likorys-shimenawa:leaf-fall-down:fangirlofall:one-lonely-whumperfly:rainbowloliofjustice:athen
likorys-shimenawa:leaf-fall-down:fangirlofall: one-lonely-whumperfly: rainbowloliofjustice: athenagray: decepticonsensual: cleo4u2: THIS. I saw a post the other day that literally said if you do it to a fictional character, you’ll do it in real life. No. Just NO. I’m so glad someone put it into words. Lin-Manuel Miranda is a legend, and he’s absolutely right. And I really feel like there are parts of fandom that don’t get or don’t believe this, and I think that’s troubling. I’ve seen arguments that people shouldn’t have dark fantasies, or that bad impulses in themselves make a bad person. I’ve seen so much shaming over thoughts. And if you get to a point where it’s bad to have dark thoughts and it’s bad to wonder what something would be like and it’s bad to put yourself in the shoes of anyone who isn’t “pure”, if fiction is no longer a realm where you can confront and explore, but an ongoing test of moral purity… well, maybe not everyone’s brain works like mine, but I feel like that takes away something incredibly important to being human. Purity culture is gonna kill art if y’all let it. Fiction is a safe place to explore whatever fucked up or dark desire that you have. You can write the most vile and fucked up shit in fiction and it be absolutely nothing you desire in real life. You can write about a serial killer who gets away with it. You can write about someone who goes on moral crusades to purge the world of all evils and still be the protagonist. You can write anything in fiction because that’s what it is meant for. It isn’t meant to be a social commentary unless you create it to be. It isn’t meant to be educational unless you create it to be. Sometimes a story can be just that, a story. Entertainment. Nothing more, nothing less. Not everything has to be deep, or have meaning, etc. unless the creator wants it to be and a lot of the purity types end up forcing something to have deep meaning or social commentary where it isn’t meant to. Is this inherently bad? No, but these people don’t just say “But this is my interpretation of it.” they go as far as trying to force that interpretation onto everyone else, including the creator, as a means of saying “See? It means that they promote/condone xyz so they’re bad and shitty people who should spend the rest of their life in jail with/are the same as people who’ve actually committed acts of violence against other people.” THANK. YOU. @ all the people in the notes saying “yes except u can’t write about (list of immoral things they don’t want to see in fiction)” congrats on missing the point so spectacularly I’m not sure I could create better performance art if I tried Isn’t there a limit though? Isn’t there a line that really shouldn’t be crossed? I’m talking about things like glorifying pedophilia and nazism. Purity culture might’ve really gotten to me, but if I’m wrong I’m willing to learn No. There cannot be imaginary line that separated ‘allowed’ and ‘banned’ content, because it will always, without fail, only serve to allow someone with ulterior motives to twist the situation for their benefit.Always.Simplest problem: how do we define underage? Is is 18 years? Cool, co my country has legalized pedophilia. It also means US has it, since you can marry as young as 12 there depending on state.Another problem: how do you define glorifying? Really, HOW? If I write ‘I Spit On Your Grave’ style horror story, at what point do I glorify murder? Is it enough that murdered succeeds and isn’t stopped? Is it when I have them succeed but die? Is it when they succeed and go to jail having accomplished their crime?Is Saw glorifying murder, just because Jigsaw’s legacy continue to spread, or is it enough to have him be antagonist of the movie?Let’s get real. Nazism. Is Jojo Rabbit glorifying Hitler because it shows a child falling for his propaganda? Is it enough that he rejects it in the end, or is him supporting it on screen enough to make the work ‘irredeemable’?It must be all or nothing, because as soon as you decide on a criteria that deems something ‘wrong’, you can only be sure of one thing: that someone will use it not as intended, for their benefit. Those are some damn good points. I think you just killed any doubt in my mind, along with months of internal struggle. -- source link