seananmcguire:

chicleeblair:

seananmcguire:

I think so much depends on a) when you were first exposed to a thing, b) how regularly you have been exposed to it after that first time, and c) whether you’re trying to pretend the thing has no issues.

I mean, you’re really asking two different things here.  “Do you think you can enjoy something that was created by a terrible person?”  Absolutely.  For one thing, we don’t all have a complete Rolodex of Every Bad Thing Anyone Has Ever Done.  I have read and watched and loved and treasured things made by people who I later found out were awful; their awfulness clearly did not render the thing completely unenjoyable to the ignorant.

“Can you continue to enjoy something that was created by a terrible person?”  Yes, although that takes a little more awareness, I think, of what’s going on, and it’s going to be very, very personal, and very, very situational.  Joss Whedon cheated on his wife and abused his power over young actresses and was kind of a terrible person.  But Buffy was still incredibly important to me as a teen, and if it comes on the TV, I’ll get through about ten minutes of most* episodes before I forget what I know and only remember what I feel, and what I feel is nostalgia and joy and yes, enjoyment.  I don’t get to erase what he did.  I will think long and hard before I do things that put more money in his personal pockets.  But I can still enjoy some of his work.

(*Most: the episodes that clearly show certain tendencies were hard to watch before I realized how personal they were for him.  I can’t deal anymore.  I just can’t.)

“Can you enjoy something that has a lot of problematic elements?”  Absolutely.  Part of this is really going to be when you were first exposed.  I know a lot of the things I read, watched, and loved as a kid are super-problematic by today’s standards, and I’m careful to review them before I recommend them to other people, but my love doesn’t necessarily die because I learn more.  Obviously, this is subjective: Revenge of the Nerds was absolutely tainted for me by the rapey aspects of the carnival, which went completely over my head as a child, while I can still handle Real Genius despite some of the casual sexism.  How problematic is too problematic is completely individual.

“Are you allowed to enjoy something that has problematic elements?”  Everything has problematic elements.  Everything.  If we can’t see them yet, we’ll see them in ten years, and maybe we’ll be horrified, but it will also be a sign that the world is getting better.  Are people going to interrogate your enjoyment of certain things?  Yeah.  There’s a reason my friends who still love Ender’s Game mostly preface that love with “I know OSC is a bigot, but this book was so important to me when I was eleven,” or something of the sort.  There’s stuff I don’t discuss enjoying because I don’t want to have the conversation.  But unless it’s hurting other people, of course you’re allowed to enjoy it.  You get to enjoy anything you want.

Sigh. Gotta love how OS is a Bigoted Cad comes up every time….

I have friends who adore him as a person.  I have friends to whom he was a mentor and a huge cheerleader when they were getting into the business.

I have a baby sister who is gay.  I have a baby sister who is, like me, more nebulously queer–Goth Betty Page and I have spent our entire lives trying to figure our shit out–but Young James Dean is gay, period.  She is a lesbian.  She loves women.  She is also, out of the three of us, the most invested in the idea of the traditional family.  She was the first (and so far, only) of us to get married, to a woman.

Orson Scott Card put his own, personal money toward making same-sex marriage illegal in the state of California, where YJD lives.  He does not live in California.  He lives in a country where States Rights are a thing, and where the people of California should be allowed to make their own choices about things.  But he decided that no, the morality of Utah mattered more than the preferences of California, and put his own, personal money toward the cause of destroying my baby sister’s marriage.

So yeah.  OSC is a bigot.  And he has, through his direct financial choices, hurt a lot of people I care about.  For many members of the QUILTBAG community, whether they are, like YJD, absolutely gay, or are, like me and GBP, interested in being allowed to love who we love who we love without censure, supporting him either financially or otherwise is a very difficult thing to do.