See, here’s what I don’t get:
Christians are told to resist temptation. Christians are told that Jesus faced temptation and overcame it. Christians are told that, with the love and strength of God on their side, they can avoid giving in to temptation.
But you hear a lot of the vocal minority of Christians screaming and yelling about all these “sinful things” around them and about how they shouldn’t exist. Maybe they exist because they’re meant to be challenges? If you’re so certain that the mere existence of something will inevitably mean corruption and a one-way ticket to Hell, then you don’t have much faith in… well, in your FAITH.
Same thing with Tumblr purity culture. “This piece of media is PROBLEMATIC and therefore it should not be consumed EVER BY ANYONE and if you do, YOU’RE A DAMN DIRTY [insert insult of the month]!!!”
No, no. The point is not to avoid All Problematic Media. The point is to engage with it critically. Some media you might want to avoid because of the particular ways in which it’s problematic (i.e., you’re a survivor of a particular trauma, and that trauma or something similar to it is laid out in graphic detail), and that’s fine! That is your choice to make, and you absolutely should know in advance that this piece of media has this element in it so that you can make an informed choice whether or not to engage in it.
And critiquing media is perfectly fine and great! Yes, we should always strive to improve on representation! We should get away from boring, stock narratives that tell the same storylines the same way. We should try not to alienate or mock people just for a quick joke. It’s fine to bring up these points. It’s fine to discuss them civilly.
It is better to engage with media (that you’re comfortable engaging with) that has some problematic elements and think critically about them than it is to just cut it all out of your life and try to block it from existing and/or keep people from enjoying it. It helps you grow and learn. Sure, the Latest Movie might have WXY problems in it, but maybe it also sheds a new light on problem Z. Critique it on its presentation of the other problems, but would you have thought about Z in that way if you hadn’t seen it? Is there a correlation between the way WXY are presented and the point of view of Z? And if the only thing you come away from that movie with is “So-and-so is a crappy director,” well, hey, you still learned something!
You’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater by banning all “Problematic” media and you’re not challenging yourself to think critically and on your own terms.
truth.
(via classicintp)
