Media Analysis and the border of rational discussion

Over on Cultures of Play, there’s this really great thread analyzing the use of facist imagery in gaming. It looks at the way in which fascism is glorified, made awesome, and generally, thoughtlessly, tossed about left and right. Joshua even talks about in context to other media, society, and basically why the preponderance of it is problematic.

Though 80% of the points there apply equally to racism, sexism, etc. in terms of gaming, we don’t see the same rational discussion carry over (yes, even in the indie-tabletop-rpg niche). Why is that? Well, in the case of discussing fascism, no one is identifying their privilege with it. You don’t see completely unconnected people jumping up to irrationally defend against his critique because there is no ingrained hierarchy of roles in society based on your role in “fascism”. Though I’m sure no one identifies being a fascist anymore than they identify being a racist, a sexist, or heterosupremacist, what happens when you attack these latter things is that you are attacking a privilege which they have taken for granted- in fact, being asked to actually consider what the world would be like if it was equal in fact, instead of equal because 70/30 sounds fair and you should be grateful you’re even getting that much.

It is even more telling that these rational discussions do take place, about parallel media issues that tells you even more where people are coming from when they get irrational. That is, I don’t have to call you a racist, I just have to watch you show up to defend one for you to tell me, what you’re about.

Of course, it’s not like any of this is news to anyone. Except maybe folks who don’t know how to listen anyway…

Monte Cook, D&D, and representation

Don’t listen to me, let the professionals tell you:

It’s not only incorrect to assume that the audience is all white males, but it just makes the issue worse when the artwork only fixates on white males. It’s a self-fulfilling prophesy, in other words.

Addendum:

James Jacobs at Paizo:

Keeping a balance between genders and ethnicities in our characters has actually been a goal for us from the start. In fact, making sure that three of the first four iconics were women was a very conscious decision on my part to turn the standard “Three guys and a gal” makeup of most classic groups on its ear. And including various ethnicities was also a goal from the start as well; even in the adventures themselves we try to mix it up as often as possible so that not every NPC is a white guy. The world we live in isn’t so bland and boring, after all, so why should the worlds we create be bland and boring?

Debunking White Fantasy

So watching white gamerdom go through it’s usual cycle of “Why aren’t there more POC gamers/Maybe the imagery is problematic/Oh no everything is just fine/No U!” is tiring.

So what’s up with white fantasy? At the heart of it is the white normative- around which the whole universe must revolve.

In fantasy, you can find societies that have room for dragon people, demon guys, 20 kinds of elves, etc, which function in this incredibly cosmopolitan fashion- yet ironically and most sadly, there’s no actual significant space for characters of color.

Well, why is that? All these weird species either boil down to alien non-human species or white people that look a little different and act funny. In other words, neither type threatens to dislodge the white normative. (Remember, human is synonymous with white!).

When and where we do see characters of color, they’re carefully shown with heavy stereotypical markers- asian people dress and act like this, african people dress and act like this, etc., because in that way, they’re not complex and full humans and threatening to the fantasy itself.

What is that fantasy? Well, the nature of modern fantasy is simplification- easy to understand roles, easy to understand problems that are almost always solved by either trying harder or having faith in your own badassery/love/whatever. People of color represent something difficult and complex- a real world issue unresolved (and fundamentally unresolvable as long as one wears the blinders of the white normative/white privilege/white supremacy at it’s heart).

Sci-fi suffers some of the same things, though sci-fi also has a strong tradition of accepting it’s role as a critique and mirror of the times, which is why you generally see more progressive break-outs of stories and imagery than fantasy.

And really, that’s the part where we reach the point of frustration and having to walk away from the foolishness.

It’s not enough that the media has issues, it’s when you watch someone who spent 2 years learning a fictional language, analyzing the theology of Tolkien, and who tries to compare the stories of their favorite fantasy with Babylonian Creation Myth, who YET cannot connect the dots between media issues which have pervaded Western media much, much wider than simply fantasy… that’s when you fucking lose it.

You know the ability to see is there, the intelligence, and even the geeky OCD to look at it hard and take it seriously, and yet… basically what the person is saying is that their fantasy white privilege is more important than you as a fellow human being. (A friend once pointed out that in these conversations, that concern doesn’t hit because they’re not considering you as human to begin with, so deep is the white normative).

And so, any attempts to have this discussion without a firm foundation in looking at fantasy as part of a larger media concern, will always fall back to the cycle of stupid above. Any concerns will be washed away either in straight up trolling or having to “convince” every comer to a random thread or discussion, at the end of which, there can be no victory.

After having gotten into many of these “discussions”, I’ve come to the conclusion that within white fandom, they don’t actually exist to discuss the issue at hand, or seek changes- they exist to provide the appearance of concern, the appearance of progressive thought, while letting things stay the same.

You can observe this for yourself because most end in simple flame-outs, a few white folks attempt misguided missionary efforts to bring in more people of color (mostly by making a story or game about some POC culture), which almost always involves NOT talking to said people of color directly, and a few others give support without actually doing anything.

For this reason, we kind of have to look at it the same way when McDonald’s decides to celebrate Black History Month- it’s a sham with no redeeming value.

At the end of the day, we can either keep waiting for these fictions to gain truth, or take our truth and build our own fictions. I already know which choice seems more sane to me.

Pt. 2- Debunking White Fandom

Amazingly, people prove my point as they protest it. Anonymous commenting? Racist slurs? “No U!” logic? Wow, what was I thinking when I said fandom was hostile?

For the less crazy, it’s tempting to try to even dialogue, but I realize this: Their words are already everywhere. Why should I give racist bullshit more space on my blog? We already know they’re crazy. And the crazy? They’re not going to learn.

So hey, thanks for the support. Let’s keep building this thing without these fools. Fantasy, fandom, roleplaying, sci-fi, geekdom, comic books, anime, whatever- all of this is not theirs to have. We’re taking everything back, including our imagination.

Part the 3

You could also ask a professional in the hobby.

Why I don’t play stuff like Puerto Rico

There are things which, lacking guns, swords, axes and the usual implements of war, which still are about violence.

I like resource-y games. It’s just, I can’t look at them absent context of history. Or, you know, when the cover of the boardgame includes a “trader” and some half dressed “native” girl as if it were simply an innocent, equal exchange.

Wiscon on Shoujo

Oyceter recaps the Wiscon panel on Shoujo bodies and interpretation.

Though I rarely dip into shoujo, I think the recap covers a lot of good stuff in regards to manga, comics, and gender. Funny enough, while US comics have bemoaned their inability to capture a large portion of female readers (Though sure enough, they’re there, despite the misogyny, despite the cleave/thigh/midriff requirement to have superpowers, despite women in refrigerators), Japan has been seriously doing it. The fact you have entire teams of women who are working in the industry probably helps as well…