[rantityrantrantrant]

[reenka]

Am I the only one who's offended by all the "warning: homosexual content" or "warning: slash" labels on stories and certain films/anime & things? Isn't that basically pandering to homophobes or something? I just don't get that. What's with the warning of messed-up bigoted morons, anyway?


"I'm sorry, you're a bigoted freak who's been brainwashed by society into hating people. If I offend your delicate repressed sensibilities, I'm terribly sorry, don't be mad. Don't yell at me if my bad, scary boyporn makes you want to, oh, I don't know, be gay yourself. Not my fault. Didn't mean it."

I'm so, so sick of it. I've actually seen a review of a shounen-ai anime saying something like, it's a good "non-graphic" depiction of boylove but still, "homophobes might want to steer clear". What the hell?

Personally, I ain't apologizing for a single thing. If some bigoted freak wanted to flame me 'cause they weren't expecting to be thus deeply traumatized, that's their problem, not mine, right? How could one -accept- living in a society where it's -okay- to act like homophobia is the norm?? How is that sane? How can one do that without -throwing up- and hating oneself??

I keep seeing it, this apologizing, this "too bad it's boylove, don't be offended" attitude, and it doesn't make sense to me. It implies one is somehow -validating- the attitude if one pussyfoots around it, doesn't it? Why should one -care- what damage one can conceivably do to the delicate, fragile minds of homophobic bastards? Let 'em have it. Immersion therapy, that's it.

I'm not trying to be mean to the sweethearts. Oh wait, I don't care if I hurt their feelings and traumatize them for life with a neverending loop of gay porn running through their feeble, stunned minds for ever and ever, amen. Oops.

In fact, there should be some sort of... slash pride day on college campuses, where they print original slashfic and distribute it in magazine form. No one would be expected to apologize, saying "we're sorry, go away if you're a racist, 'cause there are (gasp!!) non-Caucasian characters in this fic". No, that's not Kosher, is it. But it's okay to say "we're sorry, this is about two boys in love. We know this might bother you, so go away if you're a homophobic bigot." Yeah, I'm sorry-- sorry I can't forcibly make every one of them rethink their messed up views.

Okay, no, I don't know why I woke up just to post that -.- I feel I might regret it in the morning ><

Comments

[wankersore.livejournal.com]

okay, when a fic has a character death, i want to be warned ahead of time. I DON'T WANT TO READ ABOUT CHARACTERS DYING even though there's nothing wrong with writing it and i say, more power to the people who are writing things like that! so, if it's possible, i'd like to avoid it altogether and read some porn. i don't really see a difference. warnings are not apologies, they are just hints at the content, like ratings, and they're there for newbies who might not recognise what characters are which in pairings, as much as they're there for anyone else. i respect if people don't want to read slash (don't read that into respcting if people want to gaybash and hate) because, hey, i don't want to read tom riddle fics. i'm just not interested. so i think i will just let them know if a fic is slash or het or gen, so they don't automatically think h/d is hermione/draco or harry/dolores. i do not think saying "warning: slash" implies that homosexuality is "different" or "squicky". and, like most other people, i use the warnings to try and find things i want to read as much as things i want to avoid.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Eep. I hope you didn't think I was somehow directing that at you... um. Mostly, I think while what you do is perfectly reasonable, I do think a number of people warn of "slash" in a big way. Like, whole splash pages warning "go elsewhere if you don't like, this is a slash site". And then there's that awful review for Fake which was like "not too graphic, but not for the homophobic". And then there's the way reviewers/reporters talk about homosexually themed shows now on tv, y'know, like "you might want to check it out if you're not bothered by that sort of thing".

Also, a lot of people put "Harry/Draco" instead of H/D, so all is clear. I guess... I'm all for labelling things for the readers' convenience, but warnings... those are different. Most people wouldn't, you know, -warn- something is gen, they'd just say "gen" in the description. I do that too! When I write a little description for a fic, I describe it, and might put "slash!" or "H/D slash", definitely. It's the word "warning" that bothers me, I think. I might warn for death or porn or even sap 'cause that might offend and disturb people. I wouldn't warn for slash 'cause that's just two boys in love, which shouldn't be... er... warnable. Heh.

Like, if people don't want to read slash 'cause they're looking for genfic, that's fine, but if they need a "warning" 'cause if it was slash they'd boo and hiss, that's different. Or something.

Y'know?

[wankersore.livejournal.com]

no, i don't think you were directing anything at me. -.- and i don't agree but we'll just leave it at that.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

okay~:) though now it occurs to me that it might have something to do with "do you have to be homophobic if you don't like slash" argument :>

...which i've actually never had a position on. hmm. my impulse would be to say yes, to some degree. it's so tricky 'cause people get so defensive about it and up in arms and "but i'm not homophobic just because...!!" and.... meh. i mean, i know there are people who say they don't like slash because it is uncanonical or whatever, heh. or some -particular- slash pairing. or they think it's badly written. but... To make it clearer... it's things like this (http://www.animetric.com/def/fake.html) that upset me. "More than just a yaoi trip". That just makes me want to bite things ^^;

Nothing, really, to do with labeling fics, actually. >