Heading out to case the promise land

I was going to make a post about the OTW stuff, but I got all my ranting done by text today, and I'd just be adding to the noise at this point, anyway. So instead, I'll just say thank you. I love that there are people trying to do something awesome and huge and groundbreaking, and I love that there's a magical place of nothing but fic that isn't going to go away, and, for purely selfish reasons, I love how much easier it's made modding remix. Thank you to everyone who's worked, and is still working, to make that possible, and especially to Naomi for daring to make it happen in the first place. There's a lot of really unpleasant stuff going on in fandom at the moment, but the work and time put in for free to build this crazy thing, even if it's not perfect yet and never will be, is a lovely reminder of what makes fandom special and worth sticking around for, and I appreciate that, too.

And while we're talking about thank yous and the good side of fandom--thank you to girlmostlikely and marciaelena for the v-gifts. They were a very welcome surprise. ♥ ♥

***

I have just realised I've had a post saved for weeks now, and for some reason not posted it. It starts out like this:

OMG, Community is the best show in the whole world. I have just watched the season 1 Christmas ep. How is it so sweet and heart-warming and yet not, like, a thing I hate just on principle?

Two things I particularly love: 1. Troy/Abed. Surely there is fic wherein they hook up and are in love! And the friendship between Annie, Shirley and Britta. I love that they support each other in their quirky, crazy way, and it's not all about guys.

I was going to make it 3 things I love and add in Jeff, but then I realised I'd have to add in Britta separately too, and Jeff/Britta who I apparently ship pretty hard, and then I started just making a list, and the list was everything. I love everything!

Then there was some other stuff about walking into a door and not getting my awesome halloween cloak. My life is too exciting for you all to handle, I know.

Instead of telling you about that, in the detail I know you secretly grave, I will go read this Stephen King book, which I cannot get into at all. But I am going to persevere! I do not like it when SK disappoints.

I'm not sure this will be all that coherent (see the part about me being angry), and it's probably worth mentioning that I have probably only scratched the surface of the posts already out there on the subject. I also haven't read the story that sparked this whole thing off, and I'm not talking about this specific instance, so much as some of the comments I've seen in the general discussion, at least half of which just made me angry. I got to the third or fourth iteration of, "If they want to be safe in fandom, then people with triggers should just never read a story they don't explicitly no is okay for them," before I closed the window. I just don't see how this is such an issue, especially among people I would've expected more sensitivity from.

I don't dispute you can make arguments for not warning about triggery things. For example, it impinges your right to blah blah blah artistic-y nonsense. Or perhaps, it's a slippery slope, and before you know it, we'll be warning for salt! And maybe origami! And I'm sorry, but I call bullshit.

I don't think anyone in fandom is under any obligation to warn, anymore than they're under any obligation to be polite, or to not show there asses in public. And I think there's room for disagreement over what needs a warning, and how explicit that warning should be. And furthermore, I think you can not warn just out of forgetfulness, or not realising that it might be needed--god knows, that's probably what I would do. But you know what else I think? I think if someone says, "Hey, this unexpected rape scene here was triggery for me," and you knowingly ignore that and don't take the 10 seconds necessary to add a warning (behind a cut, even, if you don't want to spoil the story), then you're an asshole. If you know your story might be triggery, and you deliberately post without taking the ten seconds necessary to include a warning, then you're an asshole.

Saying that people shouldn't read fic without warnings until they've had it verified safe is not an answer. For one thing, it strikes me as just impractical. The volume of fic without warnings is huge, and I can't imagine never being able to click anything until I've emailed the author/checked with a friend/waited for a review to show up. It really, really doesn't sound like that kind of fandom experience would be a lot of fun. But for another thing, it puts the onus on the person with the trigger to always keep themselves safe. And of course they have a responsibility. I doubt anyone with triggers would tell you that they don't; I'm pretty sure they're working pretty damn hard to keep themselves safe, really, I am. But that doesn't mean the rest of us can't help out, you know? I'm lucky enough to have lived a life that has--so far--left me trigger-free. It seems like the least I can do is make things a little easier for people who didn't get that kind of luck. If fandom is supposed to be about safe spaces, then survivors of sexual abuse deserve them, too.

Of course we can talk about the extreme end--someone says they were triggered by a mention of a crossword, and then OMG, whatever will we do! But right now, that's not what's happening, and I don't see how changing the conversation to consider every possible permutation is helpful, or even relevant. It feels a lot like a diversionary argument, to me. And yes, I will admit that there are people who would like never to be made uncomfortable by anything that squicks them--cheating, or character death or mpreg, or whatever--but I really don't think that's what we're talking about here, either. From even my limited knowledge of the subject, I feel confident saying that a trigger isn't a squick; it's not something that just makes you hit the back button and send off a ranty email to someone else in fandom, all, "WTF! Why WOULD SOMEONE WRITE THAT!" It's much, much more than that, and reducing it to the level of someone who doesn't like pegging or watersports is just incredibly short-sighted, and probably hurtful. And the thing is, it costs you nothing to warn, and if you don't, maybe it fucks someone's day up, or their week, or maybe does even more damage than that. How is this not a no-brainer?

If you haven't read it already, it might be helpful to read impertinence's post on triggers (Warning: Very explicit discussion of sexual assault and the nature, anatomy, cause & effect of triggers. Is itself triggery.) If like me, you don't really have any firsthand knowledge of this kind of thing, it might be eye-opening.

And I really like this comment:

It sometimes compromises my ability to freely create to be expected to post spoilers (and, yes, "no warnings" can be a spoiler, as can "click to see warnings") for my own work just to accomodate a small segment of the audience. It's also compromising they can't build an overlook tower at the wildlife sanctuary because they can't afford to make it wheelchair accessible. But I still think people with wheelchairs have a right to be able to move around in public places, and I still don't think that people with triggers should have to limit themselves to only certain (increasingly limited) parts of fandom.

Dude, yes. Exactly that.