There's a lot of things in your post, and I'm just going to address one of them, to confine my comments to refer to people who are genuinely pretty learned about the racism/sexism/etc stuff. Often, I think people in that group really do start to get negative about a show's portrayals of people of color/women/etc when the show overall has lost its shine for them. I think a lot of anit-racist, anti-sexist fans are willing to put up with a lot of icky issues in portrayals of people of color and women if the show's hitting other fannish needs just right. So, even as they'll note where the show's being problematic, it's much easier for them to celebrate all the things the show's doing right--they like the show. They want to celebrate it.
In a sense, then, it might make sense for fans to just decide to stop engaging with a show if they can't find anything to celebrate about it anymore. That's a big reason I'm not posting much about Supernatural. I still watch it because I'm kinda obliged now to sit and make fun of it with my brother, after getting him hooked on the show, but I can't muster up a lot of fannish enthusiasm for it now. There's just a lot of things about what I see as a change in tone and about how the storylines are being put together that don't appeal to me. I'm sure it's in connection with this that the show's issues with gender and race--which it's always had--seem much more glaring to me. It's possible that the show's being objectively worse about misogyny this season; I haven't tried to go about measuring that objectively. It certainly feels worse to me, though--but it's also true there isn't as much other stuff I'm enjoying to distract me from the misogyny. But, right, when it gets to a point that the main reaction I want to post to an episode is about sexism issues--I feel more inclined to skip writing the thing, because I feel like what that really means I've decided is that the episode wasn't worth much of my time.
On the other hand, I don't feel like I can blame fans who decide to focus on those rant-making aspects of a show, at least for a while. Even if they're pretty much coming to the conclusion that the show's not worth their while anymore, it takes time to decide that after putting in fannish investment. A lot of fans want their show to be as good as it should be, and shows really should be doing better on race and gender by now. So it can be hard not to want to point out where the show's gone wrong. And I do think those rants can be beneficial for the folks who aren't quite as learned on why those issues can set off rants, but do want to be less ignorant. I've seen lots of people comment on rants with a "Geez, I'd had no idea X was problematic, but now that you've pointed it out, I see how that's really egregious. I'm going to make sure to avoid replicating that myself now." I've been in the position of commenters like that more than once. So I really appreciate the people who are willing to take the crap that so often comes along with posting a "squee-harsing" rant, because it does so often also lead to at least some people who otherwise wouldn't have known to figuring out that certain tropes or portrayals really are offensive.
Still, though...eh, I think I need to continue below about the awesomeness of Ronon [g]
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Date: 2007-11-23 07:41 am (UTC)In a sense, then, it might make sense for fans to just decide to stop engaging with a show if they can't find anything to celebrate about it anymore. That's a big reason I'm not posting much about Supernatural. I still watch it because I'm kinda obliged now to sit and make fun of it with my brother, after getting him hooked on the show, but I can't muster up a lot of fannish enthusiasm for it now. There's just a lot of things about what I see as a change in tone and about how the storylines are being put together that don't appeal to me. I'm sure it's in connection with this that the show's issues with gender and race--which it's always had--seem much more glaring to me. It's possible that the show's being objectively worse about misogyny this season; I haven't tried to go about measuring that objectively. It certainly feels worse to me, though--but it's also true there isn't as much other stuff I'm enjoying to distract me from the misogyny. But, right, when it gets to a point that the main reaction I want to post to an episode is about sexism issues--I feel more inclined to skip writing the thing, because I feel like what that really means I've decided is that the episode wasn't worth much of my time.
On the other hand, I don't feel like I can blame fans who decide to focus on those rant-making aspects of a show, at least for a while. Even if they're pretty much coming to the conclusion that the show's not worth their while anymore, it takes time to decide that after putting in fannish investment. A lot of fans want their show to be as good as it should be, and shows really should be doing better on race and gender by now. So it can be hard not to want to point out where the show's gone wrong. And I do think those rants can be beneficial for the folks who aren't quite as learned on why those issues can set off rants, but do want to be less ignorant. I've seen lots of people comment on rants with a "Geez, I'd had no idea X was problematic, but now that you've pointed it out, I see how that's really egregious. I'm going to make sure to avoid replicating that myself now." I've been in the position of commenters like that more than once. So I really appreciate the people who are willing to take the crap that so often comes along with posting a "squee-harsing" rant, because it does so often also lead to at least some people who otherwise wouldn't have known to figuring out that certain tropes or portrayals really are offensive.
Still, though...eh, I think I need to continue below about the awesomeness of Ronon [g]