Reflection and Analysis

Accusations (8/7/2020)

Last November we saw accusations lobbed at Aaron regarding the fact he didn't listen to a couple of women on the AtLA team, plus there was one other from the past we know about. However, I still don't believe the accusations.

In fact, I think what happened was a woman whose also LGBT wanted the show to go a more in your face regarding the LGBT characters in the show, possibly even claiming that the deaths of the queens falls under the Bury Your Gays trope when it doesn't which in turn pretty much results in token representation and treating LGBT characters as special snowflakes rather than real characters. It doesn't matter that this woman – Danka – is LGBT. She does not herself represent all of the LGBT community, but I'm tired of individuals of her claiming they do represent the community.

Of course, some people will say – you're not LGBT, so you can't speak...

Yes, yes I can. There's a major misconception that one needs to be something to understand and empathize with that particular group let alone write them right, when in reality the real issue is "not doing your research" which means asking others. The fact Ehasz based the queens off actually people he knows means Danka's not the only person he consulted regarding LGBT matters, but he may have – like many of us – considered her wanting special snow flake treatment of LGBT characters insulting to LGBT people.

It reminds me of how She-Ra fans are praising the reboot for LGBT representation only to have a lesbian whose been abused point out that the show implies she should have just put up with the toxic relationship because being lesbians makes everything okay. The fact Danka refused to given evidence – by this I mean actual examples of how she was ignored beyond – oh, I'm a woman and I'm LGBT and he didn't listen to what I felt should be done regarding these matters – means the accusations aren't good.

But what about the others?

Well, for one of them – I can't remember the name of them, people have pointed out that there was nothing actually misogynistic about the behavior, but people outright pointed out that asking someone to look after ones kids is a sign of trust, not to mention something a parent is likely to be more comfortable asking a female employee to take on rather than a male employee. Is it necessarily a nice thing to have happened? No, but anyone who knows about small businesses will also know those running small businesses are faced with times when things aren't in their control, particularly if they're also parents.

Then there's the third, the one who actually worked with Danka. The problem with those allegations ends up being that she – well, it feels like Danka realized said person was super sensitive and told her what was going on was misogyny. In other words, she didn't form her own opinion on the matter but took Danka's word on it. In other words, there isn't "three" accusations, but only one – and on top of this this is a person who is known for bullying and harassing others, yet she's tossing out the accusation she's the one whose been bullied and harassed.

As such, I can not support the letter asking for Ehasz to apologize, but anyone who is based on the flimsy evidence of "I wasn't listened to" or "I felt that way" needs to rethink this approach because both of these can mean a lot of things. "I wasn't listened to" can mean "I didn't get my way" and "I felt that way" can be as simple as being over sensitive, but asking people to apologize for that opens a can of worms of asking people to apologize when they've done nothing wrong, but more importantly...

How can he apologize when they've not given any specifics regarding what he should apologize for? One wasn't even on the writing staff and the other was equivalent to an editor for the writing staff. I mean, I've seen the accusations from the third woman who had nothing to do with DP and there wasn't anything misogynist about the behavior, but people are still saying three accusers when there's only one, and one who can't be trusted.

No, seriously – I've seen the list by the so called third accuser and its typical stuff one sees in a work environment, some of which aren't actually bad things, yet he's expected to apologize. I guess the best way to put it, by asking him to apologize you're expecting us women to get special treatment in comparison to men and be treated like special snowflakes, something us women have long fought against. So no thank you. I want no apology from Ehasz on this, because I feel it majorly undermines the idea that women can be strong and resilient just like men.

Now, if he'd actually done something wrong, that's a different story.