[ SECRET POST #2459 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2459 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 000 secrets from Secret Submission Post #351.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

04. http://i.imgur.com/hplP479.gif

[(Anonymous)]

No.

[(Anonymous)]

is it really transphobic to be turned off by it

no

and expect warnings

kind of maybe

[(Anonymous)]

I think it's transphobic to expect it to be 'warned' for. Warning implies a bad thing to me- like character death, or abuse or something. A character being trans* is not a bad thing.

I don't know what to say, really. Because you can't help being turned off by it, but the author can't be expected to 'warn' for it either. Tagging it or making readers aware would be making a bigger deal out of it than it is, 'othering' it. I think taking a risk some readers won't like it is better than being all 'WARNING: TRANS* PEOPLE" and risking genuinely hurting people :/ You wouldn't 'warn' for cis people, there's no reason to 'warn' for those who are trans*.

[(Anonymous)]

No, it's not. If it's smut, then there should be a disclaimer at least. Not everyone is turned on by women with penises or men with vaginas, etc

[(Anonymous)]

Nope! I think that people should tag things appropriately. Not even just as a warning, but also as a way to get readers. Some folks might be looking for trans* fic and would never know to check out that fic, because it wasn't tagged as such.

(frozen comment) If you actually need to ask "is this 'whatever'phobic?" the answer is always yes.

[bringreligiontothewamwams]

Transphobic to demand a warning, but reasonable to ask for an AU tag that one character is trans. its a subtle difference but it is still there.

Hey, if you think trans needs a warning, why did you not ask that this get a F!S warning label and go in the warning section? You know it is because you'd be flame roasted over that.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think it's transphobic, but at the same time just because they were trans it doesn't necessarily mean PIV sex, so I would have at least read on to see if it was? For example, some trans people who haven't had any surgery find it uncomfortable in a dysmorphic kind of way to use the genitals they were born with because mentally it feels like they should be using something else. There could have been strap ons instead.

So yeah, if you want a "warning" I think PIV would be the thing to warn for.

[(Anonymous)]

It seems like an odd thing not to tag, not really for people like you, but because that's a thing that I can imagine being a selling point of the fic for a lot of people. Not necessarily from a 'this makes the porn more appealing' way, but from a 'this character being trans* is my headcanon too' or 'I like representation in fic of things that don't get much representation in canon', who wouldn't be as interested without knowing that.

It's not a warning, just... a thing. If I were making spicy food, I would say that it was spicy, not just to warn off the people who don't like spicy food, but to attract the people who love it.

[(Anonymous)]

Eh, I don't think it's unreasonable to have a tag (NOT a warning, because that implies bad). But I don't think the author HAS to tag it, either. It's not like you suffered from surprise trans inclusion, after all.

[(Anonymous)]

now, there's a couple of issues here -

first, fanfic readers are used to being able to sort what they want to read by pairing, sexual situation, etc. So, normally, everything possibly relevant is tagged. degree of tagging varies, but normally any AU aspect would be tagged, so generally I'd expect it to be tagged (something like: X/Y; transX; AU: bakery; UST; warnings: unicorns).

second, the story in question involves a twist; the writer presumably wanted this to be a surprise. so, the problem is either to tag but hide it under a spoiler (X/Y spoiler warning: transX, etc) and let readers choose their level of surprise, or keep it extra cloaked by adding an umbrella "unusual sexual situation" tag. Personally, I'd go for the first because labeling something "unusual" opens its own can of worms.

third, there's the issue of whether or not to bring this up to the author. Obviously, you do not want to offend and since this is something close to the authors RL as well, the waters are extra murky. obviously, you can simply move on and not say anything (this is easy). or, you can leave a review comment wherein you praise the parts you loved (the build up, the relationship, etc) and leave it at that. and, if you're feeling particularly brave, you might also mention that "personally, the sex wasn't my cup of tea,". to avoid it devolving into wank, any suggestion about re-tagging things should probably be a private message.

finally, there's no need to conflate your not liking a fictional story featuring a transperson (a matter of personal taste and perfectly fine) with being transphobic (a matter of how you react to and treat transpeople in RL).

[(Anonymous)]

Trans headcanons are pretty popular in my fandom, and some of the stories are untagged, so I've developed a sense for discerning tell-tale hints in the summary before clicking on the story.

[(Anonymous)]

I had a similar experience to this.

Most fic writers let people know what their story contains.
1. Is the fic an AU?
2. Does it have an OC main character/s?
3. Does the fic have smut, violence, or excessive language?
5. What, if any, pairings are featured in the fic?

So no, I don't think it should be considered offensive to expect it to be mentioned in the summary. Unless you consider the things I listed above to be offensive.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think it's transphobic. People have preferences. I'm trans and I realise not everybody's going to be attracted to my body.

That said, assuming that the sex is gonna be PIV is pretty iffy (unless, of course, it was. Then it's the author's fault). Many, if not most, trans people are uncomfortable with using those parts of their bodies in ways that are employed by people without dysphoria. So sex with a trans person will, more often than not, be nothing like sex with a cis person with similar anatomy. Just a note on assumptions.

But yes, you're entitled to having a preference.

[(Anonymous)]

Things are usually tagged for gender-swapping, why wouldn't we tag for a trans character if that character is not trans in canon? Seems like common sense to me if you're making such a fundamental change in a character. Doesn't seem homophobic. I like reading fic with changes like that, to see how it would change a character, but not everyone does. And when I go looking for it, it makes it easier if it's tagged.

[(Anonymous)]

Hell no. Please ignore the obvious trolling attempts upthread.

If you aren't comfortable asking the author to tag for trans, maybe you can suggest for them to tag for AU? Since that's how the fic would be properly categorized.

Just stay away from variants of the word "warn".

[(Anonymous)]

I think it would be rude if you used the word "warning" because the connotation is more about danger or things to be avoided, but if you were to ask them to "tag" their fics as having trans characters, I don't think it would be a problem.

Surely, the author can appreciate that not everyone is turned on by the same things.

well, here's a thought.

[(Anonymous)]

So, you were reading, the writing was good, you were into it. You thought it was going to be a slashfic. Gotcha.

But ... as soon as Guy #1 is revealed to be a FtM, you bail because you assume that PIV is the only sex that will happen (or did you actually skim ahead, and know that for sure don't bother with the rest of my comment. And my apologies.)

Because ... even if guy #1 isn't fully transitioned there are quite a few very pleasurable activities that don't necessarily involve his "original equipment" at all .. but then your squick is not my squick, of course. to me the sexy thing about sex is the intimate physical and emotional interaction between (in this case two) entities, and not which (or if) Tab A goes into what Slot B.

[(Anonymous)]

I was going to put this in the thread that got frozen; it's not part of the wankery, just regarding distinctions between trans*fic and genderbending fic:

From a purely physical standpoint, sure, they might be the same. But fic that makes a cis character trans* generally also explores some elements of trans* life, such as gender dysphoria. Putting aside genderbending fics where the bent character is and always has been the opposite gender (ie, originally cis F character becomes born-and-raised cis M character), the distinction I'm making is sort of this:

Trans* storytelling- M character self-identifies as male although he retains female anatomy; he wants his body to be aligned with his gender identity.

Genderbending storytelling- cis M character's body is transformed into a F one. He has been one physical gender and now is the other physical gender. In most cases, he retains his male gender identity.

[(Anonymous)]

This exact same shit happened to me. Some author chopped off McCoy's dick in some ST fic.

Just what the fuck ???

[(Anonymous)]

I think in this, the "rude" and "offensive" with respect to OP's knowledge that this is a trans author kind of trump whether or not it's transphobic.

[(Anonymous)]

Reading is like taking an adventure, you're not going to like every choice an author makes.

Like I get really pissed off when I see a that a story has a lot of potential but the plot doesn't go the way I want it to. Or if a story scraps a character I loved. But in the end I just have to enjoy the parts I enjoyed and move on from the parts I didn't.

So you enjoyed the first half and and the build up, so remember that, and move on.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to know that a character was trans* up front. But at the same time, I hesitate to think it should be called a "warning," simply because I think it's ludicrous to warn for something like slash. Especially in certain fandoms where people still tend to call it "boykissing' or something equally inane. To me, listing the pairing itself should make it clear that it's slash, but if you feel the need to specify that, it could be a tag or something.

So, same for the trans* thing, especially if the character isn't trans* in canon. To me that's along the same lines as a genderbent fic. That's definitely something someone would indicate as it might not be everyone's cup of tea.

But then again, sometimes I wonder if we as fandom at large over-label things. Books don't come with warning labels of any kind, after all. But, so long as it's the general fandom norm to list pairings and tags and warn for certain things, I don't think it's unreasonable to at least include a tag for a trans* character (who's not one in canon), even if it's not exactly a warning.

[republicanism]

haha this was just all great. i loved the thing upthread with the one anon saying that tagging fic that makes cis characters trans is 'othering.' nice touch. i'm so sad that i missed this wank, but well done guys. it's delicious and confusing like a golden oreo.
as a sidebar, i used to be sympathetic to the desires of those with trans headcanons but then i spent a week in the tumblr tag and now i hate this trope with the fiery passion of a thousand prometheus dicks. which prometheus doesn't even have because he's trans look at me im so progressive

[(Anonymous)]

I think the thing is that warnings are usually for elements such as graphic violence or death, things that could severely upset somebody, whereas in an ideal world, having a trans* character in your story would be no big thing at all.

I do think that it should be tagged or there should be a content note mentioning that the story has trans*!Whoever because then people who WANT trans*!Whoever fic will be able to find it and people who don't can avoid it. After all, if you're writing a fic about a character being trans*, wouldn't you want to advertise to people who want to read about the character being trans*? So why WOULDN'T you put some kind of note on there to let people know?

Just a note. Not a warning.