Well, then.
Jan. 6th, 2017 08:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yuuagoI was looking forward to YOI Week* on tumblr, but it looks like I'm going to have to pass on it completely. I'll stick to writing Chocolate Box treats instead.
Due to their position* on pairings involving characters under 18, I can't say I'm comfortable participating. I refuse to support any event run by people who misuse the term 'pedophilia'.
There are a lot of perfectly reasonable ways to phrase their stance on this particular thing, IE "For under-18 characters we will be accepting submissions of works for friendship or aged-up relationships only" - while I'd be mildly disappointed, I also feel it's a perfectly fine restriction when phrased like that. But to refer to romantic relationships involving those characters as pedophilia is flat-out wrong. The term has a very serious, very specific meaning, and it shouldn't be used for things it does not actually refer to.
I wouldn't even have been writing anything with Yurio in it; mainly I had Guang Hong pairs in mind, and he tends to be treated as kind of a borderline case. But I've seen more than enough people going on about how even GH ships are creepy (I've even seen this said about LeoJi, multiple times, which... wtf), so, y'know. To be quite honest, anything to do with this just plain sets my teeth on edge.
While I'm on the subject of GH, let me tell you, I've been raising an eyebrow a lot recently, because I keep stumbling across things like "His birthday is in a few days, so it'll be okay to make 18+ fanwork with him". Like... what prevented you from doing that before? If the issue is character age, all one would have to do is set the story during the canon year's Four Continents, or Worlds, and there you go. Problem solved. Or set it during the next figure skating season. Why the need to wait for the date to pass in real-time? People are so weird.
...Anyway. Yes. Looks like I'll be directing my creative energies elsewhere. Which is fine, because the Chocolate Box signups have lots of great requests (including some that I never would have imagined, but now find really interesting), and this exchange's minimum is a perfect length for flashfiction.
Though, all this does make me consider how to handle it if I do write anything that some people would consider Questionable. Like, not just under-18 characters, but some of the other pairings that people might find squicky (ChuChu/CiaoCiao, for instance). I know that the Anonymous collection is an option - Genius Crackporn Anon reminded me - but I'd prefer not to use it unless I have to. So far the possibilities I've come up with include tagging pairing only (I usually tag pairing + characters), and not re-dating upon reveals. So, it'll only be findable by non-exchange-goers if one looks for that specific pairing or digs through a ton of other stuff. That sounds adequate.
Due to their position* on pairings involving characters under 18, I can't say I'm comfortable participating. I refuse to support any event run by people who misuse the term 'pedophilia'.
There are a lot of perfectly reasonable ways to phrase their stance on this particular thing, IE "For under-18 characters we will be accepting submissions of works for friendship or aged-up relationships only" - while I'd be mildly disappointed, I also feel it's a perfectly fine restriction when phrased like that. But to refer to romantic relationships involving those characters as pedophilia is flat-out wrong. The term has a very serious, very specific meaning, and it shouldn't be used for things it does not actually refer to.
I wouldn't even have been writing anything with Yurio in it; mainly I had Guang Hong pairs in mind, and he tends to be treated as kind of a borderline case. But I've seen more than enough people going on about how even GH ships are creepy (I've even seen this said about LeoJi, multiple times, which... wtf), so, y'know. To be quite honest, anything to do with this just plain sets my teeth on edge.
While I'm on the subject of GH, let me tell you, I've been raising an eyebrow a lot recently, because I keep stumbling across things like "His birthday is in a few days, so it'll be okay to make 18+ fanwork with him". Like... what prevented you from doing that before? If the issue is character age, all one would have to do is set the story during the canon year's Four Continents, or Worlds, and there you go. Problem solved. Or set it during the next figure skating season. Why the need to wait for the date to pass in real-time? People are so weird.
...Anyway. Yes. Looks like I'll be directing my creative energies elsewhere. Which is fine, because the Chocolate Box signups have lots of great requests (including some that I never would have imagined, but now find really interesting), and this exchange's minimum is a perfect length for flashfiction.
Though, all this does make me consider how to handle it if I do write anything that some people would consider Questionable. Like, not just under-18 characters, but some of the other pairings that people might find squicky (ChuChu/CiaoCiao, for instance). I know that the Anonymous collection is an option - Genius Crackporn Anon reminded me - but I'd prefer not to use it unless I have to. So far the possibilities I've come up with include tagging pairing only (I usually tag pairing + characters), and not re-dating upon reveals. So, it'll only be findable by non-exchange-goers if one looks for that specific pairing or digs through a ton of other stuff. That sounds adequate.
Yuu. Fic writer & book lover. M/Canada.
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Date: 2017-01-06 05:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-06 05:06 pm (UTC)It's left an awful taste in my mouth.
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Date: 2017-01-06 05:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-06 05:13 pm (UTC)when that 18th birthday takes on this magical connotation of suddenly making everything fair game.
Eugh, yes. It's kind of odd - in their attempts to seem totally not-creepy, those who press this idea so much circle around again to coming off as... creepy.
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Date: 2017-01-06 05:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-06 05:16 pm (UTC)Can't say I blame you for deciding to drop the site entirely. Ordinarily I have no problems, but that just makes it doubly disappointing when I step in something like this.
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Date: 2017-01-06 05:40 pm (UTC)I've had a similar experience with a Week event's rules where their extreme choice of words (and the contradictory alternatives they offered) for a subject rubbed me so wrong on a physical level, I wrote them a very long complaint and never looked back. Like, their explanation genuinely triggered me, wow.
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Date: 2017-01-06 05:42 pm (UTC)Also re: your experience, wow. That's awful, I'm sorry you went through that. Hopefully they actually read your letter and considered the things you said to them.
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Date: 2017-01-06 05:46 pm (UTC)And yeah, like I said, I never went back to see if they had a response (I went anon because it was that personal) but I always hope they did.... I was tossing and turning for at least three days in horror like "people actually think this??" It was a mess.
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Date: 2017-01-07 02:03 am (UTC)I did post some underage YOI fic on AO3 recently, including linking it on Tumblr, without any fuss, but it was pre-canon and a rare pair, so no Yurio for people to clutch their pearls over. I wouldn't worry too much over it for Chocolate Box.
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Date: 2017-01-07 02:36 am (UTC)For me, a large part of the issue is that I already have general nerves/anxiety about posting to Ao3, which is why I mainly post my fic to DW instead. So I don't need another thing to make me nervous on top of it. xD
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Date: 2017-01-07 06:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-07 05:31 pm (UTC)Haa, no kidding! Yuri certainly doesn't seem like the kind to dutifully wait until 18. ...Especially since he'd be of age in his own country before that. It's one of the things that has kept me from reading that particular pair - people don't seem to consider this at all.
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Date: 2017-01-07 11:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-07 10:29 am (UTC)On the other hand I know how things like this can drain the fun out of shipping in a fandom, so I understand your position too. I just wanted to say you could BE A PUNK INSTEAD :D
LK
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Date: 2017-01-07 05:23 pm (UTC)In YOI, lots of people have received nasty comments, and I honestly don't have the energy to deal with it.
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Date: 2017-01-07 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-07 11:30 pm (UTC)I find it kind of creepy, really.
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Date: 2017-01-07 10:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-07 11:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-08 09:47 pm (UTC)