(I am officially borrowing the cr wank tag now. No more individual discourse tags, woohoo. Blacklist that if you can’t stand my rants.)
Man. I don’t
even like discourse that much. I’d much rather be bitching about Vax and the CR
ending right now. But this has been a little… Disturbing.
So, to sum
it up, what are people upset about? (All of this is within the context of a
D&D game, mind you).
·
A
grown woman in sort of a position of power propositioning several tied up
12-year olds for a sexual relationship.
What are
people not upset about here?
·
The
general raunchiness of the oneshot in question
·
Amy
Vorpal being the most horrible person to ever walk this planet
·
Amy
Vorpal casually supporting pedophilia in her downtime
·
The
moral and ethical downfall of society because of a joke gone wrong
The literal
only issue people have here that in a game that was already raunchy – it’s Sam,
what are you gonna do – someone asked a group of tied up kids around the age of
12 whether they’d consider a sexual relationship.
And before
someone yells about context; the age of the Lost Boys had been established
several times before that line happened. Now, okay, the OS in and of itself was
a little chaotic with personalities clashing and not always paying as much
attention to Sam or the other players as they should have. But the age of these
kids was mentioned. Several times. Before Amy made that joke.
Which, by
the way, also seemed to upset a few of the players, particularly Stephanie and
Molly who then spent the rest of the session making sure the Queen never got
close to these children again, while the whole incident kind of remained a
running gag.
Now, you
know, even without the current political climate being what it is, if you are
generally okay with the concept of there being lines you should not cross,
yeah, uh, this was one of them. And even if it weren’t, if a sizeable number of
people are upset by something, the first reaction being yelling at them that
they shouldn’t be, especially with such a sensitive topic, is, you know, kind
of a dick move.
And just to
indulge the whataboutism that sprung up around this…
·
But
what about fetch me a young boy/teenage assholes?
Context, is
the thing. The young boy comment was about Grog and/or Scanlan trying to find a
messenger boy for something completely innocuous. The teenage assholes was
something Taliesin said when describing Percy’s level of maturity and general
disposition. The joke here was the poor phrasing. Not the fact that anyone was
actually propositioning minors for sexual activities or their assholes in any
way. In context, the Queen of Hearts asking tied up twelve year olds whether
they’d be interested in a sexual relationship with her is still just exactly
that.
·
But
what about Grog and Scanlan going whoring?
Pretty sure
the sex workers involved there at any point were consenting adults. Unless you
subscribe to the school of thoughts that sex workers can never consent under
any circumstances, in which case, this is really not the discussion we should
be having here.
(Also plenty of people frequently bring this up and are upset)
·
But
what about Scanlan’s general creepiness?
Okay, so, I’ll
be the first person to say that some people around here have the tendency of painting
Scanlan as an innocent little cinnamon roll who could do no wrong and we don’t
talk about the modify memory, but there are also just about as many people who
have always complained when he crossed a line. Like. In what universe were people
NOT upset about him forcing Kima to look at his dick? In what universe are
people not violently against Pikelan because of what transpired prior during
their relationship? Not in this tag, that’s for sure.
And – and I can’t believe I’m saying this, you guys are making me defend
Scanlan, what the fuck – in this case, the creepiness died down as a point of
character development. Sam and Scanlan actively got over this issue and
apologized for it. It was part of a longform narrative. And also any and all
predatory behavior was directed at women above the age of consent who were
perfectly capable of smacking him around. And did just that.
·
But
Sexism! You only complain because a woman is doing it! See also Trish the Dish
raping Tary! Vex assaulting Percy with her nakedness!
Yeah, uh, uhm. Okay. So I’m not one to dismiss the accusation of sexism in fandom lightly. Like,
at all. Some of y’all’s comments about the validity of Vex’s and Percy’s early
relationship being somewhat lessened due to the fact that they were fucking like
rabbits were definitely that. But the thing is, I remember just as many, if not
more, people calling the other people out on their shit. Not to mention that,
again, enthusiastically consenting adults.
And while
there was a lot of discourse surrounding Tary’s one night stand with Trish,
most of that was about the general handling of Tary’s sexuality, the other’s
insensitivity about that, the uncomfortable associations that scenario brought
about… Consent was debated a ton here, and there were indeed voices pointing
out that nope, Tary did definitely consent here, that is not the issue. The
issue was the plotline existing to begin with. I’m personally ambivalent about
that, seen it resonate with a few gay men, but on a list of things people were
upset about, Trish being a rapist was like. Looooow on the list. And they were
called out for that.
(And again.
No one involved was around 12 years old.)
Also, while
we’re on the subject of sexism, the Queen of Hearts was entirely based around
the joke that she liked tiny men in bed while being an aggressive woman, both
sexually and in general. Also making her kingdom bigger or something. And that
is basically all there was to her character. Haha, how funny. She is a woman.
Who is aggressive. If you wanna call sexism somewhere, I’m going to
whataboutism you right back at the character we are talking about here.
Another
thing: So, what have people been doing here, really? Has anyone lit up the
torches, grabbed the pitchforks and led a mob to Amy Vorpal’s doorstep? Called
for boycotting her work? Written a strongly worded letter? Worst I’ve seen are some concerned tweets, and
not very many, that Amy even seemed to agree with? The cast has faced worse for
Scanlan not being on the campaign guide cover. Marisha gets worse than that for
even existing.
So… People
are taking issue with people taking issue with someone asking tied up twelve
year-olds for a sexual relationship. Not even over people hounding the actress
for an insensitive off-color joke that got a little too far. Just… Being
upset. At pedophilic implications. Is that even a word? It should be.
Overdressed & Underappreciated 