8 - maybe fandom shouldn't be your avenue for activism
Today is something I need to write about because it has been actively bothering me, especially after seeing this post:
For some context, #wolqotd stands for WoL Question of the Day - a hashtag filled with question prompts that anyone could answer for their specific character in Final Fantasy XIV. It makes for great character writing exercise, but every so often you'll get questions like this that make you wonder why it even exists in the first place. And after getting some more context on why this question was even asked in the first place, it highlights a much bigger problem: how some people in fandom spaces treat fandom as their one and only avenue for activism.
I still very viscerally remember how people on tumblr were writing fanfiction about their comfort characters attending BLM protests in 2020 as a response to George Floyd's undeserved death at the hands of racist police officers. These fanfics, by itself, at any other time, might be a little weird - but ultimately harmless - at first, but when they get tagged with #blm, #blacklivesmatter and such, they actually became a problem that other people had to write PSAs on why this harms the movement.
And I really do think that's the problem with this. Fandom and fiction is a great vessel to discuss today's issues in many ways - fascism, racism, queerness, and other such important topics - but I don't particularly believe that fandom is an effective avenue for activism, especially not during the post-COVID era. I especially don't appreciate it when certain demographics treat "fandom as activism" as their sole avenue of activism. Now, I'll include a disclaimer that I understand many people don't always have the means, and that they can't attend protests, or give their time, money and energy into a cause they care deeply about. But it bothers me how some people will do things such as write rather insensitive questions about a very heavy topic as a "what would your OC do" thing, and think this will make them look like they care about it.
And maybe this is a disgruntled post written by a disgruntled Southeast Asian whose life is still quite impacted by fascism by another name, but I just think maybe your activism shouldn't begin and stop in fandom.