One step forward for white women in nerdy culture… doesn’t actually equal a step forward for all women.
After years of talking and writing about the need for representation in media, I obviously recognize the need for representation in media.
However, I can’t stop feeling some frustration about how white women are frequently set up by nerds and within fandom as the proper first stop for representation. Read More »
Declaring the problem a ship war wasn’t so much revisionist history as wishful thinking: fans like to consider fannish space utopian, and racism doesn’t belong in utopia— therefore the problem wasn’t racism, it was ships. This line of thinking was white privilege at its finest (or lowest), with POC fandom as its casualties.
From “Not So Star-Spangled Examining Race, Privilege and Problems in MCU’s Captain America Fandom” by Cait Coker and Rukmini Pande in The Darker Side of Slash Fan Fiction
Time and time again in fandom, it’s been proven that the easiest way to stop people from taking the critical thoughts of fans of color seriously when we talk about racism in fandom spaces is to reframe it all as “just” a ship war.
If criticism of racism can be dismissed as “just” jealous shippers lashing out at a supposedly better positioned or more liked ship, then no one has to wrestle with what we’re actually talking about:
That time and time again in fandom’s shippy spaces, fandom actively chooses whiteness. Fandom constantly chooses white characters, whitewashed characters of color, white experiences, and white fans over people of color – real and fictional.
If you reframe it as “just” a ship war where petty babies are out to police fandom because their ship isn’t doing so hot in the charts –
Who’s going to listen to us?
Why would anyone listen to us?Read More »
In April 2019, I was invited by Stitch, Cait Coker, and Robin Reid to be part of a Roundtable on Race and Racism in Fandom and Fan Studies at the PCA/ACA 2019 conference held in Washington DC, USA. The intention was to discuss Fandom and Fan Studies 10 years after the events of RaceFail ’09 to see if things had changed and, if so, how. While I didn’t speak to the events of RaceFail ’09 itself, it did inflect my critique of institutional responses that followed in the wake of a more recent event.
What follows here is a rough estimate of the things I said at the conference, much of which was unscripted. I should note that these are my views alone and that I do not speak for Rukmini Pande, who was also involved in the series of events I plan to discuss.
At the same time, I should also be clear that many of the points that follow are points that fans of colour (hereafter FOC) and acafans of colour (as well as acafans working on critical race theory in fandom) have already noted. In a multiplicity of ways, I am echoing their work, restating it, forcibly reinscribing it as best as I can, and ascribing it as best as I can (and Rukmini is part of this, though again she is not the first).
As previously noted, these conversations have been around for far longer than us, and to assume that we are the first to voice this discomfort, this anger, this complaint (per Sara Ahmed) is to be complicit in this erasure and our own eventual erasure. These are not just my words, this is not just my voice.
“I’m not a hero. I’m not Resistance. I’m a stormtrooper.”
That silenced her. He might as well have hit her across the face with the business end of a blaster.
“Like all of them, I was taken from a family I’ll never know,” he continued rapidly. “I was raised to do one thing. Trained to do one thing. To kill my enemy.” He felt something that should not have been there, that was not part of his training, well up in him. “But my first battle, I made a choice. I wasn’t going to kill for them. So I ran. As it happens, right into you. And you asked me if I was Resistance, and looked at me like no one ever had. So I said the first thing that came to mind that I thought would please you. I was ashamed of what I was. But I’m done with the First Order. I’m never going back.” Suddenly he found it hard to swallow, much less to speak. “Rey, come with me.”
– Foster, Alan Dean. The Force Awakens (Star Wars) (p. 222). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
I know that this is a “Fleeting Frustrations” post which means that I should be able to get over the grievance I’m airing once it’s been aired, but let’s be real here: when have I ever let go of a single grievance in my life?
I haven’t yet and I won’t with this one.
In this rantypants installment of my grouchiest series, we’ll be talking about one of the Star Wars fandom’s most obvious signs of fandom racism: the idea that Finn’s biggest flaw to some folks in fandom is that he’s a liar… for not telling Rey that he was a Stormtrooper on the run mere moments after she’d beaten the crap out of him for thinking he was a thief.Read More »
Yesterday, the Captain Marvel teaser trailer broke the internet.
Today, I saw a tweet about said trailer from Shakesville.com’s Melissa McEwan from the night before that reminded me that when it comes to feminism and fandom, people of color are always stepped over on the path to (white) female empowerment.
“In the first Captain Marvel trailer, Samuel L. Jackson’s character has 67 words. Brie Larson’s character, i.e. Captain Marvel, has 33.
Come on, Marvel.”
It reminded me of a bunch of different brushes I’ve had with White Feminism ™ in fandom – from Maggie Stiefvater’s beef with the The Force Awakens fandom apparently focusing more on Finn and Poe than Rey, to Anne Theriault’s desire to keep Uhura “Strong and Single” in the Star Trek reboot films, and the Star Wars “Dude Free” edit of The Last Jedi that not only cut out Finn and Poe but… all of the Tico sisters’ screen time in the name of feminist satire.
The news that Broadchurch actress Jodie Whittaker has been cast as the Doctor’s thirteenth regeneration is great, but I have to point out that it’s also primarily a step forward for WHITE women as women of color don’t get chosen to head up these nerdy franchises.
Additionally, as we saw with the way that fans of Jessica Jones, Agent Carter, and Supergirl (to say nothing about Doctor Who) have responded to criticism about racism in their respective shows and fandoms, WOC will be expected to stay silent.Read More »
I can’t imagine watching a show like American Gods where Shadow Moon (played by Ricky Whittle) is onscreen and fantastic only to then writing an honest to god article about how his undead wife Laura was the actual star of the show.
I mean, erasing a male character of color for a white woman who’s hurt him is actual textbook white feminism right there. I’ve seen it happen with a TON of male characters of color getting passed over for a pseudo-empowering white lady character (who probably hurts or abuses him in their canon) in fandom.
But Shadow is clearly the star of the show.
I mean, for once I thought fandom would do the smart thing and be all over Shadow because he’s basically perfect. (But I guess I forgot the White Feminist response to Luke Cage – show and character.)
How do you make it through six episodes of American Gods and come out thinking that anyone aside from Shadow Moon is the main character?
Is it because ensemble casts with a clear lead confuse you?
Or, and I figure that this is the more likely option, is it that you’ve been conditioned to see tiny white women doing anything as super empowering even if they’re literal scum?Read More »
I need White Feminism (which exists to benefit whiteness and white womanhood) to stop telling me that Black female characters are better off when they’re single.
I need White Feminists ™ in fandom to stop pretending that they’re protecting or promoting Iris West/Nyota Uhura/Abbie Mills/Eve Moneypenny by wanting these Black female characters to stay single and “strong” forever, pushing them away from the potential of canon romances with white male characters.Read More »
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