It's not too shitty of you, because the world at large (tm) thinks we'll only care about Buffy's death, so having lived in the world at large (tm) for x amount of years, it would be easy to assume the same.
What I meant was more along the lines of being afraid to say anything critical of Spike even if it's true - and that's just a built-in "cringe" because of what I've read on the internet and two incidents I've personally had in fandom, one of which had nothing to do with Spike. (When the hell did I become such a coward?) But my friends here have been nothing but respectful and I try to be respectful back. So - I think it is a little shitty of me, yeah.
Having said that, when I think of the shitstorm you went through, anything I've gone through in comparison is NOTHING. teensy. "Look what Lexi had to go through this is nothing..."
So - you're one of my Buffys, did you know that?
I love me some Spike, but the guy is a fucking murdering sociopath, especially in the scenes where he kills Nikki and Xin Rong. He had to be vile for there to be any redemption arc at all, and if we ignore the vileness, we ignore the victims.
YES. That is basically the whole idea in a nutshell. I can count on one hand the number of fanfics in this fandom I've seen that give any thought or voice to the victims; but the show itself doesn't encourage that.
I say this as someone who is now delving into shipping a young version of a mass murderer who supports genocide, so take whatever I say with that in mind.
Hmmmm.....Do we need to stage an intervention, sweetie?
but they never realized how much they were privileging Spike's story over those woc.
It would have been wonky regardless of the race/ethnicity of the dead slayers, race just adds an extra layer of badness to what ended up being a pissing contest. (Don't even get me started on that shot of Robin's face, looking like bloodied meat - like the faces of black men in the 20th century after they were beaten, murdered, lynched etc, such as 14 year old Emmett Till. I still cannot believe they went there. CANNOT.)
It's like talking to someone who doesn't see Tara's death as "homophobic" - I'm not saying it was intentional homophobia, but you HAVE to look at it in context. There's a particular history there that cannot be ignored. I'm not saying that fridging two WOC in S2 was "intentional racism" but good intentions don't make right actions.
I don't know if I would have rather liked it if they made the historical slayers white, because I don't know if I'd like problematic representation over no representation at all, but it's something to struggle with to think about.
I think the key is EDUCATION. Wanna play with controversial topics? GET EDUCATED. It's that simple. Tara didn't have to die; Kendra didn't have to die; Spike's victims didn't have to be utterly erased and ignored; Get it Done didn't have to be staged to come off as a "gang rape" by black men of a white woman. Etc. Don't much around with stuff like that without becoming aware. It's not enough for Joss or any writer to say "Well I'm not a racist!" without bothering to check their assumptions at the door and really do a "searching inventory".
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2014-03-21 12:00 am (UTC)What I meant was more along the lines of being afraid to say anything critical of Spike even if it's true - and that's just a built-in "cringe" because of what I've read on the internet and two incidents I've personally had in fandom, one of which had nothing to do with Spike. (When the hell did I become such a coward?) But my friends here have been nothing but respectful and I try to be respectful back. So - I think it is a little shitty of me, yeah.
Having said that, when I think of the shitstorm you went through, anything I've gone through in comparison is NOTHING. teensy. "Look what Lexi had to go through this is nothing..."
So - you're one of my Buffys, did you know that?
I love me some Spike, but the guy is a fucking murdering sociopath, especially in the scenes where he kills Nikki and Xin Rong. He had to be vile for there to be any redemption arc at all, and if we ignore the vileness, we ignore the victims.
YES. That is basically the whole idea in a nutshell. I can count on one hand the number of fanfics in this fandom I've seen that give any thought or voice to the victims; but the show itself doesn't encourage that.
I say this as someone who is now delving into shipping a young version of a mass murderer who supports genocide, so take whatever I say with that in mind.
Hmmmm.....Do we need to stage an intervention, sweetie?
but they never realized how much they were privileging Spike's story over those woc.
It would have been wonky regardless of the race/ethnicity of the dead slayers, race just adds an extra layer of badness to what ended up being a pissing contest. (Don't even get me started on that shot of Robin's face, looking like bloodied meat - like the faces of black men in the 20th century after they were beaten, murdered, lynched etc, such as 14 year old Emmett Till. I still cannot believe they went there. CANNOT.)
It's like talking to someone who doesn't see Tara's death as "homophobic" - I'm not saying it was intentional homophobia, but you HAVE to look at it in context. There's a particular history there that cannot be ignored. I'm not saying that fridging two WOC in S2 was "intentional racism" but good intentions don't make right actions.
I don't know if I would have rather liked it if they made the historical slayers white, because I don't know if I'd like problematic representation over no representation at all, but it's something to struggle with to think about.
I think the key is EDUCATION. Wanna play with controversial topics? GET EDUCATED. It's that simple. Tara didn't have to die; Kendra didn't have to die; Spike's victims didn't have to be utterly erased and ignored; Get it Done didn't have to be staged to come off as a "gang rape" by black men of a white woman. Etc. Don't much around with stuff like that without becoming aware. It's not enough for Joss or any writer to say "Well I'm not a racist!" without bothering to check their assumptions at the door and really do a "searching inventory".
That's my theory anyway.