Almost a rant but not really

[emmuzka]

Last Saturday I figured out a thing that I should have made out ages ago.

You know those people who think that slash, or wincest, or Harry/Draco, or what-the-F-ever is disgusting and that the readers are demented and will burn in hell? Those people who think that it's their job to make their opinions known to others, too? Yes, those people. (I gave a link for one rant a couple days ago, but after ending up to Fandom Wank the author deleted all the comments. This irks me personally since I commented with reasonable arguments about why people read angst and now they are gone.)

Anyway. You will probably also know the most common argument against the God Warriors of Decency; If you don't like it, don't read it. Just stop your raving and shut up already.

I had always thought that that was a rhethoric good enough.

But now for the interesting thing. On saturday I meet a friend who regularly visits the discussion boards for fantasy and sf writers. She told me that there are actually three boards created and dedicated just for slamming Eragon and to discuss how bad the books are. (Co-incidentally there is also a mighty fine wank about Eragon in Fandom Wank) The reason for the anti-Eragon message boards is simply that in the official boards, the negative comments were either censored out of existence or slammed to death. The only way to let their differencing views out was to create new boards for them.

Great, I thought. That's clever and it goes with my views of freedom of speech. But then I put this issue side by side with the slash wankers and went hmm. Is it really so that in the regular fan fiction world, you are either with us or you shall shut up? Would it really be fair if the only opinions allowed would be either pro slash or no opinion at all?

So I changed my mind. The haters should *not* shut up. It really doesn't matter what the opposing views are. Fundamentally thinking, I don't care how badly founded of bigotted views they have. The thing that matters is that everybody should have an opportunity to state their own views. How it is even possible for the free minded fic writers to stand behind the idea of "Think like us or get out of here"? As long as the opposers remain in their own lj's, refrain from personally attacking anyone and don't try to take over mailing list founded by other people than them, please carry on. I know that the "sides" will never manage an intelligent discussion about the topic because they are playing with different rules, but that would be pretty much to ask for in anywhere in the net.

So bring it on, slash haters. Even if I don't have the right to silence you, I have the right to ridicule you.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

So I changed my mind. The haters should *not* shut up. It really doesn't matter what the opposing views are. Fundamentally thinking, I don't care how badly founded of bigotted views they have. The thing that matters is that everybody should have an opportunity to state their own views.

If there are no "rules" or "terms of service", yes. However, if you must agree to the above in order to post, then your freedom is limited to what the rules/terms say.
However if it's an open forum, then posts of all views should be allowed and if they are deleted just because they are opposing, then there should be some rules set up or they should not be removed.

Interesting!

[tvillingar.livejournal.com]

I've sometimes run into hetfic-bashing in various fandoms. What puzzles me mostly in these slashers-against-het debacles is that at least a part of the very vocal haters are self-proclaimed heterosexuals. Now, I'm not saying everyone should stay in their, hmm, sexual niche while reading fic but it does seem weird to hate so vocally something you supposedly do yourself.

I'm not even touching subject of shipping wars, they're just too stupid... which reminds me: isn't the main object of Fandom Wank to point and laugh at the fandom silliness, whatever it may be? Like you said: Even if I don't have the right to silence you, I have the right to ridicule you.

[emmuzka.livejournal.com]

yep, I agree. That's why I made the disclamer-ish addition in my free world-speech :)

Any board has rules and the ones that created them can define them. It's understandable that a Eragon board set up by the publishers would oppose critique or that a Britney Spears fan site would ban the haters. But, all this should be explaned in the rules. A het fic list should explain that the slash is banned or that even a discussion about slash would be banned.

The opposers, no matter if they oppose slash or gen, should be allowed to express their oppinion in the media which determinates itself as a "free for all", or in their own sites or in their own journals.

Re: Interesting!

[emmuzka.livejournal.com]

I haven't myself bumped yet into the het-haters, but I would like to think that they are people who have gone too far with the defending thing. Like, attack is the best defence, and attacking het would be a defence against slash haters? This way of thinking goes pretty much side by side with christian crusades, no?

Re: Interesting!

[tvillingar.livejournal.com]

I dunno about crusades but I've run into both general het-haters ("eww, het is icky!") and those who are so fixed in their slash OTP they can't apparently bear the thought of their beloved character getting it on with someone else ("how dare you suggest X might even look at someone else than Y?" and HET of on top of it all. Which is probably one aspect of shipping wars, now that I think about it.