Rape, BDSM and true love

[fog_dancer]

 Oh dear...

Today is one of these slow days, where you just click on whatever link you see and especially if it is fanfiction, because hey rainbowcrack!, and then you realize that instead of getting flail and sparkles (or, in rare cases, really well written prose) you're getting something like this.

Comments

[kokkaii]

I must confess, I found this journal through that ninda-gate fiasco (yes, I'm calling it that hahahah)

This one is an amazing post in my opinion. It's rare to see proper and well-thought responses to the growing (and disturbing) trend of abusive dominance in this ficdom. People often either encourage the writer (ohmahga, i love it when so-and-so gets butt-raped yay!) or flame them anonymously in those hate memes, and, well, coherency is never a present thing when incensed.

See, soft and hard BDSM I get when both partners are willing. Rough sex I get when both are enjoying it. When one person is suffering, I'm just really horrified.

I think it's the whole idea that in a relationship there must be a dominant possessive male figure and a more quiet, proper female figure. The males dominate and are possessive of their trophy female. And then there's shounen-ai and yaoi with semes reeking of testosterone and ukes bathe in flowers and honey. It's all about gender roles and a love that transcends the definition of passion and borders or crosses the line to abuse, because, y'know, it's acceptible if the uke is quiet and meek enough to not do anything about their situations. -__-# hell, cry away, it might alleviate the pain -__-###

It IS assault and people don't get it. "It's romantic because he loved him enough to do that..." Oh my gad no! You don't beat the person you love. And you could never love someone who does that to you.

And then, we get to OOC-ness.

I've found that OOC-ness is subjective and there's nothing wrong with tweeking their personalities just a little bit to have them fit a fic and that is only if you get the "essence" of their real personalities. We write/read fics about real people and it would make sense to reference their real personalities. My patience with OOC characters runs out when we get polar opposites of their personalities.

Like raping each other. Or Ohno being a sadistic sex-driven maniac and Nino being a meek little girl. Or Aiba being amazingly pure and innocent and Sho as Aiba's opposite. Or Jun as just a huge purple weak-wristed little bitch.

I am of the opinion that OOC-ness (unless it is intended for comedic effect or had a good purpose) is the source of everything wrong in ficdom (grammar comes second XD)

[fog_dancer]

I have to say, the responses to this really make me happy. It's good to know that rapefic isn't generally liked or approved. It's good to know that not liking rape isn't some strange kink for an Arashi stan. Thank you for this. ^^

The yaoi tradition of uke and seme is somewhat strange. As a heterosexual female, I can't really judge, but the mere fact that it's so very formulaic makes it a bit non-gay for me. To say anti-gay is too much, but by negating most of the uke's male attributes it's really belittling in a way. (And always makes me wonder if it's a bit self-insert in disguise, whenever Nino pmses too hard for example.) Then again I have read gay fiction by gay authors who didn't know about uke and seme, but stuck to the very same pattern. So, yeah. Can't judge, but as you said it's weird that relationships in this fandom seem to need clear cut power positions and dominition-submission patterns. As if that's all that is to love. :?

OOC, bad grammar and rainbow-color-coded fics are the three biggest sins in fandom world. *nods* Apropos: ninda-gate is over, the account was deleted, it seems.

[kokkaii]

I used to stalk fics at the Ohmiya comm and I remembering coming across a rape-fic. You wouldn't believe the amount of positive feedback it got >< One person actually asked the author to write more of it!

Tenou and I used to discuss that people should have equal footing in a relationship. These new crop of fic writers are fond of having traditional gender roles imposed on Arashi pairs. I guess it's easier to write m/m pairings if one of them is somewhat female? It does completely lose the whole gay thing though, not acknowledging Nino's testosterone (I'm using Nino as an example alot ahahahha).

And it does seem like self-insert - a friend of mine once told me that fangirls would rather have Arashi gay for Arashi than in love with some other girl. I guess writing Nino as a man-girl would be synonymous to writing yourself as Nino making out with Ohno.

I just read a coloured fic and damn it really does hurt my eyes >< Who the hell would be dumb enough not to recognize Nino's words unless they're an excruciating colour (unless it's also badly-written, but then that makes the situation so much worse)?!

Ok, I've always seen this debate: which one's worse bad plot or horrible grammar?

[fog_dancer]

(I use Nino too. Let's all use Nino, you know he likes it. ;)

I sooo want to say substance over style, but if you add spelling to grammar, I'd have to pick the latter.

If something is so badly edited that you can barely read it, you'll never even get to the plot. So, in a way, grammar (+spelling) is more important.

Bad plot usually "just" means that the fic is forgettable, repetitive (or batshit insane), but it's readable at least.

Of course, that's just chosing between a rock and a hard place.

[kokkaii]

If ficdom proves true, Nino loves being everywhere, multiple times

I've always said I value plot over grammar, but a bad first sentence turns me off >< Bad grammar in summaries drive me away too.

Although bad plots are just...

It's like you could fix a grammar problem by getting a beta, but bad plots are hard to mend. Sadly, authors with bad grammar don't have good betas ><

IDK, I'd probably prefer an interesting badly written spy!Arashi fic over a grammatically perfect clingy overly sappy ohmiya fic (*le sigh* and it's been sooo common lately)

[fog_dancer]

It all depends on how badly it's written. I read some fics that would get low marks on any English test, but where you had no problem following the story. So that's okay. But when you can't do that..

If plot is personality and grammar is body odor, then for a date, I'd really be turned off by the odor and wouldn't bother exploring the personality. But if I already knew the personality and liked it, I would probably get over the odor.

Grammar is the treshold. Once you get over this first step, plot, character development etc are what matters. Still, you need to cross the treshold first.

[kokkaii]

Summaries would be looks lol Your analogy is really good btw XD

I agree on all counts. I just wish more new authors would get good betas. The world would be a happier place.

Although I tried beta-ing for someone before and it was a complete disaster. The egos on some people-__-#

[fog_dancer]

I think many new writers expect a beta to solely focus on spelling, maybe grammar too. But as soon as you say something about the plot, it get's tricky. :/ I can understand why people defend their creations but a good thoughtful critique goes beyond "OMG u so awesome, bb" and that's sometimes a hard pill to swallow.

[kokkaii]

Yes! They can stomach verb tenses and misplaced words, but they can't stand someone ruining their 'vision'. It's really frustrating when you know they could do better.