Tag: representation matters

portraitoftheoddity:

starkwayne:

okay wendy stans i have a question. How does it feel stanning the erasure of Romani and Jewish Representation in Marvel?

@starkwayne​, I will never tell you that your anger at a removal of a character’s heritage is invalid or baseless; but I will invite you to consider where you are directing that anger, and whether you are venting it at an appropriate target.

Fans did not decide to leave out Wanda’s heritage in her screen adaptation. The studio – its screenwriters, its directors, its executives – did.

Now, I get that it’s easy to lash out at fellow fans. Punching laterally on a platform where you are heard and get responses (even if they aren’t always the responses you hope for) gives you a lot more power than railing at institutions and corporations with actual control. Blaming fans and getting them to feel crappy at least makes you feel like someone is being punished for the thing you’re upset about, since there’s no way any of the rich guys in charge at Marvel Studios or Disney are listening to any of us.

But you’re lashing out at people who are not actually responsible for what you’re angry about. Heck, a lot of them are also upset about the same thing – they’ve just chosen to respond to it differently. You may decide you just don’t want to consume media that has MCU Wanda, and that’s perfectly fine. You don’t have to like her, you don’t have to read fic about her, and you certainly don’t have to spend time in the pro-Wanda tag. I think I saw you mention elsewhere in a conversaiton with @essayofthoughts that you like Comics!Wanda, and I 100% get that it’s frustrating when an adaptation or version of a character you like isn’t specifically tagged for to differentiate from the version you don’t like (I can’t count the times I’ve flinched at the sight of HYDRA!Cap in the Steve Rogers comics tags), but the best way to deal with that is selective tag and user blocking, and sometimes taking a step back from tumblr for while until you can deal with seeing the content you don’t like without feeling the need to respond. 

I won’t criticize you for your frustration or for your preferences; everyone is entitled to those. But what I will criticize is your decision to police and condemn everyone else’s interactions with the character that differs from yours.

Some people enjoy MCU Wanda because they feel represented by her in different ways than the comics. The comics representation still exists; now the MCU representation does too, covering a different demographic (refugees, eastern european displaced persons, trauma survivors, etc). Some people like Wanda for characteristics that are not explicitly tied to her origins (such as being a strong woman who has endured a hell of a lot while still retaining her compassion and exhibiting profound courage) and feel that the parts of Wanda they loved in the comics weren’t defined by her ethnic heritage.  A lot of people are upset, just like you, about the failure of the MCU to incorporate and represent Wanda’s jewish and roma heritage – but you can be critical of aspects of a piece of media or a character or a story while still enjoying its merits. 

And a lot of fans have also responded by compensating for that erasure in their fanworks, deliberately writing/drawing/roleplaying MCU Wanda with her comic book background. Personally, I love both comics and MCU Wanda, and where I find the removal of her heritage to be frustrating and problematic and I really wish the MCU had incorporated it, my response hasn’t been to hate the character, but to embrace the aspects of her that I love and then draw her as explicitly jewish. 

I will also point out that I happen to know a number of MCU Wanda Maximoff fans who are jewish themselves. Before you attack these fans, it’s worth asking yourself; what is your prioritization between the accurate adaptation of a fictional jewish character, and the wellbeing of actual flesh and blood jewish people? What is your prioritization between condemning an imperfect depiction of a female character, and attacking femme-identified people for enjoying one of the painfully few powerful female superheroes we’ve managed to get on the big screen? I’m not saying there’s always a cut and clear answer, because representation for a larger whole is important, but it’s worth considering your impact and how much good vs. how much harm your actions specifically do with your platform and your reach. Are you genuinely working toward fixing a problem? Or are you just making people feel bad on the internet for kicks and some nebulous sense of superiority?

If you want to increase Jewish/Roma representation, I would recommend starting a letter campaign or petition to Marvel or other studios to do better moving forward. Hell, if you do, send me the link – I’d be happy to sign and signal boost!!! But tagging hate in a place where people who don’t have a lot of social power go to share their enjoyment of a strong, compelling female character isn’t activism. 

It’s just kinda being a jerk. 

And I don’t know you, but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, and I’d like to believe that you’re better than that.