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Concern trolling of genres in fanfiction is long overdue for a challenge. Here's my counter-argument: Fanfic writers are not obligated to prove anything to their readers. Not sanity, not social responsibility, and not agreeing with you on key topics. All of that is optional. If you only want to read stories written by people who are very concerned about gender issues, or precede their story with an exhaustive list of trigger warnings, or never, ever write about a relationship dynamic that might be considered problematic without making it crystal-clear that the author does not endorse, condone, or even really like what they're depicting ... that's your choice. However, saying that things that don't meet your strict criteria are irresponsible and shouldn't exist is a dickish thing to do.
I'll be perfectly frank. I have never seen someone agitate about this in a way that suggests they want to understand and be helpful. I have never heard anyone approach writers (or readers, for that matter) wanting to find out what they're getting from skipping the big, loudspeaker voice of "our culture disapproves of [whatever]" that mainstream, Western stories include. There's very little curiosity, and metric tons of patronizing and emotionally-charged judgment.
I think I speak for most fanfiction writers when I say that diversity of stories and endings is a good thing. I'm not trying to convince anyone else to write what I want to read, much less getting between them and their keyboard with justifications for how this "should" be done. But that's exactly what I think a lot of the complaints against certain themes and styles of fanfic writing are about. People don't disinterestedly advocate that for the good of the author or their audience. They're criticizing stuff they don't want to read, and believe no one else should have access to.
Because they wrap their dislike in a softcore version of "people are deeply influenced by the media," it gets more traction than it should. But we're responsible for our own squicks and triggers. We're definitely responsible for what we do to other people. No story absolves you of having to answer for yourself. As long as that's true, we should allow each other to read and think freely. Exposure to problematic ideas =/= contamination.
Even if a subset of the reading population blindly accepted every single idea it came across, trying to rid the world of dangerous ideas is an exercise in futility, because ideas are immortal. They disappear and reappear. If you care about social justice, you know that empowering people is the way to go. It's about teaching and trusting, not trying and failing to make the world into a place where the only opinions anyone will run into are yours.
A word about survivors and therapy culture: We don't want the same things, speak with one voice, or all heal the same way. Some of us see our experience in the things written for/about us, but that's not true for many of us. The way this relates to the topic at hand is that we're in open conflict. There are survivors concern trolling, and survivors telling people who do that to fuck off; survivors who never want to see another adult/child fic, and survivors writing those stories. And in the middle, we've got a lot of people who were never assaulted or traumatized hoping that their fic preferences don't make them terrible people.
Part of the problem is imaginary bargaining power. "If we all just stopped writing about rape, it would prevent rape." Uh ... no. Your fantasizing about rape is not causing rape, and you can't eradicate its existence by not thinking about it / writing about it / writing about it in an appropriately condemning light. You don't significantly affect men's opinion of rape by writing fanfiction. AFAIK, you don't significantly affect women's opinion of rape by writing fanfiction, either, but they're a bit more likely to read it.
As for the idea that someone getting off to fictional trauma is terrible and must be avoided at all costs, I disagree entirely. If writers have freedom of expression, readers have freedom of interpretation and veto power over what they consume. Feeling good, even sexually, is not a horrible thing that will lead to RL badness if it isn't externally controlled. It's definitely not a thing that can (or should be) limited to people with non-controversial kinks.
I'll be perfectly frank. I have never seen someone agitate about this in a way that suggests they want to understand and be helpful. I have never heard anyone approach writers (or readers, for that matter) wanting to find out what they're getting from skipping the big, loudspeaker voice of "our culture disapproves of [whatever]" that mainstream, Western stories include. There's very little curiosity, and metric tons of patronizing and emotionally-charged judgment.
I think I speak for most fanfiction writers when I say that diversity of stories and endings is a good thing. I'm not trying to convince anyone else to write what I want to read, much less getting between them and their keyboard with justifications for how this "should" be done. But that's exactly what I think a lot of the complaints against certain themes and styles of fanfic writing are about. People don't disinterestedly advocate that for the good of the author or their audience. They're criticizing stuff they don't want to read, and believe no one else should have access to.
Because they wrap their dislike in a softcore version of "people are deeply influenced by the media," it gets more traction than it should. But we're responsible for our own squicks and triggers. We're definitely responsible for what we do to other people. No story absolves you of having to answer for yourself. As long as that's true, we should allow each other to read and think freely. Exposure to problematic ideas =/= contamination.
Even if a subset of the reading population blindly accepted every single idea it came across, trying to rid the world of dangerous ideas is an exercise in futility, because ideas are immortal. They disappear and reappear. If you care about social justice, you know that empowering people is the way to go. It's about teaching and trusting, not trying and failing to make the world into a place where the only opinions anyone will run into are yours.
A word about survivors and therapy culture: We don't want the same things, speak with one voice, or all heal the same way. Some of us see our experience in the things written for/about us, but that's not true for many of us. The way this relates to the topic at hand is that we're in open conflict. There are survivors concern trolling, and survivors telling people who do that to fuck off; survivors who never want to see another adult/child fic, and survivors writing those stories. And in the middle, we've got a lot of people who were never assaulted or traumatized hoping that their fic preferences don't make them terrible people.
Part of the problem is imaginary bargaining power. "If we all just stopped writing about rape, it would prevent rape." Uh ... no. Your fantasizing about rape is not causing rape, and you can't eradicate its existence by not thinking about it / writing about it / writing about it in an appropriately condemning light. You don't significantly affect men's opinion of rape by writing fanfiction. AFAIK, you don't significantly affect women's opinion of rape by writing fanfiction, either, but they're a bit more likely to read it.
As for the idea that someone getting off to fictional trauma is terrible and must be avoided at all costs, I disagree entirely. If writers have freedom of expression, readers have freedom of interpretation and veto power over what they consume. Feeling good, even sexually, is not a horrible thing that will lead to RL badness if it isn't externally controlled. It's definitely not a thing that can (or should be) limited to people with non-controversial kinks.
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