Will You Rat Me Out If You Don't Like What I Write?
After reading an intelligent essay today on how fandom sets boundaries, I was briefly reassured something worthwhile was happening in spite of, or because of, the many recent essays on fanfiction, responsibility, and so on (see metafandom for links).
I found myself thinking, "I wish I felt good things were happening." And then I thought, wait, how do I feel? And the answer was: threatened.
This is so not pretty.
Coming on the heels of the Warriors For Innocence-driven purge, the sudden flurry of "write responsibly" and "incest-themed fanfiction hurts readers" essays strike me as ominous.
I think an unspoken threat lies behind why I and others are grilling umbo, heatherly, and others. What does Umbo mean when she tells me my incest-themed fanfiction harms my readers? What, if anything, will she do about it? Heatherly said, "As a licensed...social worker...I do work to protect childrenin real life, and on the internet." Will she ever feel turning me in is the right thing to do?
The exhortations to be "responsible" carry far more weight once you know there is a group like WfI, intent on eliminating "sick and disgusting" fanfiction even after the debacle of the purge.* It would be easy to send an email to WfI and say, "Hey, did you see THIS?" then sit back and let WfI do the heavy lifting.
Now that I've acknowledged this, I understand why I'm driven to expose how quickly Six Apart rolled over for WfI. I lost no trust in Six Apart because of the purge; I had none to begin with. I have always known what Six Apart would do when offered a choice between advertising dollars and fandom. What worried me was the discovery that a ready-made Hammer of God was handy for anyone who cared to wield it.
Am I paranoid? Yep. I have reason to be. I've written material that, except for the fandom, would be at home at pornish_pixies, for instance. And while that community is back up, it doesn't erase the problem with witch-hunts. They increase suspicion until you feel anyone who is not your outright ally is a potential enemy. The circle of victims widens. The destruction cannot be measured simply by a list of names.
I realize little has measurably changed between May 28, 2007, and now. Groups like WfI have always existed. Fannish people finding aspects of fandom objectionable is nothing new. Six Apart has always been clumsy and greedy. What has changed is fannish trust. It shrank.
I'm going to leave aside whether or not fannish trust is sensible. I point to fandom_wank as a chronicle of the many ways fandom trust can be abused and broken. I do believe, however, that online fannish communities, such as the multi-headed one we have here in LJ, cannot survive without trust.
If we didn't need trust, we'd be using our real names here, people.
I was reluctant to bring this up, because I feared it might feed into the hysteria. But after seeing a post by a friend I will summarize as, "Fuck with me and I'll fuck with you back," I realized it was pointless to ignore that I and others feel threatened.
So when you write an essay urging fanfiction writers to be good, as measured by whatever moral yardstick you use, don't be surprised if icarusancalion fans come down on you like a ton of bricks. No matter what reassurances you offer, you smell an awful lot like torch-bearing townsfolk coming for our pointy incest-themed BDSM rapefic hats.
Worst case? Fandom will become even more splintered, with all vids, fanfiction, manips, icons, and even the fucking screencap postsYou illegally reproduced copyrighted images you thief!locked up.
The good news is that no one will be offended. The bad news is that no one will be here...
...except for the 100% legal and the sanctimonious.
Which leaves me out.
*See WfI post dated June 2, 2007
EDIT: A recurring theme in comments is, "You shouldn't feel threatened; there is no witch-hunt." So I've added an update, in timeline format:
How I Learned To Start Worrying And Hate Six Apart
2003 - 2005 I write seven hundred pages of incest-themed fanfiction in three fandoms [LotR, The Boondock Saints, Troy/Iliad]. The sex and sappiness in the stories lead to battery purchases and attacks of the sniffles, but no crimes are committed by my readers, although some stay up late reading and do not get the laundry done.
2005 Discover blog aggregating services are reproducing/indexing LiveJournal posts even when bot indexing is disabled. Conclusion: minors casually surfing the Internet could theoretically find my porn. Lock all of my NC-17 fanfiction, which includes all incest-themed stories. Blog aggregators defeated. I feel smug.
2005 Following numerous comments from readers saying "I don't usually read incest fanfiction, but I like yours," I post a locked essay about my views on incest fanfiction. I theorize it appeals because it is about total commitment and self-sacrifice, in spite of grave obstacles, like Romeo and Juliet. It is not, I argue, because Incest is HAWT! Later, I wonder if I should have pointed out no one has ever written schmoopy incest fanfiction about ugly actors, but I have a hunch my readers are aware of this.
2006 Write incest-themed Rayne fanfiction in the Firefly/Serenity fandom. Post it locked. Receive reviews such as, "I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about River and Simon (even though I see it in the series). But this just somehow feels right." I feel smug.
2007 Create a second LJ account and post Supernatural incest-themed fanfiction unlocked, but with bot indexing disabled. Things have changed since 2005: I am sure no minors will find it because of Google's current stranglehold on search engines, and their respect for "do not index this with your fucking bots." I perform occasional tests, trying to find the stories by googling them, and fail. I feel smug.
April, 2007 Small hate group called Warriors For Innocence begins to harass Six Apart/LiveJournal for "harboring pedophiles." [To improve clarity, I am leaving Perverted Justice out of this timeline.]
May 18, 2007 WfI sends communication to Six Apart, threatening to make a stink. "The companies buying these ads do not know that they are paying for representation on web pages that list interests as 'child abuse, child f***ing, child molestation, child porn, child sexual abuse, f***ing kids, f***ing little kids, f***ing young girls, kiddie porn, child sexual abuse, incest' and more." [emphasis added]
May 26, 2007 Friend forwards an hysterical anonymous communication claiming Six Apart is going to go after people for the user interest incest, and that some journals will be suspended or purged.
May 26 - May 28, 2007 I mock the hysterical anonymous communication, particularly the part about incest, because everyone knows writing fiction about incest isn't a criminal activity. I forward the anonymous communication to the LJ Abuse Team so they can quash the rumor. I feel smug about preventing a panic.
May 29, 2007 Find out hysterical anonymous communication is correct, and that hundreds of journals have been deleted [no one knew then they had only been suspended, as LJ Abuse staff told users the journals were permanently gone and could not be restored]. I feel bewildered.
May 30, 2007 Learn WfI motivated Six Apart's suspension of roughly five hundred journals, and that WfI had in fact targeted incest.
May 30, 2007 Significant portion of flist freaks [some quietly, some loudly] and make backups of their journals, edit their profiles, remove content and/or lock it, in case they are next. This is still happening as of June 14, 2007.
May 30, 2007 LiveJournal staff tell the pornish_pixies moderator the Harry Potter fanfiction community was suspended for incest.
May 30, 2007 Six Apart CEO tells CNET:
"We did a review of our policies related to how we review those sites, those journals, and came up with the fact that we actually did have a number of journals up that we didn't think met our policies and didn't think they were appropriate to have up."
"Our decision here was not based on pure legal issues. It was based on what community we want to build and what we think is appropriate within that community and what's not."
May 31, 2007 WfI members comment in several LJ blogs to defend their actions. They post updates at their website quoting discussions they found at LiveJournal. They explain they found the LJ discussions through referring URLs [links back to their website].
May 31, 2007 Six Apart CEO tells LiveJournal users:
"Journals that we do not restore will be journals that we are fairly sure are actually intended to encourage activities that put minors at risk but we will review them if requested by their owner to be certain that we did not make a mistake."
"There were a number of profiles that expressed 'interest' in activities that most of us would agree put children at risk, notably pedophilia and child rape. Both in the instructions for profiles and in other places on the site we make it clear that interests listed should be evaluated within the context of 'I like x', 'I'm in favor of x' or 'I support x'. As many profiles are the only public part of a private journal and profiles serve partly as an advertisement for people of like interests, it is important that the content of a profile can be evaluated as if it stands alone."
"As such, we intended to suspend reported journals that a reasonable person would think supported these activities."
"These policies are hard to define and harder to enforce consistently. We are trying to walk a fine line between our love of free speech and our desire to protect children and others. The vast majority of these issues are clear but there will be time we make the wrong call, we will try hard to correct our mistakes faster and not make them on such a big scale but I'm sure we will make them."
5,000 LiveJournal users comment. Many, including me, point out the fallacy of assuming "interests" translate to "things we support or agree with." I demand Six Apart re-think this approach, as it is a key factor that led to the bungled purge.
Six Apart does not.
May 31, 2007 I am alarmed by the 6A CEO's statements, particularly "It was based on what community we want to build." It is clear to me that the 6A "community" does not welcome incest. I remove most of my user interests and alter links so my story table of contents cannot be viewed by any non-friends. In the second journal I use to post Supernatural fanfiction, I remove the user interests wincest, sam/dean, bromance, and sam <3 dean. I lock the Sam/Dean stories. I feel intimidated, worried, and angry.
June 1, 2007 I post, unlocked, a long write-up attempting to detail the main events of the WfI-inspired purge. In the conclusion, I argue that purges will continue because the climate that led to the purge in the first place has not changed. Aware that WfI follows links back, I do not include any direct links to WfI. Within a couple of days, there are hundreds of comments. I feel smug.
June 1, 2007 WfI posts an update, saying they are not satisfied with the results of the purge, and that they are still on the warpath. Although I was expecting this development, my smug is broken and does not return.
June 1, 2007 Due to overwhelming demand, I add sources to the material I quoted in my 6A/WfI rant, even though it means linking to WfI, who can then use the referring URL to find me and my amazingly fucking prolific incest fanfiction writing self. I feel worried.
June 2, 2007 WfI posts another update, saying they don't buy the "It's just fiction" excuse, and that they want "sick and disgusting" stories off the Internet. I worry more.
June 2 - 6, 2007 Collect data for a revision of my rant on the 6A/WfI pedophile witch-hunt. I note that many people think there will never be another purge, and we can all go on as before. I feel depressed. My flist continues to delete, lock, and edit their LJs because they fear they will be next. Feeling cranky as well as depressed, I restore my profiles to almost-pre-purge condition, and I unlock my Sam/Dean stories. I still leave out a couple of user interests I fear will make me a target of an incest fanfiction witch-hunt.
June 7, 2007 Emails from the LiveJournal Abuse Team say interest-based suspensions will continue, and that a revised TOS will eventually clarify the new policies Six Apart has been acting on since WfI threatened exposing the sick and disgusting LJ content to advertisers on May 18, 2007.
"It is the view of LiveJournal's management that a journal and a profile must be evaluated separately, and that a profile serves, in essence, as a form of 'advertisement' for the journal contents -- that the listing of interests, the bio, and all other content in a profile must be evaluated as a statement of things that a user supports and would like to discuss. When the profile contains references to illegal activity, therefore, a profile involving illegal material must be viewed as soliciting others to participate in that illegal activity."
June 8, 2007 I am so busy agitating about the pedophile witch-hunt and FanLib I have no time to work on a 25,000 word Sam/Dean genderswap story I began in April. I am alarmed by the people in fandom who think the pedophile witch-hunt was not a total disaster, and wonder how they can think "deleting blogs of alleged pedophiles who immediately create new blogs" equals "fighting child abuse." I feel depressed.
June 9 - June 10, 2007 Visit family. Express our undying love for each other in the usual ways: giving presents, picking up tabs, and driving each other to the airport. No sex ensues.
June 11, 2007 Discover Heatherly’s post calling for responsible fanfiction writing. I feel a sinking sensation when I read:
"However, there is one category of child sexual abuse in which sexual attraction may (I say may, because research on this, and all above subjects continues to be ongoing, so new information is continually developing) play a role, and that is in incest." [emphasis added]
See? Even Heatherly knows no one writes incest fanfiction about ugly actors.
"I put on this professional hat for a reason--because I work with children every day who are the victims of abuse, neglect, and incest, and I wanted to very clearly state what that means. I take what I do very seriously. I don't regard social work as a job, I regard it as a vocation--seriously, folks, for what we get paid, you better believe we're not in it for the money. ;) So I hope you can then understand while I am personally unable to see stories featuring incest, relationships between teachers & students, adults and children, or non-consensual sex, as entertainment."
"I am not writing this with the intent to try to censor or judge what type of erotic fiction individuals wish to write. I do support free speech, which includes supporting other individuals' right to write things I find personally objectionable. What I am hoping is for people to acknowledge the seriousness of the issues they choose to raise in their fiction--to remember that words have great power, and that comes with great responsibility. If you choose to write erotic fiction featuring teacher-student relationships, incest, underage relationships, or other topics, that is your choice. What I am hoping is that when you write those topics, you remember that in addition to being an erotic fantasy, these topics also have a reality outside of your stories. And that the reality is not as sexy as a steamy love scene between Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles." [emphasis hers]
She’s right. Nothing could ever be as hot as a steamy love scene between Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. Except Bill Fichtner/Sean Bean. Or Superman/Batman. Or…
"I am hoping that fandom will remember the power of our words, and use them accordingly. Talk with each other about appropriate warning systems and disclaimers. Discuss ways for fiction to be safely available for public use, and also protect children whose parents do not monitor their internet use as they should… Even if you are writing a plain PWP erotic fantasy--note that in the disclaimer. State that the story is a fantasy, and that the topics discussed are different in real life." [emphasis hers]
"Above all, please acknowledge that we do not exist in a vacuum. Understand that the individuals reading your stories may be survivors themselves, and because all survivors are unique, some may have no objection to reading stories about incest--others may feel ashamed and degraded reading something that was a traumatizing experience for them turned into a trivialized erotic fantasy."
I am alarmed. A social worker who said "I don't regard social work as a job, I regard it as a vocation," and "I do work to protect children--in real life, and on the internet," believes my incest fanfiction can traumatize my readers, and felt strongly enough about it to write 3,800 words on the subject. I feel threatened, because she supports WfI's program: incest fanfiction is harmful.
June 12, 2007 I read hundreds of comments to Heatherly's and Umbo's posts. I feel more threatened. I comment on Umbo’s post, trying to pin down what she means when she says incest fanfiction causes harm.
In two days, I have found two LiveJournal members who are consciously or unconsciously parroting Warriors For Innocence: incest fanfiction is harmful. I hurt my readers with my stories. I cause criminal activity through my fanfiction. I should think twice about doing it. But they fully support my right to write sick and disgusting incest fanfiction whatever I want! Don't worry!
I get very worried.
I know that much of my flist is also worried. They continue to lock content, delete content, and alter their profiles, fearing they will be next.
I wonder if I will be next.
I think about the mess. What particularly gives me the heebie-jeebies: Six Apart calling carrying out a hate group’s pedophile witch-hunt "community building." Heatherly and Umbo and I are in the same community. Not only do we all have LiveJournals, we share interests: Due South, fanfiction. But Heatherly and Umbo think I'm harming the community with my incest fanfiction. What are they going to do about it?
My dad was an LCSW who worked for Child Protective Services. If he was convinced someone was harming children through web content, he wouldn't post something with lots of smileys that ended with the salutation peace: he’d rip a new hole in the responsible party--in a totally legal bureaucratic way, of course. In short, that anyone would say "You are hurting kids!" without intending to do something about it is beyond my understanding.
As I hope my timeline makes clear, I’ve always been careful to keep my fanfiction away from children. Being accused of hurting children or causing criminal activity made me furious.
June 13, 2007 I decide ignoring the panic sweeping fanfiction writers of my acquaintance causes more harm than good, so I write about it. Some folks support me. Others call me hysterical. I consider getting a hysterectomy; it worked in the 19th century. I am briefly infuriated that people do not understand why being accused of writing fanfiction that causes criminal activity might bother me. Before I can do anything constructive about it, my period starts and the usual migraine occurs.
June 14, 2007 I stop barfing. Try to identify why people cannot grasp a witch-hunt is going on. Wonder why they haven’t noticed LJ fanfiction writers have been panicking since May 26, 2007. Totally baffled they do not understand how parroting the concerns of the Witch-hunters in Chief, WfI, might alarm me and others.
Decide it is due to one or more of the following:
a) They haven’t written a thousand pages of incest-themed fanfiction over the last four years.
b) They are unaware incest was one of WfI's and Six Apart's targets.
c) They are unaware WfI is still on the warpath.
d) They are unaware WfI reads our blogs, especially blogs that link to WfI, like mine.
e) They are unaware that what Six Apart means by "community building" is getting rid of anything that could embarrass them in front of advertisers, and that one of those embarrassing things is incest.
f) They have never seen a witch-hunt in action, and don’t know what they are: An investigation carried out ostensibly to uncover subversive activities but actually used to harass and undermine those with differing views.
g) They are in denial, desperately clinging to the notion that LJ fandom has not been altered by the events that began May 26, 2007, and do not appreciate arguments to the contrary. I base this on the folks who pop up to comment that I am worrying about nothing, then go back to their LJs and remove all the links to their stories.
h) Most of all: It hasn’t occurred to them that taking a public stand against incest fanfiction will embolden and encourage a hate group like WfI, who reads our blogs. Folks are assuring me that Umbo and Heatherly will not take any action in aid of a witch-hunt. But they already did.
EDIT 6/15/2007 10:53 PM: Apparently there is drama because I screened comments. In public posts, I screen the comments of all non-friends and anonymous posters, and have done so for years. When I posted this, screening was in place; it was not done in error. I've been extra-careful about screening since a post several days ago ended up with 700 comments. Around twenty of the comments were by trolls attacking others, and did not get unscreened. That hasn't happened with this post, thankfully.
I found myself thinking, "I wish I felt good things were happening." And then I thought, wait, how do I feel? And the answer was: threatened.
This is so not pretty.
Coming on the heels of the Warriors For Innocence-driven purge, the sudden flurry of "write responsibly" and "incest-themed fanfiction hurts readers" essays strike me as ominous.
I think an unspoken threat lies behind why I and others are grilling umbo, heatherly, and others. What does Umbo mean when she tells me my incest-themed fanfiction harms my readers? What, if anything, will she do about it? Heatherly said, "As a licensed...social worker...I do work to protect childrenin real life, and on the internet." Will she ever feel turning me in is the right thing to do?
The exhortations to be "responsible" carry far more weight once you know there is a group like WfI, intent on eliminating "sick and disgusting" fanfiction even after the debacle of the purge.* It would be easy to send an email to WfI and say, "Hey, did you see THIS?" then sit back and let WfI do the heavy lifting.
Now that I've acknowledged this, I understand why I'm driven to expose how quickly Six Apart rolled over for WfI. I lost no trust in Six Apart because of the purge; I had none to begin with. I have always known what Six Apart would do when offered a choice between advertising dollars and fandom. What worried me was the discovery that a ready-made Hammer of God was handy for anyone who cared to wield it.
Am I paranoid? Yep. I have reason to be. I've written material that, except for the fandom, would be at home at pornish_pixies, for instance. And while that community is back up, it doesn't erase the problem with witch-hunts. They increase suspicion until you feel anyone who is not your outright ally is a potential enemy. The circle of victims widens. The destruction cannot be measured simply by a list of names.
I realize little has measurably changed between May 28, 2007, and now. Groups like WfI have always existed. Fannish people finding aspects of fandom objectionable is nothing new. Six Apart has always been clumsy and greedy. What has changed is fannish trust. It shrank.
I'm going to leave aside whether or not fannish trust is sensible. I point to fandom_wank as a chronicle of the many ways fandom trust can be abused and broken. I do believe, however, that online fannish communities, such as the multi-headed one we have here in LJ, cannot survive without trust.
If we didn't need trust, we'd be using our real names here, people.
I was reluctant to bring this up, because I feared it might feed into the hysteria. But after seeing a post by a friend I will summarize as, "Fuck with me and I'll fuck with you back," I realized it was pointless to ignore that I and others feel threatened.
So when you write an essay urging fanfiction writers to be good, as measured by whatever moral yardstick you use, don't be surprised if icarusancalion fans come down on you like a ton of bricks. No matter what reassurances you offer, you smell an awful lot like torch-bearing townsfolk coming for our pointy incest-themed BDSM rapefic hats.
Worst case? Fandom will become even more splintered, with all vids, fanfiction, manips, icons, and even the fucking screencap postsYou illegally reproduced copyrighted images you thief!locked up.
The good news is that no one will be offended. The bad news is that no one will be here...
...except for the 100% legal and the sanctimonious.
Which leaves me out.
*See WfI post dated June 2, 2007
EDIT: A recurring theme in comments is, "You shouldn't feel threatened; there is no witch-hunt." So I've added an update, in timeline format:
How I Learned To Start Worrying And Hate Six Apart
2003 - 2005 I write seven hundred pages of incest-themed fanfiction in three fandoms [LotR, The Boondock Saints, Troy/Iliad]. The sex and sappiness in the stories lead to battery purchases and attacks of the sniffles, but no crimes are committed by my readers, although some stay up late reading and do not get the laundry done.
2005 Discover blog aggregating services are reproducing/indexing LiveJournal posts even when bot indexing is disabled. Conclusion: minors casually surfing the Internet could theoretically find my porn. Lock all of my NC-17 fanfiction, which includes all incest-themed stories. Blog aggregators defeated. I feel smug.
2005 Following numerous comments from readers saying "I don't usually read incest fanfiction, but I like yours," I post a locked essay about my views on incest fanfiction. I theorize it appeals because it is about total commitment and self-sacrifice, in spite of grave obstacles, like Romeo and Juliet. It is not, I argue, because Incest is HAWT! Later, I wonder if I should have pointed out no one has ever written schmoopy incest fanfiction about ugly actors, but I have a hunch my readers are aware of this.
2006 Write incest-themed Rayne fanfiction in the Firefly/Serenity fandom. Post it locked. Receive reviews such as, "I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about River and Simon (even though I see it in the series). But this just somehow feels right." I feel smug.
2007 Create a second LJ account and post Supernatural incest-themed fanfiction unlocked, but with bot indexing disabled. Things have changed since 2005: I am sure no minors will find it because of Google's current stranglehold on search engines, and their respect for "do not index this with your fucking bots." I perform occasional tests, trying to find the stories by googling them, and fail. I feel smug.
April, 2007 Small hate group called Warriors For Innocence begins to harass Six Apart/LiveJournal for "harboring pedophiles." [To improve clarity, I am leaving Perverted Justice out of this timeline.]
May 18, 2007 WfI sends communication to Six Apart, threatening to make a stink. "The companies buying these ads do not know that they are paying for representation on web pages that list interests as 'child abuse, child f***ing, child molestation, child porn, child sexual abuse, f***ing kids, f***ing little kids, f***ing young girls, kiddie porn, child sexual abuse, incest' and more." [emphasis added]
May 26, 2007 Friend forwards an hysterical anonymous communication claiming Six Apart is going to go after people for the user interest incest, and that some journals will be suspended or purged.
May 26 - May 28, 2007 I mock the hysterical anonymous communication, particularly the part about incest, because everyone knows writing fiction about incest isn't a criminal activity. I forward the anonymous communication to the LJ Abuse Team so they can quash the rumor. I feel smug about preventing a panic.
May 29, 2007 Find out hysterical anonymous communication is correct, and that hundreds of journals have been deleted [no one knew then they had only been suspended, as LJ Abuse staff told users the journals were permanently gone and could not be restored]. I feel bewildered.
May 30, 2007 Learn WfI motivated Six Apart's suspension of roughly five hundred journals, and that WfI had in fact targeted incest.
May 30, 2007 Significant portion of flist freaks [some quietly, some loudly] and make backups of their journals, edit their profiles, remove content and/or lock it, in case they are next. This is still happening as of June 14, 2007.
May 30, 2007 LiveJournal staff tell the pornish_pixies moderator the Harry Potter fanfiction community was suspended for incest.
May 30, 2007 Six Apart CEO tells CNET:
"We did a review of our policies related to how we review those sites, those journals, and came up with the fact that we actually did have a number of journals up that we didn't think met our policies and didn't think they were appropriate to have up."
"Our decision here was not based on pure legal issues. It was based on what community we want to build and what we think is appropriate within that community and what's not."
May 31, 2007 WfI members comment in several LJ blogs to defend their actions. They post updates at their website quoting discussions they found at LiveJournal. They explain they found the LJ discussions through referring URLs [links back to their website].
May 31, 2007 Six Apart CEO tells LiveJournal users:
"Journals that we do not restore will be journals that we are fairly sure are actually intended to encourage activities that put minors at risk but we will review them if requested by their owner to be certain that we did not make a mistake."
"There were a number of profiles that expressed 'interest' in activities that most of us would agree put children at risk, notably pedophilia and child rape. Both in the instructions for profiles and in other places on the site we make it clear that interests listed should be evaluated within the context of 'I like x', 'I'm in favor of x' or 'I support x'. As many profiles are the only public part of a private journal and profiles serve partly as an advertisement for people of like interests, it is important that the content of a profile can be evaluated as if it stands alone."
"As such, we intended to suspend reported journals that a reasonable person would think supported these activities."
"These policies are hard to define and harder to enforce consistently. We are trying to walk a fine line between our love of free speech and our desire to protect children and others. The vast majority of these issues are clear but there will be time we make the wrong call, we will try hard to correct our mistakes faster and not make them on such a big scale but I'm sure we will make them."
5,000 LiveJournal users comment. Many, including me, point out the fallacy of assuming "interests" translate to "things we support or agree with." I demand Six Apart re-think this approach, as it is a key factor that led to the bungled purge.
Six Apart does not.
May 31, 2007 I am alarmed by the 6A CEO's statements, particularly "It was based on what community we want to build." It is clear to me that the 6A "community" does not welcome incest. I remove most of my user interests and alter links so my story table of contents cannot be viewed by any non-friends. In the second journal I use to post Supernatural fanfiction, I remove the user interests wincest, sam/dean, bromance, and sam <3 dean. I lock the Sam/Dean stories. I feel intimidated, worried, and angry.
June 1, 2007 I post, unlocked, a long write-up attempting to detail the main events of the WfI-inspired purge. In the conclusion, I argue that purges will continue because the climate that led to the purge in the first place has not changed. Aware that WfI follows links back, I do not include any direct links to WfI. Within a couple of days, there are hundreds of comments. I feel smug.
June 1, 2007 WfI posts an update, saying they are not satisfied with the results of the purge, and that they are still on the warpath. Although I was expecting this development, my smug is broken and does not return.
June 1, 2007 Due to overwhelming demand, I add sources to the material I quoted in my 6A/WfI rant, even though it means linking to WfI, who can then use the referring URL to find me and my amazingly fucking prolific incest fanfiction writing self. I feel worried.
June 2, 2007 WfI posts another update, saying they don't buy the "It's just fiction" excuse, and that they want "sick and disgusting" stories off the Internet. I worry more.
June 2 - 6, 2007 Collect data for a revision of my rant on the 6A/WfI pedophile witch-hunt. I note that many people think there will never be another purge, and we can all go on as before. I feel depressed. My flist continues to delete, lock, and edit their LJs because they fear they will be next. Feeling cranky as well as depressed, I restore my profiles to almost-pre-purge condition, and I unlock my Sam/Dean stories. I still leave out a couple of user interests I fear will make me a target of an incest fanfiction witch-hunt.
June 7, 2007 Emails from the LiveJournal Abuse Team say interest-based suspensions will continue, and that a revised TOS will eventually clarify the new policies Six Apart has been acting on since WfI threatened exposing the sick and disgusting LJ content to advertisers on May 18, 2007.
"It is the view of LiveJournal's management that a journal and a profile must be evaluated separately, and that a profile serves, in essence, as a form of 'advertisement' for the journal contents -- that the listing of interests, the bio, and all other content in a profile must be evaluated as a statement of things that a user supports and would like to discuss. When the profile contains references to illegal activity, therefore, a profile involving illegal material must be viewed as soliciting others to participate in that illegal activity."
June 8, 2007 I am so busy agitating about the pedophile witch-hunt and FanLib I have no time to work on a 25,000 word Sam/Dean genderswap story I began in April. I am alarmed by the people in fandom who think the pedophile witch-hunt was not a total disaster, and wonder how they can think "deleting blogs of alleged pedophiles who immediately create new blogs" equals "fighting child abuse." I feel depressed.
June 9 - June 10, 2007 Visit family. Express our undying love for each other in the usual ways: giving presents, picking up tabs, and driving each other to the airport. No sex ensues.
June 11, 2007 Discover Heatherly’s post calling for responsible fanfiction writing. I feel a sinking sensation when I read:
"However, there is one category of child sexual abuse in which sexual attraction may (I say may, because research on this, and all above subjects continues to be ongoing, so new information is continually developing) play a role, and that is in incest." [emphasis added]
See? Even Heatherly knows no one writes incest fanfiction about ugly actors.
"I put on this professional hat for a reason--because I work with children every day who are the victims of abuse, neglect, and incest, and I wanted to very clearly state what that means. I take what I do very seriously. I don't regard social work as a job, I regard it as a vocation--seriously, folks, for what we get paid, you better believe we're not in it for the money. ;) So I hope you can then understand while I am personally unable to see stories featuring incest, relationships between teachers & students, adults and children, or non-consensual sex, as entertainment."
"I am not writing this with the intent to try to censor or judge what type of erotic fiction individuals wish to write. I do support free speech, which includes supporting other individuals' right to write things I find personally objectionable. What I am hoping is for people to acknowledge the seriousness of the issues they choose to raise in their fiction--to remember that words have great power, and that comes with great responsibility. If you choose to write erotic fiction featuring teacher-student relationships, incest, underage relationships, or other topics, that is your choice. What I am hoping is that when you write those topics, you remember that in addition to being an erotic fantasy, these topics also have a reality outside of your stories. And that the reality is not as sexy as a steamy love scene between Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles." [emphasis hers]
She’s right. Nothing could ever be as hot as a steamy love scene between Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. Except Bill Fichtner/Sean Bean. Or Superman/Batman. Or…
"I am hoping that fandom will remember the power of our words, and use them accordingly. Talk with each other about appropriate warning systems and disclaimers. Discuss ways for fiction to be safely available for public use, and also protect children whose parents do not monitor their internet use as they should… Even if you are writing a plain PWP erotic fantasy--note that in the disclaimer. State that the story is a fantasy, and that the topics discussed are different in real life." [emphasis hers]
"Above all, please acknowledge that we do not exist in a vacuum. Understand that the individuals reading your stories may be survivors themselves, and because all survivors are unique, some may have no objection to reading stories about incest--others may feel ashamed and degraded reading something that was a traumatizing experience for them turned into a trivialized erotic fantasy."
I am alarmed. A social worker who said "I don't regard social work as a job, I regard it as a vocation," and "I do work to protect children--in real life, and on the internet," believes my incest fanfiction can traumatize my readers, and felt strongly enough about it to write 3,800 words on the subject. I feel threatened, because she supports WfI's program: incest fanfiction is harmful.
June 12, 2007 I read hundreds of comments to Heatherly's and Umbo's posts. I feel more threatened. I comment on Umbo’s post, trying to pin down what she means when she says incest fanfiction causes harm.
In two days, I have found two LiveJournal members who are consciously or unconsciously parroting Warriors For Innocence: incest fanfiction is harmful. I hurt my readers with my stories. I cause criminal activity through my fanfiction. I should think twice about doing it. But they fully support my right to write sick and disgusting incest fanfiction whatever I want! Don't worry!
I get very worried.
I know that much of my flist is also worried. They continue to lock content, delete content, and alter their profiles, fearing they will be next.
I wonder if I will be next.
I think about the mess. What particularly gives me the heebie-jeebies: Six Apart calling carrying out a hate group’s pedophile witch-hunt "community building." Heatherly and Umbo and I are in the same community. Not only do we all have LiveJournals, we share interests: Due South, fanfiction. But Heatherly and Umbo think I'm harming the community with my incest fanfiction. What are they going to do about it?
My dad was an LCSW who worked for Child Protective Services. If he was convinced someone was harming children through web content, he wouldn't post something with lots of smileys that ended with the salutation peace: he’d rip a new hole in the responsible party--in a totally legal bureaucratic way, of course. In short, that anyone would say "You are hurting kids!" without intending to do something about it is beyond my understanding.
As I hope my timeline makes clear, I’ve always been careful to keep my fanfiction away from children. Being accused of hurting children or causing criminal activity made me furious.
June 13, 2007 I decide ignoring the panic sweeping fanfiction writers of my acquaintance causes more harm than good, so I write about it. Some folks support me. Others call me hysterical. I consider getting a hysterectomy; it worked in the 19th century. I am briefly infuriated that people do not understand why being accused of writing fanfiction that causes criminal activity might bother me. Before I can do anything constructive about it, my period starts and the usual migraine occurs.
June 14, 2007 I stop barfing. Try to identify why people cannot grasp a witch-hunt is going on. Wonder why they haven’t noticed LJ fanfiction writers have been panicking since May 26, 2007. Totally baffled they do not understand how parroting the concerns of the Witch-hunters in Chief, WfI, might alarm me and others.
Decide it is due to one or more of the following:
a) They haven’t written a thousand pages of incest-themed fanfiction over the last four years.
b) They are unaware incest was one of WfI's and Six Apart's targets.
c) They are unaware WfI is still on the warpath.
d) They are unaware WfI reads our blogs, especially blogs that link to WfI, like mine.
e) They are unaware that what Six Apart means by "community building" is getting rid of anything that could embarrass them in front of advertisers, and that one of those embarrassing things is incest.
f) They have never seen a witch-hunt in action, and don’t know what they are: An investigation carried out ostensibly to uncover subversive activities but actually used to harass and undermine those with differing views.
g) They are in denial, desperately clinging to the notion that LJ fandom has not been altered by the events that began May 26, 2007, and do not appreciate arguments to the contrary. I base this on the folks who pop up to comment that I am worrying about nothing, then go back to their LJs and remove all the links to their stories.
h) Most of all: It hasn’t occurred to them that taking a public stand against incest fanfiction will embolden and encourage a hate group like WfI, who reads our blogs. Folks are assuring me that Umbo and Heatherly will not take any action in aid of a witch-hunt. But they already did.
EDIT 6/15/2007 10:53 PM: Apparently there is drama because I screened comments. In public posts, I screen the comments of all non-friends and anonymous posters, and have done so for years. When I posted this, screening was in place; it was not done in error. I've been extra-careful about screening since a post several days ago ended up with 700 comments. Around twenty of the comments were by trolls attacking others, and did not get unscreened. That hasn't happened with this post, thankfully.