A letter to the editor of teen.com
In light of @teendotcomââs blatant homophobia and mockery of fanfic writers (in this article: http://www.donotlink.com/h4b2) I have written a letter to their editor. I encourage all of you who think homophobia is bullshit and bullying is horrible to do the same. Her email is [email protected].Â
My name is Tess Sharpe. I am a YA author who writes queer novels and Iâm writing to you today because of the blatant and disturbing homophobia presented in this article: http://www.donotlink.com/h4b2
Firstly, the original headline declared fanfic writersâteenagers, your very demographicâas ânasty as fuckâ for writing about boys kissing. Do you understand what kind of message that sends to queer teens? That same sex kissing is ânastyâ That it is wrong. For a web site that supposedly has an anti-bullying message, you are failing horribly.
Secondly, when you changed said headline, you declared your word choice was âpoorâ not acknowledging that it was bigoted and homophobic, but also not acknowledging that you altered the text of the article as well. I have screenshots proving this. And despite your associate editor scrambling to tone down the language, she still declared same sex relationships as âInappropriateâ
What, pray tell, is inappropriate about homosexuality? Please, explain to me your justification in declaring this about a deeply vulnerable population that has one of the highest suicide and homelessness rates among teenagers.
Thirdly, you are linking to sexually explicit content with no warning on a web site that you claim is for children as young as 11. Why do you think itâs appropriate to declare these fics as things that fans âmust seeâ when none of them are old enough to legally view that kind of explicit content? Do you enjoy tricking children into looking at what is essentially fanfic erotica? As someone who just finished a novel on childhood sexual abuse, I find your lack of awareness about exposing young people to sexual situations they arenât ready for appalling. You wouldnât post porn links on your web site, so why are you posting links to sexually explicit fics and telling teenagers they âmustâ read them instead of giving them a heads up about the adult content so they can make the choice if theyâre ready to read things at that level?
Fourthly, when people brought this to your attention through your Twitter account, whoeverâs in charge of it blocked everyone, including myself. Which is why Iâm writing to you now. I realize that you probably go through a lot of content, youâre likely not monitoring your social media yourself, but you need to be aware of the sticky legal situation that your associate editor has put you in. Exposing children as young as 11 to sexually explicit material with no warning is not okay. And Iâm sure the parents of the tweens and teens who visit your web site would be enraged to find out what youâre trying to expose them to with no warnings. A few nicely worded letters to some of the watchdog mom groups about the content youâre exposing your readership to would not be that hard to accomplish.
Fifth, you had no right to take someone elseâs work and use it for your article without permission. Not only did you link to personal blogs of teenagers who are now being subjected to harassment and bullying to the point that several of them have erased their blogs, but you stole their writing and mocked it and then when people called you out, you tried to claim you âlovedâ their passion.
Your associate editor needs to either be fired or she needs to be put through a anti-bullying course as well as a LGBTQA awareness course. She and your web site needs to issue a heartfelt apology to each and every one of those writers. And you need to take the article down.
I am someone who has spent her life advocating for queer teens. Writing for them and helping them. What you have done with your ridiculous, homophobic, clickbait article is crush young queer creativity. You have made them fear putting something out there because they might get mocked for something they love and created out of love. You have exposed children who may not be ready for it to deeply sexual situations. You need to make this right. If you have any caring for your readershipâwhich Iâm honestly wondering about because of the poor, poor choices you have made in responding to thisâyou need to fix this. Remove the article. Apologize for being homophobic and bigoted. And either fire or completely re-educate your homophobic associate editor.