WE BATE THEM!!!

[kennahijja]

pornish_pixies

Fandom rocks *so* very much!
You've all seen the long-overdue post, I guess.

Ecstatic as I am, though, I have two - well, two-and-a-half - issues with things as they are:

1) Some fanfiction communities and fannish personal journals still remain suspended (you can see the details here). Though LJ might be working on those.

2) I won't breathe easily until there are safeguards in place to prevent something like this from happening again - I don't want to have to look over my shoulder (or want anyone else to) for fear of being targetted for writing stories/producing art.

2 1/2) I'm still pissed off over the way last week's "hoax" was laughed off publicly by LJ people, when they were in the process of setting up *exactly* what has been described. I would love to apologise to the brave soul who leaked this for disbelieving along with everybody else when the dementi came...

Of course what I'm still pissed about to no end (and have been for a long time) is the way people throw those of us who write about the darker/illegal sides of sexuality into the same pot with those who actually commit crimes. If I'm be interested in the discussion of incest, it doesn't mean I'll go and, heck, proposition my mother! The several hundreds of LJ users listing 'crime' in their LJ interests are not promoting the committing of it, nor will they shut off their computers and embark on mobster careers!

Sometimes I wonder if there's something more to this sort of thinking than just prudishness and a distinct inability to differentiate between reality and fiction, discussion and practice... Is there something so intimidating in women (and it is to a large degree women) exploring sexuality, light and dark sides, through fiction-writing that leads to such irrational responses? Because really, they talk about fandom escaping into a fictional/unreal world to hide from reality? Fandom at least has enough of a grip on reality (with some few exceptions, that is...) to distinguish between fiction and fact.

Comments

[karaontai.livejournal.com]

" I may enjoy to go very dark in writing, but it's still not remotely *me* - just things to play with" --

Well let's put it this way -- I don't see a reason or benefit from exploring this particular kind of darker sexulality. Maybe that is because I have been "played with" -- and there is absolutely nothing sexual about it -- meaning it has nothing to do with sex. But control only -- the forcing of someones will upon a person who cannot defend themselves prpoerly.
Sex is about pleasure not control!
And I would gladly (and I am sure millions of other "victims" would do so too) change places with anyone seeing the slightest need to explore this in anyway.
They take our dignity, our feelings and our trust!! Things that can never be replaced!!!
Your political convictions are opinions -- they don't hurt another person. The things described in some fandom have been done and are hurtful to someone else -- in a mirrad of ways! Something each of us will have to deal with for the rest of our lifes -- something that still causes problemes, even a quater of a century late!!!

So, I am sorry if I don't cry myself a river for people getting suspended over incest or rape.....

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

I think it's perfectly possible and acceptable to be interested in something, or write about something, without approving of it - otherwise, researching the NSDAP's rise to power would have made me a Nazi, or crashing a certain ship on the epetais Moredon and Rustazh would have made you approve of murder, or that coming up with several *very* dodgy family trees would have made us incest supporters. Not to mention that in this particular case, some of the journals originally suspended were incest/rape survivors' accounts.

Your political convictions are opinions -- they don't hurt another person.
My stories are fiction - they don't hurt a living soul either, and they carry enough warnings to make sure that anybody who might be upset/hurt by the content can *not* read. I'm not sure where the difference is, apart from that politics run a slightly greater risk of becoming dangerous.

I don't see a reason or benefit from exploring this particular kind of darker sexulality.
Which is a perfectly valid point, and exactly what warnings are for - to alert people to things that may be offensive or painful or plain uncomfortable, so they can avoid them.

What's unacceptable in my opinion is to argue that things that offend/bother/hurt me should not be written. Are you really saying that everything that has ever done harm to people cannot been written about? Which would kill about 95% of literature from Oedipus (incest) to Harry Potter (murder and torture) to the bible (all of the above and worse)? I'm totally with you on abuse being about power, not sex, of course, but not on making everything that we fight in real life a taboo topic for writing. I don't think it's possible, and definitely not desirable.

Call me paranoid, but I think that the step from that sort of argument to saying 'books that don't agree with my religious/political/moral convictions should not be outlawed', or 'information about sex ed or family planning should not be allowed' is pretty small. That's why I'm reacting so vehemently to censorship even in cases that seem 'reasonable' to mainstream opinion - as someone put it, free speech isn't there to protect the right to write about kittens, which nobody would object to anyway; it's there to protect the uncomfortable stuff that's *not* sitting well with mainstream opinion. Unless it's to incite political or religious hatred, where I'd draw the line. But fiction and creativity?

[karaontai.livejournal.com]

Alright point taken LOL. I don't think we can come to an greement on the topic of suspended incest accounts!!! So let's not!! To many hurt feelings on both sides.

"What's unacceptable in my opinion is to argue that things that offend/bother/hurt me should not be written. Are you really saying that everything that has ever done harm to people cannot been written about?"

No, it should be written about and I don't have a problem with that -- the way it is written is what I have a problem with. A factual written explanation/exporation of any terrible situation (Holocaust for instance) is very very useful and can help people avoid that such a thing will ever happen again! Now a glorification of the Holocaust is a totally different story, isn't it. A book about a camp guard and how he/she enjoys their work is very much wrong (lack of better word sorry), especially if it doesn't included at least the smallest mentioning of that person being uncomfortable with the situation at all.
I think it is not so much the writer/author or the topic that makes people feel uncomfortable, but what other individuals can use it for, or reading into it and will then go and do strange things. Of course this is in no way the authors fault or intend (I Know) and the author shouldn't be punished for that -- they just need to be really careful about what they say -- why else would we want to try and stop the production and sale of guns???? Guns don't kill people -- people do. But most people (but the gun lobby) think differently. Even here they are trying to get rid of the tool, not the actual perpurtrader (us). Now why is that???
And by the way what we did with our Klins stayed between us. Only if it becomes public, it becomes a problem (sometimes).
It is not that I do agree with cencorship, it is just that I (apparently) have a hard time grasping the real importance of this rebellion.... One has to pick and chose it's battles! There are soo many more important issues out there to start something over. Just go ahead and get another account and do it all over again. Eventually they give up and it will all blow over. They are just cleaning up, because they want to go public. After that is done -- everything will be ack to normal. Buisness as usual. Nothing ever changes!!!
And you do know that there is no such thing as "Freedom of speech" a lie by any other name to pacify people. Make them think they have rights even if they don't.....

So, still want to be my friend???LOL ;-)

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

Sure :). What's wrong with a frank discussion between friends? :)

I'm pretty certain that we're disagreeing because this hits close to home for both of us (though more for you, most certainly), just from opposite angles...

Agreed that guns kill people... but rolled-up wads of paper? Not so much, although in the battle of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the proverbial whale, I'd bet on the Phoenix...

Meh - now I'm back to reading up on HP and Marketing for tonight's session - and this is one of the *very* few instances I wish I had studied economy...

[karaontai.livejournal.com]

Alright then -- still love you too -- :-) XOXOX

Ecomomics or Buisness??? LOL But it does sound interesting though.... HP marketing I mean. Economics sucks!!! Baeh... boring!!!!
Good luck!!!