BDSM Au's
Ever want to take a writer and just shake them until some sense falls out
I ran across this the other day, I was trying to find a nice short bdsm au to make a point with, and instead I found the most offensive piece of ..... that I have read in a long time, and don't get me wrong, I didn't read a lot of it.
In this fic the government divided the populace into Subs and Doms, with ratings btw, based on a personality test, this same government body then designated a submissive to each dominant whether or not the submissive or dominant wanted the relationship. It really was, congrats, you're eighteen, and you're a slave, here's your master, kkthxbai
so after trying to calm down enough not to flay the skin off the writer's back (a female writer btw) and following a slew of other writers who commented either, i love the idea of this so hot - (eyebrow at maximum, captain) or you are a sick freak this is sexual slavery (I came in category b, just worded slightly nicer) I did write the author and explain that she had written dystopic slavery au - not bdsm au and she clearly knew absolutely nothing about bdsm and here's some handy links, now fuck off and let me take the anti emetic i needed after reading your work.
And thats the problem in a nutshell.
I love the ideas of BDSM au's, I really do, but in execution they are offensive and put the civil rights movement back thousands of years, because the authors know absolutely nothing about how the dynamic works.
And what hurts, what really gets me in my core, is that we are intelligent women who enjoy rights that we have fought for and had people die for, and it's not perfect, but it's better. This is the same part of me that wants to take Stephanie Meyer aside and explain exactly why what she's writing is so offensive (as well as being shit writing) and I am not a rabid feminist.
When I wrote No Sword where I dealt with a magical marriage there is a line in it said by Charles - it is the purpose of the living to make meaningful the sacrifices of the dead.
And this sums it up for me, whether we agree with them or not these people suffered and died that we could have these freedoms and I can understand exploring a dark future to present a horror, Margaret Atwood did it, but for the titilation of a few other giggling girls, it genuinely makes me sick.
And to make it worse when done right, I'm looking at xanthe here, because as much as I disapprove of her character's sartorial choices (the leather trousers!) she writes equality with the CHOICE to give up rights. She writes a world where even the remaining segregation (non-dynamic monosexual) can be shrugged off with a "but where do you meet people?"
And the worst thing is poor xanthe is probably to blame because she pulled it off.
I've read BDSM fics involving erotic penguin costumes (I won't name and shame) I've written bdsm where the only person who didn't realise that submission was a choice was the submissive who had clearly chosen. I've read slave fics and fics of consensual pain and blood play. I've written rape fantasy.
But I won't write Non-con, and I very rarely read it. I think it can be handled well, but I'm wondering if simply tagging it non-con the writers are disassociating it with rape. I'm wondering if we're not taking alpha/omega and bdsm dynamics and substituting those terms for rape. I see the words biological imperative and I see the same men that used biology as an excuse to rape as many women as they could. I see the excuses and she was gagging for it, and because she wore a short skirt it was her fault
and I see a generation of young girls propagating this and I physically want to be sick.
I work with a publisher that allows a lot of leniency with kink, but I know that my editor would have refused Fifty Shades of Grey because it promoted unsafe bdsm practices. I can see her grating her teeth and casting out whips of flame to these authors before sending them off with a flea in their ear.
The same freedom we get to write means they CAN write these things, but don't you feel a little betrayed that they do?
I ran across this the other day, I was trying to find a nice short bdsm au to make a point with, and instead I found the most offensive piece of ..... that I have read in a long time, and don't get me wrong, I didn't read a lot of it.
In this fic the government divided the populace into Subs and Doms, with ratings btw, based on a personality test, this same government body then designated a submissive to each dominant whether or not the submissive or dominant wanted the relationship. It really was, congrats, you're eighteen, and you're a slave, here's your master, kkthxbai
so after trying to calm down enough not to flay the skin off the writer's back (a female writer btw) and following a slew of other writers who commented either, i love the idea of this so hot - (eyebrow at maximum, captain) or you are a sick freak this is sexual slavery (I came in category b, just worded slightly nicer) I did write the author and explain that she had written dystopic slavery au - not bdsm au and she clearly knew absolutely nothing about bdsm and here's some handy links, now fuck off and let me take the anti emetic i needed after reading your work.
And thats the problem in a nutshell.
I love the ideas of BDSM au's, I really do, but in execution they are offensive and put the civil rights movement back thousands of years, because the authors know absolutely nothing about how the dynamic works.
And what hurts, what really gets me in my core, is that we are intelligent women who enjoy rights that we have fought for and had people die for, and it's not perfect, but it's better. This is the same part of me that wants to take Stephanie Meyer aside and explain exactly why what she's writing is so offensive (as well as being shit writing) and I am not a rabid feminist.
When I wrote No Sword where I dealt with a magical marriage there is a line in it said by Charles - it is the purpose of the living to make meaningful the sacrifices of the dead.
And this sums it up for me, whether we agree with them or not these people suffered and died that we could have these freedoms and I can understand exploring a dark future to present a horror, Margaret Atwood did it, but for the titilation of a few other giggling girls, it genuinely makes me sick.
And to make it worse when done right, I'm looking at xanthe here, because as much as I disapprove of her character's sartorial choices (the leather trousers!) she writes equality with the CHOICE to give up rights. She writes a world where even the remaining segregation (non-dynamic monosexual) can be shrugged off with a "but where do you meet people?"
And the worst thing is poor xanthe is probably to blame because she pulled it off.
I've read BDSM fics involving erotic penguin costumes (I won't name and shame) I've written bdsm where the only person who didn't realise that submission was a choice was the submissive who had clearly chosen. I've read slave fics and fics of consensual pain and blood play. I've written rape fantasy.
But I won't write Non-con, and I very rarely read it. I think it can be handled well, but I'm wondering if simply tagging it non-con the writers are disassociating it with rape. I'm wondering if we're not taking alpha/omega and bdsm dynamics and substituting those terms for rape. I see the words biological imperative and I see the same men that used biology as an excuse to rape as many women as they could. I see the excuses and she was gagging for it, and because she wore a short skirt it was her fault
and I see a generation of young girls propagating this and I physically want to be sick.
I work with a publisher that allows a lot of leniency with kink, but I know that my editor would have refused Fifty Shades of Grey because it promoted unsafe bdsm practices. I can see her grating her teeth and casting out whips of flame to these authors before sending them off with a flea in their ear.
The same freedom we get to write means they CAN write these things, but don't you feel a little betrayed that they do?