A Little Perspective

[eumelia]

Fandom is fun.
Really, all the writing I've done in my LJ about Buffy, Comic Books and etc, is a little bit of fun.

But let's put things into perspective, fandom is "unreality", it's a mirror, a mirror which, in my opinion is distorted to show a deeper truth into the way people are categorized and pigeonholed and depicted in Real Life.

The plight of the Statue of Mary Jane is not on par with Genital Mutilation in North Africa and the Middle East.

The Rage I feel about female characters in Comic Books and TV, is far less to what I feel about the fact that in Israel, women are still bound and anchored to their husbands when their divorce s denied and that one if four women is sexually assaulted at least once in her life and that one in seven men are sexually assaulted at least once in their lives as well.

The letters I wrote to Marvel and DC, are part of being active in fandom. I feel active as human being when I go to Pride Marches, demonstrating for the people in Darfur and marching to raise awareness about Domestic Violence which is the number one cause of death among women.

There is so much shit in the world and we must do something about it all, not just I've mentioned above, but beyond.
If the amount of women, people in general taking up arms in reaction to MJ did the same about the pervasion of Rape in our culture and in other media, not just in general, but every time someone, man or woman, child or middle aged, teenager or senior citizen, on television or in a movie was raped, and be outraged the shame and guilt would be placed on the perpetrator and not the victim, which is still happening, victim blaming is still an issue sexual assault survivors have to deal with.
If a fraction of the people who came to the Rally that called the Prime-Minister to resign, came to the demonstration for Darfur (which I attended both, they were the same week), we would have received a hell of a lot more news coverage rather than a mention in the papers and barely a glimpse on the evening news.

Basically, people, if you're paying attention, could you be outraged with me?

In addition, the genocide in Darfur must be stopped.

וכמו כן, צריך לעצור את רצח העם בדרפור.

Comments

[stateofwonder.livejournal.com]

I agree with you completely.

However, I do understand why people would attend a demonstration about a local political power, for example, over a genocide that is occurring on another continent. The former has a direct affect on their lives, while the latter is distant, something you read about in the newspapers, something that hardly seems real. There's also the racist aspect of 'oh those Africans are always killing each other, we shouldn't get involved' that came into play in Rwanda as well, and is part of why international intervention took part in places like the Balkans, but not in Africa until it was too late.

The issue in Darfur and other international problems are often too complex for people to understand in a sound bite, and when people don't understand things, they usually don't want to be involved.

And I can definitely understand feeling overwhelmed by all the horrors that are perpetrated daily in the world, and feeling so paralyzed and helpless to do anything that you do nothing at all. I don't condone it. But I understand it.

Then there are those who simply don't care, and those are the ones that make me despair for humanity.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

However, I do understand why people would attend a demonstration about a local political power, for example, over a genocide that is occurring on another continent.

I also understand, but I just wish people would see that all these things are connected to each other.
You know what I mean?

[stateofwonder.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I completely know what you mean. It's so hard to get people to see that.

[(Anonymous)]

But things like the MJ statue are connected as well. It is a representation of unhealthy attitudes towards women.
I think you have to fight all battles. Even the small ones. Also, a lot of the outrage on the net is from people who blog and talk about things comic related, so why shouldn't they talk about it? It is not a huge outrage on the national or international scale of things. Darfur is in the news...I doubt you would see an article on MJ on the BBC news website or in the New York Times. Apart from maaaaaybe in the entertainment sections?
Just because people are outraged about one thing doesn't automatically mean all their rage is taken by that one thing. It just happens to be that something solid and representational of a lot of bad attitudes is getting a lot of outrage right now, and that is hardly a bad thing!