Update: I no longer love Christian Kane
Jan. 23rd, 2023 05:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleSo I was in the Leverage tag on Tumblr yesterday and ran across a post where someone mentioned that they liked the sexual harassment episode they did ("The Belly of the Beast Job") but they didn't like that Electric Entertainment hasn't said anything about their own harassment issues involving Christian Kane. I went looking for information about that: the Portland Mercury did a story last March about Christian Kane sexually harassing women on set, and about how Electric did not handle things well or do anything about it. I guess now I know why the Leverage blogs I follow on Tumblr haven't been posting things.
I think this is part of why I don't have a fandom at the moment and haven't really for a while. So many blorbos and creators, because they have social and/or institutional power, end up harming people. I care most about the people they harmed. Their health, happiness, and physical and emotional safety is the most important thing.
But since this is my journal and a space where I can talk about me, I also care about what this means for me. I've been in so many fandoms over so many years that my fannish history is littered with people who we later found out were, or later became, rapists and abusers and funders of hate. I don't really know what to do about it. The bargain I've made with myself is that I don't respond to comments on fic about them or the fandoms they created, but I've left the fic up because (a) maybe people want to revisit the fic for whatever reason and (b) I don't want to erase the fact that that stuff is in my history.
I have loved Leverage so much for so many years. I trusted them in part because John Rogers said he had plans for how to write everyone out if they turned out to be terrible people and they did write Timothy Hutton out of Leverage: Redemption. But now it turns out that Hutton was terrible on set of the original Leverage run, not just that things came out about him later; that two out of their five leads were harassing women; that the attitude came from Dean Devlin at the top; and that a producer knew about it and did nothing. For so many years, when I wanted to watch something with a plot but not have to pay too much attention to it, I've watched a Leverage episode. It's not like I'm watching it streaming somewhere that they're making money off of it when I do, but I don't know that I can do that again knowing that actual women were harmed in the making of it.
To be clear, I'm not an anti demanding some sort of moral purity, and I'm not dictating what I think other people should do. Everyone has their own line. For me, there's a huge difference between problematic as in we're all steeped in an unjust society, the way we culturally see things changes over time, and we all have things to unlearn; and "problematic" as in actively harms people with less power. This is my line. I try so hard to avoid giving time, money, and attention to people I know have actively harmed people. And yet, here I am over and over again finding out that one of my previous or current fandoms included or was made by people who actively harmed people with less power. I don't really know what to do with that.
I think this is part of why I don't have a fandom at the moment and haven't really for a while. So many blorbos and creators, because they have social and/or institutional power, end up harming people. I care most about the people they harmed. Their health, happiness, and physical and emotional safety is the most important thing.
But since this is my journal and a space where I can talk about me, I also care about what this means for me. I've been in so many fandoms over so many years that my fannish history is littered with people who we later found out were, or later became, rapists and abusers and funders of hate. I don't really know what to do about it. The bargain I've made with myself is that I don't respond to comments on fic about them or the fandoms they created, but I've left the fic up because (a) maybe people want to revisit the fic for whatever reason and (b) I don't want to erase the fact that that stuff is in my history.
I have loved Leverage so much for so many years. I trusted them in part because John Rogers said he had plans for how to write everyone out if they turned out to be terrible people and they did write Timothy Hutton out of Leverage: Redemption. But now it turns out that Hutton was terrible on set of the original Leverage run, not just that things came out about him later; that two out of their five leads were harassing women; that the attitude came from Dean Devlin at the top; and that a producer knew about it and did nothing. For so many years, when I wanted to watch something with a plot but not have to pay too much attention to it, I've watched a Leverage episode. It's not like I'm watching it streaming somewhere that they're making money off of it when I do, but I don't know that I can do that again knowing that actual women were harmed in the making of it.
To be clear, I'm not an anti demanding some sort of moral purity, and I'm not dictating what I think other people should do. Everyone has their own line. For me, there's a huge difference between problematic as in we're all steeped in an unjust society, the way we culturally see things changes over time, and we all have things to unlearn; and "problematic" as in actively harms people with less power. This is my line. I try so hard to avoid giving time, money, and attention to people I know have actively harmed people. And yet, here I am over and over again finding out that one of my previous or current fandoms included or was made by people who actively harmed people with less power. I don't really know what to do with that.