On Writing Responsibly

The appropriate inquiries have been made about the lack of money in my coffers; all I can do is wait.

Recently, heatherly wrote a post on 'writing responsibly'. In her view, writing responsibly means self-censoring to avoid glamorizing acts such as adult incest, dub-con, non-con, and child abuse, and to avoid traumatizing victims of said occurrences by glib depictions in fanfiction.

On the face of it, this abjuration seems very fine. After all, no one wants to be viewed as a slavering advocate of child abuse of any form, and few folks actively set out to hurt other people. Fandom is supposed to be a communal activity, and no one should be deliberately excluded because of fear.

However, the communality of fandom works both ways, and incesters, and dub-con mavens have every right to express themselves as freely as the sugary slash and het writers and the gen peddlers. Fanfiction is fantasy that involves fictional people, and fiction, when presented exclusively as such, has never harmed anyone.

Besides, incest between adults is certainly taboo here in the U.S., but not unilaterally illegal, and in other parts of the world, it is common practice. Incest only becomes patently unconscionable when certain power dynamics are applied. A father banging his prepubescent daughter is depraved; a pair of experimenting twins doing the nasty is a different matter entirely, one subject to the ethical constraints of the parties involved. If the aforementioned siblings are of age, well, then most folks will just have to be squicked.

And what of dub/non-con? Real rape is a nasty, sordid, disgusting business that should never be perpetrated on anyone, but in most cases, fictional rape is entirely different. When I was a wee one, I read my mother's bodice rippers, and wow. Dub-con everywhere as busty heroines were ravished by evil dukes with giant dongs and buckets of finesse. Sometimes, the heroine said, "No," while she was coming her brains out. In tasteful, flowery prose, of course.

Most fictional rape isn't rape; it's the delicious fantasy of being had by the stud of choice without accepting the attendant responsibility. "I didn't want to feel good. He made me." It's a way of admitting enjoyment of the act while circumventing the stodgy, Puritanical mores that make us feel we have to.

Most folks have a good old "rape" fantasy banging about in their repertoire. I know I do, and I'm not ashamed of it, either, because I understand that it's not real. Why should I be ashamed or afraid to write dub-con where Flack cuffs my OFC, bends her over the interrogation table, and fucks her stupid? Why should anyone be afraid to write anything involving sex? Why aren't more people het up about Hagrid getting it up the pooper from the Giant Squid? It's bestiality, after all. Is it because it's easily distinguishable as fantasy and therefore unthreatening?

What about rapefic and abusefic written as catharsis by victims? Should they stay quiet for fear of upsetting other victims who don't feel the same way? Should they lose their agency, their means of reclaiming what they can of themselves, for the greater good?

Fandom needs to understand that it does not equal one specific sect of its vast community. It is as global as the people who make it, and there is and can be no uniform standard. Fen should write what they please, so long as they warn for possibly upsetting material, even if that warning is as vague as, "This story contains material that may be objectionable to some readers." Writers should never stifle themselves for fear of the censor, though they should accept the possibility of censure.

Why is the majority of the fannish onus placed upon the writers? Why do the readers have no responsibility? Why are writers so beholden to spoiler warnings and content warnings, while readers' only obligation is to click the link provided? As fandom stands now, readers aren't obligated to acknowledge that they've even read a piece or viewed art. They are essentially given a free ride. Censoring my content for fear of a hypothetical reader who might never read my story is not a step I am willing to take.

I will disclaim due ownership of the characters, and I will warn for genre and rating, but there my obligation to content filtration ends. If you don't like what I contribute to the fandom, you can click the Back button as easily as you clicked the link to read it in the first place.