Why has Social Justice and Feminism become such Pervasive Topics?

I always have wondered how amazing would be a fantasy world set after colonization. Like, in early 1600. With several factions fighting and cities filled with the descendants of multiple groups which react differently to their conquest.

Beautiful if done right.

7th Sea is actually that.

We also have a page on that tabletop RPG: 7th Sea.

I actually am playing a game of it now. I'm playing a anti-slavery pirate raiding the Ataban Trading Company (West India Company).

We also killed Cthulhu.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Aug 28th 2018 at 2:28:28 AM

I forgot what other thread I mentioned it in, but one thing I really like about Chronicles of Darkness is how the developers make it clear on their forums that they're seeking to make the games as inclusive as possible. For one thing, they have no problems including LGBTQ+ characters in their write-ups, and while some of the write-ups are brief, the way such relationships are treated as normal is really refreshing to see.

One of my favorite passages in the Second Edition of Changeling: The Lost is an example of a Fae-Touched, a person who had someone close to them kidnapped by the Fair Folk, and their bond to that person is so strong they find themselves drawn to Fairyland to find the person who got kidnapped:

Changeling: The Dreaming really helped change my opinion on homosexuality, bisexuality, and sexual freedom in general.

It was the dark and ignorant times of my teen years.

Huh. I never thought that just one work could change someone's opinion on a subject like homosexuality (hatred which is usually impinged by parents since early childhood). I might have been underestimating the impact that diversity on popular culture had on changing public opinions, which has shifted leftward very fast in the past years.

I never understood homophobia even as a kid to be honest.

Well I had an actual miracle happen to me to change my views but while it wasn't the only influence, it was an influence. Sadly, I knew a fundamentalist friend of mine (I was one as well) who went the other way and burned his copies of the books.

It was very humanizing, though, dealing with these characters who you loved and who were representatives of subcultures you were taught to be against. White Wolf was a definite positive influence on my life overall, though.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Aug 29th 2018 at 4:19:12 AM

To the question raised by the OP, historically marginalized groups of people are increasingly asserting themselves, and that's seen as threatening to traditionally dominant sectors of society.

While there have been some gains in the United States for people of color, women, and atypical sexual and gender orientations, the current political moment jeopardizes all of those things, which makes it all the more important that people do not relent.

I do admit however to sometimes being bothered by the diversity lexicon (buzzwords), if only because some lingering suspicion and cynicism on my part that associates it with white bourgeois looking at people of color as an accessory to signal to their peers how "enlightened" they are rather than as an equal. That's definitely the impression I've gotten being in certain environments as the token non-white individual, but I've also never been particularly good at reading people.

Edited by CaptainCapsase on Aug 29th 2018 at 10:42:04 AM

Manly because eventually diversity talk finally got in mass about fiction and for many how to include diversity is a point to any fiction because it means it took is way out to actually include diferent background of life into is fiction.

Also is a matter of timing: as social media become huge taking about it also come into play, so eventually people talk about what fiction should reflect about.

Granted, there is some issues about a times a lot of social justice advocate can come as sort of moral guardians in many ways in that it came set a sort of quotas of how diverse a story should be which can be a annoying a times.

Except there's no actual set quota on how diverse a story is. It's more like people looking at a story where just about every major character is white and/or heterosexual and going "...ehhh..."

It can be kind of hard to rewatch old shows you used to like back in the day, such as Friends.

Edited by M84 on Aug 30th 2018 at 1:24:14 AM

The big companies are realizing that inclusionism has positive effects on their bottom line (unless their marketing niche is either edgelording, as with the current White Wolf - not Onyx Path, mind - brass, or pandering to haters), and I think that's driving a lot of it in media: We're not seeing as many asshole Standards and Practices suits who are afraid of parents' groups keeping inclusionism out of the media (for example, compare Steven Universe to The Legend of Korra).

Media helps to shape worldviews. It can, as shown, have a profound impact on the way kids see the world around them. Like, watching a violent cartoon isn't going to make kids go out and do violence. But kids do absorb the themes and messages, even unintentional ones, that are present in the show.

Entertainment media is culture.

If every message a child absorbs from their culture is that women are shrieking harpies that just want your money, that child will grow up thinking that women are shrieking harpies that just want your money. Children are constantly learning from what they see, hear, and experience and forming their identities, opinions, and ideologies from those lessons. The media that they consume will shape and guide them.

In this modern day and age where our favorite brands are inescapable and everyone has a portable computer in their pocket, media probably has just as much if not more influence over a child's development as parents do.

That's why it is so important to take care with the messages and ideas that one's story is putting out, especially if it's meant for children. I cannot tell you how many times I've heard the harmful messages of a work defended as, "It's just a kid's show." As if media being aimed at kids somehow makes its messages less important.

A diverse cast can help to normalize the idea that being different is okay in the mind of someone who might not know a lot of people outside their immediate racial demographic. Pro-LGBT themes can push back against homophobic propaganda that has saturated many countries for centuries.

And it's also why endorsing colonialism and the White Man's Burden is at-best careless and at-worst actively contributing to the problem. Grumble grumble.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Aug 30th 2018 at 7:21:08 AM

You'd think that if it was "just" a kid's show, people wouldn't be whining about the inclusion of LGBT characters or other ridiculous bullshit like "the new She-Ra isn't hot enough for me."

That's part of the weird double-think that goes into defending the harmful status quo. It's on the same page as

"I don't see what the big deal about representation is. I, a heterosexual white male, don't care what race or gender or orientation my protagonist is. I can get into any kind of protagonist. Representative demographics don't really matter! That's why I just spent the last six pages arguing against the idea of making Lara Croft black. Because I don't care about the subject one way or the other!"

Apathy is often used as a shroud for people who either don't want to voice their true opinions aloud, or just don't want to think about it at all.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Aug 30th 2018 at 7:30:09 AM

There's a new She-Ra?

It can be hard rewatching shows you used to love years later and noticing the racial biases, the homophobic and transphobic "jokes", the gender stereotypes, the lack of representation...

Even if it was Fair for Its Day it can still be cringeworthy.

Bill and Ted used to be a favorite but its homophobic language causes me to cringe now.

I dunno if that's better or worse than enjoying something that was created only a few years ago only to still come to find multiple transphobic non-jokes, to the point where you just lose any will to continue and have to drop it.

to be honest though the fic wasn't that great anyway, but still, urrrrrrrrgh

Edited by PhysicalStamina on Aug 30th 2018 at 9:49:30 AM

Okay I literally just saw this seconds after reading Tobias and M84's posts. It's like destiny:

https://io9.gizmodo.com/marvel-editor-in-chief-c-b-cebulski-wants-to-focus-on-1828715312

Just a reminder that this was the guy who was revealed to have been using a false identity as a Japanese man so he could publish racist stories about Japanese characters.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/marvels-new-editor-in-chief-just-admitted-that-he-used-1820809573

Edited by windleopard on Aug 30th 2018 at 11:05:14 AM

I wonder if that's because their huge anti-Trump screed in SECRET EMPIRE got interpreted as pro-fascism by the very people they were writing it for.

Its telling that the ones who claim not to care about politics tend to nevertheless have right-aligned views

Apathy tends to be a shibboleth for reaction these days, just like saying "both sides are bad" contrary to evidence

Edited by CrimsonZephyr on Aug 30th 2018 at 2:37:13 PM