it’s just very inch resting to me how any mention of improving ao3 for users of color is immediately treated like white gay 9/11, and how that ties in with fandom’s increasingly conservative culture-
Because it is absolutely insane that people were this scared by a relatively innocuous candidate statement from someone who probably isn’t even going to be elected- it’s currently #1 on tumblr and was trending on Twitter, and the majority of the discourse I have seen is about how this is the beginning of ao3’s downfall, how we have to prepare for another strikethrough now, etc.
I’ve talked on Twitter a lot about how fandom is becoming increasingly more conservative, and I still think it is. notably, the fear and immediate backlash against the idea of even hypothetical improvement, and the constant assumption that anyone who disagrees with you is personally out to take away your freedom, and how that results in an echo chamber that is intolerant to change- but i think we also need to look at how liberalism manifests in fandom and the way people talk about ao3, esp in how white fans will condescend and manipulate poc with the same arguments they regularly use for justifying maintaining structural inequality:
-the system isn’t perfect, but any change could potentially threaten the status quo, so shouldn’t be attempted at all
-the people in charge of the system are doing their best, and improvement is eventually going to come (despite evidence to the contrary), so any criticism is unwarranted
-if you want to change the system, you have to do it the polite way, by enacting change from the inside (but who actually gets the opportunity to advocate for those changes?)
idk. I think I find this frustrating because I regularly see these takes from ppl who would otherwise identify as liberal/leftist. it goes to show how poc will always be treated as secondary in fandom- our content will be enjoyed, but only as long as we support the white status quo. White fans will stand by us, but only when it suits their own agenda.
*Also addendum that the sinophobic takes I’ve seen result from this are ridiculous and are more proof than ever that chinese fans were only ever seen as a prop to shake around in ao3 debates rather than ppl fandom actually care about