Why Do People Keep Saying We Need More Escapism?

[hero talk]

I think it depends on what you consider Escapism I don't consider it a lack of bad things happening light can not be done well in a story without dark
however if you write something to teach people what you think they need to hear I do not consider that enjoyable if its meant to correct them
if you want to give people hope or make them happy then go a head but I don't think its right for our entertainment to try and correct us
because then its no longer entertainment but a lecture

[Mister Mets]

I guess they're not seeing enough competently made escapist fare in their preferred genres, and think that the creators are encouraged to do other kinds of material.

[dancj]

Magneto's past has never not been absolutely central to who his character is. I cannot see any way that you could set it aside in an attempt to create a purely escapist work.

Mainly, I agree with you, but IIRC, Magneto's past was a retcon. Before that I think it was not "absolutely central to who his character is".

[MyriVerse]

Indeed. For his first 17 years, Our Lord Magneto was a simple Silver Age-y OTT villain that could be summed up in two words: "mutants rule."

[Username taken]

There's no such thing as apolitical fiction and Avengers is no exception.

Quoted for simple truth. Art has always made some statement be it religious, political e.t.c.

The problem now is that some people have equated greater "diversity representation" to a political statement. I mean, look at the uproar at the Last Jedi? Sure one can hate the movie (God knows I do) but the visceral and very aggressive reaction to the "politics" of the movie (which boils down to greater female and colored female prominence) is rather overblown.

A lot of people these days appear to be very fragile and simply don't know how to handle or adapt to a changing society. Some of them feel they are "owned" things by society (that they really can't identify) and simply lash out at stuff they don't feel is "for them". That's why "comicsgate" happened and why a lot of guys on youtube and social media are exploiting these topics for views and money.

[Duskman]

Quoted for simple truth. Art has always made some statement be it religious, political e.t.c.

The problem now is that some people have equated greater "diversity representation" to a political statement. I mean, look at the uproar at the Last Jedi? Sure one can hate the movie (God knows I do) but the visceral and very aggressive reaction to the "politics" of the movie (which boils down to greater female and colored female prominence) is rather overblown.

A lot of people these days appear to be very fragile and simply don't know how to handle or adapt to a changing society. Some of them feel they are "owned" things by society (that they really can't identify) and simply lash out at stuff they don't feel is "for them". That's why "comicsgate" happened and why a lot of guys on youtube and social media are exploiting these topics for views and money.

It would help a lot if the people pushing diversity didn't lead with "If you don't like this character, it's because you are racist, sexist, and deserve to be punched."

But if they didn't do that, no one would talk about it, so they wouldn't get as much free marketing from the knee-jerk reactionaries shrieking "NOOO, MUH PRECIOUS NERD HOBBIES!" to such things.

Then when someone comes along with a minority character who just wants to tell a story and has no political intentions whatsoever, its immediately thrown as a weapon into the gladiator arena of "NOOOO, MUH NERD HOBBIES!" versus "DIE NAZIS!" and no one is allowed to just like or dislike anything anymore. Everything has to be a fucking hill to die on and a revolution and the Fight For The Right Side Of History As We Know It.

People talk about how everyone is so fragile these days, and sure, we raised a generation on helicopter parenting and participation trophies, but that sentiment ignores the fact that their's an entire industry of social marketing designed to make people freak out, to sell the most views.

It used to be they just preyed on your presumed insecurities to make you buy product to fill the empty void in your soul. Now they want you angry and terrified so they can sell you product to make you feel slightly less cosmically insignificant for a day.

[ed2962]

It would help a lot if the people pushing diversity didn't lead with "If you don't like this character, it's because you are racist, sexist, and deserve to be punched."

But if they didn't do that, no one would talk about it, so they wouldn't get as much free marketing from the knee-jerk reactionaries shrieking "NOOO, MUH PRECIOUS NERD HOBBIES!" to such things.

Then when someone comes along with a minority character who just wants to tell a story and has no political intentions whatsoever, its immediately thrown as a weapon into the gladiator arena of "NOOOO, MUH NERD HOBBIES!" versus "DIE NAZIS!" and no one is allowed to just like or dislike anything anymore. Everything has to be a fucking hill to die on and a revolution and the Fight For The Right Side Of History As We Know It.

People talk about how everyone is so fragile these days, and sure, we raised a generation on helicopter parenting and participation trophies, but that sentiment ignores the fact that their's an entire industry of social marketing designed to make people freak out, to sell the most views.

It used to be they just preyed on your presumed insecurities to make you buy product to fill the empty void in your soul. Now they want you angry and terrified so they can sell you product to make you feel slightly less cosmically insignificant for a day.

No one led with that though. Sure, maybe some fans over-reacted in response to other fans over-reactions, but Marvel did not release press statements nor did creators do interviews saying, "Here's some new characters and if you don't like Kamala Kahn, Sam/Cap etc, you must be racist." DC did not say, "If you don't like "hipster" Batgirl, you are sexist."

[Duskman]

No one led with that though. Sure, maybe some fans over-reacted in response to other fans over-reactions, but Marvel did not release press statements nor did creators do interviews saying, "Here's some new characters and if you don't like Kamala Kahn, Sam/Cap etc, you must be racist." DC did not say, "If you don't like "hipster" Batgirl, you are sexist."

No, Marvel and DC didn't. But the people signal boosting jumped to it.

[ed2962]

No, Marvel and DC didn't. But the people signal boosting jumped to it.

Sure after some fans reacted to the announcements of these characters with, "Why are these minorities being shoved down my throat?!" I'll admit though that there needs to more civility and nuanced analysis and especially informed criticism across the board in fandom.

[skyvolt2000]

It would help a lot if the people pushing diversity didn't lead with "If you don't like this character, it's because you are racist, sexist, and deserve to be punched."
.

That is because the MAIN folks throwing fits about that DO NOT READ THE BOOKS IN QUESTION.

So when you ask them about the books in question guess who DODGES the question.

Or when you correct them-they act like you didn't.

So LEGIT criticism gets buried under all of that. Because who would know those books? Actual READERS. So when the fountains of misinformation come out-guess who gets corrected.

no one is allowed to just like or dislike anything anymore.

Yes you are free to dislike something. What we are seeing is folks can't GROW up and move on.

And folks are fed up with these attacks seem to only TARGET certain demographics and the main ring leaders are of another demographic.

[Username taken]

That is because the MAIN folks throwing fits about that DO NOT READ THE BOOKS IN QUESTION.

So when you ask them about the books in question guess who DODGES the question.

Or when you correct them-they act like you didn't.

So LEGIT criticism gets buried under all of that. Because who would know those books? Actual READERS. So when the fountains of misinformation come out-guess who gets corrected.




Yes you are free to dislike something. What we are seeing is folks can't GROW up and move on.

And folks are fed up with these attacks seem to only TARGET certain demographics and the main ring leaders are of another demographic.

This.

The guys attacking Marvel online are still doing so despite Marvel bringing back and restoring their original characters. They've moved away from simply attacking characters to now attacking minority creators. Case in point, Eve Ewing an award winning creator who's already been attacked by the comicsgate crowd. Folks are already questioning her cred because she made some jokes about writing Riri Williams because she looks like the character completely ignoring the fact she's already a successful writer. Same with Mags Vissagio who's been attacked and harassed because she's a trans woman, regardless of how you feel about trans people, no one deserves the level of harassment she's getting.

There's a very loud of group (and apparently growing) people online that are experiencing some form of social anxiety and are lashing out at anything that reminds them of said anxiety. I 100% agree that no one wants to be lectured in their entertainment (a mistake a lot of creators fall into) but watching a movie or reading a comic and scouring through to pin point an agenda is a bit silly.

[Electricmastro]

A counter I’ve seen is that superhero media has always and will always be closely to to realism/politics because of their origins of having boomed in popularity during World War II and the anti-Axis propaganda they were featured in. The idea is that taking down evil is inherently political and that therefore it’s impossible for even the silliest of superhero media to be escapism because of that.

On the other hand, I can understand why one may conclude that stories in which Superman is fighting against aliens, dinosaurs, or vampires can be considered different from stories in which he’s fighting against fascists, KKK members, or corrupt politicians. Not to say it’s impossible for them to intertwine, but can perhaps still fuel the perception of what one may count as escapism and what one may not count as escapism.

I suppose it’s subjective what one considers to be escapism or not, but I don’t think it can be denied what sort of history superhero media has been through. I guess a question I’m left asking is: does superhero media as escapism even exist?

[jetengine]

"Needs more escapism" comes in two forms.

1. Light heartedness, not everything needs to be GOT. A lot of fiction is needlessly grim in a mockery of "This is REAL SERIOUS everyone" when its ludicrous. Look at Warhammer 40,000 which ended up coining the phrase 'Grim-Dark'. It has such an obsession with skulls that its become a meme within the community.

2. "I just want apolitical sludge to watch" which should be routinely ignored because thats how you get garbage fiction.