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This post is making rounds on tumblr right now.
Basically it's arguing that you can enjoy art for what it is without criticizing it.
And I agree, mostly. I think it's pushback against the hyper-critical tumblr culture, which tends to eliminate space for nuance and makes it difficult to disagree with people without actively calling them out for the thing you disagree about them with, even if you don't disagree very strongly. And yeah, it's important to just let people enjoy things. Fandom is an escape, for so many, so often, and sometimes you just want to ESCAPE to your escape.
But also. Also no?
Everything, everything, everything is problematic and flawed. Because everything is created by people, and people are flawed. And it's ok to not want to dwell on the flaws? It's ok to roll in the delight of this thing! you love! and want to squee about!
But also it's not. It's so important, so often, to remember that these things are flawed because to someone else, that flaw is HARMFUL and that flaw is DANGEROUS and that flaw needs to be acknowledged and critiqued or we won't collectively improve, and we won't collectively protect the vulnerable among us. Torchwood wasn't a perfect fandom (HAHAHAHA) but I enjoyed that by the end, we all sort of acknowledged our show had a boatload of problems and we were there ANYWAY. That, to me, was a valuable lesson in how to love something ~*problematic*~. And when I come to Harry Potter, which is so much more sprawling, and so much more influential and so much more powerful, I think it's even more important to acknowledge it's flaws and it's deficiencies. You can still love it, I mean, and you can love it WHILE acknowledging the problems?
I don't know. I'm seeing these posts over and over again from Harry Potter fans, and I all I can think of is Sam, who wrote one of the (still) big, popular Harry Potter stories and is still being discovered by new fans whom he has treated gently and kindly while he firmly reinforces that he's Not in This Fandom Anymore. And when someone asks him why, he answers and he doesn't just say he drifted away. He points to flaws, he exposes them and he leaves that there. This is flawed. That doesn't mean he didn't love it, that doesn't mean he makes fun of the love that all the fandom people keep pouring on it via his fic. But he isn't going to pretend otherwise either.
I don't know. I'm having a thinky time with this fandom, and it's been a bumpy ride.
Basically it's arguing that you can enjoy art for what it is without criticizing it.
And I agree, mostly. I think it's pushback against the hyper-critical tumblr culture, which tends to eliminate space for nuance and makes it difficult to disagree with people without actively calling them out for the thing you disagree about them with, even if you don't disagree very strongly. And yeah, it's important to just let people enjoy things. Fandom is an escape, for so many, so often, and sometimes you just want to ESCAPE to your escape.
But also. Also no?
Everything, everything, everything is problematic and flawed. Because everything is created by people, and people are flawed. And it's ok to not want to dwell on the flaws? It's ok to roll in the delight of this thing! you love! and want to squee about!
But also it's not. It's so important, so often, to remember that these things are flawed because to someone else, that flaw is HARMFUL and that flaw is DANGEROUS and that flaw needs to be acknowledged and critiqued or we won't collectively improve, and we won't collectively protect the vulnerable among us. Torchwood wasn't a perfect fandom (HAHAHAHA) but I enjoyed that by the end, we all sort of acknowledged our show had a boatload of problems and we were there ANYWAY. That, to me, was a valuable lesson in how to love something ~*problematic*~. And when I come to Harry Potter, which is so much more sprawling, and so much more influential and so much more powerful, I think it's even more important to acknowledge it's flaws and it's deficiencies. You can still love it, I mean, and you can love it WHILE acknowledging the problems?
I don't know. I'm seeing these posts over and over again from Harry Potter fans, and I all I can think of is Sam, who wrote one of the (still) big, popular Harry Potter stories and is still being discovered by new fans whom he has treated gently and kindly while he firmly reinforces that he's Not in This Fandom Anymore. And when someone asks him why, he answers and he doesn't just say he drifted away. He points to flaws, he exposes them and he leaves that there. This is flawed. That doesn't mean he didn't love it, that doesn't mean he makes fun of the love that all the fandom people keep pouring on it via his fic. But he isn't going to pretend otherwise either.
I don't know. I'm having a thinky time with this fandom, and it's been a bumpy ride.