glamaphonic:

So today Hunger Games fandom on Tumblr spent enough time explaining how handsome & dashing was antithetical to black guy with an afro that I had to go take a walk before I completely flipped out on somebody.

Then I come back only to find Tumblr now explaining how Mercedes on Glee could never get it with Sam on Glee because ~*~SOMEONE LIKE HER~*~ could never land ~*~SOMEONE LIKE HIM~*~ in real life.

So, now, you get to see me flip out anyway.

I’m going to ignore the basic empirical inaccuracy of that statement because as “someone like her” who knows many other “someone[s] like her” I really don’t have the patience to calmly explain to you the SHOCKING and UNHEARD OF fact that we do, in fact, receive romantic/sexual attention. (YES! I know. TV never explained that to you because we were too busy being sassy and focusing on our careers/families, but I assure you it is true. And some of this attention, okay, are you sitting down? Get this: it is, in fact, from “someone[s] like him.”)

Instead, I’m going to explain something else, and normally I would go YMMV and leave it there. But I’mma lay this down anyway because even in defenses and call out posts I keep seeing people assuming some things are objective truth when they most certainly are not.

This:

This right here?^

This is a 100% unexceptional, could not be bothered to turn your head and look at him on the street, bland as fuck, blond, white boy completely indistinguishable from 9000 other bland, blond white boys in Hollywood who look just like him because that’s what’s IN at any given time, and there are few things in the entire world, I feel, more illustrative of what media trains us to value than the facts that: 

1) there are people legitimately seriously arguing that Amber Riley is somehow aesthetically unworthy of the physical perfection that is completely forgettable human simulacrum “Chord” “Overstreet” 

AND 

2) even in a large portion of arguments against the idea of this as an unrealistic relationship people are discussing the Sam character’s ability to look past the physical as a rationalization for how it would happen

are you fucking kidding me with this bullshit

Actually, forget I asked that because I know you’re not.

So, I’m going to say it slow and mostly with small words in case someone is missing what I’m getting at:

The only reason that people think that Mercedes could not “realistically” hook up with Sam

is because

she is black and fat

and he is white.

Not even white and attractive…

BUT white and exactly inoffensive enough for society’s deeply racist (sexist, ageist, etc.) standards to thus default him, as a young white man, into “objectively” hot — to make him the ideal. While Mercedes as a girl, both fat and black, is automatically held as a body of little to no worth or appeal.

This is all BULLSHIT. It is not objective. It is not fair. It is not a reflection of the real world. It is not just to be understood that, based purely on physical appearance, a guy who looks like him would not be interested in a girl who looks like her. It is nothing but racist, colonial, horrible, disgusting, offensive standards of worth and beauty and attractiveness being SPEWED everywhere by people who either don’t realize or don’t care how WARPED what they are saying is.

And this is not me telling you that you are not allowed to find Sam or the actor who portrays him attractive. If you’re into that, whatever, I really don’t give a fuck.

This is me telling you that if you think of him and Amber Riley and this somehow seems WILDLY UNREALISTIC because he is just too attractive to possibly want her (AND LORD KNOWS THERE IS NO REASON TO QUESTION WHETHER SHE WOULD WANT HIM AMIRITE?)… just sit the fuck down now because you’re ignorant and you’re wrong and no one wants to hear what you have to say until you stop polluting the world with the racist, sizeist garbage that is falling out of your brain.

The only thing I want to add to this (besides my outrage) is that while I don’t find Sam attractive, I think that it doesn’t matter if we agree or don’t agree on Sam’s blandness. Even if Chord Overstreet is like, the next Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp (or Andrew Garfield!) or whoever everyone is salivating over — even if he had girls THROWING themselves at him, he could and should think that Mercedes was the most beautiful girl in the world and that she had the most stunning badass personality and best voice. He might very well pursue her over anyone else in the world, and, presuming she also wanted him, they could have a great relationship.

I do think that there is a lot of sizist, racist bullshit going on here, however. I think regardless of WHO is talking they’re simply placing his relative beauty, no matter how high they think that ranks, above hers. Which is ridiculous because she’s goddamn beautiful.

(I see the same sort of arguments about Lauren and Puck occasionally, but not as strongly probably, since there’s less intersectionality to Lauren. I am lucky enough to actually not have seen anti-Samcedes shit yet. Actually, most of what I’ve seen was the internet LOBBYING for Samcedes, so much so that when it happened I yelled “TUMBLR MADE THIS REAL!” But you know, we can never appreciate things unless we can’t have them.)

I also feel like this argument has a lot of self-internalized hatred going on along with its racist, sizist crap. Stop putting your selfhatred on other people. Stop BELIEVING bigger girls, or black girls, or whoever, can’t be with…whoever they want! Stop demanding that media feed you perfectly thin blonde cheerleader-jock couples EVEN ON A SHOW ABOUT OUTCASTS because you’ve been told that you are not good enough to be one of them.

Own up to your privilege, and to the biases you are living, and SHUT THE HELL UP.

(This reminds me so much of all the tabloid fodder about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s mistresses and how they’re not as “attractive” as Maria Shriver. There was an article on Jezebel.com, I believe, about how that nearly always happens to women in the media who someone famous has an affair with. I feel terrible for Ms. Shriver, but seriously? Someone can be attracted to someone regardless of age, appearance versus conventional stereotypes, weight, race, number of tattoos, whatever. THAT’S the part you find appalling?)