Aug. 21st, 2008 at 11:25 AM
You know what? I love fandom a lot. It's given me so many things--friendships, delight, Story and story and stories until I'm positively surfeited, meta and analysis and exegesis, a wider sensitivity to issues that I never would have even thought of had I been left to my own self-centered devices, and probably a dozen more things that I can't even think of because I'm only on my second cup of coffee this morning.
But fandom, as all human endeavors are, is a flawed thing, and that's what I want to talk about today.
Look. I am all for the slash and the yaoi and the boys who like to touch other boys in ways that would get them hauled in on public indecency charges. Are you kidding? I love that stuff. It makes me really happy.
But look. Can you lay off announcing your posts with things like "It's time for some [schoolname]faggotry"? And stop talking about one character going to sex another up as "rape" (or "raep" as some would have it)? And maybe lay off calling everything "gay" or "ghei"?
Look. I'm guessing most of the ones of you doing this are on the young side. Possibly you've never even heard someone called a faggot, outside of what you've seen on the television or at the movies. And I'm guessing that you probably identify as straight, because I gotta tell you--those words still carry some heavy weight, and it's not happy-funtimes weight. It's the weight of prejudice and hate and the stomach-churning self-loathing of knowing oneself to be other, just by virtue of one's sexual preferences.
It's not funny. It's not cute. When I opened up my flist this morning and saw "[schoolname]faggotry" it felt like I'd just been punched in the gut. Every time I read someone talking about how "gay" certain (soft-spoken, fine-featured, admittedly femmy) male characters are, it makes me cringe. And, god, every time I see talk of "rape" in a haha-they're-so-horny context, it makes me sick to my stomach.
So stop it. Please. It's hurting me, and I'm guessing I can't be the only queer-identified member of fandom out there who's hurt by this.
Regards,
Me
*sighs* That's something I've wanted to say for... months now. Years, even.
I don't think saying it will do anything, but at least I got it off my chest.
Purest speculation: I think this is a trait more of the anime/manga fandoms than Western media fandoms. I don't really participate in any Western fandoms, aside from reading the occasional fic in a peculiar pattern (seriously, fic for shows I've never even watched, but the authors are just that good, and write Story that hits my buttons in all the right ways). And it seems to be a relatively recent phenomenon, say within the last couple of years.
I think, but can't really prove this or back up the assertion, that it's most common in fandoms that have a fanbase located outside the US, with fans who are fairly young--I'm guessing late teens/very early twenties. I have absolutely no data for this, but the way these words get deployed feels very young to me, and other usage clues points at a non-USonian perspective.
Or maybe it's just that queerness is such a given anymore--in that it's a "post-queer" kind of a world, the same way it's a "post-feminist" world (and lord, that's another can of worms entirely, which I'll save for another day). I don't really know.
It just kicks me in the chest every time I see someone use those words.
Comments
No idea about "ghei," though. The few times I've seen it, I haven't liked the way it was used, but I mostly try to avoid it.
not used here - it's just another hate word which is unpleasant and reflects more on the user than the described. The word queer, though, which you use without any problem has more resonance because that it the word which held the hate in Britain. Horses for courses *g*.
Haing said that,though, 'derision word' would be a better description than 'hate word'. It must exist in some people (probably religious) but I've never come across the naked hate that seems to be the accepted norm in America, thank god. All the men I've known who have expressed abhorrence of homosexuality shudder at the thought of having it "done to them" not at the mere thought of its existence or its practitioners. I'm the same with mountaineering.
I'm a bit lost on the "reclamation of words" argument though - that has me totally baffled. Why should straight young people argue that they are reclaiming the word 'gay' from gay people and then use it to mean stupid, bad, etc? I occasionally 'reclaim' the word to describe something as bright, happy, light-hearted, because that's its original meaning and sometimes no other word will do. To use its homosexual connotations as something derogatory is appalling to me; if I describe someone as gay, it's usually to draw laughing attention to stereo-typical queen-like behaviour in normally straight acting men (or women), be they straight or gay, and is always meant affectionately and usually as an expected response to intentional campness from them. I just don't see "gay" as synonymous with bad in any way. *blinks in confusion*
Likewise, to 'reclaim' the word faggot is to use it to describe a piece of fire wood and the word fag (noun and verb) as in public-schoolboy tradition.
I know I'm old and due to wear my trousers rolled (see? I may not be gay but at least I'm a transvestite, LOL!) but honestly, this has me screaming in frustration at the wilful ignorance that's still being propounded everywhere.
Here's one (I think) pretty important thing you need to consider about this whole mess: Animanga fandoms being what they are, the culture of currency (if we can it that) is not western, but (predominantly) Japanese. And Japan can be a very, well, peculiar land.
There's this (inside-ish?) joke you may or may not have heard, "Raep is like saying hello in Japan." Offensive as hell, right? Of course.
As someone who's spent half her age inhaling the many 'wondrous' products the Japanese calls entertainment though, I couldn't help but laughed the first time I heard that. That laugh wasn't without reason. And my personal experience in fandom so far has lead me to suspect that it's a reaction shared among many who have seen enough amount of anime/manga, with a similar reason.
I'm not going to attempt to describe what is wrong with anime/manga (or, indeed, if it's wrong at all), because I suspect that will take a long essay on its own. Suffice to say, if you like anime/manga, and want to keep liking it for a good amount of time, sooner or later you'll learn to laugh at/ignore certain things.
And when you laugh at something, talking about it irrespectfully, or even turning it into a joke is not such a big stretch.
Does that make us bad people? I don't know. Maybe. Language is a funny thing. A subculture of anime/manga is offensive to you. Your post reminds me that often enough I'm still seen as a weirdo by people belonging to a minority seen as weirdoes themselves by a lot of 'normal' people, and that's quite a sad feeling. There's just no pleasing everyone.
I'd personally like to think that there's time and place for everything under the sun, and the internet is big enough for both sides to coexists, but... I'm not going to loose sleep over this.
So, my two tl;dr cents. :)