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At some point around the release of The Force Awakens, people decided to project all their social anxieties onto Kylo Ren and his fans. It's like they're uncomfortable talking about the issues directly but are content to lambast a fanbase, projecting these ills onto them as well
I don't know why but it seems that Kylo Ren has become the ultimate straw man for liberals to project their vehemence of social ills onto: to them, this character stands for white supremacy, rising fascism, racism, violent shootings, toxic masculinity, etc.
I get a mix of "If you like this character, you obviously support these things!" And "You only support this character because he's hot" wrapped in "this man is so ugly, you should support this non-white attractive costar instead."
First of all, pick a struggle
First of all, pick a struggle
Secondly, I feel like people think that hot takes about Greasy Man Bad are really improving the American political landscape because they can't actually control these issues, but they can berate fans of Bad Man because it's just low-stakes virtue signaling
None have them have taken the time to look at Kylo Ren fans and what they believe, but they assume these people either 1) are men who want to be him, or 2) are white women who aren't smart enough to see he is BAD. Like their anger at white women Trump voters is projected
There is a lot of ire from women towards the other women who like Kylo Ren because they hate everything they think he stands for and you are therefore a bad person, unfeminist, etc. It's such lazy Not Like Other Girlsing
I'd be damn curious what the data would look like for just Kylo fans, because you have a broad group, including infighting between the shippers, who are basically the Kyluxes, the Reylos, and the self-inserts. The Kylux fans support a queer ship so generally they are spared.
But the Reylos also get added concern trolling because not only do you like Fictional Bad Man, you want him to "get the girl"?!? Which is BAD!!! Bad Man doesn't get reward. Bad Man gets punished.
Punitive retribution against Kylo Ren and, by extension, his female fanbase seems to be the only justice a lot of people feel they can get so they just crank out these stale takes hand-wringing about fascism in the US and how Kylo is at fault and shippers are to blame.
It's a really easy bait-and-switch that speaks to a sort of powerlessness a lot of people feel, so the only way they reclaim the power is by shitting on stans and shippers in the name of activism, because the likes they get on these dry ass takes is the only justice they get.
It's easy to lump the stans together as a monolith of problematic straight white women, but there's something deeply troubling about the convenience of erasing the queer/non-binary/BIPOC fans and then lobbing accusations of racism and facist apologism at marginalized people
Like, I can take that shit. But holy fuck, in your Playmobil Activism please stop calling my queer/non-white friends fascists for liking a Star Wars character
I also wanted to note: it's been really riveting to watch people on the left ally with people on the right in shitting on Kylo/Reylo fans.
You are gonna shit on a group of fans for being racist/fascist/whatever, but you're going to align with actual racists to own the stans gtfo
You are gonna shit on a group of fans for being racist/fascist/whatever, but you're going to align with actual racists to own the stans gtfo
Most of the actual right think Kylo is too emotional to be actually badass, so they don't really like him or identify with him. You're not fighting them. You're not actually fighting the bad guys with your fandom activism; you're fighting people you've projected your beef onto.
