Tag: marvel

agenderraskel:

briefpaperexpert:

tonystarkdefensesquadmember:

carolxdanvers:

Fandom prefers their mentally ill characters to be like a fairy tale character, cursed to become a monster after spending 100 years with a wicked witch. Fandom loves Bucky Barnes because they see him as this cursed princess. When Bucky shows symptoms they manifest either as Sebastian Stan Looking Sad And Pensive, or as Literally Not In Control of His Own Body.

Tony Stark, a more realistic day-to-day portrayal of mental illness, is pretty widely hated and treated like a villain within the fandom. When Tony displays symptoms, it’s in making poor decisions out of desperation and fear. He goes to extremes. His mistakes made from fear based in his trauma blow up in his face. He displays coping mechanisms by being obsessive and unintentionally endangering people. He uses false arrogance and humor to distance himself, he lingers on his past trauma and it continues to shape his actions, often negatively, years later. He lashes out violently when he is faced with losing the few people he is close to.

Tony’s poor choices should not be excused because of his mental illnesses. He needs to be held responsible. But the way fandom treats Tony versus how they treat Bucky is pretty telling. Fandom doesn’t want mentally ill characters. They want innocent victims who cope in perfectly healthy ways and have never made any mistakes or poor choices as a result of their mental illness or trauma. They want someone they can feel sad about, but not someone with any messy symptoms.

Just as long as that mental illness isn’t inconvenient, unattractive, or uncomfortable!

Hit the nail right on the damn head

A lot of people are responding to this like it’s a criticism of Bucky or an attempt to absolve Tony, and… I’m not seeing it? It’s not a criticism of them, it’s a criticism of how they are treated by those who consume the media they are in.

People like Bucky because his illness has never spilled over onto other people. Which is mostly because after gaining enough awareness to make him culpable of anything he decided to go into hiding and only interact when he absolutely needed to. He retreated, because he needed time, and that was seen as an acceptable way to handle his trauma. 

And at the end of CA: CW, he locked himself away again. His version of protecting people, seclusion, is seen as noble and selfless. And it is! He’s doing his best not to hurt anyone ever again! He’s doing pretty well at it when Steve doesn’t interfere.

Tony, on the other hand, both does not have that option and would not take it if he did. For the first, he’s too far in the public eye for that to work. For the second, he is more… settled, than Bucky. Bucky is terrified of himself, of what has been planted in him, so he runs. Tony trust, if nothing else, his own genius. It’s one of the most reliable things he’s ever known.

What it boils down to is that Bucky does nothing big once he’s back in control of himself, so there’s no big, ugly messes to point to. He runs and hides and that’s fine, he’s doing what he thinks is best. Tony does many, many things, and a lot of them blow up in his face and make big ugly messes. Often, yes, because of his mental illness. So people hate him for it. If it helps, he hates himself more.

The general attitude about this I see in the fandom- isolation: noble. Trying to do stuff and fucking up sometimes: go die.

The message to mentally ill people like myself: run. Hide. Never show that you are damaged. Never do anything important. Even if you usually succeed, we define you by your failures. You will never be more than your mistakes. Be silent. Be still. And never show that you are damaged.