Quick question (for both the slashers and genficcers on my flist)
I've been following the formation of the Organization for Transformative Works, especially in their otw_news community.
Lately, one of the interactive things the staff has been doing (great idea, I think) is to lay out some of the common "outsider" objections to fanfic and fanart, and encourage people to submit responses/replies/rebuttals. Some fantastic stuff has come out of this.
One of the outsider objections was "Slash is icky!"
Now, any of you who frequent my journal know that I find slash icky. Most of you have probably heard me explain my reasons for that, as well; some of them are purely subjective (as many squicks are), and some of them are well-reasoned, parts of my entire approach to life (I consider friendship and family at least as important as romance, and sometimes more so; turning canonical platonic friendship into a sexual relationship is just...eugh...to me).
So when one of the responses chosen for participants to vote on reads: "Why should I let your homophobia define what I do with my free time?" it's a little hard for me to just bite my tongue and say nothing. Genfic is one of the only things I feel a need to stand up for in fandom--probably partly because we are such a minority. And while I could quietly make my stance known by simply not voting for this response in the poll, I find myself wondering whether I should say something more about it in the comments.
If the reference were directly pointed at genficcers, I'd do it without having second thoughts. This isn't quite pointed enough to justify a knee-jerk reaction. I just object to people conflating a slash squick with homophobia. Not the same thing, y'all.
Lately, one of the interactive things the staff has been doing (great idea, I think) is to lay out some of the common "outsider" objections to fanfic and fanart, and encourage people to submit responses/replies/rebuttals. Some fantastic stuff has come out of this.
One of the outsider objections was "Slash is icky!"
Now, any of you who frequent my journal know that I find slash icky. Most of you have probably heard me explain my reasons for that, as well; some of them are purely subjective (as many squicks are), and some of them are well-reasoned, parts of my entire approach to life (I consider friendship and family at least as important as romance, and sometimes more so; turning canonical platonic friendship into a sexual relationship is just...eugh...to me).
So when one of the responses chosen for participants to vote on reads: "Why should I let your homophobia define what I do with my free time?" it's a little hard for me to just bite my tongue and say nothing. Genfic is one of the only things I feel a need to stand up for in fandom--probably partly because we are such a minority. And while I could quietly make my stance known by simply not voting for this response in the poll, I find myself wondering whether I should say something more about it in the comments.
If the reference were directly pointed at genficcers, I'd do it without having second thoughts. This isn't quite pointed enough to justify a knee-jerk reaction. I just object to people conflating a slash squick with homophobia. Not the same thing, y'all.