cardiganism:
signalfire90:
This Thursday, there will be a boycott of The Vampire Diaries episode and I encourage you all to join us. It’s time that we collectively made a decision to stand up for ourselves against the showrunners. It’s time that they understood that we, as fans, are in control of the ratings and that they can not mistreat us. For all those wondering what grounds we have for a boycott, let me explain:
1. Incident One- Matt Davis Insults A Deceased TVD Fan
There seems to be a lot of confusion about what started the Twitter drama yesterday. It began because of Matt Davis and his dismissive tweets about a death of a beloved TVD fan. Her name was Leah (@leahmasliah). She was 17 years old and she lost her battle with cancer. People began posting tweets about her, telling her to rest in peace. Eventually a trend was started for her and people began tweeting the cast and crew of TVD for help. All it would have taken was a simple retweet, less than one second. But Matt Davis seemed to be annoyed by this and posted a truly damaging and hurtful tweet disrespecting Leah’s death.
Matt could have easily just ignored the tweets that were asking for help with the trend or blocked the people who were sending them or simply sign off Twitter for a while. But he chose to get nasty about it. His tweet was so uncalled for that Leah’s family was forced to respond.
Matt later deleted his tweet because too many people were upset by it. Later on in the day though, he issued a more reserved statement.
Incident Two- Julie Plec Insults Bonnie Fans
Later on in the day, a Bonnie fan tweeted Julie expressing dissatisfaction at Jamie being Bonnie’s new love interest. When Julie asked the fan what the problem with that was, the fan went on to explain that a lot of people view Jamie as Bonnie’s step-brother (which isn’t at all an incorrect assumption.) Rather than kindly explaining why Jamie shouldn’t be seen this way, Julie decided to insult that fans “logic.” Not only did she make the fan out to seem as if she was crazy, but Julie then proceeded to insult the ENTIRE BONNIE FANDOM by bringing up one of the more popular crackships for Bonnie (Kennett) and shutting it down. View the tweets below.
Needless to say, people were enraged. And with good reason. For one, Julie’s lack of respect for the Bonnie fandom was evident. For every other character on the show, Julie encourages the fans to be passionate and to ship him/her with everyone. But for a ship involving Bonnie, it’s immediately a “no” in her eyes. Why are other people allowed to be passionate, but Bonnie fans are not? People were also upset for another HUGE reason. The blatant HYPOCRISY of Julie’s tweets and her favoring of the other characters for simplistic reasons. Julie said that beautiful and strong Bonnie wouldn’t be with a murderous vampire like Kol, forgetting that she wrote a love interest for Caroline who also happens to be a murderous vampire. Are Caroline and Elena not beautiful and strong? Her reasoning for why Kol/Bonnie could never happen was flawed. I do not, in any way, ship Kol/Bonnie, and I actually like Jamie from what I’ve seen so far, but I was upset by these tweets. Julie never answers Bonnie related questions on Twitter. Fans have always tweeted her about Bonnie and she ignores it. But the one time she does respond, she not only gives shade to the person asking the question but she insulted the entire Bonnie fandom by disregarding anything/everything they desire for her character. No simple “never say never” or “give Jamie a chance.” We were just encouraged to not ship Bonnie with anyone other than guest stars who will die in a few episodes and be okay with it. Because of the nature of the tweets, the fandom went into uproar. Even non-Bonnie fans were questioning the tone of Julie’s response to the Bonnie fandom. About an hour later, the tweets were deleted. But the damage had already been done.
Incident Three- Matt Davis Comes To Julie’s Defense And Makes A Racist Remark
Later on that night, Matt Davis issued a Twitlonger post about how the fandom needs to get off Julie’s back because we would never be able to write a show like she does and she is the reason why TVD is even on. On the contrary Matt, the fans are the reason why the show is still on TV and you’re a fanfiction writer so you should know that people can and do write interesting storylines for this show. Once again, Matt insults the fans. He blindly supported Julie Plec’s remarks to the fans without understanding why we were upset or trying to sympathize with us. All the while, Julie was thrilled to have his support. Clearly, not having any remorse for what she said earlier.
Calling Matt Davis a hero for defending her after he had insulted a dead 17 year old girl earlier in the day and yet again, insulted the fans of the show. Well, does that say something to you? But things did not stop there. No. It just got progressively worse. When a Bonnie fan tweeted Matt about his pro-Julie rant, he got so unprofessional that he called her “an asshole.”
But alas, my friends, that was not even the worst of it. When that Bonnie fan brought up the fact that Bonnie/Kat Graham was a woman of color on the show and that she is neglected by the writers, Matt Davis, in all his class, did just about the LOWEST thing he could have done and posted an extremely racist tweet.
I was floored. I could not believe that those words were actually typed from his fingers. To insult the fans, but no, not simply the TVD fandom, BUT TO INSULT, SPECIFICALLY, BLACK FANS AND VIEWERS OF THIS SHOW, is one of the most despicable things I have ever seen. Matt deleted all those tweets quickly afterword. But again, a lot of people had already seen them and were furious.
So TVDfamily, do you see what is happening here? The showrunners think they can treat us this way. But they can’t. Matt can not get away with tweeting something like that. This isn’t about being upset that a character is not getting a love interest. This is about something PERSONAL. This is about the fact that the cast and crew think they can disrespect us when we are the ones who watch the show and put them in the position they are in right now. Are you going to sit by and support people who make statements like this? Do you support racism? Do you support disrespect of the deceased? Do you support someone insulting your intelligence? No? Then JOIN US. The only way we are going to get the showrunners to see that we mean business is to get the ratings of the show to slip. Let them know that if they don’t stop treating us like shit, we won’t be watching!
DO THIS FOR LEAH. DO THIS FOR YOUR BLACK FRIENDS AND FAMILY WHO HAVE TO PUT UP WITH SHIT LIKE WHAT MATT DAVIS SAID ON A DAILY BASIS. DO THIS FOR YOURSELF. ACT NOW. TAKE A STAND FOR SOMETHING. DON’T JUST SIDE WITH THE WRITERS/CAST SO BLINDLY JUST BECAUSE YOU LOVE THE SHOW. YOU ARE A PART OF THE FANDOM. THESE PEOPLE ARE YOUR FRIENDS. THESE PEOPLE ARE YOUR EXTENDED FAMILY. AND THEY ARE BEING DISRESPECTED. DO THIS FOR THEM.
Please understand that this is not an attack on the other cast and crew of the show who are guilty of nothing. It is not our intention to get the show canceled. All we want is for the ratings to slip enough for Julie and Matt toissue an apology to the fandom.
If you want to join, all you have to do is not watch the TVD episode on your TVs this Thursday. You also can not DVR it because those numbers count for the ratings. Please watch the episode online after it has aired if you like.
Thank you for reading and thank you for your support. Please reblog so word spreads.
I’m not in the fandom, but I read this whole thing & found the show people deplorable. Signal boosting.
I’m sorry, but no.
This is so ridiculous I have to say something. Let me be clear: I have never seen an episode of The Vampire Diaries. I don’t plan to. I couldn’t pull a single one of the people involved out of a line-up if you made me. I am in no way invested in your fandom or your drama, but as an observer, I have the following to say:
First of all, let’s be clear about the main points, here:
1. Fandom has harassed an actor to get him to RT a comment about a fan who has (yes, very sadly - we can all agree on that) passed away. An RT which will achieve nothing and which he is clearly being nagged about from all sides, on top of the usual nagging that all celebrities receive, begging for RTs for being their biggest fan, or begging RTs because it is someone’s birthday, or begging for RTs because someone is graduating, or begging for RTs because someone’s son said some approximation of a word for the first time on this day twelve years ago, or begging RTs because fans are desperate for attention, as though this is some way makes them special in the eyes of the celebrity. (And yes, I have seen all these reasons and many stupider ones directed at celebrities because a Twitter user craves some recognition or attention from them.)
Well, you know what? That would piss me right off, if I was in his position, too. Those celebrities you’re fans of, they are human beings. They lose their temper. They have bad days. They get sick of being harassed and having demands made on their time and attention for things which have no bearing on their existence and which they cannot change. They get frustrated with a @Mentions feed which moves so fast they can’t keep up with it, can’t use Twitter the way your or I can to stay in touch with friends, because it’s perpetually swamped by fans making inane comments or asking offensively personal questions.
As Simon Pegg, if I recall, pointed out recently - if he RTs one Tweet that is asked of him, in fairness he should then RT them all, and if he does RT one and doesn’t RT the rest, he gets hate from the people he hasn’t RT’d. It’s a no-win situation, so he chooses not to RT any requests and keep everyone on equal footing.
As sad as it is that a young fan has passed away, do you really think she would want to see you attacking one of the actors she was such a huge fan of? Do you think she would really want you nagging him and nagging him for an RT until the point where he snaps and loses his patience? Because I don’t believe a real, respectful fan would.
2. You do not own your ship, nor the characters involved in it. You know who does? The person who writes them for the source material. That person knows categorically what a character would and would not do. They know that character’s backstory - probably including details you haven’t even begun to consider and possibly diametrically opposite to what fits fanon - and they almost certainly know a lot of the character’s future that you have yet to be exposed to. Maybe that Jamie character you’re so fond of will do something heinous in an episode yet to air - which the writer cannot spoil you for, due to contractual obligations of non-disclosure - and she cannot abide the concept of you shipping ‘Bonnie’ with him for that reason.
But either way, if you are demanding details and expecting your ship to be acknowledged, do not throw your toys out of the pram when you don’t get the answer you want. That is dickish behaviour and reflects badly not just on you, or your fellow shippers, but on your whole fandom.
For those of us who have been long enough to actually remember the days before Twitter, when etiquette still applied and it wasn’t possible for every Tina, Debs and Harriet to fire messages at their favourite shows’ participants, the first rule of fandom was always you don’t talk about fandom. Fanfic in particular, is a world that we know exists, but we like to pretend the creators/cast/RL individuals do not. Just because Graham Norton thinks it’s funny to laugh at manips fans have worked hard to create and some tasteless hack with a lack of material thinks it’s cute to humiliate Harry Potter actors by forcing them to read passages out on air, doesn’t mean it is socially acceptable or normal to do so yourself.
If you don’t want your ships sunk, leave the writers alone, don’t force them to engage with your own fantasies or ask their opinions and then you can’t be disappointed when they blow holes in the schooner.
3. I’m sure there is context which makes people believe that the comment made when one person defends his friend and colleague was racist, but personally, I see someone making a joke based on the fact that people are assuming actions are taking place in canon (or the construction of canon) based on an actor/character’s ethnicity. It would seem that he disagrees (whether rightly or wrongly) and is taking another minority group as an example of how ridiculous he feels the arguments for the alleged treatment of the character are.
Again, perhaps there is context I’m missing, but that is what I get from the tweets posited as evidence, here.
Screaming racism at every juncture of life when someone makes any kind of comparison or joke, whether maliciously intended or not, does more harm than good. It creates the Boy Who Cried Wolf mentality which sees genuine examples of racism dismissed as over-reactions. And I say that as someone who grew up being called a ‘paki’ endlessly.
In conclusion, this fandom has harassed an actor for attention and then attacked him when he snapped; harassed a writer to acknowledge something they would otherwise probably have left you to enjoy, and then attacked her when she came back with a response you were unhappy with; and when the first actor defended his friend and colleague - probably already angry from the harassment and subsequent attacks on both of them - you’re calling him a racist, after making hateful remarks to him for defending his friend first? If people were attacking your friend, wouldn’t you defend them? If your answer is no, then you’re not a friend to begin with.
I’m sorry, but this looks like a lot of six-of-one and half-a-dozen of the other, right now. Have those involved with the show handled it badly? You could probably acknowledge some failings, absolutely; but you as fans have been absolute arseholes yourselves. This isn’t how fans behave, this is how bratty kids behave. You are behaving like nasty, self-centred little bullies. Attacking them en masse for things you yourselves have forced them to address.
Boycotting this show won’t help your argument; as big as fandom feels, sometimes, in the greater scheme of things, it is nothing but a drop in the ocean of viewership. The people making up those ratings are the people who watch casually, because there’s nothing else on at that time on X day of the week that they fancy watching. They’re people who wouldn’t know what fandom was if it came up and dry humped their leg.
So, be angry if you want, but first, take a step back and when you’ve cooled off see if you can see where you’re going wrong yourselves - because from where I’m sitting, this looks a lot more like Entitlement Rage than legitimate anger. You don’t own this show or its success. And you do need to look at how you treat the people who really do own the show and its success, because they owe you nothing. You’ve already been repaid for your loyalty in the happiness your canon brings you. And if the canon stops bringing you happiness, then let it go. Life is too short for this much drama and hate over whether someone thinks two fictional characters really would be a good couple or not.
