and these are my arson gloves

Soon my posts will be less meta, more cute boys and girls. 

Title owes a debt to Gloria Anzaldua. 

Slash fiction is not the be-all-and-end-all of subversive, radical restructuring of media.

Slash can be subversive - writing about gay characters in media that is determined to pretend our sexualities can only be Very Special Lessons to Teach Good Straight People? That is subversive, I’m not denying that.

But who are the characters we spend so much time on? Who do slash fans care about? For the most part slash fans focus on white cisgender men, able-bodied and traditionally attractive. 

Inception. X-Men First Class. Sherlock. Supernatural. Merlin. Bandom. Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The Avengers. All fandoms with large slash communities where the focus is on white men. 

What I am not saying is that white gay folks have a perfectly fine life. What I am saying is that white men are incredibly privileged in our society. White cisgender gay men have less intersections of oppression than queer women, queer men of color, queer women of color, transgender people. 

Western fandom is incredibly white. It’s by-and-large dissection and writings and drawings of western media - that is to say, media that focuses a good 90% of the time on white men. 

The casting of Lucy Liu as John Watson in “Elementary” is not homophobic. The reaction that HOLY SHIT A WOMAN OF COLOR IS NOT MY WATSON WATSON IS A WHITE MAN is worrying. Why are you assuming Lucy Liu will be playing a love interest? Why are you assuming that this Watson will be a straight woman? Can you not imagine a world where a WOC might be queer? Can you not imagine a world where a woman might no prioritize romance?

As a queer woman and a feminist  I have confronted outright misogyny from slashers - people who think that the male characters are just so much better than female characters. People who think slut-shaming women is a great way to pave the way for the True and Pure Love of Two White Men.

I have encountered vile homophobia from slashers - admittedly probably because I’m a woman. My queerness has been deemed less acceptable than men’s queerness. How dare I be a lesbian and be interested in slash fiction. 

There’s transphobia and racism that also cannot be swept under the rug by slash fans.

You have to be careful about the media you consume and produce. Don’t assume that everything is fine. Don’t assume that people will want to help you. Don’t assume that being progressive on one issue means anything about other issues. 

omegalowmaniac:

See, here’s the thing. I didn’t cry when Fall Out Boy broke up. A band I quite literally and honestly claim saved my life when I was experiencing my first true manic episode, a band that has played a huge role in mine and my best friend’s friendship and mental health, and I didn’t cry when they broke up. For all that I love Panic! at the Disco, I didn’t cry during their split. I didn’t get too upset at Blink-182 and if Green Day,the very first band I ever loved, decided to retire I’d be sad but it wouldn’t undo my world or anything. 

Patrick Stump not wanting to publicly play music undoes my world. It goes against everything he’s ever said for years about why he does what he does, it goes against the entire fabric of my understanding, it makes me sick. It breaks my heart. It turns my world wrong, and to know that I am a member of the fanbase that contributed to that? Disgusts me. 

I’m not a blind fan, I know there are faults in all the music I love, and Soul Punk has low points for all that I wholeheartedly adore it, but Patrick Stump is the most inspiring individual I’ve ever seen. He revolutionized the way I thought about music, he changed my understanding of things, his songs have made me grow up to some extent, to think just a bit more critically, to look at things from different perspectives, and to appreciate a person as a musician through and through and the complete and utter craftsmanship of songwriting. 

And I am a member of the fanbase that has, for the foreseeable future, contributed to taking all that away from the world. 

I hope you understand when I, without apology and with my entire being, say I hate every single person who contributed to pushing him towards the breaking point.

I loathe you, I detest you, I abhor you if you ever personally contributed to making Patrick Stump feel this way. I would say I wish you ill but to waste even that much on you does a great disservice to the world at large, and I’d rather save my wishes for the well being of people I give a damn about. 

Patrick Stump is my hero and you guys took that away. 

I have never, ever in nearly twenty one years of living, felt so utterly dejected over the loss of a musician or music in my entire life,which says so much about how utterly amazing and powerful what Patrick Stump created with and without Fall Out Boy is.

So it’s homophobic to cast Lucy Liu as Watson because then there won’t be gay subtext.

Oh. Okay, so it’s not homophobic when producers give a wink-wink-nod and fetishize gay people, when we exist as long as we don’t have sex, when we exist only as something to be laughed about but never stated? 

That’s harmful. When gay people are only on television to titilliate, when we’re made into jokes. When Sherlock Holmes doesn’t admit to being gay but calls his brother a queen as if it’s a big jolly joke. When a gay woman says she fell in love with a man because he’s just so dashing.

Dude, like. It’s cute that you’re trying to hide your misogyny and your racism but I see you. I also see your homophobia even though you want to pretend you’re all ~radikewl~ and down with us gay folks.