[ SECRET POST #3146 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3146 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 065 secrets from Secret Submission Post #450.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

09. http://i.imgur.com/m7C2XJ9.jpg

Transcript by OP

[fscom]

Dear fandom "friend",

Don't you dare whine to me about how much pressure writers are under to include POCs in their fanfic whenI know for a fact that ALL your fics have only white main characters and the only POC is a racial stereotype. You don't have to write POCs at all if you don't want to. Lots of people do this without being tarred and feathered by SJWs, or whatever you think will happen. But either way, give it a rest already. You're not even on Tumblr and you're being a ridiculous crybaby over nothing.

Re: Transcript by OP

[(Anonymous)]

I know plenty of people who would like to be inclusive of characters of color but who won't write them because that whole areas is a minefield. Yet simply by not writing coCs, there are people who will consider them racist. That really sucks.

I believe in inclusivity and in promoting awareness of systemic and internalized biased. I think those biases are unfair and frequently harmful, and I will be very happy to see more PoCs and other marginalized groups represented in popular media in the future. But I also believe that creators, as individuals, don't have a responsibility to shape their stories for the sake of inclusivity. If the story you have in your head has four white, straight, able-bodied male leads at its center, that does not, in and of itself, make your story sexist, racist, homophobic, ablist, cissexist or any other -ist you can think of. And as a creator, you shouldn't have to worry about being branded as any one of those thing simply because you didn't go out of your way to make sure your story accommodates people's social justice agendas. (Now if your story is overtly racist, that's another matter, but that's not what we're talking about here.)

Furthermore, fandom's outlooks can be a bit unbalanced and weird. For example, it's okay to write about a terribly thing like underage rape as if it were sexy, but it's not okay to write about a CoC unless you represent them with perfect accuracy and cultural sensitivity. Because accidentally misrepresenting a CoC with one minor reference to a cultural stereotype is gross and harmful, but deliberately misrepresenting rape with a long, graphic depiction of how "hot" it is is...subversive and empowering???

Which is all to say that I get why someone might be annoyed enough to whine about the aggressive and intimidating behaviors and attitudes of the more militant SJWs. In the name of everyone's right to be heard and respected (a great cause), they end up curbing or downright quashing a lot of important voices and conversations.

Re: Transcript by OP

[(Anonymous)]

+1

Re: Transcript by OP

[(Anonymous)]

I generally agree but you didn't go out of your way to make sure your story accommodates people's social justice agendas ...well sure, but if you're not generally sexist, racist, etc, you're most likely going to organically be inclusive, and unlikely to have four apex privilege type main characters "just because", it doesn't have to be a self-conscious "accommodation" thing. Sometimes people are trying clumsily to point it out, but are really talking more about the forest than the trees. I agree though that crying "racist!" against an individual can be used by some as a weapon sometimes more than a well-founded belief, and that is not helping anyone.

Re: Transcript by OP

[(Anonymous)]

SA ...woah late night word salad sorry

[(Anonymous)]

While I believe in actual SJWs because of experience I'm also pretty wary in general of people who constantly complain about 'evil SJWs making me do stuff' if I don't have proof that they are regularly swamped by SJWs or something.

This seems very questionable in particular seeing as all their "POC" characters are stereotypes.

[(Anonymous)]

I have a hard time believing people are under these kinds of "pressures" for real. Stories with few or no POCs make up a significant portion of published books in the U.S. and Europe, and I don't see it being any different for fanfiction. People like to cite SJW bogeymen a lot, but I think it's more about their discomfort with the idea that something they write (or have written or want to write) might be considered racist and exclusionary by some people.

[elialshadowpine]

Nailed it.

[(Anonymous)]

Exactly. imo, at least 50% of omg sjw! whining has this basis.

[(Anonymous)]

Exactly, at least for me. It's the fear of the dogpile rather than an actual dogpile. I admit, I've jettisoned ideas for stories I really liked because I had a feeling some might miss the point and leap on me for being OMG racist or discriminatory when I was actually deconstructing it. People don't tend to read fanfic for nuances.

So rather than the headache, the fic stays as either just an idea, or locked away on a dusty, musty flash drive.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeeeeup. Bonus: I'm a POC, and I don't give a damn about what skin color the character has. As long as I like the character and the story all is good.

This just makes me think of overly sensitive SJW's or white people who are trying too hard to not be racist. It's a little ironic actually.

[(Anonymous)]

Agree with sentiment of secret.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah where all these eeeevil SJWs coercing writers into including more diversity against their will? Most people just, in general, want more POC characters. Why is that ~putting pressure~ on writers all of a sudden.

[(Anonymous)]

I mean, maybe I'm missing something, but perhaps the fact that you know exactly how many of the characters featured in your friend's fic are POCs and have evaluated them negatively as racial stereotypes is part of the pressure your friend is experiencing? Like, I'm not saying you should tiptoe around other people's discomfort about tackling race issues or POC characters, but I do think they are responding to something very real and that they are right about there being pressure there.

[(Anonymous)]

Readers being aware of an author's characters and use of racial stereotypes isn't pressure, though? That's just how reading works for many people, especially with issues that matter to them. Surely authors realize that when they publish something (even if it's fanfiction online) that hello, people might notice details in their work and might have opinions about them. If they didn't want that sort of "pressure", then why publish?

[(Anonymous)]

Readers being aware of an author's characters and use of racial stereotypes isn't pressure, though?
Ehm, I guess, if the reader never posts those thoughts aloud? But I know people who DO post those kinds of thoughts and who at the same time DO seem to be experiencing the kind of pressure the friend talks about. For example, my friend will write or reblog posts talking about how people need to care more about female characters and femslash, and then go on to say how guilty she feels that her OTP (that she writes by far the most fic for) is a white cock pairing. Those two things, exerting pressure and guilt (which go together), both stem for a widespread culture within a fandom that fic has to be progressive, and people need to prove themselves, "walk the walk". To deny that there is some kind of pressure seems weird to me, because I see it all the time (for example, the drama alluded to in Secret 10 of Post #3147). I don't know if OP posts their ranty thoughts about fanfiction, but the fact that they hold them indicates to me this might be the widespread culture within their fandom, which totally WOULD exert pressure.

If they didn't want that sort of "pressure", then why publish?
That's kind of beside my point? Like, I'm not saying pressure is bad or people should expect NO pressure -- pressure is probably good, and makes people better authors. My point is that you don't really get to apply pressure on someone and then invalidate their feelings of experiencing pressure as being all in their head. Like, no. When people say they feel X, I generally believe they feel X.