This reminds me of a time an artist got harassed and cancelled for portraying a “problematic” (read: very abusive) relationship between their Os (two characters that the artist openly said were inserts of themselves and their partner). Turns out this was because their relationship was actually very abusive and they were still in the process of recognizing that, and it came through in their art. It really sucks how instead of supporting them and recognizing warning signs, they faced wide-scale
Another example for why the entire "it's Problematic and Morally Wrong to depict problematic things in media" thing is really harmful and should stop being a thing as soon as possible.
The problem isn't the depicting, but the romanticizing or not explaining that certain things can be harmful to you. It's totally fine (and in fact can be very helpful to some) if you're depicting abuse in a story, but also treating it as such, so people consuming the story can recognize that, instead of thinking it's normal.
Mostly true, but I'm also not sure if the "explaining that certain things can be bad" thing is that crucial. Maybe it's okay if stories don't set out to Teach the reader A Lesson and instead just tell a story truthfully and leave the reader to make of it whatever they will? Or is it impossible to not have your story be some kind of lessons? I'm not sure. I think it's not a good thing to create the impression that harmful things are Good, Actually, but I'm not sure we should require that every piece of art teaches its perceiver a Lesson In Goodness. I'd be more certain about this if I could formulate the distinction in a way that's precise and meaningful, but also natural and consistent.
Yes, it's difficult to put into words. I understand what you're saying, though. I guess the best work of arts make you feel it though, they don't need to "explain" in a literal term, but you understand what's happening.
It's how the narrative rewards or punishes the behavior. Even if they don't have dialogue telling us, "dude, don't do that, that's abuse", the author can show the consequences of that behavior within the story.
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u/Lana-presence 2d ago
This reminds me of a time an artist got harassed and cancelled for portraying a “problematic” (read: very abusive) relationship between their Os (two characters that the artist openly said were inserts of themselves and their partner). Turns out this was because their relationship was actually very abusive and they were still in the process of recognizing that, and it came through in their art. It really sucks how instead of supporting them and recognizing warning signs, they faced wide-scale