I wonder where the break happened that such wide swaths of younger fans don’t grasp fandom things that used to be unspoken understandings. That fic readers are expected to know fiction from reality, that views expressed in fic are not necessarily those of the author, that the labels, tags and warnings on various kinkfics are also the indication that they were created for titillation and not much more, please use responsibly as per all pornography. The ‘problem’ isn’t that so-called ‘problematic’ fic exists but that some of the audience is being stupid, irresponsible, at worst criminal, at best not old enough to be in the audience to begin with. And that’s on the consumer, not the author who told you via labels, tags, ratings, warnings and venues what their fic was about and what it was for.
I can’t stress enough how important this post is
This post troubles me because I feel like it misses a lot of the nuance of the situation.
No, not everyone who reads your rapefic or whatever is going to go out and rape someone, but your average joe isn’t the person to be worried about. Rapists, paedophiles, abusers, people who would coerce their family members into incest, etc etc etc use the internet. Their victims use the internet. Those who could be their victims use the internet. And they’ll see what you write. Or draw, or voice act, or whatever else. No, it’s not a guarantee, but it’s a very, very real possibility, and one you have to take into account when writing. If it wasn’t a real problem, I wouldn’t know three victims of it.
The issue is not that you should never explore dark subjects ever or you’re a nasty evil badman. The issue is how you explore them. You’re probably not a rapist for writing a rape fic – but how will a real rapist feel about how you wrote it? Will they feel like what they did is okay? Will they feel like it was sexy? How about a victim of rape? Will they feel like what happened to them didn’t matter? Will they feel like their trauma is nonsense, because they should’ve enjoyed it? Will they be able to use your fic to self harm? Do you really want people feeling this way about something you made?
The responsibility doesn’t entirely lie on you, no. But as a creator, you have a lot of influence, and you need to be careful and considerate of other people.
Fiction is not reality, but it certainly has an effect on it. Hasn’t a work of fiction ever made you feel something? Why would women and LGBT people and disabled people constantly be crying for representation in fiction if it was meaningless?
Fiction affects each individual’s reality.
I think it’s important to consider what effect yours will have.
The ‘nuance’ you think is there does not exist. Writers,
artists, creators of any sort, are NOT responsible for what other people choose
to do, period. People of a certain age and level of reason are expected to be
something other than ‘monkey see, monkey do’ about the arts and life in general.
Anybody else shouldn’t be allowed to consume certain media without supervision,
accompanying education and in some case, maybe not at all. That’s the job of
parents and guardians, not random strangers on the internet with their own row
to hoe.
You say you know three victims. The crimes are still the perp’s fault.
Writing didn’t make them do what they did any more than videogames cause school
shootings. To place blame on the media they consumed, to place blame on the
creators of that media, is a tired, old, long-disproven argument, and one that absolves
criminals of their culpability for their crimes. You’d let perps get away with
it, or get reduced sentences, because you’re claiming it’s actually the fic
that’s to blame.What do you want to do, lock the writers up too?
One of the purposes of fiction literally IS to explore all
angles of an issue safely, and that includes perspectives that are not
desirable in real life, or that can make some individuals personally
uncomfortable. It’s a societal release valve, and an acknowledgement of fears.
Sometimes those fears get processed in strange ways, there are people who get
turned on by balloons popping, for crying out loud. Creators have a
responsibility to create. As a courtesy in fandom, we tag, label and warn
almost to excess. That way your hypothetical victim can avoid things they don’t
want to see, things that by the way, may just as easily have been created by
another victim who is dealing with their issues by a different and equally
valid route.
Fan creators also don’t have anywhere near the influence of
mainstream media, where you don’t even get half the warnings fandom will give
you. Media aims to make you feel, but you are responsible for what you do, and
that includes clicking on fics that told you up front there were things inside that would make you uncomfortable. Learn yourself, know yourself, manage yourself. Writers and artists aren’t here to be your babysitter.
And finally, people are definitely not rapists for writing
rape fic, because what makes a person a rapist is actually committing rape. It’s
not rocket science.
Ah, sorry about that last statement, I must’ve been unclear. Of course you’re not a rapist just for writing rape fic. I was underexaggerating, because I have seen arguments against this on the sillier side of things that seem to assume writing things like rape is equatable to committing them.
Of course the crimes are the perpetrator’s fault, and not the author’s. Sorry if I was unclear, again, but I have to reiterate: your average person reading a dark fic will walk away unaffected. Nobody who reads about some guy murdering a bunch of people is going to go on a killing spree themself!
The problem lies in the fact that people who have already committed crimes, or dream of doing so, will read dark fics. They’ll see what they’ve done portrayed like it’s sexy. Like it’s good. And they’ll feel good about it. They’ll feel like it wasn’t a big deal, and everyone else is wrong, and they’re not a bad person. Or, if they were a victim, they might feel like it’s stupid to be so torn up about it. They’ll feel like what their sibling or parent or datemate or auncle or whatever else tries to do to them isn’t so bad. Of course that abuser is entirely to blame. It was their choice to use that writing for something so horrible. The writing is not the root cause of the problem. But it does enable it. Why would you want to risk someone like that feeling good because of something you wrote? Death of the author and all. Your intentions don’t matter. It’s how someone used what you wrote that makes people suffer.
I never asked the victims I know too much about what happened to them, but one pretty readily volunteered that their abuser, their older sister, coerced them into sex by normalising it with incest fics. They were traumatised by it. Real people are traumatised by these things. The fact remains that despite everything, these victims are far from hypothetical.
It’s not the authors’ fault that someone so evil would use their writing like that. I’d like to believe that the people who write this stuff do so with only the best of intentions. Who could guess that something they wrote would be used for something so awful? The trouble is that it happens. It happens, and people suffer, and we as writers can do something to protect them.
I don’t think writing about dark themes like these should be banned! I know plenty of victims use them to vent and process their own trauma. I just think that we should bear in mind that we as writers have an influence over people, whether they are victims or abusers. It might not be a lot. But it’s there. And there’s nothing stopping us from thinking very, very hard about how we make that influence as good as possible.
I think I’d disagree that writers of derivative fiction have less influence than the mainstream, too. How many people do you know who read pretty much nothing but fic nowadays because mainstream fiction doesn’t have what they want? We influence a different group, to be sure, but there’s still a lot of people in it.
Creators have a responsibility to create, to be sure! The trouble is in the distinction between what is reprehensible to someone personally, and what could actually hurt someone. Plenty of things gross me out. Plenty of those things I know better than to gripe about publically. “Don’t like, don’t read” has its place in fiction!
But that place is not everywhere. Fiction is a good way to explore pressing issues through different lenses. But some lenses – and I’m talking here about the glorification of these issues, nothing more! – have the capability to seriously hurt real people. Think how many cases of abusive relationships cropped up surrounding Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey!
All we need to do, I think, is carefully consider how we frame dark topics. Of course rapists and paedophiles and yada yada yada aren’t your intended audience. You don’t want to hurt anyone. But, on the off chance someone like that saw what you created, how would it make them feel? In the same way we carefully handle racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia and similar issues that could hurt people in fiction, we should be careful about how we portray things like paedophilia and all the other stuff I’ve been talking about.
Just that people are considerate is all I’m asking.
Tagging is the consideration you are asking for. Education is the preventative measure you want. We give or show people the tools to protect themselves. We are not obligated to stop creating, ever.
I don’t think tagging is gonna stop my friend’s big sister from trying to screw them. It’s just going to make incest fics easier for her to find.
Education’s not gonna reach everyone. Often it doesn’t until it’s too late. That same friend still shipped incest until recently, because the realisation that it had hurt them never reached them.
I’m still not saying that these things shouldn’t be written about ever! We are not obligated to stop creating! But we are obligated to ensure we don’t create in a way that hurts people.
The fact that I stick pins in my arms isn’t the root of my problems either. Does that mean taking the pins away will do nothing to help me? Take away one of the tools. Make the box a little safer.
All I’m saying is that we need to be careful about glorifying these issues. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.
Telling people they should only write about certain issues one way is advocating censorship. That has a long history of not ending well. Education may not reach everyone, but it should. That is the angle you should be pushing, not censorship. Start directing people to Scarleteen or Go ask Alice or the freaking cops if you think they have real world concerns.
You’re not in a box. You’re in a big wide world full of needles, pins, scissors, knives, any number of things you can hurt yourself with, or other people could try to hurt you with, and in that world are people who have learned how to handle sharp objects safely, or like you, are still learning. And they can be taught. Because we’re not going back to ripping bread apart with bare hands just because you don’t know how to handle a bread knife.
Who decides what’s “glorifying” an issue, rather than “bringing awareness of how it works?” Random strangers on the internet?
i think if you use your brain for a little bit you can figure out when you’re saying “bad things are good actually” and when you’re saying “this thing happens but it’s bad”
glorification: ooh look how sexy and kinky this bad thing is isn’t it great and titillating
respectful handling of a dark issue: get a load of this bad thing. isn’t it horrible? here’s how it traumatises people.
usually the distinction is graphic descriptions of your Bad Thing, but not always. you can still glorify something without them, and you’re probably able to handle it respectfully despite describing it in detail. not sure how you might do that though. i don’t really wanna know either eheheh, that’s for people who wanna write that to figure out.
The only reasonable reply to that patronizing if supposedly well intentioned tirade:
i’ve yet to see one of the people saying that dark fics “glorify” things produce a single actual example of a fic which “glorifies” things and not be wrong.
so, yes, put me down for “if you use your brain for a little bit” being the key missing step.
just moving along like everyone else 