Sometime reasonable wins...

[maygra]

If you have not tripped over heatherly's essay elsewhere, I encourage you to read it.

You know, if that's the sort of thing you like to read.

I say this in full admission of fact that I disagree, or rather, approach differently a couple of points in the second half of her essay -- primarily from a ideological and practical POV as opposed to disagreeing with her en toto of a writer's responsibility. I'm pretty sure I'll have additional thoughts on that in a bit, if I can get my thoughts organized in such a way as to present them as less contention than perspective.

Comments

[maygra.livejournal.com]

I get your point and I have long been an advocate of warnings and disclaimers on fan fiction -- more so than on pro fiction (Which comes with either none or must be inferred form dust jacket covers)mostly because I think fan writers enjoy an extraordinary freedom of examination and ability to go into detail that most pro-writers find constrained by their publishing houses.

And that said, I find it a little tough to take that as a fan writer I am expected to be more aware/considerate/empathic/understanding/cautious in my dealing with total strangers (because PTSD or even rape survival or abuse survival is not something I can infer from a user name) than pretty much anyone else. My default setting is that I think with in fandom, and because of the dense concentration of women that my likelihood of running into someone who is a survivor (with or without PTSD) is somewhat higher than the general population -- i.e. probably closer to 1 in 3 than 1 in 6.

I'll stand by my words to the extent that I find deathfic to be extremely distressing, among other things, and that even as I lobby for people to label stories for it, I don't assume that everyone does and so my default setting there is that I tend to skim to the end of things I think may potentially contain death, even to the point of spoiling myself irretrievably for a particular story, movie or book. I find it that distressing.

I think there's just a point (for me) where I have to acknowledge that I can only go so far in protecting other people and at some point, people have to be willing to do what they need to do to protect themselves. Because even if I do warn to excess, I'm implying that I have some kind of special insight into at what level of discussion or exposure might trigger a bad reaction -- which I don't actually have any way to measure or quantify.

One story of mine may hit rape/abuse survivor "A" very differently than rape/abuse survivor "B". It's rather like not realizing you are yelling at a deaf person because you think they are ignoring you. At some point you have to get a clue that they are deaf...merely looking at them won't tell you that.

Or closer to my own experience: I have a mild case of asthma which in day to day life bothers me not at all. Most things that trigger major asthma attacks in other people do not bother me -- not density of pollution or dust, pollens, or smoke.

Certain aerosal freshening sprays however, are something I have to be cautious around because some compounds do indeed trigger attacks that are far more severe than anything else in my day to day life. The introduction of non-aerosol fresheners like Febreeze, are to me, the greatest invention since paper napkins. But you know, when I go to a home of someone I've never been to before, I've learned to ask. It's awkward and a little embarrassing but not nearly as embarrassing as having to have my potential host call 911 because I can't breathe.

[alicettlg.livejournal.com]

I think fan writers enjoy an extraordinary freedom of examination and ability to go into detail that most pro-writers find constrained by their publishing houses.

And that said, I find it a little tough to take that as a fan writer I am expected to be more aware/considerate/empathic/understanding/cautious in my dealing with total strangers (because PTSD or even rape survival or abuse survival is not something I can infer from a user name) than pretty much anyone else.

For me, your first sentence is the reason for - not so much an expectation but an understanding and discussion about why we should exercise more care. The freedom that we have in fandom and fanfic is also a responsibility, the venue to write so much more, to write outside the mainstream, to explore issues that cannot always be explored in pro writing, whether books or TV or movies, comes with that responsibility to warn about fires.

Does that mean I think warnings should be mandated on all fanfic, that fandom should make it a requirement? Hell no. Each writer does have the freedom to make that decision on their own, some may give it great deal of thought and care about whether and when to warn and some will be dashing off a story and posting it without ever considering warnings at all. The discussion is the point, that we talk about whether or when or why to warn so each writer can make their own decision.

when I go to a home of someone I've never been to before, I've learned to ask. It's awkward and a little embarrassing but not nearly as embarrassing as having to have my potential host call 911 because I can't breathe.

The difference with fanfic is that there's not always someone there to ask - it can be on a website or an archive with an email address long terminated and the website or archive may not require warnings or even ratings (and I'm *not* advocating that archives require either). So it's more like you were going to someone's house and they're not home and you had no opportunity to speak to them before your visit. You get to stand at the door and survey the surroundings and try to determine what might be inside that poses a risk for you.