I've seen a couple of posts on Gateworld today about people having their fics taken down on fanfic.net and even their whole accounts. As such, there doesn't appear to be a reason behind it so far and people are starting to wonder what the cause of this sudden purge is. Is it due to adult/mature content? Not enough disclaimers or something else?
Being fairly new to this whole world of fanfic, I haven't really seen one of these purges before. Apparently there was one a little while ago on ff.net to do with mature content in stories, but things have backed off a lot lately.
But how does the argument go when it comes to fanfic about what is acceptable and what is not?
I think the outside world sees it as a dark, seedy world of slash!fic and desperate teens writing scenes full of lust and sex. But I think the reality is quite different to that. My personal experience with it certainly is. I ventured into the world of fanfic (as I've already mentioned in a couple of posts) due to a lack of confirmation when it came to Sam and Jack at the end of season 8 of SG-1. I'd seen a couple of vids showing the moments between them but there was still a big question. So when I discovered hundreds of stories from different people around the world showing the possibilities of what could/might have been, I was blown away. There were some that were better written than others. In the end I wrote my own fics, finding it let me express my creativity in a way I hadn't been able to do since university. And I met some lovely people too. So in my eyes, fanfic is definitely not a bad thing. Most people just want to explore their favourite shows/books/films in a different or their own way.
There is a lot of mature stuff out there. A LOT. But there's a lot of it that is very well written, whether it be violence or sex. I think it could be seen as a little weird to people outside of the world but with the rise of graphic sex and violence on television and in films, is it really that surprising that it would pop up in fandoms as it has been, I suspect, for years? The internet is surely the one place where we should be able to express ourselves fully without fear of reprisal from anyone. There is of course the question of intellectual property when it comes to fanfic, but I think most studios are happy enough as long as people don't claim that characters are their own. Most people will put up a simple disclaimer at the beginning of their stories or on their profiles. However, there have been worrying cases of people writing stories about actors as opposed to characters that they portray. I say worrying as people seem to be unable to grasp the difference between reality and the imagination. Can we judge this though as taking things too far? For me the answer is yes. Fanfic is about putting characters in situations and seeing how they would react. It's pure imagination and taking a show/film's universe to places that probably aren't possible on TV or on film. The stories about the actors in reality include their families, friends and in this particular case, sex.
So how is this stuff monitored? How is it censored? Well, mostly it is down to the author to self-regulate. On ff.net, the author sets their own rating and this is the case on most, if not all, sites. On ff.net, M-rated stories don't appear in the normal lists unless you specifically search for them. So if adult-themed stories are the reason for this latest purge, surely it is up to the site administrators to set better guidelines or better safeguards when it comes to the very graphic content. Are they trying to protect kids? Because I think that whole idea is a bit of a fallacy. Kids, teenagers particularly, will find this stuff if they are really looking for it. It's curiosity and I think a lot of the time they will scare themselves with what they find and back off. If not, then maybe the parents should be keeping a closer eye on what their children are looking at online if they don't want them to have access to that kind of content. Having come to fanfic later than some, I think I've approached it with a level head and been able to judge for myself when something has been taken too far. But I would worry that some teenagers might not be able to see the subtle line between taking an obsession beyond that land of make-believe.
I realise that it must be weird for actors to see characters they have brought to life being used in some of the ways they are in the world of fanfic. Books are obviously less of an issue as the characters are just that, characters. But what if that book is made into a film or TV series? The actors are then linked with these characters and it could be that that is how a fan would picture that character. Said fan then writes a really graphic sex scene involving that character. The actors face/body is then what the readers imagine in that scene. Wouldn't that be strange? But people have sexual fantasies about celebrities all the time. They are, mostly, seen as beautiful people and men and women alike will fantasise about them. So how is fanfic creepier or more sordid? If anything it's surely less creepy if the story uses the character as opposed to the actor in 'real-life'. And so we come back around to that story I heard about that was written about two real actors. At best it's slander and at worst it's behaviour indicative of someone who blurs that line between reality and imagination.
So, to sum up, I don't have an issue with fanfic that's graphic. Life is graphic, as are a lot of the films and TV shows we see at the moment. I do have a problem with fic that confuses reality with imagination. That could cause offence to people who are just working, trying to portray a character in the best way they can.
Sites shouldn't be censoring fic. Yes, there should be accurate and timely warnings about what is featured in a fic and in part this is up to the authors themselves. If a complaint is received by the site admins about a fic, then it should be followed up and the author should be included in the discussion. Not all fics are going to please everyone. But the wonderful thing is that people can also choose NOT to read something. And so although I find the "real-life" fics disgusting and degrading and it would be very interesting to speak to the author about their motivations, I realise that they are out there but choose to not read them or support them in any way. The internet is full of crazies. It doesn't mean you need to interact with them.
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