Thursday Prompts for Friday Meta
Last week's Meta Friday went so well, we've decided to try to keep it going. On Thursday, I (or someone) will try to post a small group of prompts in the hopes of inspiring meta to be posted on Friday.
Da Ruulz (so far, subject to change at whim) THURSDAY (by my calendar, west coast USA), 3-5 meta-related fannish prompts are posted. FRIDAY, people post meta that's related to the prompt. That can be: an essay directly answering the prompt, a reply to someone else's essay, a bit of meta indirectly related to the prompt, or even meta about the episode of Star Trek that one of the words in the prompts reminded you of. We're easy here; we like meta. LATER, CONTINUING THROUGHOUT WEEKEND: Comments and more meta yay!
Meta can be posted here at metametameta, or in your journal with a link in a comment here, or, if you're feeling selfish, you can post meta in your journal and not tell us about it. And we'll scowl at you. Through our monitors. After we find out where you've been hiding the meta. So there.
So here's the first set of Meta-Prompts For Meta-Fridays:
1) (canon-specific, could be posted at mind_over_meta) Birth Control in Canon: In the fandom of your choice, how do people avoid having kids they don't want? Abstinence? Barriers? Chemical injections? Alien nanites? (How do you block midichlorian invasions, anyway?) How likely would unplanned pregnancies be, if canon weren't sanitized for TV/movie audiences? If canon is sci-fi/futuristic and has presumably had effective birth control for a very long time, how do you think that's changed society? How should it have changed things, but hasn't?
2) (fic-related meta) ?PREG: Someone once commented that, through the fannish whackiness and desire to label/warn for everything, she's now seen fics labeled "FPREG." Some discussion ensued: was this "female pregnancy" (which'd be strange to warn for) or "female pregnancy with no male involved"--parthenogenesis or shapechange or potion-of-fertility situations? (Nobody was sure; we were all too baffled at the idea of warnings for FPREG.) What's the strangest kind of pregnancy you've seen in fic? What haven't you seen, but would like someone to write about? What kinds of pregnancy in fic make you want to spork your eyes out? Do you hate fics involving pregnancy? Are there fics involving pregnancy (of any sort) that you'd recommend?
3) (meta-meta) Children and Fic Warnings: Do you expect minors to not read fics labeled "adults only?" Do you think such fic is actually bad for them, or just potentially legally risky for the author? Would your opinion change if their parent(s) actively approved of fanfic? How do you decide what's appropriate for kids to read--especially if you don't have any? Are there concepts you believe kids should be protected from--and if so, when and how should they be introduced to those concepts? Can fanfic be a way to face those concepts: not only "this is a fictional world" but "this is a fictional derivation of a fictional world," two layers of not-real to help buffer the shock?