phoenix-ace:

I’m not really one of those people who demands that people stop watching a show because a character I like happens to die or something shows up on screen that’s a little hard to watch.  I’d be a bit of a hypocrite if I took that stance while being a huge Game of Thrones fan who loved “Shadow Over Innsmouth” by H.P. Lovecraft. 

I believe in personal responsibility.  If you like something, own it.  Just be critical and be prepared to see other people take issue with it and you should be able to handle that criticism like an adult.  Instead of, you know, rushing in to defend it and flying off the handle at any insinuation that your fave isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.  Don’t rush into people’s inboxes hurling slurs and names, don’t jump into threads with condescending “lectures” on why everyone should be able to read a “problematic” author just because *you* can. 

Like, as much as it bothers me how people won’t just dislike something without having to prove how problematic it is, it also annoys me when people have to invent meta and discourse just because they’re *That* bothered that people have the audacity to be critical of things that they like.  It is like…no, no one’s oppressing you because they’re critical of whiteness in fandom or whitewashing on a television show.  They’re not oppressing you if they criticize violence against women, even *if* more men die and more violent ways (a la Game of Thrones).  They’re not misogynists who want to control your sexual expression just because they’re tired of you erasing every character of color that you can’t project awful fetishistic stereotypes on to.  And no, they aren’t just picking terms like “anti-blackness” out of a hat in order to bully you into changing what fanfic you like to read.  And “just because you find those views to be abhorrent doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read that author” is so illogical. Ugh. Sure, that author uses slurs and hates Jews but don’t ask people to be critical before they spread their work around or else you’re wrong, even if you’re a member of the groups they target.  Meaning I should just swallow that pro-Confedarate AU or that fic with anime characters as Nazis because it doesn’t bother someone else.  Gotcha.   

Is it really that hard to be like, “I like this, and I recognize that you don’t, and I understand why” and call it a day?  Do you really have to write pages worth of meta erasing history just because you’re *that* bothered that someone doesn’t like what you like?