My takeaway was less “it is bad to mock my group” as “it is bad to mock a group while simultaneously exploiting them.” HPMOR doesn’t try to get attention or revenue from outgroup members, but the authors argument is that the BBT producers are being immoral/hypocritical by simultaneously mocking a group and marketing themselves to them. And that they are putting up with it because they don’t have any other mainstream media coverage. (Analogously, if some show mocks a stereotypical minority character for doing stereotypical minority things it would be strange for them to sell dolls of that character to the minority group).
Okay, that’s a good point—I guess I had just never thought of BBT as being marketed to geeks very much. It’s on at prime time on CBS, and it has a broad fan base, but I guess the criticism here is that they mock an out-group while pretending that they’re one of them. Thanks for the clarification. :)
And yet they do. For isntance, foreigners are often despicable heels in professional wrestling as a way of appealing to the lowest common deniminator, yet they somehow often end up being national heroes for said foreign nationalities.
My takeaway was less “it is bad to mock my group” as “it is bad to mock a group while simultaneously exploiting them.” HPMOR doesn’t try to get attention or revenue from outgroup members, but the authors argument is that the BBT producers are being immoral/hypocritical by simultaneously mocking a group and marketing themselves to them. And that they are putting up with it because they don’t have any other mainstream media coverage. (Analogously, if some show mocks a stereotypical minority character for doing stereotypical minority things it would be strange for them to sell dolls of that character to the minority group).
Okay, that’s a good point—I guess I had just never thought of BBT as being marketed to geeks very much. It’s on at prime time on CBS, and it has a broad fan base, but I guess the criticism here is that they mock an out-group while pretending that they’re one of them. Thanks for the clarification. :)
And yet they do. For isntance, foreigners are often despicable heels in professional wrestling as a way of appealing to the lowest common deniminator, yet they somehow often end up being national heroes for said foreign nationalities.
And then there’s Barbie… “Maths are hard” indeed.