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"Just a reminder that blank did blank, so you shouldn't support them or like anything they make/do."
I'm going to sound whiny for a minute, in part because I'm not sure how to express my thoughts/emotions. I'm open to different pov, just please be patient with me.
I'm going to sound whiny for a minute, in part because I'm not sure how to express my thoughts/emotions. I'm open to different pov, just please be patient with me.
I find it very difficult not feeling guilty for liking things. I love the musical Hamilton, I love the Harry Potter universe. At the same time, I see the problematic actions and words of JK Rowling, and apparently now Lin-Manuel Miranda regarding stuff in Puerto Rico, and...
I don't want to support people doing bad things, saying hurtful words, or glorifying terrible things.
At the same time, I can't deny the joy that HP brought me growing up. I can't deny my appreciation for the musical Hamilton and what it has accomplished in the fine arts world.
At the same time, I can't deny the joy that HP brought me growing up. I can't deny my appreciation for the musical Hamilton and what it has accomplished in the fine arts world.
Books, movies, music, art...it doesn't matter who created it, there is always someone with an article about how thay person is the devil because of exhibit A, or how they hurt 5 million people by doing exhibit B, and I just...I'm so frustrated.
Howarts HAS always been there to welcome me home. Hamilton showed me what NOT to do out of desperation. Frozen and other Disney narratives have given me role models, helped me process horrors and mental illness, and warmed my heart when nothing else would.
It doesn't matter what you like, someone is always there to crush your love or joy or admiration of something with bad news and a checklist of reasons why liking that book or movie or musical also makes you a bad person. In a world as joyless as this one, it's crippling.
Why can't we let people enjoy things anymore? Why do we seek out all the reasons not to partake in something while ignoring all the good that they do? Why can't a person just immerse themselves in fiction or music without a horde banging on their door to condemn them for it?
Please stop ripping down my shelters. Stop burning my havens. I need my sanctuaries. Most of the time I don't even KNOW that the creator has done something wrong or abhorrent or whatever. I just find things and I like them.
I know I'm probably fulfilling the role of Privileged, Inconvenienced White Woman right now. It happens. I'll no doubt be judged negatively for this thread by strangers who don't know much about me. That's fine. Go ahead. I'd rather bear the brunt of it than someone else do so.
And nothing I say will change a person's mind once it's made up. That's fine too. Those thoughts are yours to have. I just don't know how to explain the conflict and turmoil I'm feeling about this. It might sound childish, but I just want to like things.
I just want to be able to enjoy them without people jumping down my throat because another person did something percieved as wrong. I have to take care of me. And sometimes that means I blast Hamilton and rap along really badly as loud as I possibly can.
Sometimes it means I read the entire HP series in four days and wear my Slytherin shirt and carry my wand around the house.
Sometimes it means that I braid my hair to the side and act out scenes from Frozen, tears rolling down my cheeks because Elsa is a mentally ill character who says words that I've uttered in the midst of anxiety attacks and depressive episodes.
Those things bring me such relief. They've taken me out of this fucked up world to other ones where there are happy endings I can strive for and believe in.
They bring me such relief, and joy, and give me safe places to feel.
They bring me such relief, and joy, and give me safe places to feel.
I don't really know what I'm saying anymore, I'm just...so conflicted.
I believe that it's possible to acknowledge the wrong a creator has wrought without stealing the joy of their creations from others. Every single one of us has done wrong at some point.
I believe that it's possible to acknowledge the wrong a creator has wrought without stealing the joy of their creations from others. Every single one of us has done wrong at some point.
I don't...I dunno. I just needed to say...something.
