Meta Meta

fabu - Some thoughts about public posts. . . As we've been talking about metafandom I'm beginning to see that my own sense of what is appropriate or polite in regards to public posts is not shared by everyone. I'm going to throw out my take on it, and y'all feel free to jump in or explain where your ideas differ. This isn't an effort to dictate how people ought to view public posts - it's more of an attempt to open dialogue, and to gain a better understanding of all the different positions. All opinions expressed here are my own and not intended to reflect those of anyone else, in particular anyone associated with metafandom

Fandom Meta

penknife - On genre wars and personal taste I've been seeing a lot of two things that both drive me nuts lately. One is genre-bashing: "Het is badly written!" "Slash is sexist!" "Femslash has icky girl parts!" "Gen is boring!" The other is people trying to push their reading tastes on other people: "If you aren't into femslash, you're sexist!" "If you aren't into slash, you're homophobic!" "If you aren't into het, you're self-hating!" "If you aren't into gen, you're obsessed with sex!" I find all of this both irritating and pointless. People aren't likely to change what genres they read and write based on any of this, and why should they?

elynross - Opinions, Taste, Aesthetics, Morality, and the privileging of the Objective I used to try my hardest to take stories that other people liked that I really, really didn't, (or vice-versa, though that is never as bothersome to me) and talk to them about them, ostensibly with the idea of "understanding," but I ultimately realized that I was really wanting to convince them the story in question was "bad," and they were "wrong." (I posted about this sometime last year or so, I think). It was a real shock to my system, because it wasn't how I thought of myself, and it made me rethink a lot of things. [response to penknife]

crumblingwalls - Quick rant about feminism. I keep hearing people ranting about how series X is anti-feminist, how [series] is misogynistic, how all actresses are just models who all look the same. And you know, it bugs me.

kattahj - A brief slash preaching (skip if so inclined) I get really annoyed with people who bash slash for "making straight characters gay" and then go on to declare everyone straight even if there is no proof thereof. Canonically speaking, in order to be gay the character must show an interest in the same sex, in order to be bi s/he must show an interest in both sexes, and in order to be straight, s/he must show an interest in the opposite sex. A person who has not shown an interest in anyone whatsoever isn't straight.

wemblee - [Death of the Author???] Death of the canon, death of the author, woo! I like it! I'm down with it! ...And yet when I read/watch/devour a text, I privilege the author reflexively.

halegirl - Historical anti-slash sentiment in fan fiction I was trying to think of incidents where slash was a friction point in various fan ficiton communities. I was wondering if any one had any other incidents outside the ones I've listed below that they can recall as having an impact or which demonstrated an anti-homosexual or homophobic bias in a particular fan fiction community?

Specific Fandom Meta

sistermagpie - Deeply Horrible People Where it gets cliché is the whole "explaining is not excusing" thing. You can explain a character’s motivations without meaning that you condone everything s/he is doing. You can even explain it in a sympathetic way without doing that--the world is tricky that way. [HP]

thelastgoodname - On American Women I was a little anxious before the first episode that it wouldn't live up to my expectations, but in fact, it was better than I had imagined. Why? Because it's not a mystery, it's not a comedy, it's not even a satire (despite what Mark Cherry claims). It's a riff on life. It's a character study in the most honest way: this is a portrait of America. [Desperate Housewives]

entrenous88 - thoughts on crossovers I do read around in other fandoms, but...yeah, not so much with the crossovers, and right now I'm wondering why.

On Reading, Writing, and Feedbacking

jadelennox - criticism, reviewing, feedback I've been reading all the constructive criticism discussions and one thing I find most amusing is the notion that if a reader gives non-positive feedback it's because they think that posting the story was a kind of workshopping of it. That if I give high-quality and polite feedback I want the writer to feel under an obligation to listen to me. That any criticism means I don't like it. And worst, that if I don't like it, I shouldn't read it; critique is wrong.

Poll and Other

thefourthvine - Come With Me Yes. Yes! YES! [orgasm poll]