I wasn't planning on reading this because I knew it would be depressing. But I did and it was... I generally agree with the sentiment of this zine, aside from a couple parts of minority and fetish, but that's not the main point. It's still valuable insight into exactly how cowardly and complacent Itch.io staff is. Implicit bias affects people more than we know or want to admit so bringing attention to it helps in starting to overcome it. If only the people who run these sites, where others rely on them, would realize that.
Viewing post in CENSORSHIP AND BEING A MINORITY comments
Thank you for reading. I won't lie- I would prefer if you explained your disagreements about minority and fetish to see if you misunderstood or actually disagree with me ^^ Because it's something I feel strongly about as a Black person, not just as a 'minority'. It was specifically in relation to my race, but I brought it up in case other minorities felt similarly about this and to have non-Black people think about fetishes that don't affect them.
I think the relationship between the being a minority and fetish-work itself is complicated, but the reason I mentioned it is because on SNS there are often rallying cries behind posts with big lists of fetishes that are viewed as 'weird' that people should support, but it just ends up bothering me because 'raceplay' and adjacent fetishes are never mentioned despite it being such a popular fetish and something I have to actively watch out for when interacting with others online- because it is so common but just not acknowledged at all. As a cis girl, it affects me differently from black men too, but it is much more defined and visible for them to the point where it's mentioned in casual conversations now.
Entire countries depictions of black people are often majority fetish related or show the consequences of fetish work (ie Japan/Korea) and it affects how we are viewed and interacted with by others. In these large conversations, people love to pretend it doesn't exist or not discuss it which makes me very uncomfortable because we are often erased anyways, but at the same time, some of the fetishized depictions are very beautiful depictions, but they'll never be mainstream because the casual fetishization is what is in mainstream media and that stuff continues to result in us being viewed negatively. This I've seen happen with other minorities too, but the fetishization of us in particular is so mainstream and normalized that it the erasure isn't even questioned anymore.
Despite it being something no one talks about despite it's popularity, it's not affected by the Paypro stuff AT ALL which to me is significant, even if I left is as subtext in the zine itself. It's something a lot of people engage in, but because it's not queer, it's not being targeted which allows it to be left out of these convos.. You can't say words related to familial relations on a lot of Xvideo sites but you can say 'black slave' freely. The relationship queer people have with fetishization and Black people is different- hence I didn't go into it very much because it wasn't a Main point and this zine was focused on the disproportionate queer work being harmed that includes fetish and non-fetish work, but I mentioned it to bring this into the viewer's mind's eyes.
But I can also have my opinion changed or altered, but well, I can't gleam anything from your comment ^^ I'd like to hear what your disagree with so I can think about it because we have been erased in these conversations, and you are the first person to bring it up in this comment section and I've been curious about how people would respond to it for a while!
I'll try to explain then, cause I think there is a lot to it, but I am bad with words ^^" I'm also a Black cis woman, and on the asexual spectrum (aego to be exact). And I feel like I don't view fetishization in the same way most other people might. A lot of times when the word is used it seems to also imply "dehumanizing", which I don't think is true, especially when it comes to fictional content. If anything sometimes I can find comfort in the idea of a specific trait being someone's fetish; like a fetish for disability, portraying neurodivergence as something attractive and desirable, that can be treated lovingly. And admittedly I'm also weird when it comes to who I "relate" to or how much I don't insert myself into fiction.
I also believe fiction and reality have a more complex relationship than one affecting the other in a direct 1:1 correlation. And some cultures tend to interact with and separate fiction from reality in different ways (North American vs East Asian). The way I lean is that depictios in fiction aren't going to change people's perception of real life that easily, and that it's society's pre existing notions that affect mainstream media more than the other way around. And it's even more complex and individual for smaller niche work like fan fiction...
But I do think it's unfortunate that people don't really discuss raceplay in particular, because I think it is worth bringing up how common it is. Questions that can be asked like, do people even notice when it happens or when they are expressing it? Is it so mainstream as to be omnipresent? Even just what causes people to feel this way about Black people, or any particular human race?
I hope any of this makes sense, I may have rambled a bit too much.
I see. Well, I don’t think fiction and reality have a 1:1 correlation which is why I think a lot of content has the right to exist. Looking at something critically doesn’t mean it has a 1:1 correlation. To believe that is against looking at it critically- it is black and white thinking I am against hence my entire feelings about being anti-censorship.
Fetishization of minorities changes people’s thoughts about those minorities long term because of all of the other factors at play. This is something that is prevalent with discussions around Black men because so much content based around them is fetishistic in nature.
I can’t wrap my head around your fetishization statement. Fetishization is dehumanizing because to make something an object of desire is to objectify that thing or person. It’s not Just Attraction. People want to be viewed as desirable especially minorities with a history of not being viewed that way, but to only be viewed as an object of desire because of your ethnicity or disorder or other identity results in you not being viewed as a person. I sometimes embrace these depictions but other times it is tiring.
To find black women beautiful means nothing because black women don’t look or act the same. To find a disorder attractive doesn’t mean much either because but all presents differently. In fiction, it’s a complex topic because fiction can humanize a character that was made for the purpose of fetish, but often it does not because so much of fetish is rooted in stereotypes or ignorance.