Fanfics, ratings & heated responses

[Diana <dianasdolls@yahoo.com>]

I'm not going to cut and paste all the responses flying back and 
forth between Haggrid, heiditandy, John and ER, as there is just too 
many at this point to keep straight.  I will summarize the points.

ER expressed her opinion that there should be sufficient warnings on 
fanfics to forewarn possible readers in case that fanfic contains 
something they wouldn't want to read, for whatever reason, with an 
emphasis on labelling slash fanfics, especially ones containing sex.

John, and then later Heidi responded that they felt ER was 
expressing possibly homophobic opinions about fanfic labelling.  

Haggrid then chimed in that she could see what ER was trying to say, 
even though her word choice may have been poor.

If I've mis-characterized your responses to each other, I apologize, 
I'm just trying to get to the root of this fierce debate, that is 
bordering on a mini-war of words.  Since I seem to have kicked off 
this scuffle by my original post stating that I just didn't 
understand and had no desire to read slash fanfics or fanfics with 
lots of sex, regardless of the pairings, I'll post again on this 
topic and on the other posts.  

First off, I would like to point out that not wanting to read about 
same-sex couples having sex does not make a person a homophobe.  I 
wouldn't want to read about my college astronomy professor getting 
it on with my milkman or John Rhys-Davies having an interlude with 
Mr. Whipple, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't enjoy reading about 
two gay characters I like reading about doing the deed.  The same 
with heterosexual characters, I definitely wouldn't want to read 
about my own parents having sex, or, for example, Margaret Thatcher 
having sex with George Bush, but that doesn't mean I dislike 
heterosexual pairings.  It just means that I prefer some pairings 
over other pairings, or I prefer to read about pairings that I find 
truly plausible, exciting or personally stimulating to me.  Or maybe 
I prefer not to read about sexual pairings at all for my own 
personal reasons.  

Regardless of what I choose to read, I should be able to have a 
rough idea of what to expect if choosing to read a work of amateur 
fiction about characters I've already got my mind set about.  I've 
read all four books and decided for myself what sexual orientation 
some the characters are and who they're attracted to, and I don't 
welcome someone barging into my vision and telling me I've got it 
all wrong. Or, worse, thrusting images into my mind of scenes I 
definitely don't want to be part of my Harry Potter experience. 

This is where rating fanfiction gets tricky.  But not that tricky.  
If I don't want to read stories with specific pairings, I should be 
able to look through the list and be able to identify pairings that 
I am not interested in.  Would you enjoy browsing through a book 
store if you had to look through a list of synopses of all the books 
in there, all mixed up to boot?  After you'd looked through a few 
pages of synopses with books on gardening, how to raise a troubled 
kid, the art of film noir, chinese fan-making techniques, a bio of a 
1950s movie star, collecting plates, the history of the lobster, 
understanding calculus, the latest romance novel, the repacked best-
selling sci-fi epic, how to grow mushrooms and so on you'd be pretty 
frustrated that it wasn't easier to get to exactly what you wanted 
to read and how to avoid what you were not interested in.

Realistically, most fanfic sites are not huge book stores with 
millions of dollars to spend on personel to sort and stock books 
into neat little categories.  For this reason, massive fanfic sites 
that have every single story sorted by all pairings contained within 
and then by how graphic the story as far as sex and violence will 
probably never actually exist.  It's a nice idea, but it ain't going 
to happen.  How to make it work, then?  Well, start by making the 
pairings and ratings clear BEFORE a synopsis is given.  Links to a 
synopsis can be anchored on the same page, just further down.  Why 
do I suggest this?  Because I visited the fictionalley website just 
a few days ago after all the heated discussion on this list.  While 
casually browsing the synopses, and still unfamiliar with the layout 
and the placement of warnings and pairings, I read some synopses 
[basiclly blurbs to try to get the browser to read the story] and 
winced at the unwanted images that sprang to mind when I read a few 
of them.  I will spare others the same fate by not quoting a couple 
I read there. 

As for the ratings for sexual and violent content, we are [almost] 
all adults on this list and can handle most things, even if the 
pairings or content isn't our usual preference, but children, who 
can and do access fanfic sites on the internet can't discern those 
differences as well and might think they can handle more than they 
really can or just don't know what the ratings mean.  
Clear, accurate, ratings would help solve this problem a great deal, 
assuming children didn't seek out the most explicitly rated stories 
just because of the "need to see what that stuff is about" factor.

My son is nine and he does not know what the term slash when applied 
to fiction means.  I have not had the opportunity or desire to 
explain it just yet.  He does know about heterosexual sex and 
homosexuality, but not every explicit detail - there's no need for 
that until he needs more information and asks for it, then I'll 
answer his questions.  He does not need to find a fanfic site and 
read all these synopses.  The ones he doesn't understand would 
puzzle him and the ones he does understand would considerably 
confuse him.  I don't think stumbling upon a slash fanfic, a non-
graphic one, would make him gay or mess him up for life - that's 
silly.  However, I don't want to get into a bunch of topics and 
explanations he's not ready yet to comprehend for many, many reasons.

As far as being an adult and stumbling across fanfiction I have no 
interest in, I am frustrated in what the fanfic sites lack - and 
that is comprehensive classification on the most basic level.  I 
mean basic sorting, then further sorting all the way down to fine 
tuned sorting of what the stories main pairings and sex/violence 
content really are.  If I don't want to read any slash pairings, but 
want an R-rated Harry/Hermione as grown-ups story, then I sould be 
able to find it easily by looking under "het or non-
slash", "Harry/Hermione", then "R-rated for sex and violence" or if 
I want to read chaste slash Minevera/Sprout pairings, then I should 
be able to look under "slash", "Minerva/Sprout", then "G rated, no 
sex, no violence" and then read through the synopses to pick a 
story.  No matter my preference, I could find what I wanted and 
avoid what I didn't want with ease.  Many more fanfics would be read 
with this sort of system.  

Unfortunately, too many people are quick to cry "discrimination" at 
the suggestion that fanfics should be clearly sorted into different 
ratings for sex and violence, couple pairings and slash or non-
slash, but sorting is not about discrimination.  It is about 
enabling those readers who want to find and read fanfics a chance to 
preserve their own views of the canon-based characters while adding 
to their images only what they want to add.  Fanfics with bad 
writing, too little/too much cursing or unwanted pairings or 
excessive/too little sex or whatever can bring unwanted images to 
mind. 

I prefer to read what I want and not read what doesn't interest me.  
I am not interested in reading slash pairings, no matter the rating 
of the story.  It doesn't fit in with my view of the sexual lives or 
complete lack thereof of these characters and I enjoy my personal 
image, yes, to the exclusion of all others, right now and don't want 
other people's interpretations or personal visions to barge in on my 
little world.   What is unjust is that because I state this, some 
people assume that I must be homophobic or a canon-idolizing 
nincompoop.  I wouldn't assume a gay person who doesn't want to read 
fanfic stories of deep, undying love between Ron and Hermione, with 
or without sexual content a heterophobe or a canon-hating 
nincompoop.  I wouldn't assume that someone who thinks Snape is a 
sexy tiger-in-the-sack in their own vision of the Pottervers is a 
dangerous lunatic [I'm talking about the character here, not Alan 
Rickman the actor]. Yes, those are all unkind words and that is name-
calling, but that is my point.  There shouldn't be name-calling over 
someone defending their right to maintain their own vision of the HP 
characters, free from taint, unwanted images, and bad fiction. :D  

Do I personally think all the HP characters are "good little 
heterosexuals", which is an attitude John and Heidi seem to be 
ascribing to anyone who isn't jumping with joy over all those slash 
fiction choices we're missing out on reading?  For the record, no.  
I think Barty Crouch Jr. is/was gay.  I think a few other characters 
could be either/or, and I'm undecided at the moment.  Do I think of 
all the HP characters in terms of whether they're gay or straight?  
It may surprise the self-appointed activists on the list, but I 
don't.  Many characters I do not think of their sexual orientation 
at all, because it is unimportant to my view of that character.  I 
don't care who that fictional character would hypothetically lust 
after as it is completely beside the point.  Introduing wild sexual 
exploits or sexual leanings of any kind at this point would 
interfere with my view of those characters so I don't go looking for 
fanfics that might influence my images.  No matter how firmly I can 
have imaged my characters, tainting from fanfics can happen.  Should 
everyone who thinks Barty Crouch Jr. was not gay think I'm attacking 
them?  Of course not.  Not all views will match.  Let's say I write 
a fanfic around a gay Barty Jr. with a Barty Jr./Volemort pairing 
and then tell off anyone who says the pairing doesn't interest them 
or even makes them ill, would I be wrong?  Yes, I would.  I can't 
force my own images onto others and I expect them to not do that to 
me.  

People are welcome to browse the fanfic sites and choose whatever 
they want to read, and then to read it in privacy.  I wouldn't dream 
of marching over to others' houses to turn off their computer on 
them because I want to control what they're reading - regardless if 
it is the smuttiest, most pornagraphic orgy of all the HP characters 
or the sweetest love story between two adult characters.  The fact I 
don't want to read those stories and can't see the appeal in them 
doesn't mean I'm recommending, let alone commanding, everyone else 
to stop reading them.  

In my original post, I may not have clearly expressed myself that 
others are free to write and read what they like, just I expect to 
do the same.  If I don't want to read it, I don't have to.  If I 
don't understand the appeal of some of it, then I just don't.  If it 
appeals to you, read away.  :) 

Diana -who is now going back to bed