It’s not for you or for me or for anyone or any group or any committee to decide what counts as a “redeeming feature.” The darkest, most “wrong” fic I’ve written? I wrote the day after the 2016 presidential election in the US. And I might joke that I’m going to hell for that fic and that it was pure trash but the truth is I was processing the election of someone whose policies and views I find heinous and whose election proved my country wasn’t the place I thought it was. I was vulnerable and scared and terrified for my family and our future and I’d rarely felt more alone and isolated and for whatever reason in my psyche processing that meant writing rape porn – a loss-of-control fantasy where I actually WAS in control. Is that justification enough for a fic featuring violent rape and mental manipulation, that I tagged appropriately when I posted it? If so are we going to interrogate every creator and force them to reveal what trauma they were processing? If it’s not, should the work be taken down? It was an important coping mechanism for me and many other people that day (based on the comments the story got from people who read it at the time), and if my coping mechanisms are unhealthy in the views of some people? What’s it for them to say? I hurt no one, I wrote an adult story for other consenting adults, and how I handle my personal issues is my problem, not yours, nor should I or anyone else be forced to disclosures to justify ourselves.
What people write and why is ultimately no ones business but their own. Why other people read those fics is also no ones business but their own. It’s not for any third party to interrogate people to force them to justify what they’ve written, and it’s not for any third party to deem someone’s healing process inappropriate. It may not be YOUR coping mechanism but *no one ever anywhere is saying it has to be.* That’s why AO3 is amazing. The tag system is fantastic, and authors are also accessible. If you have things you’re not comfortable with or that are triggering for you, you can avoid those tags. If you aren’t sure if a fic will cross your personal lines, you can contact the author and ask. If you find out too late that there is something that wasn’t okay for you, you can leave the fic and find another, ask the author to tag it or, if it was tagged, avoid that tag in the future.
The mere existence of fic you find “irredeemable” doesn’t hurt you, isn’t an attack on you, and in fact has nothing whatsoever to do with you. In 36 years on earth and 20+ years in fandom I’ve never heard of a single reputable source demonstrating that there are risks associated with posting this kind of work. If there is more than a handful of cases of grooming done on AO3 I’d be shocked (honestly I’d be surprised if there were any but the world is bigger and stranger than any of us can imagine and I’m not dumb enough to say “never.”) Anyone underage using AO3 has deliberately chosen to seek out that content. It’s tagged and labeled. There’s no finding it by accident on AO3. On the internet as a whole? Yes. On AO3? Its extremely unlikely. It’s not the responsibility of any adult to protect other people who choose to violate the rules of consent – and make no mistake, anyone underage who clicks through those warnings and then gets upset and goes off on the author has violated the rules of consent. (Obviously if things are deceptively tagged or labeled that’s different but again that really doesn’t happen often, at least in my experience.)
Do I like more “out there” fanfiction? Snuff, extreme underage, whatever it is you claim is objectionable beyond redemption? Mostly no. It’s not my thing. And it doesn’t have to be your thing. *Move along.* If you don’t like something, don’t read it. Nope out of a fic for any reason at all or no reason whatsoever. You have the power.
If you don’t want to read it, no one is forcing you, and AO3 is remarkable for the ability it gives readers to filter and monitor their own consumption. I’ve never used a platform like it, and since I joined it, I’ve never looked back.
I have things I won’t read. I even have things I wish no one created because I personally find those things disgusting. But I am profoundly anti-censorship and I will fight for those people to have the right to write what they want on a platform like AO3 that is so well suited to labeling content correctly.
And then I won’t read it. Because I personally think it’s gross. And that’s *my* problem, and my business, not the authors.
*The existence of content I or you or anyone personally find objectionable is not an attack on you, and in fact has nothing whatsoever to do with you!*
End of story.
Thank. Fucking. God. For AO3.
It is, of course, possible to accidentally stumble across the stuff you might object to. If you just search by the fandom tag and the most recent thing posted is something you don’t like, it’s going to be up front and center in your face, and that does suck. But it’s always made abundantly clear what it contains in the tags and the description before you click on it, because the people who write the “really bad” (I use quotes because my definition is looser than most people’s, despite the fact that I’m a CSA survivor/victim myself) content don’t want to surprise you with it. It’s not something hidden 12 chapters in to a longfic described as cotton candy romance. It’s up front and honest. It’s tagged, the author confesses their perceived sins in the description, then expounds upon that in their notes, before you can even get to the body of the fic.
So in answer to the question of “how do we deal with the unredeemable stuff?” the most important thing to do is Learn To Avoid it.
If you’re more emotionally delicate than most (which is NOT a bad thing, coping abilities vary, as mentioned above) then you need to be more careful in your searches. Educate yourself on the types of tags you want to avoid, and filter them out. Search by multiple factors (search the ship name, and add your favorite tags like fluff or fake relationship, etc) so that you’ll get less results. That way you don’t even have to see the fic summaries accidentally popping up in your searches.
If you’re in a position to allow someone young onto the internet (like a parent or a caretaker or even an older internet user interacting with younger users) then give warnings and lessons. Educate newbies to the site on how to narrow their searches, how to filter undesirable things (heck it doesn’t even have to be triggery subjects! The first time I learned to filter stuff out, I immediately started filtering out highschool AUs because I don’t like YA in general), and give them the tools they need to manage their experience.
The next important step is to stop assuming that people who don’t want to see content like that are going to look for it? The fallacy of this whole argument is that if it’s there people will read it. Um, no, this is not a baseball diamond out in a cornfield. If you actually look at the stats on the “objectionable” stuff (again with the quotes because not everyone objects), they’re not fandom faves. There’s usually few hits, few kudos, few comments. There’s a small community of people who want to view such content, and they’re usually close knit and friendly with each other because they form support groups. You’re not going to find any of these fics at the top of the list if you search fandom or ship tags by kudos. They’re going to be hiding near the bottom of the list.
Censorship ALWAYS harms more than it helps, because there’s no such thing as a perfect universal definition of “objectionable”, so AO3 has created an environment where you can self censor your experience. Through their tagging system you can search or filter the bejesus out of the hundreds of thousands of works they host. Name another site which gives you those tools. If you find one, donate your dollars to them and leave AO3 in your dust.
This isn’t hate – I am genuinely confused about the types of fic that get posted where the tags/summary state that it is “explicit underage” and where the author is all “I’m going to hell for this”. I know there are fics exploring the themes with sensitivity and maturity and that are NOT glorifying the abuse, but how do we deal with the underage fics (adult/child, not two teens) that are just straight up porn with (by the authors’ own admission) no redeeming qualities whatsoever?
Published
Marshmellowmilktea 