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Watching people react to this tweet like BIPOC fen haven't been warning about hate in fandom communities (and specifically in communities for popular YA properties) for years reminds me how far into two Americas we are at every turn. https://twitter.com/Karnythia/status/1341744474838495232
I know YA likes to think it's only being consumed by young women. It's not. And I have to love the "video games and Youtube are the real problem" response. No one said they weren't a problem too, but hi, a lot of their content that gets kids in the door? BASED ON POPULAR YA
Hate has been recruiting in fandom for decades. It's been bolstered in YA by the peculiar refusal to address what actually happens to young BIPOC fen at the hands of their white counterparts in multiple fandoms. YA has a racism outbreak on the timeline every 3 weeks so...
I don't know why people are pretending that Rowling (arguably the biggest writer of YA in recent history) hasn't had her bigotry on full parade for ages. But here's an article that came out yesterday. https://www.thecut.com/article/who-did-j-k-rowling-become.html
Do we need to talk about Twilight again? https://www.indiewire.com/2018/10/catherine-hardwicke-twilight-diverse-cast-stephenie-meyer-refused-1202009330/
Or some of the Hunger Games fandom being upset Rue was Black? Remember that? https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/some-hunger-games-fans-upset-character-rue-black-flna560267
If we can grasp that hate groups recruit via online communities for video games and other popular media, why on Earth are we pretending YA is exempt? Because you can go look at the chats any time and find the racism, transphobia, homophobia in everything from fanfic to cosplay
BIPOC fen in YA all have a story about that time in fandom where they were harassed or bullied or outright got death threats. Do you think the people that do those things cease to exist when the computer goes off? Or...what? They vote, they march, they wear the shirts to do harm
Like I hate to break it to y'all, but those kids who got Dark Mark tattoos or whatever? They grew up. Some regretted it, but a lot leaned right into hate as an identity. We could you know...talk about that any time now. Your kids do.
