: [think before you write] - There may be a long legacy in Western fiction when it comes to "exotic" romance or adventure fiction centered on white protagonists set in POC-majority countries that have suffered massive tragedies. Often these tragedies are used as a way of framing the romance between the two white protagonists. Just because there's a long tradition of this doesn't make it okay. -
: Thinking, rather inchoately, about community - And my rlist has brought me into contact with all sorts of people I would not necessarily have encountered in ordinary day to day life, and this is not just about their being in different parts of the world.//I was wondering to what extent sites like DW and LJ and even FB provide a mode of social introduction in that it is relatively easy to see who people are in the sense of who they know/are known by and how one's social circles overlap. (An instant credit report on their social capital?) -
: YET ANOTHER SIGNAL BOOST - Be your own thought police, fellow white people. Believe me, it helps. The moral of this story is not "think about your readers, because you might offend them and then people will be mean to you". It's, "think about other people, and slap yourself if you start plotting something that pings you as offensive, because otherwise you will hurt people". -
: Thinking About Representation of Marginalized Groups in Fan Fic - If the location or the current event or the plot device is there simply as window dressing and it’s a culture/location/community about which you and your beta readers don't know much, it might be a good idea to rethink that idea. -
: Disability and the curing thereof - what I want to see is ambivalence, mixed feelings. If you're going to go there, if you're going to cure a character, I want to see them have to struggle with what that means for them afterwards. Because disability isn't objectively always bad, and lack of disability isn't objectively always good, especially when we're talking about a character who has been disabled for a long time suddenly losing that. -
: links, and hc_bingo - It's problematic to write stories in which people get over rape over the course of 3000 words by having sex, or where domestic abuse is used as the catalyst by which two characters get together and it has no lasting impact on either. But that doesn't mean that such a story, or the desire to read or write such a story, is inherently a problem. -
: What you talkin' 'bout Willis? - Sometimes, I want to write JD Dunne, the youngest character in the main cast of Magnificent 7, as a girl.[...]And I want to do this because it would open all sorts of issues up for discussion – issues like what really makes a girl a girl, and a boy a boy? What really is masculinity and femininity, and when we talk about gender being a social construct, how does that relate to the fact that the majority of my friends are comfortable self-identifying as the same gender as their phenotype whether or not they’re hetero-, homo-, bi-, pan-, poly-sexual, or butch, femme, manly men or whatever? -
: Don’t Like, Don’t Read - If you put “Contains: unrealistic portrayal of depression that treats it as nothing but a way to get two characters together” as a label on your fic, it would be accurate, and I would not read it. Would I still rant about it? Hell yeah, because even when your story is appropriately labelled it’s still problematic. Don’t Like, Don’t Read doesn’t make your problems go away. In 99% of the cases, people can’t know that they don’t like your fic until after they’ve read it. It doesn't erase the problematic content of your story either. -
: General Plea to Authors aka Master Posts are your friend - These are just some things to keep in mind if you’re an author posting a multi-chaptered story or splitting a story up due to LJ word posting limitations. The simplest solution would be a single file version but if that is not possible then it is rather important that the author make it as easy and clear as possible for their readers to find every part of their story in a single post. -
: Fanfiction as vehicle - To me, an interesting part of the discussion around this story is the ongoing conversation on whether or not fanfiction -- as opposed to original fiction -- is ever an appropriate vehicle for the exploration of real-life natural or man-made tragedies, particularly in non-white and post-colonial settings. -
: for what it's worth - It is possible to read a story about a disability I don't personally have, and still be hurt by the way that the disability identity is being portrayed. It is possible to read a story where a character doesn't identify as disabled, and still think, wait, I have that condition, and my situation is not that hopeless. It is possible for not a single failboat-y story to come out of [community profile] hc_bingo, and still be upset that the challenge threw up a list of *the identities of real people* in between imaginary situations that fandom considers cracky and hilarious. -
: Angry post is angry - When you appropriate my lived experience for your h/c fics, you are making a fucking mockery of the fact that I live with this shit every. single. day. You have the choice to walk away, to close your laptop, to not think critically about the actual people living with pain, illness, mental health issues, or the after-effects of trauma. -
: I know where the Black Stork comes from - This continual fictional narrative of disability as trope is what makes me distrustful of disability in fiction. If I want to watch a show that appeals to me and includes people with disabilities treated realistically, I have to go back to Joe Dawson in Highlander. If I want to watch a fun movie romp, I'm back at Sneakers. If I want to have a long conversation about assistive tech, I'm at X-Men and Star Trek: The Next Generation. -
: How could they? How could anyone? - It is not unique to J2 fandom, slash fandom, SPN fandom or to fandom in general. It is not an artifact just of fandom, but of the world at large. I don't think it's even a uniquely bad example of the genre it makes up a part of. I do think it is a foreseeable outcome of what happens when white people in wealthy nations choose to selfishly indulge their privilege and passively consume the reality of the rest of humanity as entertainment. -
: On Podfic - I am no longer excited when I post podfic, the few times I have. I am worried. Worried that I am doing it wrong. That the way I approach the text, as something to be performed, isn't enough any more. That just telling stories, isn't enough any more. That there should be some deeper meaning to it. -
: so. i have some thoughts on podfic readi - i'm tired of the ways that we minimize our own contributions, and the ways that we say we don't deserve our place. i'm tired of being told i'm too involved in 'boosterism' in the podfic community, and i'm tired of seeing people told they are doing it wrong. i'm tired of people saying that some people have accents and some don't. i'm tired of women saying their bodies are ugly, of being ashamed of their voices, and of the things they love, and of hiding their joy for fear of derision. -
: went to see my doctor only she was crying twice as much as me... - So, I don't exactly have an opinion on h/c bingo. More accurately, I have several thousand opinions, none of them especially coherent. Amusingly, this is to a large extent because for much of the recent past I've been distracted from fannish debate of all sorts by dealing with a) my own disabilities and b) various sorts of being a caregiver. Not the paid, trained, professional kind, just the ad hoc, half-skilled, ah-hell-somebody's-gotta-do-it kind. We make the world go 'round, which is why it tends to sort of lurch. -
: *deep breath* - I think that when things like this -- issues of oppression, issues that hurt people like this one hurts me -- rock our fandoms, we should practice not being silent. If you think that I, or that any of the other people I am linking you to, have said it all, you are mistaken. If you think that your silence -- boycotting the fic, for example, but not saying anything -- is helpful, you are mistaken -
: Owning up to our mistakes - It is hard to be in the wrong. HARD. Personally, I hate it and it sometimes physically pains me to admit it when it happens (because I am prideful and think highly of myself and my own good judgment and intelligence). But it happens to all of us. So, to me, the key for all of us is to figure out how to admit to our mistakes, especially those that hurt someone else. -
: The constant refrain: How did she think this was a good idea? - Take people seriously. You owe it to the world to be conscientious about this stuff. Yes, you, writer of fanfic, maker of fanart. Take people seriously. They are just like you, and their lives deserve to be so much more than to be reduced to set dressing. They are smart, they are compassionate, they are individual and they are capable. Why would you bother with according them any less? Why would anyone accept that? -
: [fandom fail] same racism, different fan fiction - Here's the thing. Fandom may be a transient "community" [and I use that word loosely, because I see most fandoms as a loose knot of people with a collective interest - not a community built upon a collective consciousness] but get to know something about your fandom and maybe you can avoid epic fail. -