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Jul. 15th, 2020 01:48 ammedium.com/anigay/lets-hold-hands-on-allyship-and-assimilation-in-bna-21ad49feb9ba
“So many stories about oppression prioritize reassuring the privileged that if they just act nice enough, if they learn to be Good, everything will be fine,” Black writes. “Give me stories that aren’t interested in the comfort of the privileged. Give me stories that dare to problematize the ideas of allyship, equality, acceptance. Give me stories that understand that beastmen should never settle for being tolerated in an oppressive human society, when they have so much to teach the world about radical self-actualization.”
What she’s forgetting is that the final villain of BNA isn’t a human, but a beastman. The whole show, Shirou has insisted that beastmen are better than violent, treacherous humans, and that if beastmen work with humans, that means they’re no longer beastmen and hence no longer better. He mutilates beastmen who’ve “lost their pride,” and believes death is preferable to assimilation. Then the ultimate villain is a twisted parody of his own ideas, one who views Shirou himself as too human and too impure. In fighting back against genocide, Shirou ends up defending humanity--the humanity shared by all beastmen who have human ancestry, or live in human culture, or have human friends. Becoming “normal” may not be the answer, but neither is trying to separate yourself out completely.
“So many stories about oppression prioritize reassuring the privileged that if they just act nice enough, if they learn to be Good, everything will be fine,” Black writes. “Give me stories that aren’t interested in the comfort of the privileged. Give me stories that dare to problematize the ideas of allyship, equality, acceptance. Give me stories that understand that beastmen should never settle for being tolerated in an oppressive human society, when they have so much to teach the world about radical self-actualization.”
What she’s forgetting is that the final villain of BNA isn’t a human, but a beastman. The whole show, Shirou has insisted that beastmen are better than violent, treacherous humans, and that if beastmen work with humans, that means they’re no longer beastmen and hence no longer better. He mutilates beastmen who’ve “lost their pride,” and believes death is preferable to assimilation. Then the ultimate villain is a twisted parody of his own ideas, one who views Shirou himself as too human and too impure. In fighting back against genocide, Shirou ends up defending humanity--the humanity shared by all beastmen who have human ancestry, or live in human culture, or have human friends. Becoming “normal” may not be the answer, but neither is trying to separate yourself out completely.
