I've made a decision regarding my sporking
I've decided never to spork stories featuring classic female Mary Sues--unless they overlap with my preferred targets, like Lifetime!fic and those which feature obnoxious male Mary Sues.
There's a couple reasons for this. One is that the moment a fic like this gets discovered you see dozens if not hundreds of snarkers lining up to bash the hell out of it. I feel like there's often a sexist dimension to it as well, since a lot of the time it seems like people don't comment on the very real problems found in stories like this, such as the fact that they often contain sexism, racism, homophobia, callous disregard for the well-being of anyone who isn't Mary Sue or her slobbering sex slave du jour, or some combination of the four; but rather their commentary often falls along the lines of "LOL STUPID LITTLE GIRLS WITH THEIR STUPID MARY SUES CORRUPTING POOR INNOCENT STUD-SAMA BY FORCING HIM OUT OF CHARACTER!"
So instead I'm sticking with problems which it seems like snarkers rarely talk about--including Lifetime!fics which receive a distressingly low level of criticism for their blatant misogyny, and (perhaps, as is the way of these things, ESPECIALLY) male Mary Sues, who often don't get any attention or criticism whatsoever from the fandom despite being every bit as bad as their sisters.
I've also considered sharpening my Ron the Death Eater snarking skills, and spending less time snarking at DILP in so many words, because again, it seems to me that Draco in Leather Pants is condemned as the worst and most poisonous thing ever!!!! that a fan can do, while RTDE gets a free pass (unless said Death Eater is a character you personally like, that is...).
What I'm really hoping is that I'll eventually tackle bad snark. It seems to me that there's an unspoken belief in fandom that snarkers get a free pass to say whatever they want just because they're tearing apart "bad" works, when really, there's a way to do snark well and a way to do it poorly.
There's a couple reasons for this. One is that the moment a fic like this gets discovered you see dozens if not hundreds of snarkers lining up to bash the hell out of it. I feel like there's often a sexist dimension to it as well, since a lot of the time it seems like people don't comment on the very real problems found in stories like this, such as the fact that they often contain sexism, racism, homophobia, callous disregard for the well-being of anyone who isn't Mary Sue or her slobbering sex slave du jour, or some combination of the four; but rather their commentary often falls along the lines of "LOL STUPID LITTLE GIRLS WITH THEIR STUPID MARY SUES CORRUPTING POOR INNOCENT STUD-SAMA BY FORCING HIM OUT OF CHARACTER!"
So instead I'm sticking with problems which it seems like snarkers rarely talk about--including Lifetime!fics which receive a distressingly low level of criticism for their blatant misogyny, and (perhaps, as is the way of these things, ESPECIALLY) male Mary Sues, who often don't get any attention or criticism whatsoever from the fandom despite being every bit as bad as their sisters.
I've also considered sharpening my Ron the Death Eater snarking skills, and spending less time snarking at DILP in so many words, because again, it seems to me that Draco in Leather Pants is condemned as the worst and most poisonous thing ever!!!! that a fan can do, while RTDE gets a free pass (unless said Death Eater is a character you personally like, that is...).
What I'm really hoping is that I'll eventually tackle bad snark. It seems to me that there's an unspoken belief in fandom that snarkers get a free pass to say whatever they want just because they're tearing apart "bad" works, when really, there's a way to do snark well and a way to do it poorly.