In which Zin is seriously pissed off.

[zinnith]

The fandom police strikes again and a talented writer has felt it necessary to friendslock her journal to protect herself from mean and hurtful comments. And all this because she wrote a story that certain people found offensive. This pisses me off in more ways than I can count.

Newsflash for you, fandom: There is only one person responsible for your feelings and that is YOU. If you find a story offensive, it has nothing to do with the writer. That interpretation is in YOUR head. (That is, unless the story is deliberately written to be offensive, which was not the case in this particular wank.)

As writers, we can't let our readers dictate what we write. We can't constantly stop to consider if someone might find the story we are writing offensive, because then nothing would be written. I'm sure someone out there finds penis gourds offensive, so Koteka would never exist. Hell, a lot of people find slash offensive so I'd have to delete pretty much everything fandom related I've ever written to protect the slash haters' precious little feelings.

I have said this before about the show, and now I say it again but this time about fandom. It's not your right to decide what a writer should or should not write! If you don't like a story - well, that's what the back button is for!  And if you really really feel that you need to inform the author of your disapproval, you can do it in a nice way with constructive criticism. You do not start big flame-fest and bring all your friends to the party. You do not throw around words like 'misogynist' and 'woman-hater'. That is offensive. It's probably something of the worst you can accuse a fellow sister of being.

So once again, in capslock this time just to make myself extra clear:

1. A WRITER CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WAY HER READERS INTERPRET  HER STORIES.

2. IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT - DON'T READ IT. LEARN HOW TO USE THE BACK BUTTON.

3. MOST WRITERS WELCOME CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM. IF YOU WANT TO INFLUENCE SOMEONE'S WRITING, THAT IS THE WAY TO GO.

So, this rant will probably label me as anti-feminist who supports killing off female characters. To that, I can only say that I'm as much feminist as you. The difference between us is that I know how to use my common sense when reading. Lastly, I don't support killing Jennifer Keller - but I do support any writer's right to do so if they should feel like it.

There, now I'm all finished.

Comments

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

You have said exactly what I was feeling in such a clear and concise way that I take my hat off to you. Really, I could not have stated it any more firmly or eloquently. Thank you for saying it for me.

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm extremely disappointed in some parts of fandom right now. Sadly, the people who need to read this rant will probably find it offensive ;)

[rellan.livejournal.com]

I'm not a big fan of deathfic(although I've read some good heartwrenching ones), a few things squick me and some things I just don't like at all but I would NEVER tell someone they should not write or are not allowed to write those things. That's just...no.

I'm a firm believer and practitioner of #2.

...and, penis gourds? For real? Do I want to know or should I preserve my little bit of innocence? ;)

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

I don't like death!fics myself as a rule so I just don't read them. It's very easy. It amazes me how intelligent people can be so stupid.

The penis gourd fic is called Koteka. It can be found here. It's pure crack and not nearly as dangerous as it sounds.

[rellan.livejournal.com]

Penis gourd fic rules.

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

They do, don't they? :D

[the-cephalopod.livejournal.com]

Very well said. *applauds* cep xxx

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

*bows* Thank you! Certain people make me very tired sometimes... it's like watching a bunch of twelve-year-olds.

[xanthelj.livejournal.com]

I think it's about time the SGA fandom fought back against the self-appointed fandom police - they've been throwing their weight around and driving good authors out of the fandom for far too long. It's only lately the tide has turned and I've sensed a change of mood against them. So go you and hugs to anyone who was hurt by them. They don't OWN bloody fandom, and people can write what they damn well like.

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

It's definitely time! I find it very strange how a BNF can post humiliating pictures of some poor man without pants dangling from a lift and get nothing but praise. One of us mortals posts an innocent story written for fun and is attacked and called names. I feel like I'm back in high school where a small clique of people decide what's right and wrong.

So yep - it's definitely time to strike back!

[xanthelj.livejournal.com]

Yeah - always one rule for the BNFs and another for everyone else. I so agree about the high school analogy - that's how I felt a couple of years ago when it happened to me. I'm glad there's a mood of retaliation in the air!

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

Nothing bad said about the BNF in question though - she's an extremely nice person and an amazing writer. But yes, it seems like people are willing to put up with things from BNF:s that wouldn't be accepted from us mere mortals.

[ladyoflisquill.livejournal.com]

Amen!

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Fandom is supposed to be fun for everyone, not a powerstruggle over who gets to rule the playground.

[ladyoflisquill.livejournal.com]

For me it always comes back to that saying, "I might not agree with what you say but I will fight to the death for your right to say it."

I commented on T's journal and it makes me so angry that things got to the stage where she feels she has to do this but if it makes her feel safe in her 'house' than all the better.

Now I'm off to read penis gourd fic because, seriously... what!

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

You are so right. Freedom of speech rules.

In my opinion, she shouldn't have to f-lock anything. She kindly invited people to her personal space to read her story and they returned the favour by dissing her. Hell, that's like visiting someone's house and spend the entire time talking about how ugly the curtains are, and then bring all your friends to criticise the curtains as well. It's something you just don't do.

My number one rule of interacting with people online is that I won't do anything to someone over the net that I wouldn't do if I met them in real life. I just wish more people could share that belief.

[vida-boheme.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this. I have wondered all weekend about the strange dynamic that was at work here: where the health and welfare of a fictional female character allows people to spit bile at a real, living, feeling human woman. Constructive criticism of a work is one thing, but this sort of personal policing of intention and interpretation is so many leagues beyond that.

I see misogyny in fandom. It's just not in the places so many others seem so keen to flag it.

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

You're completely right. It will never cease to baffle me how women who call themselves feminists so easily can attack a fellow sister without a second thought.

Demanding that everyone see your interpretation of something as the only true one is not only stupid, it's selfish and it shows that you have far too high thoughts about yourself. It seems like someone might need to take a class in constructive criticism...

[propinquitine.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this. The kind of pile-on that author experienced is exactly the kind of thing that will act to chill other fans' expression, which fills my free-speech-loving heart with rage. I'm all for an individual fan's ability to construct and filter her f-list so that she doesn't read things that she finds trigger-y or distasteful, and I'm glad there's a general spirit of courtesy in terms of warning about possibly triggering or squicky material, but that's as far as one fan's (or one group's) feelings should get to affect how others speak.

Maybe some fans don't want to see anything they dislike as part of "their" fandom, but: no one owns fandom (obviously), and no one gets to thought-police the community. If they want to host meta discussions about various characters and fannish response to them, and feminism in fan works in the face of a sexist canon writing staff -- great! That's very interesting (to me), and I'm sure I'd read those posts avidly. If they just want to rant about it in their own journals, f-locked or not, comments enabled or not -- great! What's the point of having an lj if you can't express yourself? But laying into a fan on her own journal in a post that was not exactly an invitation for big heavy meta discussion/judge-me-as-a-person replies -- not at all great, and it really looks an attempt to use disapproval to make people stop saying/writing things the commenters don't like. I'm really glad to see people standing up to these kinds of chilling effects, so thanks again for this post!

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

You are right in so many ways! The way they're behaving sends the wrong message to new authors, who might feel discouraged from writing and posting their own stories.

Plus, attacking an author in her own journal is just rude and disrespectful. Like I wrote earlier - it's like visiting someone's house, bring all your friends, and spend the whole visit complaining about how ugly the curtains are. It's one thing to discuss a story in an open comm, but a completely different thing in a private LJ.

[mesmorizee.livejournal.com]

I kind of want to write tons of fic that the fandom police will take offense to and then blatantly ignore their flaming and just keep on posting just to annoy them.
(This is kind of how I handled the people bullying me at school, I annoyed them even more. Perhaps not a succesful strategy but since I knew I was smarter and better than them I didn't care).
This of course not something I will do because it would probably start a war of some kind.

I just. I haven't read the story because it's a death fic. And I had no idea that this was happening because of it because I thought people ignored stuff they didn't want to read. Because that's the logical thing to do right?

I feel so sorty for her and I sometimes I just can't believe how mean other people can be. Do they really want this to happen to them too? Do they really think it's an okay behaviour? And why, why do everything has to be analysed!? I hate analysing stuff. When I read something I want it to entertain me, and I want the author to want to entertain me.

I am not going to assume that the author is a mysogynist (unless the author is Swedish and called Strindberg but fortunately he is dead) or racist of homophobe unless it is really obvious. But in this case it's just an author upset with a character and I refuse to believe that people who write fanfics have never killed off a character just because they disliked him/her. And if they haven't written it they must have had a fantasy about doing it. Because it just feels like human nature to make something they don't like go away even if they don't wish it'll happen for real. Isn't that the point of fanfic, to make things the way we want them to be?

And everyone isn't going to want the same things. That's life.
And our show just ended. Really is a weekend of hate the right thing to follow it up with? If someone wants to solve their frustrations with the show by writing a story where she kills off one of the characters then I don't think that should be stopped. And I don't think people should judge her, I think they should sit back and think really hard about what sort of place they want their fandom to be. A place where the rules are realy strict or a place where people are allowed to be creative and actually allowed to do stuff to write what ever they want because every single person should have the right to create their own world.

Also... I haven't ever commented on the author's stories that I have read. But in case she would see this or if you could pass it along. Or if(when) I ever manage to comment on stuff I read. I just anted to actually mention that I've always enjoyed and really like the stories she's written and it sucks that this fandom isn't all sunshine and rainbows like it sometimes pretends to be.

I am off to bed now. This comment was not supposed to be this long. In fact I wasn't even going to say anything but when I got started... Anyway... I have forgotten half of everything I said. I really hope I didn't just embarrass myself... Bed right.

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

You have a lot of intelligent things to say :) Especially about what kind of fandom we want. Do we want one where only a few people are allowed to participate with the rest as an admiring audience, or do we want a fandom where everyone can feel included? I know which one I want...

Actually, my first reaction was the same as yours - I wanted to write an epic crackfic where all male characters are gay and conspire to kill off all the females in various grisly ways ;)

[iibnf.livejournal.com]

1. Five houses down the road from me are on fire and we're facing evacuation.
2. We just lost a well loved fan to unexpected tragedy.
3. Someone wrote some internet porn that someone else didn't like.

Which one of these issues will make you look like a self-important wanker if you go and troll someone about it? Oh man, PRIORITIES! It's freaking internet porn!

In trying to look on the bright side, I suppose I should be happy for those people that if finding a short story that annoys them is the worst thing in their lives, they must have pretty good lives.

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

Heh, it wasn't even porn. But we all know that teh internets is seriouz bisniss. And when we get to the issues of gender, race and social status, there are a lot of sore toes around. Only, some of us chose to wear steel-toed boots instead of whining over every little percieved injury.
Sure, fighting discrimination against women is a good thing, but I figure it's better to start in the real world with real misogynists and leave the (female!) authors who write stories for fun alone.

[iibnf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, lets fight misogyny by getting our torches and pitchforks out and mobbing some woman who dared write what she wanted to write. Tsk.