“IS THIS PROBLEMATIC? YES OR NO?” The Tumblr Issue

Lately, well, actually I’ve been seeing this awhile now, there’s this unspoken rule of tumblr where everything is either “problematic!!” or it’s not. Usually said person/item will be deemed ABSOLUTELY problematic and that’s the end of discussion. Likewise, if something is not problematic then it’s sometimes deemed progressive, alot of the times said thing is not even remotely progressive but since it doesn’t carry the label problematic then it must be good! Lately we’ve been defining the term “problematic” in black and white terms. Whereas really something being problematic is more in the gray area of things.

Example: Frozen is a problematic film, Beyoncé is a problematic person.

The knee jerk reaction is to agree Frozen is “problematic" and thus the most insidious of films. Like wise, knee jerk reaction is to defend Beyoncé because we are terrified of labeling her as "problematic” since we equate the word with horrible things.

In truth, both are problematic for different reasons. Their reasons for being problematic do not establish them as absolutely evil or undermine their good things. We cannot equate problematic as always bad or evil. Problematic should be a way to open up a discussion, hey lets talk about this. Problematic is morally gray. Lets talk about it.