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[personal profile] 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.






(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-12 11:54 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] 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.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-13 08:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] 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 ;)

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