DnDads fandom, hereâs some food for thought for you.Â
You keep telling Anthony you want representation, that you want more diversity, you want characters confirmed as fandom wide headcanons, whatever. You tell him you want more.Â
But, these same blogs that say these things reblog posts on the âmen writing womenâ memes and rant on cis people writing trans characters and white people writing POC and whatever else, so let me off you this.Â
If you were a content creator, and your fans were asking you for representation, while on the same note saying how people who arenât [people group] can never get [people group] right, what would possess you to take that step to provide that? I want you to genuinely think about that, because as a content creator who prides themself on putting in the kinds of characters Iâve heard people cry for in my stories, seeing those kinds of things is very discouraging. Because, I, as a white person know my portrayal of a POC is never going to be as good as POC want it to be, but all I can do is try my very best and listen to them on their critiques and turn around what I did wrong.Â
Iâm not saying Anthony is justified in the lack of diversity in NPCs, but you guys need to understand that when you tell him to provide diversity then also complain that [majority group] never portray [minority group] right is not helping your case. All youâre gonna do is discourage him from providing that.Â
If you need evidence, hereâs an actual Talking Dads quote form Anthony on Trans Nick and other fandom wide headcanonsÂ
( I did not transcribe this scene, i thank my Discord friend for sending me this. I donât know your Tumblr but if you see this just drop a say so in the notes)Â
âAnthony: Oh wow. There are a lot of ones I like that are almost exclusively about gender and orientations and stuff like that. Of like, oh yeah maybe Nick is trans or or or any of those kinds of things. Cause those, itâs always like, not not that I would ever take those because uh, uh, and, make them part of the main canon just because I feel like that might- I donât trust myself to not make that appropriative and weird. But I love that people from marginalized communities are taking those characters and being like âheâs ours now!â
Anthony: âNick, heâs- heâs black and heâs a trans man and Glenn loves him and itâs not a big deal.â And like, all that kind of stuff.â
Iâm sympathetic to sentiments like this, because this was my writing until this very year. My thought process was âI wonât write POC because I, as a white person, might fuck it upâ and that thought process is only made so much stronger when if you do fuck up, no matter how minor or how severe, youâre met with nothing but inbox spam and threats and hostility. If you want response; use your words politely. When you attack them, nothing will change. Attacking does nothing but make them fear their own fans, and thatâs genuinely not what we want. I know thatâs not what we want. This callout/cancel culture people have created in this little fandom is so toxic, to both us and the dads.Â
If youâre gonna ask something of the dads, do it nicely. Donât come for their throats. If you, YOU personally, have sent them the same message multiple times and have no response after a couple weeks; then you get rights to get more aggressive. Not when youâre posting one call out on their Twitter.com and do nothing but yell and accuse. Thatâs not accomplishing anything.Â
If I, a fifteen year old, find myself using more tact in these posts than grown ass adults, thereâs definitely a problem here. And itâs not the dads.Â
You wanna know that dads arenât giving representation? Because theyâre scared of fucking it up, theyâre scared you ADULTS are going to come for their throats at the smallest mistake and continue to turn their fanbase into a warzone. Donât make it a warzone.Â
You know how you fix that? Approach them. Message them on some platform. Just say; Hey, I know your fans want [character] to be [minority group] and if you wanted help in learning how to confirm that, I am [minority group] and Iâd be willing to help you.
Because, honestly, even a sensitivity director canât be perfectly knowledgeable on every single minority group.Â
If you want your kind of minority group represented in DnDads, god dammit reach out to the cast and offer your input. Not you may not be an authority on your minority group, or some kind of genius on it, but one of those people reaching out and offering advice based on their own experiences is often much better than nothing.Â
Like, the other day on twitter someone said, âHey, Jenna and Anthony! I noticed you called Ratticus Finch âagenderedâ and thatâs not a perfect term for all nonbinary people, so I would suggest putting in some more research on terms before the next episode.â And THATâS how you approach topics at first, not screaming and yelling. Thatâs how you put in advice. Thatâs how you provide criticism.Â
I said when I first started talking about discourse that the adults are the problem, and i still stand by that. Because I am yet to see anyone under the age of 25 acting like this. Anyone younger Iâve seen on this has been tactful, and polite. Which really shows the difference in generations. Itâs sad.Â
I hold hope in the hosts, because theyâve made steps to change in the past. And theyâre only gonna take the issues one hurdle at a time, you canât expect everything to be managed all at once, they have to pace themselves or else theyâre going to get burned out and thatâs worse.Â
And if this podcast at the moment is not up to your standards? Thatâs fine. Walk. Away Come check back in in a few months if you still hold interest and see if itâs what you want to associate yourself with. Just stop attacking the hosts, criticize and construct them instead.Â
You get nothing out of tearing others down, only more destruction.Â