Bingo! RaceFail, LGBTQFail & Misogyny all in one small act of fannish cluelessness

[rm]

A few clueless slashers fetishize real queer people while throwing in fun sides of racism and misogyny:

http://community.livejournal.com/newtrekslash/268981.html
http://www.seetreklove.com
http://www.seetreklove.com/forums/showpost.php?s=e39b6284f12358bc55546e23865c5597&p=2608&postcount=15

THIS IS WHAT FAIL LOOKS LIKE.

Thanks to telesilla and darkrosetiger for the heads-up.

Comments

[karnythia.livejournal.com]

I'm going to need you to get your people. Because I don't want to blow up fandom, but I think I'm about to go ahead and do it.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I'm FURIOUS. And Tweeting about it. So if you wanna blow this bullshit up together, there are lots of good, loud fannish people who are like "we need to stop this shit now". The teachable moments are getting awfully fucking tiring though.

[dancingbarefoot.livejournal.com]

Okay and now that proves to me that the best thing I ever did ... was stay the hell out of the new trek fan pool.

[exbentley]

Oh, man, hey now. I think the outrage of people from the same fandom in the comments speaks to the idea that we're not all idiots.

[shweta-narayan.livejournal.com]

GAH.

"Not supporting this pairing is like not supporting MLK Jr"??

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

See, now I feel really old, because the only MLK Jr I can think of is the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior.
Sometimes I just haven't the first clue what young people are talking about.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

And, the NuTrek honeymoon officially ends. Enjoy, kids, it's only gonna get more exciting from here on out.

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

*sigh* One beautiful summer, and then, the deluge.

[genmaicha.livejournal.com]

Oh dear lord. Are they really, honestly, insisting that it's not about the ship while making it obvious that really, it is?

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

"Nowhere am I so desperately needed as among a shipload of illogical humans."

IE: Yes.

[starstealingirl.livejournal.com]

"I'm not homophobic. Some of my favorite fictitious characters are gay!"

(Or "straight but in love with just this one person of the same sex." Because that's more romantic than being gay. Or something.)

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<i.straight>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

<i.straight but in love with just this one person of the same sex.</i>

I would suggest that you not watch "Torchwood" this year. For there is some MIGHTY epic fail on that score.

[sushis.livejournal.com]

ANALOGY FAIL!

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

*blink* *blink*

What the hell...?

*sighs*

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's just ... wow.

[contrarywise]

Oh ye Gods. Seriously, people?

It's not like GLBT Trek fans haven't campaigned, largely unsuccessfully, for queer inclusion on Star Trek for decades, oh no. Argh, so much fail! *headdesk*

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

But this is different! This is an internet petition!

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

I had to stop reading that thread, because the FLAMES ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE kept setting off the smoke detector, and then I had to go open the windows, and it was a whole big thing.

and then i wrote meta.

[rednwhiterose.livejournal.com]

I had to stop reading that thread, because the FLAMES ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE kept setting off the smoke detector, and then I had to go open the windows, and it was a whole big thing.

and then i wrote meta.

You are full of Win.

[winterknight.livejournal.com]

I think from a historical point of view the foundations of fandom are creaking at the idea of this movement and Usenet itself may disappear into the void of folly. It's as if a million ditto machines cried out in pain and were suddenly silenced. Also, this is just such a bad idea, I can hardly think past the screaming WTF?! in my head.

All I can do is make sure to pass on the "DO NOT WANT" to my corner of the world.

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

It’s weirdly thrilling, watching people find new ways of being stupid on the Internet.

[to-the-wick.livejournal.com]

One of the things I'm kind of appalled about (aside from the obvious, anyway) is the almost automatic assumption that discussion = arguing = wank = bad, therefore whoever is dissenting is wanky and therefore wrong! Because if you're not immediately holding hands and agreeing with this atrocity of a petition you're stirring things up and causing trouble for the rest of the Nice People In The Fandom. Or something. I don't even know, I tend to stay the hell away from fandoms.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Oh, god. This is just sad.

I don't want to back down, because if we don't have specific ship in mind (or at least a few suggestions), our request could be answered in a way we had not anticipated.

The gay monkey's paw?

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

Do they mean they're worried about getting icky femslash, or maybe some icky old people in their sexual fantasy?

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

I swear to god, fandom is turning me into a grumpy old man. A grumpy old queer man.

[i-amthecosmos.livejournal.com]

*facepalm*

I understand how dumb it is for Star Trek to have *never* had an out gay character. Dragon*Con did panels on it for years. But really now, this is not the way to go about it. Seriously.

And you can't disagree with anyone anymore, because now that's considered "trolling". I mean, come on.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Oh My God!
Why?! Why is a fandom I hoped to actually get into officially too idiotic, stupid and BLIND for me to enter willingly.

No no no!

This is just... I'm sorta speechless here.

ETA: Are people seriously not aware of what co-optation and appropriation mean? Seriously!

[garlicfiend.livejournal.com]

I... uh... ugh.

And granted, being trans I tend to be oversensitive to these things, but when the OP used the term "GLBT relationships," I just wanted to reach through my monitor and whack her upside the head. Seriously. The proper term is "same-sex" when referring to relationships. Nobody cares if a bi person happens to have a relationship with someone of the opposite sex. And WTF is a trans relationship? Trans people come in straight, bi, and gay varieties as well, and some of them have same-sex relationshps.

Of course, the OP was just being a douchebag and giving absolutely no thought to what she (and I just hurt my brain looking at her info page to verify her gender, ouch) was posting, which is the enormous problem -- the complete unwillingness to question any of her own attitudes.

[(Anonymous)]

i feel really dumb here... but... why is this so painful, besides the ridiculous MLK analogy? where is the misogyny and racism? and where is the fetishization? It looks... really earnest? Can straight people love slash without it being fetishization? I'm not even a straight person! But I'm kinda clueless on the politics here.

Feel free to not explain if you don't want, but I thought I'd ask.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Read the angry comments at the initial link, they manage to hit all the points pretty fast.

On a related note, specifically regarding on-line petitions and appropriation

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

I wasn't sure if you'd seen this interview with RTD? I don't agree with a lot of what he says (or, rather, I can see why he's saying what he is saying but I wish he could do so in a way which doesn't come across as so arrogant and dismissive) but this bit here

Question: One of my readers wondered if you were under pressure to de-gay Torchwood and that's why you killed him off.
DAVIES: I think you can forget about people picking up gay rights as an issue. It's rather like children picking up nursery blocks and waving them in the air but having no idea what it entails. We’re talking about issues in my entire life here, not just one small television program. If they did research they’d go and look at the history of gay and lesbian characters that I have put on screen. They should simply grow up, do some research, and stop riding on a bandwagon that they actually don’t know anything about.

ties in eeriely well to this discussion here.

[isil-helyanwe.livejournal.com]

Okay, so for some bizarre reason, my computer isn't letting me access that there first link, so would anyone care to summarise the contents for me?

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. God. WHAT.

THIS? IS WHAT THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED IN.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

Oh dear God, I don't know where to start.

[villeinage.livejournal.com]

The whole thing was so unutterably stupid that at first I was just: pfft! stupid fangirls! and thought it would die a natural death of the stupid.

As in : Nobody seriously thinks that...

But no! The stupid is like Tribbles. Smelly, offensive Tribbles.