Quill’s Nest

Now, in this case, I've been a more active fan of the Harry Potter fandom for much longer than any of Gaiman's stuff, so that's what I'm going to talk about here in terms of examples of uncritical fandom, although the distinction between fandom dynamics and larger media criticism is also one I've seen with Gaiman (as in, plenty of critics were talking about his issues with how he writes women, queerness and transness for years while Tumblr and AO3 centric fandom was still insisting he was a Male Feminist (TM) Queer and Trans Ally darling). But one comment I remember finding odd in retrospect was a Tumblr post about how nobody was talking about the anti-indigenous racism of the "Magic in North America" or Fantastic Beasts films until JKR revealed herself to be transphobic. And I was stunned by that because in fact, there were numerous essays, including articles in mainstream media publications, that criticized those aspects of the story, including by indigenous American writers. In fact, "Magic in North America" is so obviously colonialist, hitting pretty much every familiar trope, I thought that was the broader consensus on it, at least among progressive people who discuss media online. But in retrospect - yeah, a lot of the HP fandom was somewhat resistant to discussing it that way! Because it meant admitting that Rowling wasn't perfect.

Likewise, I remember around the time the last book came out, expressing some issues I had with how Rowling so often frames "embracing love" in female characters - but not male characters - as being about a loving heterosexual marriage and having children (Molly Weasley, Lily Potter for instance, Narcissa Malfoy's "redemption" coming out of expressing her love for her son). And dwelling on the lack of that in villainous women (like Bellatrix Lestrange) being well, more than a little sexist. The fandom treated me like I was being shitty toward stay-at-home moms (an early example of how the way even "progressive" fandom likes to Thermian Argument when it comes to "agency" in female and queer characters) or even like I was calling Bellatrix Lestrange a feminist (I know, what? but you can still see remnants of this whine on places like TVTropes and just know that the argument I'm talking about here is the one they're misinterpreting to get there, no one was actually saying that).

This is a long-time problem in nerd fandom that has in fact gotten better in the past decade and a half, partly due to social-justice-focused Tumblr fandom: witness the way people talked about Joss Whedon in the 2000s vs. even just a few years before the allegations against him, by which point it was a lot more "okay" to talk in fandom spaces about his shows and movies' limitations when it comes to portrayals of gender and race. But the fact that in HP fandom, it was still anathema to suggest there was anything amiss about Rowling up until basically the Maya Forstater tweet in late 2019 and in some cases, until the "people who menstruate" meltdown and ensuing transphobic thesis statement on her website in 2020, it was Not Okay to question her status as perfect progressive angel. If you brought this up, you were treated like someone who was picky and unpleasable, who could only handle media that was perfect - no matter how clear you made it that you overall liked the books. Or even that you were just addressing Rowling the person and not her books. People could not let go of the idea that she herself was anything less than a saint, too.

This is a thing you've all got to stop doing. I don't think it's "to blame" for these people becoming worse, and I especially don't think it's useful to blame fans for a predator like Gaiman who deliberately took advantage of fans and where he was obviously taking measures to hide it from other people. And I'm not saying you should approach every creator with an attitude of suspicion and paranoia; it's perfectly reasonable to assume that people are not rapists, abusers and bigots if they haven't shown any signs of it. You're not being a Pollyanna by not automatically assuming it of everyone you encounter until they prove otherwise, by treating them like guilty until proven innocent! (Beyond just common-sense stuff like "don't follow someone you don't know very well to their private hotel room.")

But I do think that fandom would be a healthier space if people got more comfortable with greyer areas and less all-or-nothing thinking. No one is perfect. Most creators who have ever existed have "messed up" something in one way or another, have imperfections in their work. And pretty much any work that addresses a particular marginalized group or issues like racism, misogyny, homophobia, class, colonialism and so on is going to have some people who nitpick its presentation - especially if it's written by someone who isn't affected by those issues personally, but even if it isn't! Even if their work is supposedly "perfect" that doesn't mean the person is.

And again, I don't want to victim-blame (especially as these people's genuine victims weren't doing any of this), but I do think when you sort people into these categories of either "perfect" or "cancelled forever" with no room in-between allowed, it means you tend to be far more reluctant to move someone from one camp to the other. And that's how we get both this initial denialism of horrible things these people did, but also a lot of abusive dynamics within fandom. If you've sorted someone into the category "perfect progressive who does no wrong" then you're going to be more hesitant to see when they're displaying red flags of abusive behavior or bigotry. Pivoting away from creators for a moment, I've seen BNF after BNF abuse this attitude to take advantage of people in every way you can imagine (whether that be SA/grooming or just something like scamming people out of money over something they'd more likely more readily identify as a scam if they hadn't previously put the scammer on a pedestal). I think a whole lot of intra-fandom stuff where someone who has a long history of bigoted statements or unhinged behavior like doxxing continues to get a pass from a significant chunk of people, is because of this all-or-nothing thinking. "Yeah okay this person has doxxed people over shipping, but they write great essays about fandom racism!" "Yeah this person has been horrendously racist toward POCs writing antiracism meta and fanfic, but they were really nice to me and writes great stuff on this other thing and organizes charity drives-" okay, well, all of those things can be true at once. The bad stuff doesn't undo the good, but also the good stuff doesn't undo the bad. And please recognize how this person is very likely doing some of that "good" stuff to launder the bad!

(Caveat #1: yes I'm aware that a lot of fandom people are autistic and that autistic people often have trouble with all-or-nothing, black-and-white thinking. However, as an autistic person I have trained myself enough to think in other ways too that I prefer it now, it's no longer "masking" for me but just who I am, and I think you can too - because frankly, the world is not black and white and it's an important part of growing up to realize that! Also this problem is widespread enough that it clearly is not just autistic/ND people behind this, is present enough other places in society that aren't predominantly autistic, so frankly I think it's more than a little ableist to single us out there.)