#i love how these movies aren't even really being marketed as just queer movies | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ragnarokproofing · 11 months

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i wrote a big long response to a post that made me angry. it was saying that people love to complain about not being able to find new media because they aren't willing to "do the work" to go deep and find the things that they want that don't exist in the popular sphere.

i don't think that this is a particularly fair criticism because today's media landscape is incredibly difficult to navigate if you're looking for anything except for what is Within The Zeitgeist.

like, there's this book series that i love, skybound by alex london. it's a YA gritty dark fantasy series that's actively queer. it's fantastic, highly recommend. but the thing is, it's impossible to find. I got the first book at barnes & noble a year or two after it came out. after i read it, i went looking for the second book, and couldn't find it. the series disappeared from the barnes & noble shelves at some point. i looked at a local independent bookstore, well-known for its huge LGBT section - an entire room of the store. they have a big wall that's all queer YA. well, they don't have anything by alex london at all, presumably because his books aren't advertised as queer at all; they're stealth, dark, serious, and inaccessible, not something easily marketed on social media, and shelf space in these little bookstores is at a premium, because the stores are struggling to survive. these books don't have any sort of fandom or cult status, and they were never particularly popular, so they're not likely to ever end up in used bookstores. so because i already knew about them, i was able to order copies of the rest of the series - but if i didn't, i would never have stumbled across them. how would I have?

this is especially true of movies. despite living in the golden age of remasters, with old, forgotten movies finding new life through AGFA, vinegar syndrome, alamo drafthouse, etc, there are many, many wonderful movies that are still completely under the radar. but most people don't really have access to these - 4K blu-rays are expensive, and how would anyone find out about them if they're not already involved in the space? it's not like there are many video stores around anymore - and all of these streaming services are circling the drain, their catalogues scattering to the winds. shudder is great if you want horror, but movies and franchises come and go, and while they have a lot of gems their catalog isn't that big, and anyway, that's another subscription. so how the hell are people supposed to find the offbeat movies that they want?

the answer that i would give is in-person screenings, but those sure as shit aren't accessible. they're only really a thing in cities, and unless you're a college student and your school has film clubs they're probably at boutique theaters and tickets are pretty pricey, and besides, learning about screenings at the Music Box Theater means joining their mailing list, or following them on facebook or instagram, and you can't do any of those things unless you already know that they exist. if you're already passionate about film, then you know about the resources in your city, but if you're just a rando with a passing interest, you never learn about them.

i don't like this criticism because it doesn't acknowledge how fucking hard it is to find new things. people on social media who talk about not being able to find what they want aren't stupid or lazy, they literally don't know how, because nobody ever taught them. i'm lucky enough to have been able to go to free film screenings for several years in college and now i have an extensive library of hard discs that i screen myself or lend to my friends, and i have a pretty deep knowledge of the genres that i prefer - and i still have a miserable time finding anything new that i'm interested in, because that process fucking sucks, and none of this even acknowledges that a lot of media was/is actively repressed because of its controversial nature.

so, instead of bitching about how people are lazy and aren't willing to do the work because they're not as serious about art as you are, why don't you roll up your sleeves and give them actual advice, you prick.

discovering media is a skill. the way that people learn and refine skills is not by being berated. it's by being taught.

#my posts #angry posting #i hate hate hate all of the posts that circulate around here complaining about people not doing x #without acknowledging that the reason they're not doing it is that it's really hard or miserable or that no one ever taught them how #or that they don't even know that doing x is a thing it's possible to do

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