Current Events > Why is it so hard for people to separate the art from the artist?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Just enjoy thing, you don't have to feel guilty for it

Statements like these come from a position of privelege. It's easy for you to separate the art from the artist because you're not the one that's negatively impacted by the artist and you're essentially arguing that others should respect the sanctity of your safe space instead of constantly bring up aspects of the artist that are problematic, nor should they inform you of how their views have tainted their work for the worst.

Why should you care that JK Rowling has shitty views about transgendered people when all you want to do is get lost in a world of wizards doing magic things? Why should you care that Kanye West is an antisemite and all around bigot when you just want to tune out and listen to College Dropout? Well that's just you and a reflection of the sorts of things that you really care about. Everybody has their limits to what they're willing to actually accept and support from an individual and how well they're going to want to support their work. For the people that don't care about JK Rowling or Kanye West, how many of those people found it impossible to enjoy football when Kaepernick got everyone kneeling for the anthem? How many of those people are able to comfortably compartmentalize their views when it comes to music featuring Ian Watkins?

Everybody has their limits, maybe try and understand that instead of leaning hard on incredulity.

Honestly i really dont care. Do i like trump and kid rocks politics? No, but am i gonna stop watching home alone 2 and listening to bangers? No.

Not sure. For example I love The Who inspite if Pete Townshend. I also recognize he's a great songwriter

To a degree, I can understand.

But sorry, some heinous shit becomes inexcusable to look past. Im never reading or watching Rurouni Kenshin for instance after the mangaka got busted with loads of purchased cp and only got a laughable slap on the wrist for it.

A_Good_Boy posted...

Statements like these come from a position of privelege. It's easy for you to separate the art from the artist because you're not the one that's negatively impacted by the artist and you're essentially arguing that others should respect the sanctity of your safe space instead of constantly bring up aspects of the artist that are problematic, nor should they inform you of how their views have tainted their work for the worst.

That's presumptuous.

I refuse to read HP Lovecraft because of hits bigotry, but there have been Black people who have read his works and enjoyed the artistic merits while still condemning the bigotry. That's the entire premise of Lovecraft County.

Similarly, there are plenty of trans people who enjoy Harry Potter despite J.K. Rowling's persistent transphobia. There would be no reason to reassure people that the create-a-character feature in the latest Harry Potter game includes a trans option if it had a 100% cisgender fanbase.

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Some people think that bigotry is inseparable from a character or concept.

Bram Stoker was a bigot. Let's get rid of vampire fiction.

I dont get it how people can't separate the art from the artist either >_>

it's not hard to understand some people might feel bad for engaging in content made by pieces of shit

I mean, considering some artists promote their art by making themselves into a brand, and are active in social media or just PR stuff, it's understandable that you can't really separate some artists from their art.

Some are easier than others though.

NeonTentacles posted...

I don't get it how people can't separate the art from the artist either >_>

See, I find it more interesting, if that's the right word to use here, when people CAN'T separate the art from the artist.

For example, I get that people aren't (rightly so) running out and buying Bill Cosby albums or Cosby Show DVDs, as I'm sure he'd still get some sort of royalties from those sales, but to all of a sudden say his stand up isn't funny, or the Cosby Show isn't one of the greatest family sitcoms of the 1980's (possibly of all time) is just someone being obtuse.

I had this dilemma when Kevin Spacey was going through the trials he was going through. He is/was one of my favorite actors of all time, and no matter how horrible of a person he is, I just couldn't all of a sudden turn a switch and say Se7en or Usual Suspect is all of a sudden bad movies.

But I do understand that there's different levels when it comes to this. I was never a Harry Potter guy. Never read the books, never saw the movies. But I understand how someone that go into after reading them at 9-10 years old all of a sudden at 25 is being told to just abandon something that they've loved for 15 years.

It varies for me. Can't really separate the artist when a lot of R Kelly's best song are sexual in nature, nor can I enjoy a "wholesome" Cliff Huxtable knowing what Cosby did.

For me it's kinda difficult to do with R. Kelly because he was alluding to the stuff he was doing in his songs.

bigblu89 posted...

For example, I get that people aren't (rightly so) running out and buying Bill Cosby albums or Cosby Show DVDs, as I'm sure he'd still get some sort of royalties from those sales, but to all of a sudden say his stand up isn't funny, or the Cosby Show isn't one of the greatest family sitcoms of the 1980's (possibly of all time) is just someone being obtuse.

This is my feeling as well. R Kelly may be a pos, but he's easily one of the greatest R&B artists of all time. Hell, I wouldn't argue with someone who considered him the greatest.

Sure, it'd be easy, but at the same time, I don't particularly try to do that. I think, "does this piece of art really contribute a meaningful thing to my life, or is it just kinda a fun little thing to look at/listen to from time to time?" With most things, you will find very few individual things that actually will make your life worse upon removal. When you have that mindset, it's very easy to remove that art from your life entirely.

People can and can't to an extent. Depends on how much they like the art vs how awful the artist is.

I can enjoy HP movies while not respecting the creator.
I think Chris Benoit is a god awful human being but I can still watch his wrestling matches.
I can't listen to R Kelly because he's a rapist.

Not everyone is black or white with this shit.

Because the nature of art is that artists put a lot of themselves into their work. "Separating" the two basically just means that you pretend things didn't happen, which for some of us is a bit hard to do when the status and popularity of the art is what allowed the artist to do the things they did. Bill Cosby is my go-to example of this.

VeggetaX posted...

People can and can't to an extent. Depends on how much they like the art vs how awful the artist is.

I can enjoy HP movies while not respecting the creator.
I think Chris Benoit is a god awful human being but I can still watch his wrestling matches.
I can't listen to R Kelly because he's a rapist.

Not everyone is black and white with this shit.

Was this intentional? If not, that's pretty hilarious.

It's a meaningless concept when you realize that in this day and age, enjoying anything is a subconscious way of showing your beliefs.

It's why as much as I love Diablo 2 for decades, I stopped playing it once the Blizzard controversy happened. If I continued playing that, it'd mean I agree with Blizzards beliefs.

That's simply how it works.

If someone wants to disassociate from something because they are uncomfortable, thats fine, but it feels like most cases you see online are just virtue signaling social grandstands. If someone needs to advertise it unprompted, they probably dont really care other than making themselves look better than others. There is so much horrible shit going on in the world that youd give yourself a stroke if you tried to avoid all of it.

Why is it so hard for people to separate the source from the sorcerer?

virtue signaling

holy shit, unironically, and this close to 2023, it's like finding a fossil

Be a good little consumer. Don't worry if you are funding harm, just consume!

GhostFaceLeaks posted...

It's a meaningless concept when you realize that in this day and age, enjoying anything is a subconscious way of showing your beliefs.

It's why as much as I love Diablo 2 for decades, I stopped playing it once the Blizzard controversy happened. If I continued playing that, it'd mean I agree with Blizzards beliefs.

That's simply how it works.

Anyone who shops at Amazon believes in the Amazon creed.

Funkydog posted...

Be a good little consumer. Don't worry if you are funding harm, just consume!

I mean, once you own a book or CD or whatever, theres no or little reason to stop reading or listening if you find out years later the artist is a piece of shit. Any funding you did was long since done.

GhostFaceLeaks posted...

It's a meaningless concept when you realize that in this day and age, enjoying anything is a subconscious way of showing your beliefs.

It's why as much as I love Diablo 2 for decades, I stopped playing it once the Blizzard controversy happened. If I continued playing that, it'd mean I agree with Blizzards beliefs.

That's simply how it works.

If you really believe that shit, you better stop consuming pretty much everything. There isn't a corporation existing that isn't doing something shady in some way, whether it's individuals in the corporation or the corporation itself. It's just not super blown up to the public and the moral outrage of the week.

PesticideDream posted...

If you really believe that shit, you better stop consuming pretty much everything. There isn't a corporation existing that isn't doing something shady in some way, whether it's individuals in the corporation or the corporation itself. It's just not super blown up to the public and the moral outrage of the week.

I agree with this to an extent. It's kinda like tweeting outrage from an iPhone about Nike's factory conditions in China.