Do you want to amplify the story, or do you want to own it? Is it about lifting up marginalized voices, or is it about how noble you are?

Since I’ve been reminded of the thing, let’s talk about representation and fandom cruelty.

[cw threats] Back in the day, when I was a wee fan fool, I really got into Welcome to Night Vale. It was the best thing I had ever heard. At that point, it was the only fiction podcast I listened to on each episode’s premiere date.

📌—So I want to (gently) talk about how hard but important it is for people to signal boost marginalized creators & strengthen their connections, & why it may be potentially unfair to expect that signal boosting solely from other, established marginalized voices. Thread… I can’t say this is in reply to a thing, because even though it is, it isn’t a callout of the person/event/project which catalysed this thought in my mind. It’s just an observation, triggered by observing it here. I won’t mention what that trigger is.

Today is a good day for men to have conversations about how patriarchy disenfranchises them. How it punishes men for being emotional, laughs at men for being victims, lashes out at queer men, traps men of colour. How it strips men of hope, options, expression. It’s a good day to talk about male role models whose gifts aren’t just showing men how to be confident or brave, but how to be emotional, how to be open, how to reject hostility & stoicism in favor of availability & self-awareness.

I'm not even trying to be disparaging, because there are some pretty decent names on that list,
but every time a #30Under30-type thing happens, I wonder if people are even thinking about all the people being subtly discouraged from actually being their best selves. I say this as a nothing-under-30 who will never make such a list, & tries hard not to want to.

I wish the people who compiled such lists found less inadvertently high-stakes ways to phrase the successes of others.