Wendy Xu: i want to be taken seriously as an artist instead of "look at that asian person who also makes art how cute let's throw them a few dollars". it's so fucking degrading

honestly hate that every time there's an industry bad actor, lists of "works by marginalized authors to support instead" start circulating like it's a moral obligation to be done out of guilt, & it's crickets every other day of the year. my art is not to be taken in as a reactionary measure

we will never be free if people don't start actively seeking out our work on their own terms. i don't want white ppl reading my shit with pity

i want to be taken seriously as an artist instead of "look at that asian person who also makes art how cute let's throw them a few dollars". it's so fucking degrading

it's so uniquely american, the same impulse as making "community service" an onerous punishment

i was literally just thinking that i never felt like i was being dehumanized like this when i was meeting french readers & fans who were genuinely invested in the work for what it was

Plenary indulgences with a sprinkling of wokeness

like what is this!!! is it art or is it medicine!!! what is the sickness we are trying to treat, the fact that you liked work by a person who turned out to be shitty??? it's insane

brb, consuming my way out of systemic inequality

I interpret it as a way to assist people to "do something" that they may not have considered or have known where to go or how to find or what to do on their own. The consuming comment is valid of course, but our society does run on money.

After 9/11 an older friend, ex-hippy and protester in the 60s was livid at the message to "buy NYC" - i.e. support businesses there. When I asked how else were people to show support she really didn't have an idea. Because society runs on money.

the idea that xyz is a substitute for abc like a store brand, or that one must suddenly disavow the latter

like e.g. I'm not going to bother with newer Polanski but I'm not going to look for Morally Correct Equivalent to 'Rosemary's Baby'

and when he dies perhaps I will see his newer work

Eh, “The Astronaut’s Wife” is but a pale shadow. (Please receive this as the levity it was intended. This whole thing sucks, and it sucks to be held up as the “guilt free” version of something.)

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