jostenitis patient 0

fandom loves to see a unique and interesting story and go ah this would be great in my little boxes that make everything the same

unfortunately i do think i am in fact doomed forever but at least there’s movies and music and idk probably some other things too

kinda annoys me that criticisms of representation in popular media were intended as a means to point out how people of colour, lgbt people, people with disabilities and other marginilised folks were systemically kept out of creative positions of power in the industry which lead to the creation of media that further marginilised them - but those conversations were mutated and co-opted. now, "representation" is mostly used as a shallow metric by which ppl judge the media itself rather than the system and people that made it. it's insane to me that people say "I won't watch succession because there's no lgbt/poc representation" or they'll say, "you have to watch xyz show because it has xyz representation". Representation and it's mere presence (or supposed absence) is not an indicator of quality in any way. moreover, discussing representation so reductively completely ignores creative intention and disregards real issues of systemic inclusion in favour of using aesthetics as a scapegoat. I need people to stop asking, "is this piece of media diverse?" and start asking, "who is telling this story, why is it being told, and who benefits most from telling it this way?". don't do yourself, art, or the fight the disservice of being reductive.

“Plans for the evening”

conversations of amatonormativity and consent overlap a lot and should be discussed side by side more frequently. because when you live in a society that teaches you that you’re supposed to want sex and romance, that you may want to say no in the moment but you shouldn’t say no forever, any statements about consent get muddied. you cannot at once preach that consent is vital and “you can always say no” and also insist that people should give sex and romance a try, even when they express disinterest, telling them “eventually you’ll find the right person.”

the big three questions of media analysis: what the author wanted to say, what they actually said, and what they didn’t know they were saying

for the last one i don’t just mean oh the author inadvertently wrote in gay subtext or whatever i’m talking about media as a cultural artifact which can reveal a ton about societal norms, biases, ideals, etc. it’s all about positionality and an unexamined positionality is often the most revealing of all

‘She wasn’t a good mother’ great are we evaluating this character trait as one of her many facets or are we just damning her for not being the most maternal womanliest woman who ever womaned

the thrilling sequel ‘he’s a bad father but we’re using it as grounds to see him as beloved and a deeply complex and intellectual character that needs to be studied’