Handing in my membership card
Aug. 29th, 2010 08:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ximenI did not like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. This isn't that big a deal to me. I love the comics, which I starting reading sometime in 2007. I gave the first volume to my brother as a Christmas present, because I liked them so much and wanted to share. I don't think they're perfect, but I think that the comics are well-written and funny, and the message about growing up and learning how to be an adult in your relationships is an important one that resonates a lot with me. It's a message that I did not find in the movie. The way the movie took the dance fight with Matthew Patel, the South Asian villain, and changed it into Patel dancing and Scott just punching him made me uncomfortable,1 as did the the change from defeating the ninja girl in a sword fight to defeating her by poking her knee and giving her a deadly orgasm 2. I also didn't like that the female characters had fewer lines and drastically reduced emotional ranges. I thought Michael Cera was incredibly annoying. The movie wasn't uniformly awful; I thought the casting was otherwise quite good, many of the jokes were funny, the video game nods from the comics were well-adapted to the movie, and it was pretty. Still, I spent the bulk of the movie being disappointed and bored. Which is fine. I don't insist my friends and I have the same taste in things. I have friends who like Ender's Game! 3 What's less fine are some of the reactions to criticisms of the movie.
Lately, I've been seeing something pop up on the internet and in comments made by friends and acquaintances, to the effect of, "If you didn't like the Scoot Pilgrim movie, it's because you're not a nerd." This is the sort of thing that bothers me, not so much because it's happening this one particular time, but because it's something that happens a lot. There are problems with being into geeky things and not being a straight white man. It's harder to find media that includes people who look like you and aren't horrible stereotypes, so there's already a barrier to entry there. But whatever, there are enough books, comics, anime, and video games that I can usually find something that, problematic as it may be, is enjoyable. What currently makes me angry is when people who are in my subculture try to revoke membership. Just because I don't like the Anointed Nerd Movie does not somehow mean that I don't like roleplaying games, video games, anime, or whatever. If someone doesn't like Firefly/Serenity because it uses Chinese aesthetics while not using Chinese actors, they shouldn't have to be told that they're not one of us 4. I have people imply (or state outright!) that people of color are never geeks, that women are never geeks, even that Muslims and Jews are never geeks (I'm not really sure how anyone managed that last one). I've been told that I wouldn't recognize a web comic, because I wasn't geeky enough (Ironically, I was wearing my Cat and Girl shirt that day). Meanwhile, people who are less reserved than I about expressing their anger at the problems5 they see in geeky media are told that they are manufacturing their outrage, that they don't understand because they aren't the target audience, because they aren't in the demographic, because they aren't one of us. One of them, I guess. Maybe this is true. I know I'm not going to bother defending the social justice cred of nerds anymore. Identifying as a nerd is beginning to be embarrassing, not because of what I like6, but because of the association with people who feel the need to attack anyone who dares suggest that their favorite fantasy novel might contain some After all, I'm not male, and I didn't like the Scott Pilgrim movie.
This is where, in many similar rants I've read before, the writer feels the need to add, "But it's also okay if you do like these problematic things." (There's a very nice essay entirely on that subject). But you know what? I'm not going to repeat that part. You like that you like. You can either grow up and acknowledge that some of what you like contains racism, sexism, homophobia, whatever, or you can keep being defensive and insecure about your hobbies. It's up to you. I'm not going to try and make you feel better. I can't give you permission and anyway, why should I? I'm clearly not one of you.
1 - "made me uncomfortable" being of course my guilty white liberal code for "I think this was kinda racist but am worried that using the term will lead to people getting angry with me."
2 - same as above, but replacing "racist" with "sexist" and "getting angry with me" with "making fun of me for being a humorless feminist."
3 - Or worse, the sequels!
4 - If you liked Firefly despite being unhappy about the fetishization of China and exclusion of Chinese people, then you're like me, though I never saw Serenity.
5 - see notes 1 and 2, with the addition of issues, like homophobia
6 - I'm a grad student, for pity's sake. When I admitted that I like tabletop RPGs, two of my classmates immediately expressing interest in forming a gaming group.
Lately, I've been seeing something pop up on the internet and in comments made by friends and acquaintances, to the effect of, "If you didn't like the Scoot Pilgrim movie, it's because you're not a nerd." This is the sort of thing that bothers me, not so much because it's happening this one particular time, but because it's something that happens a lot. There are problems with being into geeky things and not being a straight white man. It's harder to find media that includes people who look like you and aren't horrible stereotypes, so there's already a barrier to entry there. But whatever, there are enough books, comics, anime, and video games that I can usually find something that, problematic as it may be, is enjoyable. What currently makes me angry is when people who are in my subculture try to revoke membership. Just because I don't like the Anointed Nerd Movie does not somehow mean that I don't like roleplaying games, video games, anime, or whatever. If someone doesn't like Firefly/Serenity because it uses Chinese aesthetics while not using Chinese actors, they shouldn't have to be told that they're not one of us 4. I have people imply (or state outright!) that people of color are never geeks, that women are never geeks, even that Muslims and Jews are never geeks (I'm not really sure how anyone managed that last one). I've been told that I wouldn't recognize a web comic, because I wasn't geeky enough (Ironically, I was wearing my Cat and Girl shirt that day). Meanwhile, people who are less reserved than I about expressing their anger at the problems5 they see in geeky media are told that they are manufacturing their outrage, that they don't understand because they aren't the target audience, because they aren't in the demographic, because they aren't one of us. One of them, I guess. Maybe this is true. I know I'm not going to bother defending the social justice cred of nerds anymore. Identifying as a nerd is beginning to be embarrassing, not because of what I like6, but because of the association with people who feel the need to attack anyone who dares suggest that their favorite fantasy novel might contain some After all, I'm not male, and I didn't like the Scott Pilgrim movie.
This is where, in many similar rants I've read before, the writer feels the need to add, "But it's also okay if you do like these problematic things." (There's a very nice essay entirely on that subject). But you know what? I'm not going to repeat that part. You like that you like. You can either grow up and acknowledge that some of what you like contains racism, sexism, homophobia, whatever, or you can keep being defensive and insecure about your hobbies. It's up to you. I'm not going to try and make you feel better. I can't give you permission and anyway, why should I? I'm clearly not one of you.
1 - "made me uncomfortable" being of course my guilty white liberal code for "I think this was kinda racist but am worried that using the term will lead to people getting angry with me."
2 - same as above, but replacing "racist" with "sexist" and "getting angry with me" with "making fun of me for being a humorless feminist."
3 - Or worse, the sequels!
4 - If you liked Firefly despite being unhappy about the fetishization of China and exclusion of Chinese people, then you're like me, though I never saw Serenity.
5 - see notes 1 and 2, with the addition of issues, like homophobia
6 - I'm a grad student, for pity's sake. When I admitted that I like tabletop RPGs, two of my classmates immediately expressing interest in forming a gaming group.