|
Matt Moylan and Me |
|
Posted Mar 18, 2014 - 10:27:55
|
|
So yesterday
I reblogged David Willis's response to a "Lil Formers" comic on Tumblr. The comic depicts two characters (Windblade and Drift) talking about how "Fanfictiony" they are. For those outside of the fandom world, most people consider stereotypical original fanfiction characters to be overpowered, self inserts -- so needless to say, it's a criticism. In the comic, Windblade is agreed to be
more fanfictiony than Drift in part
because she is a woman. David Willis called this out -- and in my small (and insignificant) part I referred to Mr. Willis as a marvelous human being, and went about my day.
Frankly, I didn't think twice about it.
Until I received a message from Matt Moylan, artist of Lil Formers on Twitter.
First thing in the morning.
I posted this to Tumblr earlier, but here are screenshots of most of our Twitter interaction.
I may not have been the most polite person in the world, but hey - I had just woken up and hadn't asked to be contacted in the first place.
Moylan backpedals in a couple of places here which are telling -- first off he claims that something being "fanfictiony" isn't a bad thing. But... what exactly else is it supposed to mean? Not all fanfiction is bad -- but good fanfic doesn't feel any different than any other literature. The only reason people describe things as "fanfiction-esque" or "fanfictiony" is because of the negative connotation derived from the piles of bad fanfic that
do exist.
And if it's not a criticism, where exactly is the joke? Moylan is now in a position where he has to admit the (albeit minor) sexism in the comic or that he literally made a comic with no punchline.
Moylan also says some ridiculous stuff like how sexism is about intent... which is just insane. Whether a
person is sexist is about intent, but an action or comment can be sexist all on its own. People do unintentionally sexist things all the time - that's literally how institutionalized and societal sexism
works.
In the end, Matt Moylan is just getting defensive because he's unwilling to look at how his own behavior might be sexist -- because it doesn't fit into his personal narrative or identity.
But dude - you did a thing. It's okay, but you need to
learn from these things and not freak out...
...and send angry messages to random people on Twitter.
P.S.
Read my comic. Or the
other one.
- Traegorn
