Here I stand; I can do no other.

[starlady]

Yes, having the right to speak is important, but if your "right" is predicated on others' lacking it then it is an instrument of oppression, and not worth protecting. I could never, ever hope to craft a reply to this post that is as eloquent and powerful as what ssj10 wrote in this post asking people to boycott Avatar: The Last Airbender, and not perpetuating the erasure and silencing of which the movie is only the latest example is the point; so go read that post, and let what Kizu wrote get my voice instead, in regards to A:TLA and in regards to the other:

If you think that stories are not important, if you think a movie that just removed real world people from the landscape of a source material that respected and loved their 5000 years of culture and history is no big deal, if you've never known what it means to be erased from your own world and told to be thankful for it, I want you to do something for me.

Stop thinking. Stop feeling. Put down your books, put down your pens, forget your stories. Close your eyes and plug your ears. Forget what your story sounds like. You have no myths. You have no history. Stop breathing with your heart and living in your head. Your dreams are worthless, because they are not real. They are not tangible. You can't sell them. They are worthless. Go outside and consume, consume, consume. But never question. Never speak. Never dare to feel that you've been malnourished or mistreated. Never, ever admit that you have been poisoned. Be satisfied; you are well fed.

(H/t to inkstone, wistfuljane, and many others on my reading list.)

Comments

[marshtide]

*twitch* today the internet will make me annoyed about history! Argh. That first post. Their little theoretical fic example. Because it's so so so hard to work women and black people into European history as anything other than slaves and other forms of plaything. They either didn't exist or they didn't have any agency at all! Of course.

Damn it, people. History: it's not as white & male as you think.

[starlady]

Yeah, pretty much. WTF.

I don't even know, why would anyone ever take all that crap at face value? It's always more complicated.

[dotintheshark.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for drawing attention to this. I didn't know the original series, so I wouldn't even have recognized that there was something wrong, even with a white actor playing the part of the Asian (something I should think about as well).

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Ah, the original series is pretty awesome. What Paramount and M. Night Shyamalan have done is the exact opposite.

You're welcome. That post by ssj10 has some great links in it, too.