callmehabie:

dellanfere:

hate the fandom idea that if you criticise something it means you hate it and hate everyone enjoying it. that’s false. i can’t stop criticising overwatch, but if you’d look at my blog for 3 seconds you’d also see i love the game. every book i’ve read in the last couple of years has contained things i criticise them for, and yet i’ve read my top favourite books of all time during that time as well. 

the idea that you can criticise a creator’s work and the idea that you can still enjoy it can co-exist. acting like everything you consume can never be criticised is dangerous, because it means people won’t talk about improvement in, for example, portrayal of minorities. it also shows how extremely privileged the anti-discourse part, the “just enjoy the work” part, of fandom is, because complaining about artistic discourse purposefully shuts down voices that aren’t white, cisgender and heterosexual: it’s white fans that complain about how fans of colour ruin their fandom by bringing up racism; it’s cis fans that complain about how trans fans ruin fandom by bringing up transphobia within the work; it’s heterosexual fans that complain about how lgbt fans ruin everything by bringing up homophobia. 

criticising media is healthy, it’s good, and it’s what improves what we consume. criticism is a part of the artistic culture, part of a discussion between consumers and its creators, and fandom needs to realise that it can’t separate itself from that.

THANK YOU!