Fanfics with slash & sex...I don't get it

[Madeline <flourishnblotts@yahoo.com>]

> The reason I am offended is that the continuation of your argument (if not
> your argument itself) is that if slash is not normal, gay people are
> abnormal. Calling gay people "abnormal" or even "not normal" is personally
> offensive to me and, I suspect, to many others, gay and non-gay, in this
> community. I object to it in the strongest possible terms.

Hear, hear, John! I'm definitely straight, and I took offense.

> > Anyway, I think that HP FanFics that deviate markedly from this norm
> > should also carry a warning - "this ain't what you think it's going
> > to be"!
> 
>  I *really* hope that you are not referring to slash when you say "deviate".
> Because I really dislike it when people refer to my orientation as
> "deviant".

I don't think she meant that necessarily - she used poor word choice, but I 
believe the intention was to say that since there is (and likely will be) no 
slash in JKR's canon, there should be warnings there. I do see where she's 
coming from on the canonical issue, and I agree that many authors choose to 
put slash warnings on their pieces in order to forewarn readers, and that this 
may be a good idea - but that's an author's choice, just as if Ebony wanted to 
put a warning about interracial marriage on TiP, that would be her choice. It's 
not okay to force an author to do this because you view their fic as deviant 
from some societal norm.

Just to make one thing clear: I do live in the US so maybe I'm not the best 
person to speak of this, but I'm the trio's age in book 5 (15). My friends have 
all sorts of sexual preferences - bi, straight, gay, lesbian. I even know 
someone who defines herself as pansexual - that is, she is attracted to 
androgyny more than anything. While JKR may leave this aspect of growing 
up out of the books, it's still there for any healthy teenager, and fic writers 
are perfectly justified in including it.

This may be a bad way to introduce myself - I'm Flourish, and I lurk a lot, both 
on HP4GU and here. :)