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How to Internet: Criticizing Artists

mellowfilmmaker:

Recently the Steven Universe has gotten a little controversy because some members of it bullied artist http://paigepaz.tumblr.com because she drew Amethyst skinny. This caused her to almost commit suicide. She’s ok now, but this has caused people to say that this proves that the Su Fanbase is the worst

 even though many fanbases have sent death or rape threats way more frequently than this one (Gamergate anyone). They also use this to prove how awful SJWs are, this is also not true but that’s for another post. Let’s instead use this as a learning experience and learn how to treat artists. 

Ok, so here’s a scenario. You are browsing Tumblr and you find fan art of an overweight character drawn skinny. Now let’s ask ourselves some questions. 

Is it Ok to Criticize and Artist? 

Yes, yes it is. Good Artists want to learn and one of the ways to do so is through fan response. Personally, I want criticism so I know when I do something wrong and I know to fix it in the future. For example here’s actually a piece from Zamii that shows her growth. 

Here’s the thing that all SJWs should know before criticizing. Not everything an artist does or implies is on purpose. A lot of times artists or writers don’t know everything that they imply with their text (this is also why Josh Whedon didn’t deserve the crap her got earlier this year). So here’s the first lesson to learn. 

Always explain to the artist what they did wrong 

To use as an example here’s a response to one of my posts and my response to that response. 

Ignoring my poor grammar at the time, it does illustrate what I mean. My post offended leafoflegends for some reason, but since they didn’t elaborate why, I was ignorant to what I did. Now here’s a contrast where the responder criticized me correctly. 

As you see, the responder told me what I did wrong so I knew what to apologize for. Notice the lack of drama, the lack of vile. This has actually been illustrated in Steven Universe lately with how the gems have been treating. Notice how Peridot didn’t learn her lesson until Steven explained to her what she did wrong. Garnet putting Peridot on a leash didn’t teach her to respect fusions, as evident by Peridot’s confusion as to why she was being punished. All putting Peridot on a leash accomplished was making Garnet feel better, and if you’re criticizing or punishing someone just to make yourself feel better, then you’re doing it for the wrong reasons. So let’s go to lesson #2 then 

Be Nice 

Always be nice when criticizing. Yes, sometimes it feels good to be an asshole, but being an asshole is wrong and most of the time, ineffective. This is because people usually react to hostility with hostility. The other common response is that they don’t take your comments seriously, because you acted immature so they ignore you (that’s how I usually react to harsh criticism). The final response is that you deeply hurt someone’s feelings and might lead them to commit suicide (especially if you told them to do it). Being nice is the best and most effective means of criticism. Back at the Barn might have ended much easier if Pearl calmly explained to Peridot that Pearl’s aren’t servants on Earth instead of yelling at Peridot and calling her a turd. 

What if the artist didn’t take my criticism or reacted to me with Hostility?

Then move on. You tried to help the artist with your constructive criticism and they didn’t take it. Don’t harass them, it just makes you look like an asshole. You don’t want to look like the asshole and harassing a person is just a waste of time. If you do succeed and the artist makes a front of changing their ways just for you to go away, then congratulation, you didn’t really change somebody and accomplished little. Criticism is meant to help people, and if someone doesn’t accept your help, don’t force it one them. They probably don’t deserve your help anyway. 

So hopefully my post does teach some people how to criticize artists. One more thing I should say is that those calling all SU fans awful because of what happened to Zamii is wrong too. Generalizing an entire group of people is very ignorant and insulting to innocent people. Most SU fans probably feel awful for what happened to Zamii. I know I do. It was just a few assholes that happened to be SU fans who were thinking they were doing the right thing, but just didn’t do it correctly. Hopefully they feel bad for what they did. Also when your insulting Zamii when you say that all SU fans are awful, since she is one. Let’s all be civil here and hope that Zamii gets better, and that the internet does too.