sometime the bad thing doesn’t need to be reclaimed! sometimes things are bad and are bad at their core (both because they financially support someone who is doing so much to make the world more transphobic than it already is and also all the antisemitism, racism, classism, misogyny, transphobia, and just plain old bad writing decisions at the core of the story) and we just need to let go and stop participating in the fandom because it inevitably leads to people saying shit like “oh i can just buy this harry potter game even though i know jkr sucks, it belongs to the the fans now!” when it doesn’t, as long as jkr is alive it’s her space and spending time in it will eventually lead to money making its way over to her!!!
I also think its at least partially a symptom of an infantilized culture. Alan Moore is right. We can’t grow up for various reasons so we cling to our favorite franchises. Even if the people behind them suck, we have to find a way to justify our continued consumption of their products because we Grew Up With It.
Totally agree with your assessment about things not needing to be reclaimed. And I also thought you were asking a good question up top; why would a trans person write fanfiction of an IP belonging to a transphobic author? It has the same energy as casting POC as the slave-owning founding fathers in Hamilton. And you’re right. the answer I came up with is dissatisfying, but that was my first instinct trying to put myself in the shoes of someone who does that and come up with an answer. A lot of people believe in Reclaiming The Bad Thing for some reason. I agree it’s ill-advised.
oh sorry i didn’t mean to be so aggressive there, i could tell you weren’t saying that’s what you were doing and wasn’t trying to yell at you. these thoughts have just been in my head for a while and i needed to get them out
Reclamation of the Bad Thing
sometime the bad thing doesn’t need to be reclaimed! sometimes things are bad and are bad at their core (both because they financially support someone who is doing so much to make the world more transphobic than it already is and also all the antisemitism, racism, classism, misogyny, transphobia, and just plain old bad writing decisions at the core of the story) and we just need to let go and stop participating in the fandom because it inevitably leads to people saying shit like “oh i can just buy this harry potter game even though i know jkr sucks, it belongs to the the fans now!” when it doesn’t, as long as jkr is alive it’s her space and spending time in it will eventually lead to money making its way over to her!!!
god it fucking pisses me off
I also think its at least partially a symptom of an infantilized culture. Alan Moore is right. We can’t grow up for various reasons so we cling to our favorite franchises. Even if the people behind them suck, we have to find a way to justify our continued consumption of their products because we Grew Up With It.
Totally agree with your assessment about things not needing to be reclaimed. And I also thought you were asking a good question up top; why would a trans person write fanfiction of an IP belonging to a transphobic author? It has the same energy as casting POC as the slave-owning founding fathers in Hamilton. And you’re right. the answer I came up with is dissatisfying, but that was my first instinct trying to put myself in the shoes of someone who does that and come up with an answer. A lot of people believe in Reclaiming The Bad Thing for some reason. I agree it’s ill-advised.
oh sorry i didn’t mean to be so aggressive there, i could tell you weren’t saying that’s what you were doing and wasn’t trying to yell at you. these thoughts have just been in my head for a while and i needed to get them out
i’m going to make it smaller