It happens from time to time that a celebrity says something offensive towards a specific community. It can be intentional or accidental, but it always causes online controversy. They say something insensitive, or they debunk a popular,ย non-canon relationship. This isnโt the issue, as they almost always apologize. The issue is the articles, blog posts, and comments sections that come out of these situations.
These articles, blog posts, and comment sections are full of straight people with opinions. Iโve seen everything from, โIโm sure they didnโt mean it,โ to โget a grip, stop being a special snowflake.โ There are multiple problems with this.
People with privilege do not get to decide whether or not something is offensive to an oppressed community. When you try and police what offends people, you are oppressing them further.
People are people. We are full of emotions that include anger and sadness at offensive behaviour.
A recent example of this happening was in the โSupergirlโ internet fandom recently. One of the main actors, Jeremy Jordan, debunked a very popular, non-canon relationship, Lena and Kara, that is very important toย many fans. He sang about it and mocked the โship,โ while another actor, Melissa Benoist, proceeded to call him โbraveโ for what he had done.
Controversy abounded on the internet, many people called Jeremy out, while othersย defended what he had done. The majority of people defending his actions were straight, who proceeded toย tell the LGBT+ community that he โdidnโt mean it,โ โdidnโt know what it meant to fansโ and that โwe shouldnโt be offended, itโs not canon anyway.โ
People were policing the emotions of an oppressed community in favour of an actor they loved. Even after the actor took to Twitter to apologize and the people who were offended accepted his apology, the community who had originally supported him stood up to sayย that we never shouldโve been offended in the first place.
This is a minor example. However, there can be more extreme and severe examples in the media, wherever you turn.
Trying to decide whether or not an oppressed community is allowed to be offended about something is a very aggressive thing. It may not seem harmful to the average, privileged person, but next time you try and tell someone that they shouldnโt be offended, consider why they are offended in the first place.
Instead of silencing the voices of the oppressed, raise themย up and make sure they are heard . Their feelings are different from yours and you donโt get to decide if they get to be offended about something that targets a minority.
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