The word "wholesome" leaves negative space around it that defines "degenerate" without naming it. It's purpose it to exclude, to build a fence around "good" and keep the riff-raff out. It's the concept of "purity" with an air freshener hanging off.
best summary of why "wholesome" when applied to media makes me wanna hurl that i've read. i'd never been able to put it that succinctly.
i had no idea about that for degenerate. but wholesome is so tired nowadays
See I remember when Wholesome started in queer and poc spaces to mean "yes this is a game that centers marginalized people but no it doesn't involve trauma." It was a signifier by marginalized devs to marginalized players that this was content for people who needed a fucking break in the form of light friendly comfort media.
It had problems then too but it's distressing to see it getting warped beyond recognition like this.
I also feel like some of the opposition to it came in the form of people being indignant that anyone wouldn’t want to engage with horrifically stressful (even if it’s powerful and good and important stories being told) stuff during like. Mass political unrest and pandemics and wildfires and such. Like “how dare you retreat into something relaxing when you want to play a video game” kinda thing.
Which even then I can understand, but I feel like “wholesome” (sure ok, let’s use a different word for it, whatever) gets a bad rap bc it gets associated with escapism in a really negative way. But i honestly kinda think people should mind their own business on this one.
this is a really interesting observation. it's not applicable in 100% of cases, of course, and many people use it to describe things that are light and friendly in tone, but you're totally right that it's sometimes used subtextually to denigrate things that the audience just doesn't like. to a reactionary, something can be "wholesome" in the same sense that it's "apolitical"; it doesn't challenge their notions of goodness, so it's a breezy fun time.
and on the converse, i have seen horrifically violent or bloodthirsty media described as "wholesome" because it's about targeting people we agree are bad lol. that's not me judging it as bad or whatever, it's just a weird way to frame it
