Dear Fandom, WTF?

[jaina47]

Guiding Light Fandom - specifically the fan fic'ers.  I have a problem with you.  Not all of you, but, yeah, some of you.

I'm usually very live and let live when it comes to fic that I don't like. I figure if I don't like it, well that's personal opinion, and no one is forcing me to read it. I'll just be on my merry way and you can continue on yours.

But this time, I do seriously have a problem.  I'm starting to see something become a trend and I do not want it to be.  I'm a relatively new Guiding Light fangirl, but I really, really adore this fandom in ways that I don't think I've ever whole heartedly embraced a fandom before. I looked around, saw something I liked, saw a fandom that I could respect, enjoy and be proud to be a part of.  I checked my cynicism, jaded attitude and sarcasm at the door.  

A lot of folks do with this fandom, and I'll be the first to admit that at times the hyperbole can get a bit much. Nothing is perfect and this isn't either, but I honestly don't think I've seen a fandom like this before. 

This brings me to my problem.  We have a storyline that for the most part is doing it right.  We have two wonderful actresses that are fully and completely committed to telling this story in the right way.  They love the story and they embrace the fans, completely, without reservation and in ways I've never seen before.  This storyline is showing a love story between two women and it's not a gimmick. It's real. It's not just two women making out for male viewers. It's not meant to titilate. It's growing slowly. It's not going to end with one woman married or dead and the other yearning after her angstily for the rest of her life. No one is going to get "punished" for daring to follow their heart and love another woman.

Yes, there are obstacles and angst.  But they're real things. Not fake, contrived bullshit meant to keep lesbians in their place.  No happily ever afters allowed. 

So the beginnings of this trend I'm seeing in Guiding Light fan fic, I want it to stop. Now. Before it does become a trend.

Rape!fic is something that I've run across many times over the years.  Most of the time it's badly written and unrealistically handled.  Other times it's less like Rape!fic and more like Hate!fic where some troll uses the guise of writing a story to take out his or her issues with lesbians/bi women or just women in general.  That I can deal with. I don't like it, but you can't stop all the trolls on the internet and you shouldn't try or all you're going to suceed in doing is ruining your day and yours alone.

I have read well written stories that deal with rape.  Stories where it's a subject that is dealt with in a realistic manner and handled with respect.  I don't necessarily enjoy these stories.  Most of the time they make me uncomfortable, and that's what they're supposed to do. But I can respect and admire the story and the person that wrote it for the way that it was handled and for dealing with that subject in the way that they chose to do it. 

Here's my problem: One rape!fic is just infinite diversity in infinite combination. Two is a coincidence. Three is the start of a trend.  

What I want to know is why is this becoming a trend?  I may be young, and only relatively recently realized that my sexuality may not be straight up heterosexual, but even I know how hard it is to find media that is first not just completely heterosexual in focus but second portrays homosexuality in a way that doesn't make me just want to slit my wrists and give up now.  

We finally have something that is good, and doesn't crap all over the idea of two women being in love. No one is being punished or realizing it's just a phase or committing suicide or sleeping with a man before their wedding day to another woman or any of the dozens of other things that have happened before.  So why are we, ourselves, as a community doing this?  I want to know. 

And it's not just that people are writing about this, it's that people are reading this.  They flock to these fics.  They say that they love them and that they're okay.  They want more.  Really?  You want more fics where characters that we know and love and can see our lives reflected in are raped by men that have a problem with them loving other women?  Really?  No. I don't.  

I was going to lock this post to only let a few people that I know and trust read this little rant, but you know what? I'm not going to.  If you have a problem with me saying these things and asking these questions.  Have at it.  The comments are open.  

Comments

[ariestess]

Obviously, my "elitist" attitude in what I will and won't read has saved me from having to read these rape!fics that are becoming a trend.

It's part of a serious issue that's growing in the femslash fandoms across the board. Putting characters through countless heinous, evil things just to have that element of "oh noes!" and to give the characters a chance to have mindblowing sex afterward. Having an obstacle that causes friction and/or angst is fine, but when it's truly contrived only for the visceral effect or to keep readers interested in the story? That's just bad storytelling/writing. Period.

[jaina47.livejournal.com]

Well, part of what got me going this morning was that I found a new fic by an author that I'd just discovered and I thought (and still think) is a good writer and was very excited to read it. And their new fic was one of these rape fics. It was so far not badly handled. But given the other two badly handled, pretty awful, contrived rape fics that I'd stumbled across in the past few days in the same fandom, it just kind of set me off.


It's part of a serious issue that's growing in the femslash fandoms across the board. Putting characters through countless heinous, evil things just to have that element of "oh noes!" and to give the characters a chance to have mindblowing sex afterward. Having an obstacle that causes friction and/or angst is fine, but when it's truly contrived only for the visceral effect or to keep readers interested in the story? That's just bad storytelling/writing. Period.

I didn't realize that this was something that was growing throughout other fandoms, but I don't find it hard to believe. I agree that it's just lazy and sloppy writing if you have to find something this bad, punish characters this much, just to keep a story interesting.

It's a gimmick, just like mainstream tv shows use two women making out to get viewers. I don't like it then and I certainly don't like it now.

[ariestess]

Well, if it's a one shot, I can sometimes look past it and just say "gimmick!" and move on. But it's more the idea of multiple one shot stories with this kind of thing, or the HUGE multi-part stories that have these horrific situations in practically each and every part. There is one author in particular that I'm thinking of, who happens to be in an entirely different fandom, but I do see it happening more and more often across fandom in general.