maladicts:

“trying too hard to be diverse/inclusive” is such a bullshit complaint. you get people sneering at a show (or movie or book or OH NO someone’s headcanon) that isn’t all 100% straight white dudes, rolling their eyes at ~the PC police~, talking over marginalized people and their experiences, etc. there were a bunch of posts along that line of thought in the elementary tag a while ago. I’ve thought a lot about it and it’s still……..bullshit.

like?? oh no? some people in the world are making an active attempt to include PoC and queer people and trans* people in media and stories and stuff instead of lazily sticking to the same old repetitive straight-white-cis-dudebro-bromance formula? how is this a bad thing what is the problem here

are you blogging your complaints from some magical alternate universe with a surplus of queer women of color in every important role ever? do you have too many well-written trans* lead characters in your super popular BBC shows? (also is your strange mirror universe technologically advanced enough to create some kind of universe-crossing portal machine)

what are you criticizing when you say something is “trying to hard to be diverse”? is it the idea of effort? the idea that queer people/trans* people/PoC exist? (and exist outside of narratives that serve to place straight white cis protagonists on a pedestal while teaching said protag a mystical lesson about ~different walks of life~?) are you under the impression that the world is full of white people and that everyone else is a minority because oh boy lemme tell you that is not even close to being mathematically correct?? or is that you feel the only stories worth telling are white ones?

also for all your rainbow puking gifs and declarations of “SO GAY!!” whenever two white male characters glance vaguely in each other’s directions, you seem to have the idea that queer people are but fleeting metaphorical unicorns existing on an unearthly plane, summoned hither-thither by the whims of straight fans. this honor, of course, is reserved solely for white cis dudes you can imagine fucking each other, as the idea of, say, a queer trans* WoC would just be too much in comparison to your very tasteful and subtle t-shirt about how “SOME CONSULTING DETECTIVES MARRY ARMY DOCTORS!” right

like we get a lot of lip service from people about how more representation of “”“”minorities”“”“” would be great, but when you get right down to it, what a lot of ~allies~ really want is the bare minimum of possible representation that won’t make them too uncomfortable or make them think too hard about their own prejudices, that will create the illusion of challenging oppression in society, the kind that will expend the least amount of effort from themselves but will earn them the maximum amount of masturbatory applause

and when we actually do get some well-written representation, you either shit all over it or say “well isn’t that nice! aren’t we nice to let you have this one single character? now let’s get back to making straight white characters, you know, the normal kind!” so when you say something is “too diverse” or “trying too hard”, what you’re saying really is that you want complacency and passive behavior, you want wacky side characters and fetishized cliches, you want “”“”minorities”“” to keep their mouths shut unless they have something nice to say about the bones you throw them when you’re feeling charitable, you want to take away their history and desires and anger

it all becomes about how the stories of PoC and queer and trans* people can be made about you, how they can accommodate you, how they can entertain you, and you’re all so busy patting yourselves on the back for faking being a decent human being so well that you’d rather patronize and dismiss the concerns of real life marginalized people than consider how much of a giant shining asshole you are

maladicts:

“trying too hard to be diverse/inclusive” is such a bullshit complaint. you get people sneering at a show (or movie or book or OH NO someone’s headcanon) that isn’t all 100% straight white dudes, rolling their eyes at ~the PC police~, talking over marginalized people and their experiences, etc. there were a bunch of posts along that line of thought in the elementary tag a while ago. I’ve thought a lot about it and it’s still……..bullshit.

like?? oh no? some people in the world are making an active attempt to include PoC and queer people and trans* people in media and stories and stuff instead of lazily sticking to the same old repetitive straight-white-cis-dudebro-bromance formula? how is this a bad thing what is the problem here

are you blogging your complaints from some magical alternate universe with a surplus of queer women of color in every important role ever? do you have too many well-written trans* lead characters in your super popular BBC shows? (also is your strange mirror universe technologically advanced enough to create some kind of universe-crossing portal machine)

what are you criticizing when you say something is “trying to hard to be diverse”? is it the idea of effort? the idea that queer people/trans* people/PoC exist? (and exist outside of narratives that serve to place straight white cis protagonists on a pedestal while teaching said protag a mystical lesson about ~different walks of life~?) are you under the impression that the world is full of white people and that everyone else is a minority because oh boy lemme tell you that is not even close to being mathematically correct?? or is that you feel the only stories worth telling are white ones?

also for all your rainbow puking gifs and declarations of “SO GAY!!” whenever two white male characters glance vaguely in each other’s directions, you seem to have the idea that queer people are but fleeting metaphorical unicorns existing on an unearthly plane, summoned hither-thither by the whims of straight fans. this honor, of course, is reserved solely for white cis dudes you can imagine fucking each other, as the idea of, say, a queer trans* WoC would just be too much in comparison to your very tasteful and subtle t-shirt about how “SOME CONSULTING DETECTIVES MARRY ARMY DOCTORS!” right

like we get a lot of lip service from people about how more representation of “”“”minorities”“”“” would be great, but when you get right down to it, what a lot of ~allies~ really want is the bare minimum of possible representation that won’t make them too uncomfortable or make them think too hard about their own prejudices, that will create the illusion of challenging oppression in society, the kind that will expend the least amount of effort from themselves but will earn them the maximum amount of masturbatory applause

and when we actually do get some well-written representation, you either shit all over it or say “well isn’t that nice! aren’t we nice to let you have this one single character? now let’s get back to making straight white characters, you know, the normal kind!” so when you say something is “too diverse” or “trying too hard”, what you’re saying really is that you want complacency and passive behavior, you want wacky side characters and fetishized cliches, you want “”“”minorities”“” to keep their mouths shut unless they have something nice to say about the bones you throw them when you’re feeling charitable, you want to take away their history and desires and anger

it all becomes about how the stories of PoC and queer and trans* people can be made about you, how they can accommodate you, how they can entertain you, and you’re all so busy patting yourselves on the back for faking being a decent human being so well that you’d rather patronize and dismiss the concerns of real life marginalized people than consider how much of a giant shining asshole you are