fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #5824 ]

[ SECRET POST #5824 ]

⌈ Secret Post #5824 ⌋

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

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[Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special]

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04.

[A Plague Tale: Requiem]

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08. https://i.imgur.com/ZBRHwbN.png
[linked for NSFW (Mansfield Park 1999)]

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09. [SPOILERS for The Occupation Saga]
[WARNING for discussion of rape]

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10. [WARNING for discussion of transphobia]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #833.
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.

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Why do you think a story with drama/angst/unhappy ending will be viewed as transphobic?
That doesn't make sense to me, unless you're somehow justifying bad things happening to the transgender character/s as the direct result of their trans-ness, and they 'deserve it' or something.....

Because it's happened. Isabel Fall wrote a dystopian SF story about weaponized gender, and people went nuts questioning her trans-ness, alleging she was a Nazi in disguise, claiming her story was harmful to trans people, etc., because she dared to write a morally complex story. She had to go to a hospital for suicidal thoughts because of the harassment, and last I heard had decided not to go forward with her transition.

https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22543858/isabel-fall-attack-helicopter

Especially on Book Twitter there are a LOT of gatekeepers out there who flip out when someone's description of their trans experience doesn't precisely match their own ideas of good representation.

Well, that's intensely stupid and fucked up of them.
I think I'd have to write something that would piss them off just to do it.

"I Sexually Identify As An Attack Helicopter"? That sounds like something Chuck Tingle would write, then start on its sequel "I Got Pounded In the Butt By My Own Sexually-Identified Attack Helicopter".

It's nice to learn about these things on F!S, because if I encountered the sentence "I sexually identify as an attack helicopter" in casual conversation, I'd probably be like "how does that work?" and sincerely intrigued. And now I know not to. :/

SA
I don't know how it works!
I know there are people out there that are attracted to roller coasters or identify as aliens or dragons or cats and modify their faces/bodies. I don't know how that shit works either. ::shrugs::

AYRT

Well, what I'm gathering is that this one is a transphobic catch-phrase, not a sexuality that's adjacent to those folks who are erotically attracted to complex machinery. (More's the pity - I prefer Otherkin and niche fetishists to unimaginative bigots.)

Thanks to fandom, I'm longtime friends with someone who self-identifies as a mythological creature, so that's actually not weird to me by this point.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2022-12-17 06:56 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2022-12-17 07:43 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2022-12-17 12:23 (UTC) - Expand

Fell titled her story after transphobes' One Joke, which made a lot of trans people nervous. Her author information, when she initially published, didn't say she was trans, even though she wrote under a pseudonym with no history attached, so it would have been safe for her to do so.

It's not at all surprising that some people thought the story was intended to be an attack on trans people.

And if Fell decided not to pursue transition because of how some trans people and cis allies reacted to a story, well, I'm glad for her sake that she didn't have to cope with actual transphobia directed at her.

this!!! i read it back before it was known she was trans and as someone heavy in the gamer sphere it read to me entirely like a dudebro mocking transpeople. she tried something! and if there was a different immediate framing of "this is a trans person reclaiming/deconstructing the slur" at the start people would've adored it because it WAS well written, but, well. being coy about who the author was from the start just didn't help with the people exposed to the attack helicopter thing for years on end.

even in that context, the reaction was still wildly over the top and absolutely unacceptable.

like, for people to immediately have a reaction of "huh, i'm not sure what's going on there" - OK. it's admittedly a provocative title.

but you don't have to then immediately jump on Twitter and lead a witch hunt without seeking any further information or reading the story. but people did! and that's the whole problem!

Yep. Including established authors who themselves have marginalised identities. It was disgusting.

So much this.

+100

The witch hunt did much more real harm to a real trans person than any bad story possibly could. The problem is people who jump onto the callout bandwagon without the least bit of critical thinking, or even reading the damn story, because they get to feel like they're doing a good thing while basically indulging a sadistic desire to destroy someone. If they're told the target is acceptable, they don't hold back.

There are several people I used to look up to who turned my respect to contempt real quick with that kind of behavior.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2022-12-17 06:54 (UTC) - Expand

I get the initial impression, but once it was known this was written by a trans woman who was intentionally making confrontational work - which is a HUGE part of the queer SFF tradition - the right thing to do would be to say, "oh shit, I didn't realize, my bad," and back off.

You cannot be a reliable activist or ally if you have no sense of when to admit you were wrong and apologize.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2022-12-17 09:51 (UTC) - Expand

Yes, I too agree that trans people deserve to be harassed into being suicidal and then have their identities doubted because of bad advertising! /s

+1, a stench of victim-blaming wafts by.

Yeah. You can say “I’m not surprised some trans people and allies got the wrong idea based on the title and the lack of disclosure of the author’s status as trans in the book”, without excusing these same people for refusing to do any more research or think with any nuance about it before mercilessly attacking the author without a thought. Because none of what happened to her was her fault, she did nothing to deserve it. People just didn’t want to consider they could be wrong and attacking an innocent trans woman before they started the harassment campaign.

I'm glad for her sake that she didn't have to cope with actual transphobia directed at her.

There was a cis woman editor who went through the story line by line to "prove" that only a man would have written it. Textbook TERF bullshit. It's in the article. How is that not actual transphobia directed at Fall?

Yeah. Isabel Fall very much did have to cope with actual transphobia directed at her. It is very fucked up to say otherwise.

Every story where anything bad happens to a trans character for any reason you can think of has people who accuse it of being transphobic. Even if the bad thing had nothing to do with the character's transness in the story, there will be people who think that's the reason the writer chose to make something bad happen to them. Only happy sunshine stories allowed for trans people. And the same thing happens with almost every other marginalized group.

DA

I've definitely seen this. Someone I knew in the Star Wars fandom stopped writing fanfic about Poe after people accused her of all sorts of vile things for giving him a drinking problem. Would've been totally fine if he'd been white, but because the character is Hispanic, how dare you, playing into stereotypes, bad representation, the works. She'd been part of a group of writers that was creating a lot of fic about Poe and Finn, and attributes the fact that very few of them kept writing for those characters to how aggressive and widespread the "you're doing respectability politics wrong!!" attacks were. Pretty much everyone she knew was bullied for trying to tell stories where the guys weren't perfect role models and sometimes bad things happen, and all of them were there and writing because they loved these characters.

DA

Yeah. And at this point I don't care if the dogpilers have good intentions or not (some do, some know very well that they don't). The overall cumulative effect is that the range of stories that can "acceptably" be told about marginalized characters is so much more narrow and restrictive than privileged ones. Which means there will be fewer stories about them overall, marginalized writers are walking on eggshells, and people with those identities who aren't perfect will have fewer chances to see themselves reflected.

And then everyone goes and calls the fandom racist for not writing about the POC. Even though they did until you bullied them out of it.

AYRT

I didn't see that happen, that time, but I wouldn't be at all surprised.

The number of people I've seen going "I love this character and want them in my story, but they are a POC and I'm [either white or from a different ethnic background] and worried people will jump all over me for Doing It Wrong" is quite a few. And I've actually seen activisty people both dismiss that as bullshit and try to guilt them for not committing to doing a ton of research before they can write fanfic. Which lol, no. If they really think you need to study history from a specific minority perspective to write Poe in literal high fantasy outer space without sinning against social justice, there is a problem.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2022-12-17 14:58 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2022-12-17 20:38 (UTC) - Expand

Blech. I really detest that. As much as I detest 'everything bad happens to this (marginalized/minority) character and everyone sucks' stories.

Can't we have a balance? Cant we have 50/50 h/c? *pokes people*

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