Proper Ratings and Fic Labels are Your Friend.

[elspethdixon]

Because God forbid I pass up the chance to babble endlessly upon something, here's my two cents/knuts/bits o' sliced up doubloon on the latest PotC fandom kerfluffle.



(The following is repeated from a comment made in permetaform's journal).

While I don't entirely feel the same sort of moral outrage that some of the reviewers at pirategasm do, I certainly understand it and sympathise with it. Sexual abuse of children is a highly emotional (and personal) topic for a lot of people, and while I don't agree that meghanjinx had no right to post her story to the community (one of the things that I appreciate about the Pirates fandom has been its willingness to allow all kinds of fic to co-exist), I do feel very strongly that she acted inappropriately by not giving readers sufficient warning.

Adult/child abuse and rape(indeed, rape in general) is an extremely sensitive subject, and one that many people find very disturbing. I personally feel that any fic which contains a rape scene should be rated at least R. Not PG-13. R. The line between R and NC-17 is fuzzy and highly subjective, but I think we can all agree that rape, even non-graphic rape, is not PG material. Also, while I can see that she wanted to keep the pairing a surprise (for example, by not mentioning Norington's name until the end), she should have at least warned prospective readers that the fic dealt with child molestation (not simply "Elizabeth's first sexual experience") and that her "partner" (and I use the term loosely) was an adult. She didn't have to say "Norrington/Elizabeth," but she should have said "adult male/Elizabeth." Simply using the term "chan" was not sufficient. For one thing, it has a very flexible definition, and for another, not all members of a non-anime fandom like PotC are guarenteed to recognise it.

People read that Norrington/12-year-old-Elizabeth story who might, if given proper warning, have simply skipped over it with a shudder. They were disturbed and upset by it, and some even questioned their own writing, fearing that the darker elements in their work were just as inappropriate or wrong as turning fanfic into (and I loosely quote) "child pornography." You may argue that that is not the writer's fault, and you may even be correct, but it doesn't excuse the fact that her inadequately labelled post hurt people, albeit unintentionally. Personally, I'd apologise. Of course, if my work upset and offended so many people, I might be tempted to flee the fandom in mortification, but hopefully the relatively mature way in which those involved have handled things will prevent meghanjinx from doing so. So far, I have seen no personal insults flung, no accusations of moral depravity on her part, no corresponding strident attacks on her critics from friends/supporters. All in all, it's been refreshingly unlike the HP world. Of course, that does make it less likely that we'll all be immortalised on fandom_wank.

Personally, adult/child pairings are my one, ironclad, unsinkable squick. That's why I don't ship Snape/Harry or Snape/Hermione. It's why I refuse to read fanfic for Peter Pan. It's why Sirius/Harry can get me to hit the back button faster than almost any other pairing on Earth. However, since I know this about myself, and since I know that, as a slash fan, I live in a glass house as far as moral outrage is concerned, I try not to throw stones. I won't object to the presence of such fics in PotC fandom anymore than I will in HP fandom. It's even possible that I go a bit farther than I need to as far as tolerance of chan/shota/what-have-you goes as part of an effort not to be intolerant (i.e. I know that it squicks the bloody blue blazes out of me, so I overcompensate). Then again, I know the mere concept of Sirius and Remus or Jack and Will having sex (let alone the kinky Sanzelle sex I avidly read) squicks some people almost as much as Snarry squicks me. Squick is all relative, and my squicks might be your kinks, and vice-versa. And in order to defend my right to write and post my stuff, I must also defend your write to read and post yours, even if when I find it sick and disturbing.

But promotion of freedom of speech aside, I sure as hell want to be given fair warning of child molestation or adult/child relationships in fics so that I can avoid it like the plague.

And on a completely unrelated topic:


Jack/Will/Elizabeth: 'Cause they're more like Guidelines, anyway.

Polygamy is love.

Comments

[permetaform]

good points! worth pondering...

[melusina]

I pretty much agree with everything you say here.

The lack of warning, under the circumstances, was completely inappropriate. I understand the desire to have a twist or surprise in a story, but I think it's particularly inconsiderate not to prepare readers for a rape scene, considering the number of women who have been raped or sexually abused, and the fact that the use of the second person removes some of the literary distance.

Sadly, the kerfluffle made it onto fandom_wank anyway, but in general, I really am pleased with the lack of personal attacks and dramatics.

I very rarely read adult / child pairings (depending on how you define child). I do read Snarry fic, but only futurefic, where Harry's past the age of consent.

Squick is all relative, and my squicks might be your kinks, and vice-versa. And in order to defend my right to write and post my stuff, I must also defend your write to read and post yours, even if when I find it sick and disturbing.

Very true. I will add that I think a livejournal community is within its rights to restrict what sorts of material gets posted in *that* community. Given pirategasm's lack of restrictions, there's no reason why the story shouldn't have been posted there. But I don't think there's anything wrong with a community deciding that they don't want some kinds of stories posted there, and excluding them (in fact, this is necessary - for example, a PotC community excludes all other fandoms, barring crossovers). The community I moderate (polyfic does not allow sex scenes with characters under 15, and requires warnings for those involving characters aged 15-18.