via
http://ift.tt/2uLjpsb:
eatingcroutons:
leproblematique:
In response to this bit of wankery and nonsense. I’ve been sitting on this post for months, until I decided that, fuck it, I’m posting it. I kept warning that Tumblr would end up here. And what a surprise, I was right! What was my warning? That the Discourse would eventually go thusly:
‘You can enjoy erotica, either written or visual, without being accused of fetishization, only IF:
you MATCH at least one of the characters in terms of gender;
you MATCH at least one of the characters in terms of sexual orientation;
automatic disqualification if the genders of none of the characters match your own, even if the sexual orientation of one or both matches;
automatic disqualification if the sexual orientations of none of the characters match your own. Exception to the rule: no disqualification if your gender matches both characters; (the exception is meant so we don’t end up with mind-bending enormities like bisexual men / bisexual women not allowed to enjoy content where the characters / performers identify as gay / lesbian or vice-versa, but at the way things are going, I wouldn’t be surprised if we got there as well).
special rule: we have no fucking clue how any of this applies to nonbinary / genderqueer / agender / genderfluid people, so we’ll err on the side of caution and say automatic disqualification unless one of the characters’ genders matches their own.’
It sounded completely barmy and beyond ludicrous when I first typed it out, yet here we are!
This is the extreme, logical end-point of Tumblr’s cardinal sin in this particular discourse: the insistence that fetishization is caused by the PERSONAL GODDAMN IDENTITY of the individual going through a particular erotic work, instead of the NATURE of the erotic work itself.
This is how fetishization got warped and completely bent out of shape from an act (presenting something in a way that’s stripped of all context, complexity, nuance, steeped in dehumanization and slinging it against other living persons) to a state of being (the mess of rules above, anyone without the mandatory gender and sexual orientation combination enjoying the content from an erotic point of view, regardless of how complex, humane, nuanced and emotion-driven the content itself is).
Then you’ve got the second cardinal sin that Tumblr falls face-first into, every single time: personal discomfort getting elevated to the status of law. You see it constantly:
‘you mustn’t ship this particular ship because it’s abusive and it’s the equivalent of personally spitting in my face, even though you’ve never met me and have no idea about my situation, even though you’ve taken every precaution with tagging it’
‘you mustn’t ever like this character, because I personally hate them / they’re actively triggery to me and seeing you like them is the equivalent of being an apologist for my abusers’
‘you mustn’t ever dislike this character, because I identify immensely with them and they mean the world to me and if you hate them then it’s the same as if you’ve slapped me’ (went through this particular shit-show with Sera of Dragon Age: Inquisition)
This is where you get shit like hordes of anti-shippers and of people who will savage you for not being vocally hateful of whatever character they hate. And this is where you get the total warping of fetishization, turning it into a headache-inducing ‘the content you enjoy must coincide partially or totally with your identity, let us split you into concrete groups, each with its own content that they are permitted to enjoy sans controversy. Also, fanfiction is totally equivalent to porn, what do you mean we’re completely disingenuous?’
I’m sorry, but the idea of fandom as some space where groups and content are segregated like this is completely repugnant to me, no amount of screaming and foot-stomping will ever change that.
Concrete example, because I am sick and tired of the whole mess: as a pansexual woman, the things I look for in relation to a man who likes to watch lesbian porn are the following:
is he supportive of queer women in his day-to-day life?
does he eschew all predatory, entitled advances along the lines of ‘can I watch?’
does he acknowledge and respect that queer women do lead lives totally and completely independent of him and his desires?
does he take the necessary steps to be a worthwhile ally to the LGBT+ community?
If the answer to all of these is a definite ‘yes’, then I don’t give a single fuck about his porn-watching habits, he can beat it to ten thousand woman/woman videos, I don’t CARE.
I will criticize the mainstream porn industry itself in how it portrays queer women and I’ll criticize the men who permit it to negatively influence their behavior toward queer women in their lives. However, my job as a goddamn activist isn’t to dictate and police the sexual tastes of people who meet the criteria above for acceptable behavior, that’s NOT why I became an activist to begin with! Frankly, that shit’s fucking creepy and controlling on a terrifying level for me and the fact that Tumblr so often and so consistently engages in it makes me find this place more nausea-inducing by the day.
If I ever go that far, I might as well put up a giant banner reading ‘radfem garbage, anti-porn, anti-kink, uwu, uwuuuuuu, someone put me out of my fucking misery already’.
“…
fetishization is caused by the PERSONAL GODDAMN IDENTITY of the individual going through a particular erotic work, instead of the NATURE of the erotic work itself.”
Identity politics endgame.
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