(no subject)

[serene]

As is frequently (REALLY frequently) the case, firecat has said something far more articulately and concisely than I feel currently able to say it. She's also kind enough to let me just gank her words to speak for me:

I really wish people who get defensive about hearing that there is racism/ablism in some entertainment product they enjoyed would figure out that if someone points out the racism/ablism, it doesn't automatically mean "and if you enjoyed the movie/book, and/or didn't notice the racism/ablism, you're a horrible bad person."

I do look for racism/ablism in movies, because it helps me become more aware of racism/ablism in me and the rest of my life, and I think being aware of it is a good thing.

I'm not sure how the race of an actor can be a metaphor, deliberate or not. But metaphors can certainly be racist.

I tend not to enter into discussions about works I haven't seen or read (unless invited), but I certainly enter into metadiscussions about the discussions.

In this case, although I haven't seen the movie, I have seen the preview, and that is racist/ablist enough. I don't have to see the whole movie to know that's part of what's going on.

And the preview told me the whole plot of the movie because I've seen so many other "what these people need is a honky named Marty Stu" movies and "a disabled person isn't a real person until they get a functioning body" movies, and those genres exist because of the racism/ablism in my society.

Comments

[onceamy]

I'd add in the point that:
If my friends/social network are calling something racist and ablist, I'm very likely going to listen to them, and not you.

(The above are the same reasons I refuse to watch Glee.)

[serene]

Very good point, though it's true that the people disagreeing with me in this case are (peripherally, anyway) part of my social network, and as the thread has developed, some of them are friends. I guess for me, I could replace "my friends/social network" with "people who I find to be generally reliably in agreement with me on matters of privilege".