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okay, I& #39;m gonna make a thread to document this nonsense and then wash my hands of it:
so there& #39;s a fic that I& #39;ve seen in the rlo tag on ao3 quite often that had a particular tag that always bugged me
"gaston finn because he& #39;s still a fucknut" haunted me. every time I saw it, I saw red. I knew better than to try and read the damn thing and I admirably resisted the urge to hateread it for some weeks.
but then I had a Bad Day and I decided to open it. it was Bad
but then I had a Bad Day and I decided to open it. it was Bad
it& #39;s fairly clear that they just dropped Finn right into the role of Gaston with no adjustments-- he& #39;s horribly ooc-- and therein lies the problem: Gaston is, essentially, a representation of toxic masculinity, particularly of the sexually aggressive variety. Finn is a black man.
Black men being sexually aggressive toward white women is a very, very old racist trope-- one that has been used as the rationale for the slaughter of black people in the past. So seeing this take on Finn-- seemingly for no reason-- really bothered me. I said something.
I wasn& #39;t planning on replying until I saw the "self satisfaction" bit because it& #39;s just.....so blatantly racist? "I like to characterize this black character as an asshole because it makes me happy" was.....so so fucking weird to me as a rationale.
So I argued. I got wordy.
I never once used ad hominem, I never gave value judgments on the author themselves. I just explained the issues with what they& #39;d been doing.
I never once used ad hominem, I never gave value judgments on the author themselves. I just explained the issues with what they& #39;d been doing.
The peanut gallery had some interesting things to say, largely in the "saying black people can& #39;t be bad is racist," vein, which is SO White Fragility 101 and completely misses my point that it& #39;s not that Finn is an antagonist that gets me but how it was carried out.
This one made me laugh bc like:
A: I never once said this author couldn& #39;t write this fic, just pointed out where it perpetuated racist tropes
B: Strawberrycupcake Huckleberrypie is an unusual name! Is it Swedish?
A: I never once said this author couldn& #39;t write this fic, just pointed out where it perpetuated racist tropes
B: Strawberrycupcake Huckleberrypie is an unusual name! Is it Swedish?
A LOT of people were extremely offended by the fact that I wasn& #39;t logged into my ao3 account through all this. I can& #39;t imagine why. There& #39;s nothing on my ao3 and that username isn& #39;t connected to any of my social media. My using my actual ao3 wouldn& #39;t have changed much.
I honestly just didn& #39;t realize I wasn& #39;t logged in until someone pointed it out to me is the honest to god truth.
This one had me so confused-- when did I EVER insult the author& #39;s person? What part of my explanation was triggering? Who the fuck is The Soverign Empress???
I also laugh about this person telling me to go out into the real world and use my energy to help real people as if I don& #39;t actually work for a nonprofit tentpoled specifically on race-related social justice.
Also apparently The Sovereign Empress is someone who called out m/alevolentreverie for being racist-- good!-- and then doxxed them-- very bad! Unless someone is causing or threatening deliberate harm, I do not in any way support doxxing someone.
And finally, my favorite response to my first comment, and by far the most level-headed and mature point made by anyone involved in the conversation:
Anyway, that& #39;s the whole thing, my dudes.
