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I know this has come up in some of my previous comics but . . .
*sigh*
Politics have always been part of your favorite stories. Almost every classic story has an underdog fighting oppression, a person seeking justice within an unfair system, a fight for rights or freedom, or at least some acknowledgment of differences in class. I’ve noticed a trend lately for people to say newer stories that intentionally include more diversity are somehow “ruining” what’s good about those stories by including historically and currently marginalized people. Interesting how that automatically makes them hostile to the possibility that it’s a good story (and more likely to blame the diversity for what they don’t like or subconsciously grade it harder because they feel these diversifications can only come at the sacrifice of quality). And interesting how they want to see characters fight the man if “the man” isn’t them.
For these folks to endlessly complain that relatability is so important and then also insist that a straight white man is broadly relatable is a shocking display of hypocrisy. They want the rest of us to continue relating to (and purchasing) entertainment that does not feature us at all (or features us in offensive ways), but if they’re asked to do so for the minority of new stories (whose numbers they will always exaggerate), they claim they are being targeted for exclusion. Well, if not being centered and coddled literally feels like an attack to them, how do they think we feel? With all the whining about “pandering to the woke agenda,” they sure do expect to be pandered to themselves, and think it’s okay for THEM to do it because they believe they’re the ones with buying power. Well, the fact that there has been more of a push for diversification sure does suggest the opposite is true, and you can’t both say your voice is the only one powerful enough to matter AND say the rest of us have the power to drown you out.