Slash and parenting, age appropriateness and hate

[pippin_999 <foxmoth@qnet.com>]

Ebony said:
>>But you wouldn't go as far as to tell your son not to read H/H 
fanfiction that was age-appropriate, would you? I mean, I don't 
have quite your H/H reaction on my part to R/H (as after all, I have 
written that ship), but a few of my students do read R/H fanfiction 
and enjoy it. And you know that I love writing and reading H/H 
stories, but you don't hate me for it... you even beta-read, and I 
value what you've done for it.

OTOH, what we're talking here is a real bias that seems to affect 
the judgment and good sense of others.<<

Exactly. I'm not violently anti-H/H. What I wrote in my previous 
post was probably the closest I've ever come to a rant on my 
position. But if some gonzo religious leader goes on the news 
tomorrow and declares that H/H is obscene, am I going to be 
accused of creating the atmosphere that made it possible?

Should I henceforth avoid mentioning my dislike of H/H, even if I 
declare that I absolutely am not in sympathy with the radicals? 
Will my declaration automatically be suspect?

BTW, I have never forbidden my son to read anything, including 
the musty paperbacks that Daddy keeps under the bed. OTOH, I 
really did stand over my son's shoulder when he was using the 
Internet, until I  felt that he had accepted the duty of moral 
responsibility, could recognize propaganda and hatemongering, 
and was reasonably capable of dealing with scary stuff, sexual 
and otherwise.

John said (#13423):

>>However, yes, I and hundreds of others have written slash 
which would have a cinema PG-13 rating, i.e. a rating roughly 
similar to GoF. There is yet more slash which would have a PG 
rating.<<

The PG stands for Parental Guidance. In adopting the system, 
you  not only concede  my right as a parent to decide what is 
suitable for my child, you advise me to exercise it. 

I defend the right to make decisions for my child in this area, 
including bad ones. A five year old friend of mine once asked me 
for a fan fic. Suppose I had  wanted to find one for him instead of 
writing it myself. It seems there are so few slash stories that 
would be suitable for a child that age that I might as well, for 
convenience, rule out the whole category. If I had asked for help 
in sorting the summaries so as to do that, would I be a 
homophobe?

I also think it is a legitimate concern to ask whether an adult HP 
site constitutes what in real estate we call an "attractive 
nuisance," and if so what extra precautions might be taken. (1) 
This of course does not apply to HP alone, but since there are so 
many children who are into HP it does seem legitimate that the 
question might arise in connection with HP. 

John said (#13388):
>>I believe that hate is not a right and that people should fight
it wherever it occurs.<<

I strongly disagree. We can't fight hate anymore than we can fight 
love. Hate is a normal human response to pain and fear, which 
are also normal. We can  fight haters, but if we must or we 
should,  then let us be  sure before we engage them that the 
hate is theirs and not ours.

IMO, what we can do is to teach that not every hurt is intentional, 
and that no matter how dangerous a thing may be, and hate can 
indeed be very dangerous, the fear of it is ours alone. One of the 
most important things we learn through fantasy is that we can 
not gauge the reality of a threat by how much we fear it. 
Let us be careful not to mistake for hate what I would call, for lack 
of a better term, vehement ignorance.

If somebody says, on the main list, in their usual ranty way, that 
Hogwarts is a Christian institution, should I accuse him of 
hatemongering and devaluing my religion? Or if I say that in my 
Potterverse the wizards do not honor Christ at Christmas any 
more than Christians honor the Goddess Eastre at Eastertime, 
am I devaluing of Christians?  Or are we all trying, in the poverty 
of language and imagination, to dream of a world where religion 
divides us no more?

Pippin

1) Ordinarily, if a tresspasser injures himself, the property owner 
is not responsible. However, if there is something like a swing 
set or a swimming pool visible from the boundary, then the 
property owner has the responsibility, and must either fence the 
item off or conceal it to avoid liability.