Thursday, April 24, 2014

Harassment and Culture

The recent harassment cases of Janelle Asselin and Larry Correia bring to light that irrational hatred and attempts to suppress other viewpoints through intimidation and threats are not strictly a male problem or a fandom problem. It's a culture problem. It's about what we are willing to treat as "acceptable behavior" by our peers.

When someone accuses an author or critic of not being "real," is that acceptable to you? When someone reacts to an article or a book by smearing the writer, is that acceptable to you? When someone threatens another with violence and rape, is that acceptable to you?

These behaviors stem from the same goal. Those who attack Asselin and Correia are not interested in their ideas or creations; they want only to shut them down, to drive them out, to make life so unbearably horrible for them that they will shut up. Because the people who do this are so insecure in their own worldview, so afraid of critical thinking, that the only way they can feel "safe" is to stifle anything that might make them reassess their perspective.

To me, that behavior is not acceptable from anyone. I may not agree with or even like the art that's been made, but I will not forgive those who think that they get to decide who can and cannot participate as creators.

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