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well fellas i just found out about the term ‘thermian argument’ and holy shit is this gonna make it easier for me to shut down certain talking points
unsurprisingly there are a LOT of fandombrained people very VERY upset by this term lmfao
The thermian argument is a logical fallacy that occurs when a question or criticism concerning the political statements that can be gleaned from a game or other work of art are countered instead with an in-universe explanation for why the thing being criticized is actually valid.
i cant read can someone explain this in a different way so it makes sense (if u don’t mind)
@fandomfishbish it’s like when female superheroes are drawn with almost zero clothing or armor, especially compared to male superheroes with the same powers, and people try to defend it by insisting that the in-universe explanation (like, that she’s solar powered, so she needs sunlight on her skin to use her powers) makes it okay, even though it was a real human man who decided to draw her that way.
Someone does something gross, and people use the story to defend the gross person’s real world actions and decisions.
Like, if I were to write a story about werewolves that says that any woman who gets bitten by a werewolf dies screaming in horrible agony, because women are weak and fragile and only men are Tough Enough™ to be werewolves, someone using the thermian argument would say that it’s not misogynistic of me to write that, because “women are too weak to survive being bitten! That’s just the way it is! It can’t be helped!”
As though the story controls me, and not the other way around, as though I, a real life person, hadn’t made the conscious decision to brutally murder all the women who get bitten by a werewolf.
Hope that helps!
I just want to expand that it’s not just that some man decided to draw the superhero lady with her tits and entire ass out, he also set up the universe so that she needs sunlight on her skin for her powers. She could get her power from anything, the sun’s gravity, a radioactive whatever, maybe still sunlight but she can absorb it through her hair, or her costume is made of UV permeable fabric. The Thermian argument ignores that the writer set up not only the sexist/racist/offensive thing, but also the in-universe reason that said thing had to happen. The fact that there’s an in-universe explanation doesn’t help because they also made the rules of the universe
I believe Dan Olson- who is on Youtube as ‘Folding Ideas’- came up with this! It’s a wonderful argument and he’s a really cool guy who deserves more love.
Go watch Dan’s videos, whether he did this or not, he’s a very smart funny guy with some really good thoughts.
I was reading the first post and was queuing up his video as I worked my way down! He’s amazing.
