Marlise Boland condescends to fans of Richard Armitage who are not positive enough about her

Here. Because we’re not covering Peshawar, I suppose. Then again, I haven’t noticed extensive coverage of that material on The Anglophile Channel, either. Trust me, out here among the people who aren’t seeking access to the stars, we’re equally aware of Peshawar and dozens of other things that went on in the world this week. On my way to see the Hobbit on Tuesday night, I drove past a swathe of homeless people, camped under an underpass, being moved or arrested by the police. Hard to know if it’s better for them to be moved out of their encampment and out of the path of traffic, if they’re under lock and key for trespass — at least it’s warm and dry there. I felt grateful for the security of my car — if that ever happens to me, I thought, at least I’ll have my car — and then guilty about my reaction.

Then there are all the horrors and sorrows we don’t know about, of course. So I guess she doesn’t like our lack of positivity because we don’t care enough about the personal tragedies occurring in our presence. I don’t know what you did with your day yesterday, Marlise. This was how mine went. The term is over, and it was a slow day at work — lots of people took off, but I don’t have enough vacation for that yet, so I was proof-reading and updating our informational brochures — until, in mid-afternoon, our ancient server finished its updates, final grades posted, and the list of students academically dismissed, separated from financial aid, and deprived of veterans’ and voc rehab benefits because of poor academic performance was distributed. Of course, you can say “they deserved it” and maybe some of them do — but there is also an individual story behind each one of those denials and I am (a) the only one who knows it and (b) employed to be the advocate of people who can’t speak for themselves with different agencies and institutions. For reasons of my students’ privacy I won’t tell you what I did, but I can tell you it involved an hour call with voc rehab trying to persuade them to make an exception to a policy, a half hour call with a parent worried about her child’s grip on sanity after he saw his grades, and three calls with students who have lost financial aid for next semester and now won’t be able to pay their rent, discussing what measures they can take — because they have exactly one day to try to intervene on their own behalf before the administrative period flips over and that money is distributed to someone else — because no matter how many students we can help, there are still thousands (my university is that big) who could use it and maybe deserve it as much or more.

I work with the least of these university students, although I am not a Christian any more. It’s my job. I also care personally about the people around me, and abstractly about people in other countries. I donate money to charities, usually educational ones, and time as well, although I have had less of that in the last decade of my life. I won’t donate to homophobic ones, though. And I don’t apologize for not financially supporting institutions that give out food with their hands even as they spread hate with their mouths.

So this is what it comes down to: somehow it’s okay for you to care about the Richard Armitage fandom and how it is represented in the press, but it is not okay for me to care about it so much that I can talk about how you represent it critically? Why is that, exactly, again? Because your commitment to this fandom is of longer term than mine? Oh, wait. Because it is more important to you than it is to me? Oh, wait. Do you know anything about how this fandom has changed my life? Oh, wait. Because as a journalist you should be immune to criticism of unprofessional practices? Oh, wait.

As to holiday cheer — if you are concerned about people spreading negativity, please refrain from telling me, or anyone else, how to feel about the life events that have made Christmas a holiday I prefer to tune out of.

I’m glad you’re so heavily involved in helping the suffering, Marlise, because I agree that’s what we should all seek to do. If you knew anything about the fandom you’d know about the thousands of pounds fans have donated in Armitage’s name. You’d know about the kindness campaigns, the blog festivals, and so on. But as you have demonstrated repeatedly, you don’t know much about us either in the individual or in the aggregate.

~ by Servetus on December 20, 2014.