Whenever I hear an artist use the word ‘hater’ without the big burst of laughter that would indicate they’re joking or they can’t produce a doctor’s certificate that confirms their clinical paranoia, I yawn a little inside.
Like pop stars foaming, famed and fresh from a crack binge, so many of our city’s celebrities suffer from paranoia so profound they can barely leave the house without a fully charged cell phone with which to wage war against an invisible group of people who ostensibly spend their days scarfing down sour grapes.
Parrying blows from haters on Twitter, Facebook and any other platform that lends itself to whinging, these artists intersperse inspirational quotes with such searing lines as ‘Haters gonna hate’, ‘Haters wanna war’ and ‘Do you, Boo Boo’ in a cringeworthy campaign that sees their friends and followers muting their profiles without a crumb of compunction.
Newsflash: When haters succeed in making you unbearable to the people who actually enjoy your art, that is 50 points to Slytherin.
And if you find yourself talking about your detractors instead of posting pictures of your lunch, sharing shit from 9Gag and stealing quotes from obscure writers and passing them off as your own, you are not doing the internet right.
Though it is unpopular among the most rabid Hater Slayers, there is also this little idea gaining traction in society at large which hypothesizes that about 96.5% of your haters are not in fact sour grape eaters….they just don’t like your art.
This is not because you wear funny clothes, are often inebriated or wear a cologne that reminds them of a neighbour who used to pinch their cheeks as a child, instead it is simply because they don’t care for your art the way the way they don’t enjoy offerings from Rihanna, Damien Hirst, McG, Arthur Miller or Saul Williams and prefer to listen to Regina Spektor, buy art by Wangechi Mutu, watch films by Richard Linklater and plays by Athol Fugard while adoring spoken word by Sarah Kay.
Art is experienced subjectively.
This means that when you present your piece imbued with your personal feelings, tastes and opinions, it is assimilated through another person’s personal feelings, tastes and opinions and just because they don’t enjoy your work or think it is very good does not mean they are haters trying to bring you down.
For what it’s worth, people are entitled to their opinion. Even their unflattering ones.
But what people’s negative opinions are not worth is your total preoccupation. They are not worth having them distract you so much that they seep into your art and every third passive aggressive update you post on social media.
They are not worth you becoming so irksome and self-important that people hear more about how many haters you have incongruous to your amazing work which we never get any updates or sneak peeks at because you are posting about haters.
Negative opinions are not worth you presenting yourself as a vainglorious megalomaniac in your own defense instead of letting your art speak for itself in a bid for conversion or closed mouths.
What negative opinions are worth, from people whose opinions you genuinely respect, are your careful consideration with regard to how you may come across. They are worth you working on what rings true deep in the core of you and jettisoning what sounds like genuine jealousy.
Don’t wear your defense against haters like your best coat and never bust out something new, exciting and so much better than you have ever been.
If people are talking about you with reference to how arrogant you are, rather than commenting on your work, negatively and positively, then you’ve been sunk. Ironically, by the people who you say will never sink you. But they have. They’ve sunk your focus. They’ve sunk your art and they’ve sunk your public image.
That said, if you think your art is beyond criticism then you’re probably the only creative in the world, besides Kanye West, who does.
If you think everybody likes your work and those who genuinely do not care for it are haters, you are deluded. It is the nature of the game. Deal with it or get out of it.
But be mature.
Consider criticism with grace, don’t just run to the defensive and have more class than the people who are really waiting to see you slip.
Some things to remember:
• No one is perfect.
• The assimilation of art is subjective.
• Any critic’s opinion is just one of many.
• Every day is an opportunity to better ourselves.
•We can all do better.
– marth__vader on Twitter
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