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Talking To Talk – Malicious Interpretations

Stitch2 Comments

I put my podcast on hiatus mode with my host because a) money and b) I live underneath what sounds like every single Titan in Attack on Titan and so recording is frequently interrupted by those heavy-stepping heffalumps. But I wanted to still have a medium to convey sincere feelings through audio and when I didn’t feel like coloring on-camera and so… Talking to talk. Everything and nothing.

Unfortunately, no transcript at the time because I’m pinching pennies and currently can’t afford to pay for one when I’m all budgeted out for the Fic Friday transcripts. But in this I cover:

  • How people will post screenshots (partial) of something I’ve written and willfully interpret it in the worst possible way (“stitch’s woobification article wants to force villain fans into the closet and their internalized homophobia and racism really needs to be checked”). Like people can post the screenshot of my words and then say what those words say and people will run with the malicious interpretation over the words that are right there (“there’s no way for AO3 TOS/offensive content policy to deal with racist fic so some fans of color make those authors lives hell in the comment sections” becomes “stitch is advocating for people harassing authors over fan fiction”)
  • How people will say things like “Stitch said shipping reylo is racist”, “[a certain Black fandom journalist] doesn’t think [East] Asians are actually POC”, “Stitch called Black reylos ‘oreos’ and doesn’t think they’re really Black” and other wild misrepresentations or lies in order to excuse harassing me for years
  • How people have been accusing me of being “Anti Asian” from about 2018 when I was talking about Rose Tico’s treatment of Finn and the way the queer/feminist parts of Star Wars fandom weaponized her existence to be antiblack about Finn and John Boyega and to Black fans (this is also how they accuse me of making “anti rose” events on tumblr when I’ve never successfully started a fandom event in my life and wouldn’t even do one for fandoms I’m in)
  • How I’m expected to talk about other people’s (other POC) social issues (or else I’m accused of ignoring them) but then punished for not doing it right when I talk about it in a way that only I can (that doesn’t do what they want)
  • How even people who claim to like and respect me/my work give airtime to racists in the interest of fake fairness and hedge their support of me by announcing all of the ways that they feel I’ve wronged them or others and implying that they don’t really know me so maybe people are valid in how they treat me
  • How people talk about me like I’m a rapist and/or abuser (“believe [stitch’s] survivors” is wild to see people say about strangers who got their feelings hurt because I pointed out a trend in fandom in a mildly snarky tone”)
  • How no one ever has proof of what they claim I said that hurt and scared them so much… It’s too scary for them to post my words to show that I said whatever it was to them… but not too scary for them to run to the nearest racist for clout, validation, and soggy headpats?
  • How my tone is a problem to people who see nothing wrong with other people calling me a whore, bitch, cunt, etc and you know… trying to take my job, ruin my reputation, isolate me, swat me, etc
  • How fandom has never actually been normal about me from the second I stopped worshipping BNFs and expressed any criticism of media and/or fandom behavior
  • How I can tell you exactly how this will get maliciously interpreted
  • and so on and so on

There’s no way this will change how any of these people see or talk about me. It’s probably just going to get ignored or mocked the way every single thing I’ve said and shown about what’s been going on for like a decade at this point has been. I’ve been meticulous about documenting this harassment and to much of fandom, it’s just used as proof that I do deserve this harassment for years and that I’m guilty for having documented people being racist and abusive to and about me on top of documenting broader racist behaviors in fandom.

But reaffirming my right to personhood and my ability to articulate what’s going on to me in fandom in defense of racists and racism here is important so… I’m just going to keep talking to talk, I guess.

2 thoughts on “Talking To Talk – Malicious Interpretations”

  1. I noticed any criticism in fandom because clearly an act of “activism politics” in that it is used wrongly and also “oppression Olympics.” I am more interested in media becoming better and not like just supporting bare minimums. Additionally, there are queer and racist stereotypes that have become quite inundated in cultural tropes and rhetoric. If we do not champion against those, how can we strive for better queer, POC and ethnicity representations? I want people to speak out and critique things and yes, there will be racists, transphobes and homophobes but I do think we have enough analytical rigour to separate the wheat from the chaff.

    I am incredibly sorry you have been slandered repeatedly and I hope that people can in earnest see that the work you do is not negative and they can disagree but they need not attack you on such a personal level to make a need to disagree.

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