the way some people who love tvl aren't content to just enjoy the season on its own terms but seek out and try to shut down any critique of the season shows how insecure and anxious they are about what this season depicts- and the fact that they're worried that the critics specifically of the show's bigotry might be right or might be making valid points, and what they think it might say about them that they enjoy tvl despite (or honestly sometimes because of) the writing's descent into narrative antiblackness, queerphobia and even more overt misogyny than what was in s1-s2. a lot of mostly-nonblack, and within that group mostly-white, viewers have either been completely oblivious to the textually racist choices of s3, unbothered by it, or even straight-up reveling in it- however, these are viewers who for the most part self-identify as "liberal" or "progressive" or "anti-racist", and they attach more value to those labels than they care about the work of actually being progressive and anti-racist. this is why so many white people act like being called a racist is a more grievous offense than actually being racist, and why they think a black person calling out racism (even in "polite" and conciliatory tones that are usually perceived as attacks and aggression anyway) is worse than a white person being racist. and despite a lot of performative claims about how these characters are all monsters and all evil and what they enjoy in fiction has nothing to do with their real politics or morals, these viewers identify extremely closely with the show and it's an integral part of their fannish identity online, to the point that they perceive any criticism of the show as an attack on themselves. there's also a fair amount of moral anxiety involved bc despite the performative gothic genre monster evil edgelord posting, a lot of them tacitly buy into the idea that they're good people with progressive values, this is an inherent quality about them instead of goodness or progressiveness being an active form of work that you do, therefore anything they enjoy and identify with has to be good and progressive.
and that brings us to the critique of tvl's bigotry and where the cognitive dissonance kicks in- these are liberal(tm) and progressive(tm) viewers- they're good(tm) people. and they know a good and liberal and progressive person should notice and care about racism. they've probably retweeted or reblogged some posts about how representation matters or how good jacob anderson is as louis and they might even have blacklivesmatter in their account bio. but the reality is they don't actually recognize, or if they do they don't care about, the racism in tvl- and they love tvl and still identify with it deeply, to the point that any criticism about it stings and makes them feel like they're the ones being criticized, they're the ones being judged for enjoying it. and it's one thing when the parts of the show being criticized are about awkward scripting or bad pacing, but it's another when the critique feels destabilizing to their sense of self as a liberal(tm) progressive(tm) good(tm) person- and it's a lot more comforting in the moment to lash out at the person voicing the criticism about tvl's racism or queerphobia or misogyny or anti-survivor bias and say no, the show isn't bigoted (and therefore i'm not bigoted for uncritically enjoying it), you're the problem and what you're saying is completely untrue and meaningless bc you just hate lestat/you're a bitter armand fan/you're a bitter louis fan/this is all unserious ship and stan wars and there's no depth or legitimacy to what you're saying. even if the critique at no point suggests "you're a bad person for liking this show" or "i'm judging you for liking this show" (bc liking fucked up or flawed or "problematic" media doesn't make you an inherently bad or bigoted person, it's perfectly possible to go "yeah these parts had problems, but this work still resonated with me for xyz reasons") they feel judged, they feel like they're being called a bad person, and only by finding a way to dismiss the critique wholesale can they soothe the moral anxiety they feel.
ian danskin talks about this phenomenon in his series on gamergate (if you don't know about gamergate i really rec reading up on it bc so many reactionary currents online and in fandom can be traced back to it, it's foundational, and this video series is a good intro point to explain it). here's a relevant excerpt about the hate campaigns against anita sarkeesian for announcing her series talking about misogyny in video games-
"itās all about perception, about what jack (context- "angry jack" is the stand-in figure ian uses for mostly-white-cishet men who participated in the reactionary hate and harassment campaigns of the gamergate movement) wants the world to *feel* like. itās a world where bigotry of all stripes exists as purely rhetorical abstractions- theyāre all just ideas to him, and he can choose the ideas that make him most comfortable. all jack needs is a reason for anita sarkeesian to be wrong- or better yet, lying. the reason doesnāt have to be good, itās purely utilitarian. it only needs to serve its purpose, to insist the doctorās a quack and justify getting a second opinion. this is why sarkeesianās critics canāt politely disagree with her- they have to treat her with *contempt*. the whole point is to spare themselves from actually considering her arguments, so her arguments have to be *beneath* considerationā¦most of sarkeesianās detractors are not trying to destroy her, although they do want her gone. jack is not a psychopath- since his only understanding of a sexist is shunning, shaming or incarcerating, he reads any critique of his gender politics as an appeal to shun, shame or incarcerate *him*. heās a guy whoās terrified of who he is if the world sarkeesian describes is real, of how heād be treated there, of what it would ask of him, of what his conscience would tell him to do."
and although the iwtvl fandom skews more politically "liberal" and is dominated by women and queerfolk (still white-majority and white-centric though, as most fandoms are) we're seeing a different version of the same phenomenon happening with the response to tvl. we've even seen with the white-majority critics who are so defensive of even a minority of fan criticism being fielded at tvl- of the reception to the season being merely mixed/uneven with the general audience than universally glowing- that they wrote multiple articles berating fans for "watching tvl wrong" and not being patient enough with the show, despite their awareness of s3ep6 and its antiblack dialogue. (some of those white critics have ofc started publicly backpedaling.) and we're still seeing it with the way so many fans with alleged progressive beliefs have committed themselves to not only defending tvl and denying its racism on their own pages, but actively seek out critique that upsets them and makes them feel attacked so they can try to "debunk" it and prove the people sharing those critical thoughts are lying or making things up and there's nothing substantive behind what we say. and ironically, by trying so hard to protect their progressive self-image, they end up playing into the exact type of conservative rhetoric and denial that has fox news pundits talking about how america isn't a racist country and black people are trying to make them falsely believe america is a racist country by continuing to be uppity troublemakers and talking about racism, or how if you talk about white supremacist christian hegemony you're attacking everyone who enjoys christmas or something. we can all pretend the problem doesn't exist if you don't create the problem by giving voice to it. there's no antiblackness here. there's no queerphobia here. i'm a good and progressive person and i would never passively go along with a bigoted status quo- you're lying to take away the things i enjoy and identify with (you're lying to slander me). if no one says the emperor has no clothes, we can all close our eyes and ears to what's plainly there and keep talking about the wonderful stitching on the emperor's shirt.
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