In Defense of Lindsay Ellis

 

So, I was evaluating this year's Hugo Award nominees, and came across a doozy of a controversy. Going through the nominees list, I went back-to front, just like the awards ceremony does, and started first with the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. First name on the list: Lindsey Ellis. I googled her name to see what she'd done lately to garner a Hugo nomination, and immediately found a shitload of websites reporting that she'd been cancelled on Twitter. Half of them supported her, half said she deserved it, and nobody was clear on which side of the political aisle that they were on.

What, what?! 

When I made my recommendations list for the Hugo Awards back in February, I recommended Isabel Fall for her trans-positive short story, "I Sexually Identify As An Attack Helicopter," even though, and because of the fact that, many of her allies attacked her for misunderstanding the story based on its title. I strongly felt that a fellow liberal should be strongly championed for standing up to the cancel culture present among her own allies.

Isabel Fall didn't make the list. Little did I know that Lindsay Ellis was already out there.

I've learned a bit about her, now. She's up for a Hugo for Best New Writer for her book, Axiom's End, released last year (New York Times Best Seller), and its sequel, Truth of the Divine, which is due out later this year. A third book is currently in the works. These books deal with humans making first contact with an alien civilization, but the government covers it up - so it sounds like just my kind of story.

She's also an old ally from the Gamergate controversy, being one of the women who stood up for women's rights against a horde of misogynistic boys who didn't want Lara Croft to have a reasonable bust line.

Yeah, she fought the same guys who later struck at us with the "Sad Puppies" and "Rabid Puppies" campaigns. Good for her!

But she's also done YouTube videos for years, many of them comically themed, and comics tend to cross the line on occasion because, well, they're comics. Ellis is no exception, and there's a laundry list of small complaints regarding her humor having gone too far. She's also a movie and film critic, and that may have led to the current crisis. (Nobody loves a professional critic.)

She's sometimes been known as the "Nostalgia Chick," she co-hosts the PBS series "It's Lit," and is one of the founders of the Standard creators' community. She's young, but she's been on the Internet a good while.

So what's the cause of the current Twitter crisis? Apparently, it's a Tweet which said this:

“Also watched Raya and the Last Dragon and I think we need to come up with a name for this genre that is basically Avatar: the Last Airbender reduxes. It’s like half of all YA fantasy published in the last few years anyway.”

Yep. That's it.

What the fuck? I mean, last straws are one thing. Nonexistent straws are quite another.

Apparently, the Tweet was - white? I don't see it, but that's what the naysayers are naysaying.

In frustration over this "tempest-in-a-cappuccino-cup," Lindsay has deleted her Twitter account. So, in a very real sense, she was not "cancelled." She did her own self-cancelling.

Yet in this age of Twitter tirades, nothing convinces people to cancel someone quite like "Lemmingism." In other words, all the other lemminigs are saying it, so it must be true.

Never mind that cliff.

In a brilliant move, reminiscent of one of Hillary Clinton's press conferences where she ground reporters to death by letting herself be cross-examined for hours until they wore themselves out, Lindsay did a YouTube video lasting 100 minutes in which she outlined what happened, why, and then proceeded to take every piece of dirty laundry down from the wash line, air it out in front of everyone, express her regret, and do a shot of some brand of whiskey appropriately named "Writers' Tears." You can see the entire video here, and I highly recommend it. The fact that she does enough shots to be respectable, yet doesn't get visibly drunk, is either a testament to her liver's fortitude, or evidence that she is not so scandal-ridden as her detractors claim. (Take your pick. I say both.) Some of her confessions are stirring, such as her own personal rape experience leading to a "rape rapper" video which many people criticize her for. Or her admitting that wearing a burka with pigtails was probably not a good idea for comedy (although I say "Je suis Charlie").

I find it interesting that most people could not list any of the bad things Lindsay ever did when condemning her. A few could, but they were the ones who  hated her to begin with and saw a "cancel opportunity." This contrasts starkly with the recent case of Gina Carano, who did enough poisonous Tweets that most of us remembered many others beforehand before she finally went one Tweet too far.

How telling it is that the one true itemized list that details all of Lindsay Ellis' past sins comes from Lindsay Ellis herself.

She concludes her video by resolutely condemning Twitter and all it destroys, and makes an impassioned plea for doxxers not to attack her friends for the mere crime of association with her.

Did she make the mistakes she confesses in her video? Sure. Does she deserve to be canceled for those? I say hell, no! Because unlike Gina Carano, or J.K. Rowling, or Louis C.K., or any number of other celebrities out there who have NEVER apologized for their misdeeds (and never will), Lindsay Ellis admits her mistakes, apologizes for them, and shows remorse. (And does a shot for each one - not exactly a punishment, but I'll let that slide.) She has changed her mind when wrong, and shows that she is deserving of forgiveness.

And that's the point. In a culture that is becoming rapidly non-Christian (Thank God! Yuk, yuk!) we are learning the hard way that forgiveness is not just a Christian thing. Forgiveness is an essential part of everyday life. We can't do without it any more than we can do without food, water, clothing or shelter, because without it, we can't get along, we can't interact, and consequently, we can't survive.

Forgive the penitent. Cancel the unrepentant. It's not difficult to either understand or do.

Lindsay Ellis deserves forgiveness. Not for this latest Tweet - that was absolutely nothing. But for all that came before, which was apparently not enough to tip the scales before this little, itty, bitty puff of wind came along, she does. Along with Bill Maher, Al Franken, and Kathy Griffin. We all fuck up. There isn't a single one of us out there that can pass a purity test. So why bother administering one, on Twitter or anywhere else?

Yeah, Lindsay's earned some ridicule. But let's cut a sister a break. She's earned that, too!

Just like any veteran warrior has.

 

As to whether she's earned a Hugo, I'll save that for another post.

Eric

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