[ SECRET POST #5957 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5957 ⌋

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


Everything is a spoiler or comes with content warnings today!



__________________________________________________


01. [SPOILERS for Doctor Who, Buffy the vampire slayer]




__________________________________________________

















02. [WARNING for rape/sexual assault]

[Oz]



__________________________________________________



03. [WARNING for body horror]

[Monster Factory]


__________________________________________________



04. [WARNING for discussion of pedophilia]




__________________________________________________



05. [WARNING for discussion of child abuse]




__________________________________________________



06. [WARNING for discussion of transphobia]


























Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #851.
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]

05. [WARNING for discussion of child abuse]
https://i.imgur.com/vjLB4db.png

[meadowphoenix]

Well i don't think it's terrible to dislike something that makes it harder for you to cope. And oh boy was this very prevalent in woobie fic in some of my fandoms.

I've seen more of the opposite in media, where the hyper-competent/very sweet person has to like learn boundaries or learn to trust people, but those instances aren't any less idealized, and/or involve people forcing them to do this in a way that also seems traumatic so ... i don't think media is good with abuse.

[(Anonymous)]

This kind of reminds me of memes I see where people say they're gentle in spite of their traumas (paraphrasing here). Because of that, I can understand your stance to some degree.

[feotakahari]

On the other hand, I read this story in a college English class where there was a bitter Holocaust survivor and a cheerful Holocaust survivor, and it turned out the cheerful one had never been in the Holocaust and was making it all up, because any real survivor would be bitter. I found that story weirdly offensive.

[(Anonymous)]

There are cheerful Holocaust survivors, though! There are plenty of people who, though they may experience survivors' guilt as many people do, are grateful to be alive/spared.

[philstar22]

Ew. No. Different people react differently to trauma.

[feotakahari]

The same short story collection had this story about competing Edgar Allen Poe impersonators. The one who portrayed Poe's writing as fundamentally sad was more popular, but the one who portrayed Poe's writing as fundamentally angry was implied to have a better understanding of Poe's vision. I think there's a throughline there--against both cheerfulness and sadness, this author jumped to the idea that anger was the "right" emotion and the other was "wrong." (Personally, I found the sad Poe more accurate to Poe's style.)

[philstar22]

Oh wow. Yes, I would say Poe is much more sad than angry, though he's complicated. But mourning does seem to be a general theme in at least some of his works. And even with the horror stuff, death is as much a thing of sadness as a thing to fear.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, there are just as many tropes in fiction where people who had a lot of trauma become villains.

[(Anonymous)]

Yep, and unlike OP, I don't mind the "angelic trauma survivor" character type (actually, thinking about it, I love a lot of characters who are like that) but like OP, the "villain because of trauma" one worries me on a personal level because it makes me think I would definitely be evil if I'd had more trauma in my life. Which means I'm actually still evil because I have the potential should I experience trauma in the future.

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT. I don't know that this is something to really stress out about if you're self-aware, and it sounds like you are. So if you experienced more trauma, you'd probably be likely to seek help.

Being evil or kind is also down to choice. Character types in fiction are shorthand for how a writer *thinks* people react to things.

So like, if I flunk out of art school, I know I'm not going to become an evil dictator. I'll just be sad about it.

[(Anonymous)]

I believe both are harmful if taken as the norm. This reminds of something I've studied whenever I've written military science fiction, and studied both army field manuals as well as psychology stuff. Learning how are people affected by trauma and war.

Back in the days of the World Wars, PTSD and shell-shock were seen with such derision, people suffering them were unfairly treated as cowards, and we know it's massively fucked up because of not only how horrible war really is, but due to the fact PTSD takes over your body.

Likewise, not every combat veteran gets PTSD, and the assumption that you must be a complete monster and not even a human being if you don't is... likewise, rather troubling. Vietnam vets, traumatized or otherwise, would be derided and oft-seen as murderers. Many factors dictate whenever if you get it or not, not least of all prompt psychiatric help.

Every person is unique in how they react to trauma, short and long-term. One of the schools of psychology, Constructivism, is what focuses on explaining how the mind sorts itself out through many of these events, and it seems to be used in likewise seeing why some people are vulnerable to trauma while others aren't. Dissociation and DID are ways the mind protects itself, to put an example.

That's not to say trauma doesn't affect you. Jesus Christ, it does, and it's much too common for people's lives to spiral if they lack a support network or psychiatric help to treat their conditions. But, as noted, I believe the problem lies whenever trauma is romanticized, either as a martyr complex or as something that you should just 'toughen up for'.

[(Anonymous)]

Every person is unique in how they react to trauma, short and long-term. One of the schools of psychology, Constructivism, is what focuses on explaining how the mind sorts itself out through many of these events, and it seems to be used in likewise seeing why some people are vulnerable to trauma while others aren't. Dissociation and DID are ways the mind protects itself, to put an example.

This 100%. It's incredibly harmful to put forth the idea that there is somehow one correct way to respond to trauma because everyone is different. I have a friend who was raped and who actually had MORE trauma from being told that there was somehow something wrong with her (or that she was making it all up) for not being horribly traumatized by it than she had from the actual rape itself.

[(Anonymous)]

I wouldn’t say I outright hate such characters, but I definitely empathize with your reasons. We can’t all be fucking Cinderella.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think it's evangelical Christianity so much as it's human nature to want to believe good can come out of suffering, and for as many people as there are like you, there are just as many people who react to trauma with a need for reassurance that they're not doomed to a miserable meaningless existence because of what happened to them.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't 100% relate to hating those characters, but thank you for expressing a feeling closer to mine I didn't know how to express.

As someone who has childhood trauma/CPTSD from parental emotional abuse sometimes I definitely get into my head about whether my trauma is 'bad enough' to justify it being an issue with me. And that in turn makes me feel uncomfortable reading stories where a character has suffered extreme abuse of some kind (you know the kind) as it makes me feel like I haven't suffered enough to deserve to be a 'main character', if that makes sense.

They also piss me off because most of the time the portayal of trauma or therapy is super off. Or it's okay, but for some reason the author makes the love interest essentually abusive themselves in response to expressions of trauma by the main character, but plays it off as romantic or as fun dramatic tension. It's really upsetting when that happens, actually.

[(Anonymous)]

If it’s hurt you, it’s enough to be an issue. I’m sorry if that might come off as simple, but you’re obviously carrying some stuff from it, and any pain you’ve felt is valid and is enough to cause trauma. Theres no such thing as valid or invalid pain or trauma. Don’t let anyone or anything make you feel otherwise.

[(Anonymous)]

I think there's a difference between recognizing that what one went through wasn't okay and striving to not put anyone else through it, and being unrealistically self-sacrificing as one ignores the trauma one went through.

As someone who was horribly abused in their childhood and some of their adulthood, I try to be better than the people who abused me because I sure as hell don't want to be WORSE.

[(Anonymous)]

Different people respond to trauma in different ways. But let me tell you, as someone who’s abuse has shaped into an overly sweet and accommodating person, I’m internally super bitter and I would hit so many people in the face with a folding chair if giving the opportunity. We might look soft, but a lot of us carry a lot of hidden resentment and our intrusive thoughts are sometimes very, very, very violent.

⋆͛*͛ ͙͛ ⁑͛⋆͛*͛ ͙͛It’s awesome ੈ✩‧₊˚⋆͛*͛ ͙͛ ⁑͛⋆͛*͛ ͙͛

+1

[(Anonymous)]

judge yourself by your actions not your thoughts. if you have violent thoughts but choose not to act on them, you're still a good person.