Mod Post
Some of you may have noticed that catsintheattic's story, It's My Life, about Ginny Weasley giving up her job and becoming much happier as a stay-at-home mother, is now gone.
This does not reflect the quality of the story. And, in fact, there's nothing wrong with such a choice in real life.
The problem is that this is the wrong fest for such a story.
When I founded femgenficathon in 2005, it was in response to seeing story after story about Hermione, Ginny, Luna, Lily and so on putting aside their dreams and hopes to find the perfect man, marry him, and be the mother to his children. While, again, there is nothing wrong with this story, I began to feel that every other story was being drowned out. That girls were only seeing themselves as girlfriends, wives and mothers. I began to feel that girls were only seeing one possible future.
So I founded this ficathon, whose tagline is "Stories About Women Can Focus on More Than Love." As I've always emphasized, women do not have to be the adjuncts in someone else's story. That they have their own stories to tell.
catsintheattic's story was the kind of story that caused me to found the fest in the first place.
Again, this had nothing to do with the quality of the work; the story simply did not belong in this ficathon. The best analogy I can think of is someone submitting a male/female romance to a male/male romance anthology. The het romance could be the best thing ever--but that's irrelevant, because it's not the kind of story that the publishers are looking for.
ETA: 10/19/2011. This does NOT imply that catsintheattic violated the rules deliberately in any way. It means that she genuinely felt that her story was acceptable under the existing rules, which she saw as much more expansive than I did.
I spoke to catsintheattic by private message. She apologized and elected to take the story down.
ETA: 10/19/2011. She did not take the story down because she believed that she was wrong, but because I felt that the story did not fit. I did not realize this at the time.
If any of you have any questions about whether your upcoming stories are appropriate for this ficathon, please feel free to contact via e-mail or PM. I hope that, with good communication, we can prevent such a situation from arising again.
This does not reflect the quality of the story. And, in fact, there's nothing wrong with such a choice in real life.
The problem is that this is the wrong fest for such a story.
When I founded femgenficathon in 2005, it was in response to seeing story after story about Hermione, Ginny, Luna, Lily and so on putting aside their dreams and hopes to find the perfect man, marry him, and be the mother to his children. While, again, there is nothing wrong with this story, I began to feel that every other story was being drowned out. That girls were only seeing themselves as girlfriends, wives and mothers. I began to feel that girls were only seeing one possible future.
So I founded this ficathon, whose tagline is "Stories About Women Can Focus on More Than Love." As I've always emphasized, women do not have to be the adjuncts in someone else's story. That they have their own stories to tell.
catsintheattic's story was the kind of story that caused me to found the fest in the first place.
Again, this had nothing to do with the quality of the work; the story simply did not belong in this ficathon. The best analogy I can think of is someone submitting a male/female romance to a male/male romance anthology. The het romance could be the best thing ever--but that's irrelevant, because it's not the kind of story that the publishers are looking for.
ETA: 10/19/2011. This does NOT imply that catsintheattic violated the rules deliberately in any way. It means that she genuinely felt that her story was acceptable under the existing rules, which she saw as much more expansive than I did.
I spoke to catsintheattic by private message. She apologized and elected to take the story down.
ETA: 10/19/2011. She did not take the story down because she believed that she was wrong, but because I felt that the story did not fit. I did not realize this at the time.
If any of you have any questions about whether your upcoming stories are appropriate for this ficathon, please feel free to contact via e-mail or PM. I hope that, with good communication, we can prevent such a situation from arising again.