Just saw a post about how it’s impossible to objectify or disrespect characters, because they ARE objects, not real people. This is true.
I have several mutuals who regularly talk about interrogating how you’re writing black or Jewish characters, because it’s very easy to perpetuate stereotypes. Even if the characteristics you’re assigning to them are neutral, if you ONLY ever give those characteristics to guys with certain backgrounds it … implies something. This is true.
I see a lot of posts about how fantasizing about an idea doesn’t mean you want to act it out in real life. Reading or writing about a character being tortured, or cheating on someone, doesn’t mean you want to hurt real people. This is true.
Almost daily I see another trans person laughing about old things they wrote before transitioning where they said ‘caring about this gendered topic doesn’t mean I’m that gender!’ I see posts about how representation matters, and about how people discover themselves through fiction. This is true.
There’s a post going around about how when you’re talking to someone suicidal, it is important to say the word, rather than use euphemisms. If words are too taboo to use, people suffer silently, unable to talk about their experiences. This is true.
There’s also research that shows that reading the detailed description of a suicide can entice other people to copy it, and so it’s better not to focus on it too much. This is true.
Stories aren’t reality. Stories have power. People explore things through fiction - things they want, things they fear, things that confuse them, things that they care about and want to share with others. What you read says SOMETHING about you, but it’s often difficult to figure out what that something is for a specific person. What you write affects how those who read it will see the world, but you are not responsible for their reactions.
You can’t objectify a character. If only your poor characters are violent and/or hypersexualized, people who read your writing may feel objectified. Writing a character avoiding sex as much as possible doesn’t mean you hate sex. If you find yourself writing a lot of characters that avoid sex, thinking about asexuality and you in the same thought might prove helpful.
People can write/read about bondage because they like being tied up, because they’re terrified of being trapped, because they’re overworked and want to imagine being forced to take a break, because they like being in control, because they really like people looking at them, because someone they love is taking dangerous risks and they don’t know how to stop them, because they’re curious why anyone would like bondage and want to explore, or a thousand other reasons.
Of COURSE people are going to find this stuff confusing! Everything overlaps!
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