demolish the pure/problematic dichotomy 2k17

shinelikethunder:

1. new rule: using the word “problematic” automatically marks your opinion as zero-substance puffery unless you specify what the actual problem is

2. purity culture blows. be an ideological trollop. roll gleefully around in the common gutter of everyone’s ideas. evaluate them yourself and choose which ones you want to have discourse with. ones! plural! ideological monogamy is optional! you can even learn how to entertain and flirt with ideas without committing to them. yes, even the bad boys who’d be terrible as long-term life choices.

3. SJ is not the only axis of morality or quality

4. it’s not even a binary axis from “good” to “bad.” treating it like one implies that there is some perfect way to be/treat/represent [marginalized group in question]. which in turn implies that anything else is defective to some degree. and THAT is a one-way road to tokenism, various deranged forms of respectability politics, erasing the diversity of experiences within the group, and plain old stereotyping.

5. it’s definitely not an all-or-nothing on/off switch, fuck you purity culture. and it’s important to retain the distinctions between actual harmful actions, hateful or deeply offensive speech/art, garden-variety bigotry, tasteless or cluelessly offensive speech/art that is harmless but reflects badly on the originator, art that passively contributes to the overwhelming dominance of some stereotype, art that’s doing interesting things and happens to hit a few stereotypes along the way because that shit’s everywhere, actual people whose lives happen to fit a stereotype, unfortunate implications, irreverence (and, if directed at a variety of targets, whether or not it’s disproportionate), non-hateful ideological disagreement, not-100%-sanitized treatment of difficult subjects, non-malicious clumsiness/awkwardness engaging with a subject, etc etc etc

5a. it’s also vital to retain the distinctions between the various points at which these are worth commenting on, or indeed are any of your fucking business

6. but really, most of this follows naturally from “if you’ve got a problem, spell out what the actual fucking problem is, don’t just call something _____ist because it made you feel uncomfortable”

6a. NOTE this also applies to the use of “perpetuates,” “contributes to,” “romanticizes,” “fetishizes,” “promotes,” “condones,” “glorifies,” and “normalizes” as generic weasel-word synonyms for “depicts in a way that made you feel uncomfortable”

[Mar 3.2017]     2364 NOTES  - VIA