Charismatic Microfauna

One of the things I just can’t understand re: antis and their ilk:

How can anyone NOT get that consuming or creating depictions of a form of trauma you yourself were the victim of can in fact be cathartic and comforting?

“I can be in control of an event that was wholly out of my control IRL. I can have everything come out so much better… or I can have my favorite character go through the same thing I did and end up totally broken, and that will make me feel a little bit less ashamed of how I broke when it happened to me.”

This isn’t DIFFICULT, folks.

And no, not all people work like this. Some traumatized people are indeed better off just never being reminded of their trauma or seeing it depicted. But here’s the thing: you won’t find darkficcers demanding that such people read our stuff, or write traumatic things into their own stories! We don’t tend to go around denying someone else’s experience based on “trying to avoid any mention of your trauma is not a valid coping mechanism~!”

1) It’s hardly “lionizing” to say that a community which has a lot of racialized members, and where the vast, VAST majority of members only behave in a racist manner out of ignorance rather than ill intent*, is less awful than, you know, white supremacist groups that exist only to promote racism and encourage violence toward POC.

2) If what you really mean to discuss is the unconscious racism which DOES exist in fandom (and everywhere else), then maybe not use words like “methodically”? Because that does rather HEAVILY imply awareness and intent.

* = yes, I know, intent isn’t magic, stepped on feet, yada yada. But I think it’s time we all acknowledged that INTENT STILL DOES MATTER.

I mean if someone steps on my foot and goes “oh crap, I’m sorry, that was clumsy of me! going to try to watch where I put my big feet next time!” I personally would feel a lot better about that than if they were all “well it’s your own fault your stupid crip feet were there to be stepped on! I’m gonna do it again every chance I get!” My toes might still be broken, but my pain is being acknowledged, you know?

...I'm going to have to work on my long-atrophied icon-making skills!

Seriously, for the new folks, don't underestimate the fun and potential expressiveness of those 15 (or more if you're paying) lil' 100x100-pixel pics.

-goes happily a'trawling through her screenshots folder, looking for nice images of Sithpuppies and murder ducklings-