[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

[potterwitch.livejournal.com]

*applauds very, very loudly* WORD. You're exactly right; no-one puts racial disclaimers on stories or movies, so there should be no disclaimers of the kind on slashfics too; the problem is that the bigoted homophobic bastards tend to be self-righteous gits who might drag you to court. Which is a pain in the neck, if nothing else... *sigh* There should be obligatory slash nights in all organisations. "So, you want to be in the Boy Scouts/Army/McDonalds Workers Union/whatever? Great, sign this form and come watch gay pron with us!"

Ahh, that would be wonderful. *kicks bigots*

[permetaform]

well, you could look at it from the other direction: alot of people seem to put those warnings there to help slashers find the fic in the first place. It's proper labeling gone pear-ended I suspect.

It's like labeling fic with warnings such as "mpreg" or "BDSM" or or "incest" or "scat" or "het", the people who won't like it will read something else, the people who are looking for it has an easier time of finding fic they'll like, and it won't make a difference to people who plow through the entire archives anyway.

[mhari.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree. But then I tend to think most fic-labelling is silly-- if I pick up a science fiction novel at the library, I don't get bent out of shape if it doesn't say explicitly "Contains robots, depictions of violence and torture, token Asian female, and mild swearing."

Going out of your way to say "slash" when you don't go out of your way to say anything else, though, or apologizing for the slash content when you don't apologize for the cussing or the hair-cutting -- that is lame.

Warning: ANOTHER pissed-off bisexual female ahead.

[unsubtle.livejournal.com]

Yeah I've had the same issues... the same with websites and slash stories. I've always wondered why there needs to be a disclaimer... I mean, we don't write "Warning, people wearing blue in this story." By including the disclaimer, it recognizes homosexuality as something offensive, which it is not.
But anyway, I agree -- it's unfortunate that homophobia is regarded as such an acceptable thing.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the warnings are there because the person likes to think they're naughty...?

Personally, I always find the idea that these are warnings kind of funny, because I read those things to find what I'm looking for as much as what I'm trying to avoid. So I think pairing listings is a good thing, but see no reason to have a separate warning for slash. If it's H/D isn't it obviously slash? Just put pairings: H/D, R/Hr, whatever. No difference, no special squick factor if there's two people of the same sex together. Because of course putting the special warning assumes homosexuality is somehow different from heterosexuality.

[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]

Heh, yeah, that's what I meant. A lot of times I see slash be its own separate warning, and/or the "homosexual content" warning for movies. I really get the feeling like it's risque and potentially offensive material that they feel they must treat with kid gloves or something. um. and while I'm not -mad- about it anymore, it still kind of bothers me ^^;

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Well, see... you don't have to say it as a -warning-, do you? You could list it under pairing, like "Harry/Draco slash", not that you need the slash there if you put the H/D. Or you could just say "pairing: slash". But no, I've seen this in movie reviews of yaoi, too. "Not that slashy" or whatever. "But homophobes might want to steer clear". It said that!

I also see whole warning pages saying "warning: this site contains slash". Not some label saying "slash site", no. A page of text, sometimes, warning people and telling them to go elsewhere if they're offended. *sighs*

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Heheheh. Diversity training is all the rage, too :>
But, I don't think they can sue you for homosexual content, man. Heh. If they did have those kinds of resources, they might be -worth- taking to court, on the other hand. But anyway, there are no laws against it as far as I know -.-

Heee. Right on :D

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Ahahah, well, sometimes I think the naughty thing is true :> But most times when it's in reviews or where it's like "go away, here, here's a link to google" I feel like... why is PG-rated slash making you act like you write Eskimo/seal porn or something?

*sigh* Well, I was gonna delete this entry if no one responded, but I guess it wasn't so bad ^^;

[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.

[emeraldstorms.livejournal.com]

I think that sometimes authors who often write slash may put a little warning saying *slash* or *incest* or whatever they have in it because some people don't respond well to it. I totally understand what you're saying, and I agree with it too, but I think that those flamers can really do a number on you.

Like, if an author doesn't put *slash, contains H/D* or whatever and someone reviews your story and says, "OMG YOU ARE TASTELESS I CAN'T BELIEVE I JUST READ THAT YOU ARE A HORRIBLE WRITER AND I HOPE YOU NEVER WRITE AGAIN!!1!" it would make them want to put the "warning" next time, because I don't think any author ever *ever* wants to hear that.

I think that it might sometimes just be a label in hopes of not receiving hateful replies, for those who can't stomach flames.

[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. >

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Er, well, but that's not what I was upset with. Not story labels saying "this is what this is". First of all, it doesn't have to be a warning, it could be under "pairing" or just in the story description. Second, I keep seeing huge frickin' splash pages saying "GO AWAY IF YOU DON'T LIKE SLASH" and reviews for yaoi anime or boylove movies saying people might not want to watch if they've got problems with that sort of thing. Ugh.

Labelling things not to get into trouble with people getting what they didn't ask for is one thing, but going out of your way to act like m/m content is something to isolate and even quarantine like it was demon porn is another. Y'know?

Anyway, I probably should've used actual examples 'cause otherwise people use what they know and that isn't necessarily what -I- know, heh.