being aware that it's iffy to have slavery being portrayed as totally cool in fiction instead of being unaware and lashing out when someone critiqued it could have not lead to them full-throatedly defending slavery. Just a bit of awareness that the media you consume can be really flawed and wrong, especially if it's clunkily dealing with sensitive issues, can help you to avoid parroting bigotry and stuff like "but it wasn't right to interference in the Holocaust!" for the sake of liking a bit of media. I think if you're relatively privileged some awareness of bigotry and potential bigotry is needed not as some sort of weird moral penance, but just to stop you from perpetuating it.

You don't have to punish yourself or make up for liking something Problematic(tm), but you do have an obligation not to perpetuate bigotry and harm against others. Which means you have to try to not internalize bigotry in flawed media, which takes some amount of awareness. We don't owe each other moral flawlessness and perfection, but we do owe each other a good faith effort not to harm others, especially others who are already hurting or marginalized.

sorry but whether we like it or not, fiction affects how people perceive reality. as a child or young teenager, people lack sufficient critical thinking skills so seeing stuff like bab being treated as a running gag will affect white people’s view on asian women. it’s not something to take lightly.

big fan of zenos tbh