The first part of my post on Liking Problematic Stuff was from mostly the oppressed point of view. Liking something you know is actively oppressing you.

Now i want to focus on the “allies”, the oppressor (also known as the people with privilege) because I’ve heard a lot more shit from them. Namely “I like what I like!”.

First of all, why does YOUR comfort trump my right to be a human being. Yes, you as the oppressor are actively oppressing me if you say something similar to that as you consume the oppressive shit. Being a good ally is about changing your likes (and possibly your dislikes) in order to be less oppressing. Keeping the status quo does nothing. If you’ve ever said that, take your badge off now and burn your “I am a good ally” t-shirt.

Why? Because you are the target audience! If you buy that problematic show/game/book you are telling the companies “Hey I’m your target audience and I like this stuff!” They can ignore the parts where you said it was sexist as all hell or the racism was ramped up to 11. They made a sale to their target audience and they an count that on their marketing sheet as “It’s working!” It’s only when something ISN’T selling that they might actually look at the response and go “Oh! Our target audience doesn’t like this problematic shit :X!”

“But if I stop liking this stuff I won’t have anything to watch/play/read!” There are plenty of other things to watch/play/read. Saying this just means you want to be lazy and continue to be an oppressive douche. Remember what I said about changing your likes. Yes you have to change them! You have to actively go outside of that little box and find something new.

You like Dead or Alive? Try a different fighting game that isn’t a pile of misogynistic shit.
You like ecchi/harem? Try something that isn’t labeled as ecchi, dump anything ecchi from your likes and focus on the shows that want to tell a story over degrading women. They are out there.
You like Family Guy? Try one of the other less oppressive adult cartoons out there. Look into the ones that have come before. I hear “King of the Hill” is far better than Family Guy. (Not saying it’s the best mind you.)
You like Dresden Files? There is a ton more books out there in that genre that isn’t oppressive as all hell. Try looking for books from people not white, possibly not male, and possibly not straight too.

Being a complicit target audience is the worst thing you as an oppressor. You are telling the creators of these things that “YES! Keep making them and ignore the non-target audience. I’ll keep buying them!”