Dandelions

Y'all: Oh no how will we tag our nsfw work!?

Intellectuals:

Me: okay… what’s the plot..?

A lot of people do that, and I don’t really see what’s arrogant about it. You made something you liked. If you had painted something, would it be arrogant to put it on your wall? If you baked a cake, would it be arrogant to eat it?

“’— none of your brothers caused this sort of trouble! Mrs. Weasley raged at the twins, slamming a fresh jug of butterbeer on the table and spilling almost as much again.  “Bill didn’t feel the need to Apparate every few feet! Charlie didn’t Charm everything he met! Percy–’

“She stopped dead, catching her breath with a frightened look at her husband, whose expression was suddenly wooden.”

I’m tempted to say the worst thing Percy did when he left was abandoning his mother to the company of these emotionally constipated people. 

Mrs. Weasley is going through it.  Not only is she in charge of housekeeping at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, which is bursting at the seams with people, and facing Voldemort’s return, but she’s effectively lost her son, and she can’t talk about him because her husband can’t handle it. And no one appears to be helping her or showing her any compassion; troublesome teenagers Fred, George, and Sirius Black are giving her their absolute worst.  “Apparating every few feet.” Hmmm.

I seem to remember one of the twins complaining to Harry that “Percy’s apparating downstairs for breakfast every morning just to show he can” when he was the age they are now.   Now the twins are doing exactly what Percy did, but he’s in so much trouble his mother can’t even say his name.  How times have changed.

The saddest part is when she’s arguing that Harry is too young to hear all the details of the Order’s plans and casting about for support, which no one offers her.  Because you know, if Percy were there, he’d agree with her. No doubt he’d do so “pompously” or “importantly,” but he’d have his mother’s back.  He’s always been the one she could rely on to not only not be a pain in the ass  for her, but to watch over his younger siblings when she wasn’t around.

I don’t necessarily agree with her about keeping the truth from Harry, but she seems so alone and oppressed.  Not only has she lost a son–the loss of any of her children would devastate her, as we see later–but she’s lost the only ally among her own children that she had.  It does seem like Arthur is trying to help her, but you can’t tell me that his response to Percy leaving isn’t putting a strain on their relationship. 

It’s so tremendously sad, and sometimes I get morbid and think, how would Molly react if something had happened to Percy during this estrangement–especially after the Christmas debacle in HBP, where he’s Driven Out by his siblings for being too scared to speak to them? How does she repair her relationships with her other children or her husband after something like that?

I think now I get it. This person thinks that people are entitled to being able to read every single fic that doesn’t contain their specific triggers, and that authors are absolutely obligated to provide every information about the fic so that the reader only has to say ‘Ok, not gonna be able to read this’ if the fic contains their specific trigger, say for example rape. If the author only says ‘There might be violence and/or rape and/or underage and/or major character death in here,’ they’re essentially ‘stealing’ the story from the reader. Or something. Because I can’t think of any other explanation why this person is so infuriated by authors saying: ‘If one of these four things that AO3 requires warnings for triggers you, better don’t read it, because it might be in here.’

That’s it, isn’t it? As authors, they think we work for them, and we’re doing our jobs wrong if we produce something that isn’t or even might not be for them. It never comes to their minds that we write for ourselves, and maybe for our friends, or even more generally the people we know will like the kind of fic we write. They don’t get the idea that they’re not the target audience. That they’re not addressed. That they don’t really matter to the author. To them, everything revoles around them, and so obviously, every author’s thoughts and fics must also revolve around them.

Disabled person: I would love to be able to watch something in your movie theatre / read your fic, but I’m in a wheelchair/have PTSD, and I won’t be able to access it safely unless you build a wheelchair ramp / tag potentially triggering stuff.”

The option to warn was an addition, a fairly new and untested thing at the time AO3 was built. We were still having warnings arguments - are they a good thing to help people, or a pack of spoilers? A lot of people put their warnings under cut tags, or in invisible text that you had to highlight to read, so that they didn’t spoil people who didn’t want them.

Before AO3, “no warnings” was the norm, with “maybe we could add a warning if stuff is really intense or triggery” being the secondary option.  There were a growing number of fic communities that required it - but the requirement was often “intense stuff here; read with caution,” not details. Note that FF.net has no place for “warnings.” They don’t allow stories above a certain rating - but there’s no block on deathfic, rape, child abuse, torture, eating disorders, underage sex… as long as you can claim it fits within the T or M rating. 

The main difference between AO3 and LJ, for warnings options, was that on LJ you almost always had an easy way to send a PM to the poster (who may or may not be the author; anon fests were posted by someone else), to ask, “can you tell me if this story includes [any number of topics, including things like infidelity or public sex] that I don’t want to read?” It’s harder to ask that on AO3, so the warning system is built-in.

But the caveat is always: Don’t trust? DON’T READ. If you don’t know the author and it doesn’t have warnings, and you can’t ask someone, skip that story.

Libraries are required to be accessible to people in wheelchairs. They’re not required to indicate which books don’t contain gruesome descriptions of car accidents. Hardware stores are required to be accessible to blind people. They’re not required to label which of the tools they sell can be operated without sight. Restaurants are required to allow service animals. They’re not required to serve food that’s safe for those animals to eat. Accessibility is about access, not a guarantee that any person will get full use out of all the accessible items.

The whole “authors are obligated to tell me if there’s stuff I don’t want to see in the story so I can avoid it” thing looks like a precursor to “stories containing stuff I don’t like should be removed from the archive.” And no. That is not how AO3 works; that is not how AO3 is going to work.

AO3 was designed to allow authors to say, “I write extreme stuff that’s banned in other places, and I don’t want to warn people; my readers want the full shock value.” 

And it was designed to allow readers to say, “I’m not reading anything tagged rape, and not anything tagged do-not-warn because that might contain rape.” If you want more info than that, find a friend who can tell you whether a story has content you don’t want to read. 

Part of that isn’t even “because what the author wants is more important than the reader’s choices.” It’s because some of the maybe situations are unclear. Does explicit underage lust get tagged, even if there’s no sex? (If someone’s fantasizing and masturbating?) How much gore does a story take before it’s tagged for that? Is sex pollen non-con if the couple already had a relationship? Do you tag for non-con if there’s consent but not wanting - if someone agrees to enter an arranged marriage for business reasons? How about if they’re forced to do a striptease for their enemies, but no touching happens? 

And that’s before we get to the situations that aren’t actually possible for humans on earth. Where’s the underage line for a 500-year-old vampire in a 10-year-old body? How about shapeshifters - does it become underage if they’re using child-shaped bodies? How old are underage hobbits, anyway? If a genetically altered clone has been grown a tube for three years, but has the body of a 16-year-old and cultural knowledge to match, do they become adult in 2 years, or does Superboy have another 15 years before it’s not abuse for him to get laid? 

Just because there’s no law forcing you to doesn’t mean tagging isn’t the right thing to do. Help others curate their experiences, and help them be safe. Do this to the best of your ability, if you’re not sure, ask someone who has read your fic for their opinion if a specific tag is warranted or not.

Don’t put this on your readers. It’s your story, you’re publishing it, so content warnings are your responsibility too. You want people to read your story. Otherwise, you wouldn’t put it online. What do you think will generate more views? Specific tags that allow people to make an informed decision or just “dead dove do not eat”? It’s in your best interests to tag.

If you don’t tag your shit to the best of your ability (and listen to requests) you’re kind of a dick. Full stop. I know that there is no law against being a dick, you definitely have the right to be as dickish as you like, but people will probably not like you very much.

Because lemme tell you, stumbling on a surprise!traumatic childbirth scene with lots of gore and cruel doctors was not fun. Any author with a smidge of common sense would have tagged that “traumatic childbirth”. Said author didn’t and I was left with days of nausea. And you can bet your ass I warned everyone and their dog that this person doesn’t tag responsibly.

I have a story with forced pregnancy which is kind of an important plot twist. I tagged it anyway because my ego < the safety of my readers. And if that one thing being spoiled makes my story boring, then, well, my story’s a bit shit.

It’s not entitlement, it’s a question of common sense and common courtesy. The excuse of “but there are so many more properly tagged fics out there for you to read” only works because there are some responsible authors who do tag their shit. If everyone started vague-tagging like that the whole point of having tags would be defeated, and just because authors don’t get paid doesn’t mean they don’t have any obligations towards their readership. Online fandom is a public space. And the functioning of any public space kind of hinges on people being mindful of each other. Authors are not exempt from this. If you’re not willing or ready to be responsible, don’t publish.

I wrote that from the perspective of an author and a reader

being as specific as possible with your tags helps both authors and readers

reader safety > author ego

vaguetagging is dickish and helps exactly no one (and “chooses not to use archive warnings” falls under that)

if everyone vaguetagged things would be bad because tagging would be meaningless

authors have responsibilities to the community because they are part of the community so all that “reader entitlement” narrative is pretty much bullshit

Why? Because authors who tag “chose not to use Archive warnings” give people a trigger warning? That is literally what that tag is, even if that’s not specific. Nowhere on AO3 does it say the warning has to be specific. Or because they don’t cater to you like you want it and “steal” their OWN fic from you? Just *lol* - I have no other words for that.

Maybe stop being an entitled arse, and use the fucking tags AO3 has provided you with

“Creator chose not to use Archive warnings” IS THE FUCKING DEFAULT TAG AO3 PROVIDED US WITH! READ THE DAMN TOS AND FAQ OF THE WEBSITE! IT’S NOT HARD! (LINK HERE)

What do they say, let’s take a look:

Gee, it’s almost as if AO3 is saying: “chose not to warn” is perfectly fine and enough. 

or I swear to god I will physically manifest in your fucking home and beat you with a stick.

Maybe stop being an entitled arse and thinking you’re allowed to threaten people with violence who’ve done nothing wrong other than refusing to obey you and contradicting your factually wrong argument. 

Well-curated archive, maybe. “Safe”? If you read the wrong fanfic, will people break into your house at night and beat you senseless? Unless you live in China or Saudi Arabia or some place with equally charming regard for human rights and freedom of the press, probably not.

You do know that we survived for literally centuries without content tags on novels and short stories, right? And that book publishers still don’t put content tags on the backs of published novels?

Being a rude, demanding ass and threatening violence because writers don’t do exactly what you want doesn’t motivate anyone to comply with your whims. I usually tag my fics on AO3, but you’re making me think that the default “Chose not to use warnings” is good enough, and saves me the trouble of worrying about it.

“Safe space” has broadened so far in meaning now that I’m not sure what a space is offering when it calls itself that. Or what a space is failing to provide when people say in a horrified tone, “this was supposed to be a safe space!”

1. Ask the author. Most of them will tell you if you ask or DM them.

https://www.edx.org/school/harvardx

But TBH I prefer the MIT Open Coursewear approach. Feel like taking a class on the policy and economics of nuclear engineering? MIT’s got you covered:

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/find-by-topic/#cat=engineering&subcat=nuclearengineering&spec=nuclearsystemspolicyandeconomics

In fact they’ve got  you covered with A LOT of their courses, everything from fine arts to immunology.

And it’s STRUCTURED, and defined in terms of the time I will need to complete the course, not just a bunch of stuff that is free to read, which is enough accountability and guidance to be perfect for my Obliger Tendency, so I will actually do the damn course.

Raiiinbooooow! Commission for a friend, free pattern for y’all. 💕

Rule 1, Don’t like, Don’t read

Pretty simple and straight forward. It doesn’t matter if it’s tagged as a ship you dislike or you’re 10 chapters in, if you don’t like it or it disturbs you too much, stop. The back button is your friend.

Rule 2, Properly Tag

If your fic contains anything possibly triggering or squicky, tag it. If your fic is an AU, tag it. If your fic is about a ship, tag it. Vice versa, do not overtag or improperly tag. If your fic is based around Stucky, don’t tag Stony.

Rule 3, Filters are your friend

If the app or website has an option to filter tags, use it. If you need to download an extension, download it. If someone has missed an important tag, you can politely message them requesting to add it.

Rule 4, Don’t harass people for shipping your NoTp

We all have that one ship we absolutely positively hate with every fibre of our being. And chances are, someone hates your Otp with the same ferocity. Don’t harass people over shipping your NoTp.

Rule 5, Do your research

If you’re writing a fic and a plot point or character is introduced you’re not sure how to write, research it! Google is your friend! There are also blogs dedicated to assisting people with certain topics such as @writingwithcolor

Rule 6, Your kink is not my kink, and that’s okay

Chances are, someone gets off to something you hate. And, that’s okay! We all have different and varying tastes!

Rule 7, Feedback keeps content creators creating

Likes, comments, reblogs, and recomendations keep your fanfic writers writing. Where would writers be if no one read their works? Where would artists be if no one bought their art?

Rule 8, If you want it, write it

It’s bound to happen to everyone, you just can’t find a specific fic for a specific ship or it’s that one rare pair no one appreciates like you do. What do you do in this situation? You write it yourself! It may not be the best-written or most poetic or maybe it’s just a pure crackfic, but that’s okay!

Rule 9, Fanon is not Canon

Likewise, headcanons are not canon. And if someone has a different headcanon, that’s okay! Sure, we may ignore canon for fics but headcanons and fanfiction and fanart are not canon!

Rule 10, Fiction is not reality

And the most important of all, fiction is not reality. Writing abuse fics does not mean you support abuse in real life. Writing suicidal characters does not mean the writer is suicidal. Writing glorified murder fics does not mean the writer supports murder in real life.

I’ve literally been telling people for years, that immigrants DO NOT steal money out of Australian’s pockets. So what if they have to claim government benefits when they get here? They also have to pay rent, buy food, replace their shoes, buy toys for their kids. They spend their money HERE. IT CIRCULATES MORE MONEY LOCALLY. IMMIGRATION LITERALLY MAKES MONEY.

Immigrants don’t ‘steal jobs’- literally, you bring in a thousand people, you need restaurants, schools, doctors, builders, painters, mechanics, sales people, cleaners, taxi drivers, EVERYTHING, to account for all those extra people that have need of those services. IMMIGRATION LITERALLY MAKES JOBS. WHICH MAKES MONEY. BECAUSE THAT IS HOW BASIC ECONOMICS WORKS.

Okay, so there’s a big post going around about how we see a lot of Ron and Hermione having fun without Harry, but none of Harry and Hermione having fun without Ron. I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and while I agree with the thesis–that Ron and Hermione are a much better couple than Harry and Hermione–I feel like it’s an unfair comparison: Harry is typically not with Ron and Hermione because he’s just off doing something else, whereas Ron is away from Harry and Hermione because they’ve had a falling out, so Harry and Hermione are otherwise inclined to be morose. It certainly says something about the trio that the only time Harry and Hermione spend long stretches without Ron is when Ron and Harry are fighting, but the emphasis on Harry and Hermione being miserable about Ron really sells Harry and Hermione’s dynamic short.

At any rate, there are instances of Harry and Hermione… not exactly having fun together, but definitely having a good time together.

When Harry and Hermione are together without Ron, they’re happy when they’re on a mission. Harry learning accio is a really good Harry and Hermione dynamic scene, as is the “plan a heist” sequence before they went to Godric’s Hollow. The tone of Harry’s narrative shifts at these times, from I am suffering so much from the lack of Ron to Okay, but let me tell you about our cunning plan.

It isn’t that Harry and Hermione don’t enjoy each other, exactly, it’s just that they’re both so… uptight? Mission-focused? Neither one of them is particularly good at just, slacking off and having a good time. When they have something they want to accomplish together, they’re actually pretty happy.

Especially if it involves planning a heist. Especially if the heist can involve Polyjuice potion.

Now, take that understanding of their dynamic, and imagine them at a place in their lives where, instead of a strategy for taking on a f***ing dragon or avoiding capture by death eaters, they’re planning and implementing a surprise birthday party for Ron, or an enormous Potter-Granger-Weasley family vacation, or god help us a bake sale for the kids’ primary school. (I don’t know how Polyjuice potion would help with any of these, but they will find a way.)

Now, I’m not someone who has strong objections to the Harry Potter epilogue. I am 100% at home to One Big Happy Weasley Family. I’m even… let’s say fascinated… by the names that Harry and Ginny gave their children. I don’t necessarily agree with their choices, but I’m interested in what those choices tell us about their characters. (Actually Harry’s character, honestly. I don’t think Ginny has any responsibility for Albus Severus beyond not talking him out of it.) No, there are only a couple of things that really bother me about the epilogue. One of them is some of the business about Teddy—that’s for another essay. The other one is this exchange (DH p. 755):

My current kinks: Fics where the main character has a Best Friend and it is shmoopy and doesn’t ever become weird and dramatically romantic.