#fandom classism

"Zenitsu should have refused becoming a Demon Slayer"

HOW was he supposed to refuse??? He was quite literally about to be made a debt slave when Jigoro showed up. And he also has nowhere else to go, because he's an impoverished street orphan. Like. Hello?

No, he wouldn't. He's a dumpster diver. He's not gonna thrift, he's gonna get shit straight out the fucking dumpsters and landfills for free and not give a fuck if he smells like dumpster juice.

People dumpster dive in real life, it's a whole fucking thing with its own subculture around it.

Why the fuck are yall ashamed of the fact that Rudo is canonically a dumpster diver and try to pretty shit up into thrifting?

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Because they’ve created a completely demagogic narrative around the character based on supposed racial prejudices that don’t actually exist, because there are no races among wizards. Blood status is not a race, it’s a class status. But the Americanization of the fandom has distorted this, solely with the aim of villainizing a victim of a classist system that essentially pushed him, through discrimination, lack of resources, ostracization, and the normalization of abuse, into making terrible choices. All just to blame the poor guy for not choosing the "right path" in an environment where not only does no one take responsibility for him, but he also has no tools or support to rely on.

Meanwhile, they sanctify the wealthy, excusing all their questionable actions with the claim that they "chose the right path," without stopping to consider how easy it is to make good choices when you have endless options and a safety net to fall back on. It’s not so easy to make the right choice when everything around you is misery and violence, and the only light you see comes from a group of people who promise you that you’ll never feel worthless again, never go hungry, never be a victim, even if those people are terrible.

The only way they’ve managed to avoid a conversation about class and uncomfortable questions —as well as confronting their own prejudices and ignorance about how social dynamics work— has been to slap the labels “racist” and “Nazi” on a character and call it a day. So now that they can’t lean on the “racist” label anymore, their hypocrisy, lack of political understanding, and poor social awareness are laid bare. It becomes clear that their supposedly progressive stance is nothing but populist demagoguery used to continue whitewashing the rich and criminalizing the poor. In fact, the way they defend the former despite repeated abuses, and condemn the latter as if they were irredeemable, reveals a staggering level of class prejudice.

Exactly!

Getting a job isn't as easy as people make it out to be (including back then). Additionally, Stan was told he had to earn millions to be accepted back into his family. So of course he went for what he thought was likely to turn out a bigger profit more quickly.

jc stans: guidao is like a drug. my meow meow was just waging a war on drugs in order to protect his land from degenerates. brutalizing substance users is based actually. it's law and order

me: what

them: wei wuxian is a useless eater and a terrorist spreading a social contagion. losing control of his weapon in a high-stakes battlefield where three thousand people were gathered to attack him is equivalent to overdosing and murdering people in a drunken rage. he had to be put down

Twitter was a mistake. No, actually, Humanity was a mistake.

I’m not joking, this is the very first time that I saw white-on-white blood purity and classism in action.

I assume the user is white because of the obsession with having Nordic features for “Nordic” Targs...who actually model more from Mediterraean/Hellenistic cultures.

I cant remember if It was stated in the anime but in his character bio he is ALWAYS stated to be part Arabic. So a good part of him is Mideastern, not to mention hes closest to (northern) Africa and probably shares some ancestry from there too (at least from a historical standpoint). He also has a darker complexion which unfortunately gets whitewashed a lot especially by Studio Dean (same people that made Seychelles white).

Because of these things I think he gets shoved a lot into that "violent moc" stereotype even in canon but almost 99% of the time by the fandom.

As an American I cant speak a lot about this from a personal note but I know that from a historical standpoint and what actually southern Italians have said is that people from S. Italy tend to get discriminate against by northern Italians. Also Im pretty sure Italians werent considered "white" until like the 1950s (at least here in America).

Theres also that weird racist thing where people in this fandom are OBSESSED with the M*fia. Like dont even get me started on how racist that actually is. Than again this is the same fandom that likes to romanticize WW2 and nazisim occassionally so..

Also people on tumblr just hate/mock italians in general for some reason and that just confuses me so much like ???

This man is also like...super fucking poor too, so add some classism to it as well while we're (I'm) at it lol. He's also an immigrant in multiple ways and multiple times throughout history so theres some xenophobia to boot

please direct any and all future hate anons over to @rosethreeart please and thank you. :)

Sorry this man gets so much hate for no reason and it makes me sad hes such a sad little meow meow who deserves to be held gently </3

Yeah, it's literally stated in the manga that Romano is mixed. I know a lot of the fandom doesn't read the manga, but they really, really should. (Also, didn't Studio Deen whitewash Egypt as well, or am I misremembering?)

While Romano has legitimate reasons to have a temper, it shouldn't be overlooked that he does something get boxed into the "angry moc" trope. But yeah, it's way worse in the fandom.

Yeah, I've heard southern Italians say that, too. And the 1950s lines up with what I've read.

God, I've noticed that too. Like, what is this fandom's obsession with the m*fia. And it's always so glamorized? But yeah, given some of the other stuff this fandom glamorizes, maybe I shouldn't be too surprised.

Yeah, I've noticed that. It's not racism since Italians have been considered white since the 1950s, but anti-Italian sentiment is still not...good.

Exactly! Classism factors into the fandom's treatment of Romano, as does being anti-immigrant/xenophobic.

I'll keep that in mind, thank you!

With both Kate and Peter, it’s a powerful statement about the isolating power of mixing wealth and privilege with teleological ethics, or the ends justify the means.  I am 95% sure that this was intended by the writers.   I criticize the production a lot, but when they had a theme, they weren’t shy about putting it out there in all it’s ugly glory.

Both Kate and Peter came from powerful and respected families.  They were raised in wealth; unlike many of the other adult characters, neither of them showed any interest or concern about working (Kate can pick up and relocate at a moment’s notice; ”What am I going to do, get a job?”)  Both of them expressed disdain for the boundaries lesser people have to respect. (”You and the code ... Of course, I always play by the rules.” and “No one would ban me from anywhere.”)  Both of them have even more disdain for people who have outlived their usefulness.  (“Well, look who just became completely useless” and “I got better.”) 

Both of them pretended to be devoted to their families, but both of them used that devotion to cover up their violent natures and self-indulgence.   

Kate: You don't have to be psychotic to be a killer. You just - need a reason. And even then, sometimes - You can surprise yourself. (Wolf’s Bane, 1x09) Peter:  You know, I used to get angry. As a kid, I would even break my own toys in little fits of rage. And then I asked myself, "Why break your own toys when you can break someone else's? . . . I want, what I’ve always wanted.  Power.  (Orphaned, 4x06)

Peter’s family didn’t lose its legacy because of Scott’s rise to being an alpha.  He knows this.  He’s not stupid.  He’s not talking about his family at all -- his family is a cover.  His actions are about him.  They only benefit him.  That’s why when he repeatedly tells the audience that he’s doing this all for his family, only fools believe him.  

If he really cared about his family, he wouldn’t have killed Laura, even if -- as some members of the fandom love to speculate without an ounce of proof -- Laura was a coward who abandoned his comatose body to his enemies.  If he really cared about his family, he would have gone to Derek immediately and talked to him, even in his supposedly compromised mental state.  You can’t tell me he could track down Harris from a slip of paper Laura had but he couldn’t recognize Derek.    If he cared about his family, he would have been out there trying to help Cora rather than telling Derek that killing her was an option or doubting her loyalty.  if he cared about his family, he wouldn’t have sent Malia against Scott and Kate, and he certainly wouldn’t have abandoned Derek in his last moments to go get his power up.  

His rage against Scott was the frustration of someone who couldn’t understand that the means he chose influenced the ends he achieved.  The power for which he murdered his niece and the revenge he used it for didn’t satisfy, and it poisoned every relationship he had.  In the finale, Derek barely talked to him.  He has to bribe his daughter to get her to spend time with him.  As Stiles put it succinctly: “Who would ever come for you?”

Kate is just as pathetic.  Gerard twisted her into a weapon against his hatred of werewolves, willing to go to any lengths to kill them for him.  Her crime is the act that destroyed her family, a consequence of the end she sought.   Ironically, it certainly didn’t earn her her father’s love.   Gerard didn’t even truly come back to avenger her; he used that idea to control the kanima, and then never mentioned her again.   

Her rant about an “aristocratic family of werewolf hunters brought low by a teenage boy” was rage at the failure of her own ethical outlook.  When you tell yourself that the ends justify the means and those ends don’t matter anymore, what do you have left?  She didn’t go after Scott because he destroyed her family; she and Gerard did that and she knew it.   She went after Scott because he was a reminder that she hadn’t needed to seduce a teenage boy and burn his family alive for her family and their noble cause.  She did it because it pleased her.  Her twisted hatred of Scott and Derek, her delusional claim of ‘they killed Allison,’ all of it is a grasp for some end worth those terrible and despicable means.

This is why I have to laugh when fandom makes the argument that “Peter was out of character in Season 4.”  He was absolutely in character.   ‘Why would he work with the woman who burned his family?’  they cry, and then forget that he seriously suggested that Derek kill Cora or let Cora murder innocent people rather than risk his life to protect her.

That’s why I have to laugh even harder when they float their Left Hand head canons in a desperate attempt to explain away Peter’s fucked-up ethical system. (You know why they go to that length.  If Peter had been played by Michael Hogan, the words ‘Left Hand’ would never be uttered.  It’s why there’s very little Kate apologism out there compared to Peter’s defenders.)  There’s not a single mention of behavior like that being condoned by any alpha, Talia or Satomi or even pre-betrayal Deucalion.   There’s a whole scene about it.   

But Peter was wealthy, privileged, white and good-looking, so there has to be a justification for him hating Laura or abandoning Derek at La Iglesia, for both the Peter and the fandom.  And the fandom eats up any alternative rather than the definitive one presented by the show: Peter (and Kate) were corrupted products of wealth and privilege used without conscience.