Seriously? This is a controversy? · 3:08pm Oct 19th, 2014
So, I just found out about the whole big(?) controversy surrounding the MLP annual 2014. Short version? The normally sensible seeming writer decided to toss in a couple of cameo shout-outs to fans with outspoken, blatant negative opinions of bronies (and/or males in general). When asked if he was *aware* of these statements, he actually went and defended them.
Long story short, bronies got mad, he got canned, and is now joining the individuals he granted cameos to in proclaiming that all is the fault of The Patriarchy.
Meanwhile, there is some level of semi-academic debate going on as to whether or not this was justified, much of it roiling around social justice theories, free speech, and artistic integrity.
I'd just like to take a moment to express a theory that involves none of that wishy-washy "my opinion, man!" stuff out there. That relies not a whit on whether or not something is "right," which is often a nebulous criteria determined less by objective measurements and more by subjective senses of justice and injustice.
I'm gonna boil this down to simple facts. Two simple facts, actually.
1: If you are a freelancer, you have a VERY precarious employment position. Your employer is free to terminate their interaction with you at any point, for any reason, or no reason at all. If this is not the case, you are not a freelancer - you are a staff writer. You know this if you are a freelancer, or have ever been for any reason at any time.
2: If you are in business, ESPECIALLY the business of entertainment, you are a dumbass if you express, or are perceived as expressing, any form of support for your demographic. You only get away with this if you have a near monopoly on a staple, such as Monsanto or BP, and EVEN THEY recognize that there is a certain base level of respect they have to pretend to give their customers. Everybody in business knows this.
Based on these facts, Ted Anderson deserved to be fired. In fact, he was BEGGING to be fired, or at the very least taken off of any line that primarily sold to a male demographic (like... uhm... does IDW *have* any lines that don't?)
No issue of free speech. No issues of social justice. No issues of whether or not the people he cameoed were right or wrong in their opinions.
Simple. Statement. Of fact.
What he did was the equivalent of giving Dr. Fred Wertham a walk-on in Avengers. Or letting Jack Thompson do VA work for GTA 6. Or naming Edward Snowden Employee of the Year for whatever contractor he worked for.
Only a dumbass would do that without expecting there to Be Consequences.
The Patriarchy isn't oppressing you, Ted Anderson. The fact that you apparently don't have the common sense to realize that you shouldn't take a dump on your boss' plate is.
What this is like is for someone to walk into a Gay Bar and parading around the fact that you're superior because not only do you work for Microsoft, but you are also completely and totally 100% not a fag.
Or something, I dunno. I just didn't get your references. xP
No. 'Bronies' are whiny, thin-skinned and oblivious at the best of times, and a lot of MLP fans loathe that term and would not embrace it themselves. Dragon Dicks doesn't hate MLP fans, she hates a slice of the fandom that kinda sucks ass anyway. This isn't like Jack Thompson being lauded by a videogame firm, this is like a physio for Man Utd. getting canned for saying that the Red Army sucks, or an evangelical preacher getting fired for saying he disapproves of Operation Rescue.
2543374 I kind of wonder what her definition of brony is, and if everyone reading this blog would be included in it. Personally, I'd rather people who preach hatred not be recognized in any fashion if possible. There were plenty of OCs they could have used as a background character that didn't have associations with idiocy. Or better yet, maybe don't use OCs at all.
2543374
Maybe I'm not far enough into the forum world to be aware of this, but the last time I checked, brony was used by everybody outside of Tumblr to refer to adult 4th Gen fans. Much like "furry" references people who like anthropomorphic animals, and to the vast majority of the world, "trekkie" references major fans of Star Trek.
Plus the commentary by DD on... well... anybody with a Y chromosome.
When a large portion of your buying public is... well... male, should you really be backing somebody who says that all men are horrible? And then defending their saying that?
Isn't that kind of a really, really obliviously bad decision?
2543510
Eh. I know tongue-in-cheek when I see it. It's like boycotting The Toast for referring to 'worthless male chaff.' Wake me up when she actually starts dismissing and working against mens rights issues like the prevention of prison rape, police use of force against young men, gender-selective drafts, and suicide prevention.
2543499
An excellent point. As a clop author... I kinda suspect I'd be on that list. (It's okay, my willingness to write adult material puts me on many a list of "very bad people.")
But this is kind of the point I'm getting at. Ted's entirely free to have his opinion. He's entirely free to express his opinion, and even his admiration for somebody like DD. He's even free to horribly misunderstand the definition of the word satire, though that's worrying in a comic writer.
But at the same time, he's not being oppressed when other people take offense to his opinions and point out to his employers that he is using their product as a platform to laud and support those opinions.
I'm free to go out and say that the Tea Party is a bunch of lunatic fringe assholes who want to spark Armageddon. I'm free to do that using any publicly available forum I want!
Like this one. 'Cause goddamn is that place ever a squirrel paradise.
But if I take advantage of my position to use my employer's resources to promote... say... John Stewart or Randi Roads, and then express my wholehearted support for their sometimes inflammatory comments about the Tea Party specifically, and even Republicans in general? Only a very strong union would prevent my ass from leaving a sizeable whole in the sixth floor window on the way out the door.
And I would deserve it. Because I have no right to use my employer's voice to make such statements, and my employer would have every right to say "yeah, he doesn't speak for us, and as proof, he doesn't work for us anymore either."
I've always used "brony" to mean any adult 4th-gen fans who participate in the community, and I've never been ashamed of calling myself that.
The idea that some people use it specifically to mean "fedora-wearing neckbeards who like MLP" is kind of new to me.
2543651
Thanks. That's my world too, so it's good to know I'm not alone there.
2543566
http://xkcd.com/1357/
If he had just had the OC in there, even though I disagree it belonged there, it'd be fine. But his posts defending the decision to do so were one, stupid to even do, never address things like this; and two, really weak arguments which undermined his position even more. Last I heard it hadn't been confirmed that he'd been blacklisted by IDW, but if he has been, maybe he's learned a lesson about doing things your boss might not find appropriate in their name, especially on the internet.
2543533
From what I found when I researched this whole story, I don't find it tongue-in-cheek. Maybe her blogs are meant to be a satire, but she does a horrible job conveying that if it is.
Actually, he wasn't fired. I received an email--a form one--weeks ago--saying he was not, and Bobby Curnow, the editor of the series, confirmed this. Source.
He was one of my favorite writers, and since we disagree about this, you will probably want to unfollow me now. I will not be mad about that. But it is just undebatable fact that he wasn't fired.
2598352
Not at all. As you said, an indisputable fact, and I'm not going to take offense to somebody pointing those out. Now, if you'd said that you thought he was right that it's improper for men to be offended when somebody, anybody, goes and says "all men are horrible," then I might be offended, but that's not an issue of fact.
Of course, if you think that I'd be offended at his being one of your favorite writers - not at all. I'm a fan of H.P. Lovecraft. The man spent most of his life as a frothing misanthrope who loathed 99% of humanity. That doesn't mean that I don't enjoy his writing. A person can be good at something and still have personal flaws.
Thank Celestia, or boy would I be in trouble!