rather incoherent soapboxing

[frith_in_thorns]

Note: the general 'you' is in use throughout this post.

I want to link to this post by phaetonschariot today.  Go read it now, because the rest of this post is going to assume that you have.  It's meta, although it's headed like a fic, but the header is what's being discussed in the meta.

I lurk around quite a few meta places on LJ, and this topic's been flying around lately, particularly on fanficrants , and side-by-side with numerous ship wars, where it usually takes the form of (as illustrated by this post) "X IS NOT GAY! YOU'RE BREAKING CANON! STOP MAKING THEM GAY" - and while that was written in that post as an over-the-top example, some people were actually agreeing with it.  (Because of course your personal opinions that everyone is straight until proven otherwise, and never ever bisexual, should dictate what everyone else is allowed to write and read.  ::eyeroll::)

From that you may be able to work out that I fully agree with phaetonschariot 's post.  Because however much to try to colour it as a 'squick', it really is offensive to demand that non-straight relationships should be warned for by others, and especially if you're then surprised that people do get offended by your reaction.  Maybe I've been reading too much SGA fic, but it does seem that this fandom has pretty bitter feelings between those who write slash and those who write het.  I recently dipped into the Criminal Minds fandom and was very surprised by the sheer amount of multishipping there - I'm honestly not sure which pairing has the majority.  Possibly Aaron/Emily or Emily/Jennifer.  (Seriously, I was quite amazed by the amount of femslash - in most fandoms those pairings tend to be shoved up on a metaphorical dusty shelf and barely ever looked at.)

Yeah, that's about all I have to say.  I know that I mostly stick to gen myself because I'm not really a romance fan in general, but when I do read pairings, I'm pretty indiscriminante about them.  I've just been stumbling across this homo- and bi-phobic attitude a lot online lately, and it's really pissing me off.

In the interests of TMI disclosure, I write this as someone who's still not entirely sure whether I identify as bisexual or asexual.  Which doesn't make much sense, I know, but yeah :P

Comments

[x-varda-x.livejournal.com]

Oh! You changed your layout! Nice birdie :)

Totally agree with you here. Orientation is not a warning, it's a genre/style as in: something to put in the summary like you would insert 'gen' or 'hurt/comfort'

I gave up on fanfic rants after I found that one about me and then this one. I'm not homophobic in the slightest and if anything I say ever comes across like that, I apologise. It's just I only like canon and only see what canon shows and tells us outright. I can't ever see any hidden subtext in stuff I watch or read. Much in the same way that I don't read uber AU fic.

I hope you don't mind I had to go look up asexual. But then I found this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_celibacy)
and it made me cry. They make it sound like an illness! I... I... oh

[frith_in_thorns]

I like this layout :) Nice and simple.

Yeah - warnings for things like that are really annoying. But I confess that I was a little annoyed at your comment on that post, and to people who didn't know you it could easily have sounded like you were deliberately trolling.

Also, I thought you shipped Rodney/Teyla? And Rodney/Cadman? They aren't canon... ;)

And aww... ::hugs::

[x-varda-x.livejournal.com]

But I confess that I was a little annoyed at your comment on that post,
Yeah, sorry about that. I backed away from it and stopped replying.

and to people who didn't know you it could easily have sounded like you were deliberately trolling.
You know me and my opinion sharing! I'm trying not to anymore. I don't look at that comm anymore or any of the 'rant' comms because of the temptation.

Also, I thought you shipped Rodney/Teyla? And Rodney/Cadman? They aren't canon... ;)
OMG LOL! I wrote Rodney/Cadman in Rodney's fantasy. But I've only done UST for Rodney/Teyla... so far...

There was that McShep story too, which I'll just skip over here... la la la ;)

[frith_in_thorns]

And there are also the Rodney/Cadman icons, banners, ship thread on GW... ;)

I think that the motto of the internet should be 'think before you post'! I know I'm guilty of this too - everyone is. Illustrated motto: http://xkcd.com/438/

Also, you should read friendshipper's comment below, she's managed to be much more eloquent than I did!

[x-varda-x.livejournal.com]

Oopsy, yes... I forgot about them. Although the threads are rather quiet these days :P I do make McShep icons sometimes too

Love that cartoon, would be lovely to be flown over a mountain in the middle of an Internet induced rage :)
EDIT: *facepalm* I didn't really get it at first, but I just had another look. And you're right, I can't argue with anyone outloud/face to face (which is sometimes required in my job, well by phone anyway!) but I can send a wordy letter (not mean/nasty, but just going through all the facts logically) which has saved my company a lot of money over the years while I've been working for them :)

I read friendshipper's comment earlier and saw you just posted an equally long reply for me to nose through too! :D