Sunday Snippet, et. al.

[clevermanka]

I guess Franzeska's at it again. JFC.

A few weeks ago (months? I don't remember, what is time) I mentioned I'm gonna start culling down the fandom people I interact with if I don't see them speaking out against racism in fandom in their social media. Yes, this includes DW folks. I found out a while back that someone I was fandom-friendly with was still chummy with Franzeska and I would like to avoid those sorts of surprises in the future. If you want to support racism by your silence, that's your choice and me distancing myself from you is mine.

Writing this week was rough and I'm gonna give myself a break for a while. If I'm struck with inspiration, sure I'll see if I can get some words down but I'm not gonna feel bad about not opening the document if I'm not feeling it.

But! I did land on a title for the Femslash Weilan Big Eden AU. The fic's a bit over 4k words at the moment and (unsurprisingly) has developed a bit more angst than I'd planned. Surprise! It opens with Zhao Yunlan getting on a plane to Wichita to care for Zhao Xinci who's scheduled for heart bypass surgery but that's not where the angst comes in. Yet, I guess...

I've been calling this fic "'tis the damn season" because that's the Taylor Swift song that inspired the general vibe of it, back when I pictured it as potential m/m original fiction. If I may say so myself, I come up with good fic titles and I like this one very much. So I give you the first snippet of Heartland:

Zhu Hong had told her. Bless the woman’s unflagging loyalty despite Zhao Yunlan’s spotty record at staying in contact. It really was a shame Zhu Hong didn’t like girls. Zhao Yunlan had made a valiant and desperate attempt at changing her mind back in high school, but oh well. Zhao Yunlan was grateful for their friendship although it had taken a while to get there. She was also grateful for the fact that Zhu Hong had variable standards about patient confidentiality when it came to certain people in her wing of the hospital—especially when she hadn’t found out herself until two days before his arrival in it.

“Consider me an anonymous source,” she’d said at the end of the call.

“Is that why you called instead of texted?” Zhao Yunlan asked, phone tucked between her ear and shoulder, grabbing the well-worn suitcase from her tiny hall closet. She snorted at the silence on the other end of the line as she threw socks and underwear into the bag. “A good journalist always protects her sources, asshole. I’ll see you soon.”

Comments

[kimboo_york]

A lifetime ago I really admired Franzeska, and honestly did not see the problems with her old racist rant. Then I started reading PoC commenting on it and that became a real learning lesson for me. I'm still learning how much I don't know.

I kept hoping she'd...learn? Listen? Something????? But no. I put her in the same bucket as JKR at this point: people who are determined to hurt others in order to hold on to their fragile sense of superiority.

May I myself never end up in that bucket.

Anyway, sorry you had such a rough week! I hope you get some real rest and recuperation.

[clevermanka]

When I met her at a tiny little con several years ago I thought she had some interesting things to say about fandom, and I liked hearing about fandom history from her. Then she came out with that meta and I was like "wait, what?" and the next time the con rolled around she offered me a ride from the airport. I took her up on it but warned her I was going to ask to talk about The Meta Post.

She said that was fine and when she picked me up it was okay but the moment I asked her if she'd had time to think about some of the complaints people had about her stance, she doubled down and went on for the entire ride (about half an hour) about how "those people" were just out to get her and there were always going to be people like that in fandom, you just had to deal with that fact, etc. etc.

Ugh.

Thank you for the well-wishes. 🧡

[writedragon]

Can you believe I've never heard that Taylor Swift song before? Haunting. Definitely can see how it could inspire the tone of a fic.

JKR broke my heart with her terfy-ness, and the whole antisemitic undercurrents which took me awhile (a few years and a bit of education) to see. Ugh.

[clevermanka]

To be fair, the song's on her latest original album (not one of the ones she's re-recording) so it's not like it's had any airplay. I recommend both albums she released in 2020, folklore and evermore. They're really REALLY good.

I guess one thing to be grateful for JK's shittiness is it's encouraging some people to examine their own unacknowledged prejudices!

[writedragon]

You have a point, that a potential silver lining from the whole JKR debacle is that it might help people see things they haven't before. In my case, I literally hadn't been exposed to the idea that the bankers in HP were Jewish coded, and not in a nice way, until fandom discussions cropped up. Once I saw it, I couldn't un-see it. I realize that's a privileged position to be in, which in turn has, I think (hope) made me more sensitive overall. I'm just sorry you were stuck in a car with someone doubling down on their views rather than being open to listening and growing. Boo.

[ride_4ever]

Although I care about a number of the issues raised throughout these postings, whether or not they pertain to a section to which I myself belong, since I am Jewish the phrase "the bankers in HP were Jewish coded" jumped out at me the way the word "Jewish" jumps out to someone who is Jewish. Would you tell me more about this?

[writedragon]

There's a lot of discussion around this all over the interwebs; I'm sure if you poke around you'll find more than you might want to. For example, Jon Stewart had this to say about it: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/j-k-rowling-s-harry-potter-goblins-echo-jewish-caricatures-ncna1287043

[ride_4ever]

TYK for pointing me in a direction where I can learn more. My interactions with social media are not as vast as for many other fen, so most of what I learn about social issues comes from looking in directions to which fen I know point.

[writedragon]

Glad I could help

[lilysea]

I mentioned I'm gonna start culling down the fandom people I interact with if I don't see them speaking out against racism in fandom in their social media. Yes, this includes DW folks. I found out a while back that someone I was fandom-friendly with was still chummy with Franzeska and I would like to avoid those sorts of surprises in the future. If you want to support racism by your silence, that's your choice and me distancing myself from you is mine.

I don't write about this a lot -

I don't write about a lot of thinky things because I really struggle with brain fog and mental exhaustion and sometimes aphasia -

(for example, there's a lot that I'd like to write about Disability / chronic illness that I can't write because of brain fog / mental exhaustion)

but I 100% agree that there should be MUCH less racism in fandom

and I hope you'll keep me around ^_^

[clevermanka]

It's a great opportunity to publicly state in your own space how white fans have an obligation to center and look out for marginalized fans! Check out the wonderful collection of links that naye has put together. It's often best for white people to avoid trying to phrase things ourselves anyway when people like stitch and Rukmini Pande have said so much already.

I look forward to seeing whose voices you choose to help amplify.

[satsuma]

The tumblr post Stitch linked seems to require you to have an account to read, so I can’t actually see what Franzeska did this time but ugh why can’t she just stop?

(Also, while checking F’s blog to see if I could find the original post that way, I instead found her giving advice on how to anonymize your voice while harassing someone? what the hell?)

[clevermanka]

Ugh. Tumblr. I don't understand why it works (or doesn't) the way it does. Maybe if I link to it directly from here? Lemme know if not and (if you're sufficiently interested) I can copypasta the text.

[satsuma]

I think it’s meant to be a privacy setting? But yeah very annoying in situations like this :/

& if you could I’d appreciate it!

[clevermanka]

I tried to screenshot it, but ugh, multiple images and uploading and blah so here's the text, but if anyone wants me to email them the screenshots lmk.

Anonymous asked:
I think it's not fair to dismiss the casual racism (or as you call it, "white indifference") of fandom. People are allowed to like what they like, but it's just fact that people come to like what they like partially through nurture. It's not productive to attack people for this, but there are many very real grievances that fans of color have. Whole storylines have changed in canon for nonwhite characters because of white fandom preferences. The handwaving in your AO3/racism post is not it.

olderthannetfic answered:

--

You are correct. White indifference is racism.

I think it's a useful term. I would not call it "casual". I might call it "passive". The point is that there are many white racisms, and the one that makes the nonwhite ship Just Not Interesting is a specific one that needs a specific approach. Go after it like you'd go after the J2 Haiti fic, and people just slither away like grains of sand running through your fingers.

It's a racism that's hard to combat, and I see fics as being very, very far downstream of the actual problem. They're a symptom, and not the kind of symptom that it's effective to treat.

The place we most need to target is the producer fuckheads who ruined Finn's plotline and others who control big media. But if we want to go after white indifference in fanfic, the only approaches that are likely to bear fruit are broad, general education efforts like primers on culture or subtextually racist tropes or enthusiastic reccing of a less white media diet.

Yes, I am dismissive of "wrong guy bottomed" rant number three hundred million. If someone is on such a beginner level that they haven't seen how this drama plays out in fandoms like The Old Guard (where a relatively less authoritative fan used their privilege to bully less privileged fans who had more actual authority to speak), then I have no time for them.

Again and again, I see this conflation of canon and AO3 as well. These are different things. Yes, I agree people have many valid grievances about canon, but canon isn't what I post about.

/end

[satsuma]

But if we want to go after white indifference in fanfic, the only approaches that are likely to bear fruit are broad, general education efforts like primers on culture or subtextually racist tropes or enthusiastic reccing of a less white media diet.

You know, if she was actually doing any of these things instead of making excuses & writing thinkpieces about how fans "need to understand fandom history" I'd be willing to cut her some slack for her response. But no she's just making it harder for actual activists under the guise of helpful "advice" once again

[clevermanka]

And also, like...what proof does she have that those are the only approaches that will work? Show me some evidence that making change at a roots level doesn't affect things upstream.

[satsuma]

Yeah I’m having trouble thinking of occasions where racism was solved through helpful PSAs! Better than nothing sure but not what I’d call the ideal solution

[naye]

Thanks for linking to this latest WTF-ery. I'm so tired of seeing her Tumblr posts pop up everywhere as a ~source of wisdom~ or whatever. So many people don't know who's behind that "olderthannetfic" handle, but so many also just...seem to agree with her and her "you don't need to feel bad for not doing anything about racism, it just can't be helped" bs.

Definitely take a writing break if it's hard going! *hugs* But yay for fic titles, and yay for Zhu Hong being such a good friend.

[writedragon]

What, what? I didn't know that "olderthannetfic" on tumblr was the same person. Oof. Thanks for the PSA.

[clevermanka]

Yeah, soooo many people don't know that's her (as evidenced right in this thread). Anytime I see a Tumblr mutual reblog something of hers I'm like "hey did you know?" and every time they're like "what? oh my GOD no." Ugh, gross.

I am compelled to make Zhao Yunlan and Zhu Hong good friends in every universe I write them. I love their potential dynamics so much (and also Zhu Hong is 100% my self-insert character 😁)

[nnozomi]

The way you write Zhu Hong & Zhao Yunlan friendship (in all gender combinations) is lovely.

[clevermanka]

Thank you! That makes me really happy! I love them as friends-who've-been-through-it so much.

[minoanmiss]

Oh gods of fanfic, not Franzeska again. *cringes*

I recommend a writing break. I took one in November and am back in December working on two stories at once.

*hugs you a lot*

[clevermanka]

AGAIN. WHY.

And yeah, I'm only going to open a document when I'm particularly inspired.

[yaaurens]

I don't think I've ever heard of this person before, but oof.

[clevermanka]

She's sure something.