When I say bad, I don’t mean something that is intentionally wrong on a moral level. I’m not talking about people who draw POC as racist caricatures or use art to spend messages of hate. I mean just plain poorly executed, amateurish, mediocre, bad art. It’s important that bad art exists. And callout culture is so toxic to just regular, run of the mill bad art that it honestly makes me worried about young artists who are growing up in this environment.
There’s all kinds of bad art, but perhaps the most embarrassing kind is something TV Tropes calls unfortunate implications. This is when you accidentally make something offensive. When you’re a young artist (or just starting out in art, but more commonly when you’re young) sometimes you don’t think things through all the way. Maybe you use a word you didn’t realize is a slur or you draw a character like a stereotype that you just plain haven’t heard of before. Maybe you haven’t learned to think critically about your own work well enough to recognize a resemblance to something unfortunate. Maybe you’re out of your depth on an issue and don’t realize you need to do more research. Whatever the situation, unfortunate implications can creep up on anyone. It’s just a part of learning how to make art. But in the current climate, it can also ruin your life if you get especially unlucky.
Callout culture works on a one-strike policy. Once someone is problematic, they are problematic forever. And that can ruin a young artist. Being labelled cringe-worthy or just plain shitty is bad enough, but being labelled racist or homophobic for an honest mistake is a whole different level. Those terms imply intent that doesn’t exist in this case, and it can make you fair game for all kinds of harassment. There has to be room for mistakes, room that callout culture doesn’t allow. The results can be awful. Young artists can be bullied out of creating content before they even get a chance to find their voice.
So I’m not saying give hate speech a free pass, I’m saying that mistakes happen and should be treated like mistakes, not like genuine shittiness. Accept apologies and understand that not everyone has your level of experience. Before you call something intentionally bigoted, ask if it’s an honest mistake. A lot of young artists just don’t realize they’ve done something wrong and screaming at them to quit making art isn’t going to help them learn. It’s just going to decrease the overall quantity of art in the world and make someone feel like they should never be creative again.
Don’t assume something is maliciously offensive until you’ve ruled out the possibility of a mistake.
Let People Make Bad Art
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