I Really Wanted To Ask You About This:

I really wanted to ask you about this:

Do you have any advice of how to develop critical thinking and media literacy?

There are many, many ways you can practice critical thinking, evaluation and media literacy. At its most basic, you can access student resources for lower levels of education like earlier high school years and look at the examples and guidance given there. Rehashing this will often give you a good foundation to build off of and apply.

One of the main aspects of critical thinking involves discerning what is fact and what is opinion. A good portion of media analytics is opinion. What is 'bad' by one person's standards is 'sub-par' or even 'great' by another's. Similarly, the majority of fandom space is opinion-based. The main pitfall of fandom spaces is that everyone wants their opinion to be taken as fact, which is where critical thinking and even basic communication begin to fall away.

"I'm right and you're wrong" and "this is the way it should be, if you do it or think differently, you're wrong" are common roadblocks people run into when engaging with things like media analysis and even basic fandom activities like fanfiction.

'Mischaracterisation' is fanfiction is one popular topic, especially here on Tumblr. What people often fail to recognize is the true creative depth of fanfiction and using someone else's pre-existing characters. Characters as they are in the source material may not make the choices or behave in the ways necessary to activate or validate certain plot material or author intentions in fanfiction. Which is, inherently, one of the main points of fanfiction. Exploring the alternate.

While you might immediately recoil and say "he'd never do that!" you then have to sit back and recognise that that's exactly the point. That this iteration of that character is not meant to directly reflect the source material. Its a re-imagining, a re-interpretation. That doesn't mean its bad. Its simply different.

'Mischaracterisation' is only actually applicable in fandom spaces when someone is trying to insist as a blanket fact that a character would do something or behave in a way that blatantly contradicts their canon behavior, opinions, morals and perspective or deliberately interpreting an action in biased bad faith. It is not actually applicable to fanfiction where creative liberty dictates you can do whatever the fuck you want with a character because you're not trying to claim it as part of the source content.

Questions To Ask Yourself

Am I reacting to [media] emotionally instead of rationally? Is my emotional response to [media] blinding me to the rational or critical approach(es)?

Am I allowing my expectations to get in the way of me understanding [media] fully? Am I forming a biased negative opinion of [media] because it isn't meeting my expectations?

Even if I disagree with [media], do I actually understand it? Can I recognise the reasoning behind choices made or actions even if I don't agree with them?

Am I searching too hard to hidden meaning or purpose in absolutely everything? Can I recognise what is simply passive information/detail and what is active information/detail? (E.g; English tutors saying a character's curtains are blue because they're depressed when throughout the literature its passively reinforced that blue is the character's favorite color.)

Even though I disagree with the statement or opinion shown, is it necessary to argue against it? Is there any benefit to making my counter-opinion known or is it simply a no-end argument? Am I just using arguing as a means of release/fulfilment? Am I treating this person poorly because of their opinion/statement?

Resources

Critical Thinking Exercises & Explanations #1 The Critical Thinking Activity Workbook Early Stage Critical Thinking Games Five Media Literacy Activities Six Media Literacy Ideas

i like to think there is a big difference between saying something inappropriate on occasion because you weren't thinking and actively and deliberately making it your goal to groom someone - one is a unfortunate mistake and the other is continued malicious actions

Again; the anon provided absolutely no context or information to what actually transpired. I never accused them of intentionally grooming someone but likewise I'm not about to dismiss or immediately support whatever they did do. Because again; I have absolutely no knowledge of what happened.

Likewise; there's also the instance of choosing to trust a minor's "consent to inappropriate actions" which is making the active choice to engage with them in any manner regards topics that are inappropriate or potentially harmful even without the specific intent of grooming them.

Everyone will eventually, at least once, say something inappropriate around a child, be it swearing or sexual or scary. Regardless of intent. Its just the way the world works. He who says something inappropriate will undoubtedly be in the presence of a child who should not be hearing it.

So again, I'm not going to support or condemn anyone without actually knowing what happened and, frankly, neither should anyone else. Neutrality in a situation as precarious as this should be the only option.

Please do not amend posts with false information.

You can absolutely search for and use words like rape and incest on AO3 without "ways around it" or anything else. You simply type it into the tag box under Includes.

WATTPAD REFUGEES - READ UP

STOP ADDING FANCY ILLEGIBLE TEXT TO ALL YOUR SUMMARIES, TAGS AND MAIN BODIES. WE CAN'T SEE SHIT.

STOP CENSORING WORDS - THIS IS NOT TIKTOK OR WATTPAD. YOUR WORK WILL NOT GET YOTE FOR SAYING WORDS. SUICIDE, RAPE, SHIT, FUCK, ECT. WRITE. THE. FUCKING. WORD. NOT SU*CIDE. R4P3. P3DO.

"COLLECTIONS" OF STOLEN FANART AND RE-UPLOADED FANFICTION ARE NOT WELCOME HERE. THEY'RE ACTUALLY NOT WELCOME ON WATTPAD EITHER BUT ESPECIALLY NOT AO3.

SIMILARLY, CREATING "BOOK COVERS" USING STOLEN FANART IS ALSO NOT WELCOME.

(EVER.)

PLEASE USE THE ACTUAL TAGS FEATURE NOT A SCATTERING OF RANDOM HASHTAGS IN THE SUMMARY OR START OF THE FIC. WE CAN'T ACTUALLY DO SHIT WITH THOSE.

Just a quick not friendly reminder: someone who has apologized for past mistakes, made amends for past actions, and clearly no longer holds past beliefs, is a far better person than one who digs up old dirt and uses a person's past that no longer exists against them.

This post is about AO3.

WATTPAD REFUGEES - READ UP

STOP ADDING FANCY ILLEGIBLE TEXT TO ALL YOUR SUMMARIES, TAGS AND MAIN BODIES. WE CAN'T SEE SHIT.

STOP CENSORING WORDS - THIS IS NOT TIKTOK OR WATTPAD. YOUR WORK WILL NOT GET YOTE FOR SAYING WORDS. SUICIDE, RAPE, SHIT, FUCK, ECT. WRITE. THE. FUCKING. WORD. NOT SU*CIDE. R4P3. P3DO.

"COLLECTIONS" OF STOLEN FANART AND RE-UPLOADED FANFICTION ARE NOT WELCOME HERE. THEY'RE ACTUALLY NOT WELCOME ON WATTPAD EITHER BUT ESPECIALLY NOT AO3.

SIMILARLY, CREATING "BOOK COVERS" USING STOLEN FANART IS ALSO NOT WELCOME.

(EVER.)

PLEASE USE THE ACTUAL TAGS FEATURE NOT A SCATTERING OF RANDOM HASHTAGS IN THE SUMMARY OR START OF THE FIC. WE CAN'T ACTUALLY DO SHIT WITH THOSE.

People will scream, cry and throw up about the most basic, ineffective publicity virtue signalling activism and then not do things as basic as not eat at Chick-Fil-A or buy less single-use plastics.