Do you mind sharing your personal thoughts on the double standards in how the fanfic community treats Tom vs. Hermione? Example being when Tom is depicted killing people, it gets no response, but if Hermione thinks of reporting him to the Aurors, she's decried as a traitor. Where do you think this trend originates? Should authors be mindful about double standards when writing? Has the possibility of reader backlash ever affected how you've written your own stories?
Ooh I’m gonna get in trouble for answering this because I can’t do so without getting a bit political, but that will not stop me. This is going to get really long because this is something I have A LOT of opinions about.
This community in general has a habit of excusing everything Tom does no matter what - be it murder, torture, animal or child abuse, sexual abuse/assault, whatever, even when his violence is directed towards Hermione. I’ve been very vocal about how abusive/problematic shippers rarely look to these as “relationship goals” and that the draw to it is often the drama, suspense, etc., but the amount of mental gymnastics people will do to try and either downplay or outright excuse his shitty behavior is astounding. (And not to get too political here, but it often reeks of victim blaming. Fuck that.)
On the flip side, readers will often crucify Hermione for practically anything she does. If she doesn’t help or protect Tom after he does something horrible, then she’s a bitch. If she doesn’t trust him(understandable in most situations), she’s cold and mean and should think more about how he feels. If she does the opposite, then she’s stupid. When both writing and reading reviews for fics involving Tomione I’ve repeatedly found myself frustrated because it really seems like no matter what she can’t win.
To use a few examples, I’ve seen reviews call Hermione a buzzkill for being uncomfortable with Tom, calling her weak for being empathetic and subsequently manipulated, called a Mary Sue for outsmarting him, etc.. I have seen almost no comments that blame Tom exclusively for his behavior, and in the few that criticize him at all they’re nearly always doing it to say Hermione should have known better (Ex: “Tom is an asshole, but Hermione acts like a puppy that keeps coming back after being kicked”).
To use my own fic as an example, I have received several comments from people telling me they see A Change in Priorities as a “Hermione helps Tom to be a good person” fic. In that particular story, it’s followed canon in that he has killed four people with no remorse, has abused animals, and has seriously injured some of his peers. I’ve had people describe his literal violent possessiveness of Hermione as “cute.” I also have a fair number of people saying she needs to be more understanding, more kind, more sympathetic to him despite all this. I can’t pretend that doesn’t worry me a bit.
When it comes to the “why?”, I think there’s two major reasons. The first is misogyny, plain and simple. People expect Hermione to cater to Tom’s needs constantly, and demonize her when she doesn’t. They sympathize with Tom even when they have no reason to, even when they shouldn’t, and in a lot of ways deem his well-being to be Hermione’s responsibility. If something happens to her because of it, “well, she should have done x,y,z….” Even when Tom is the one in a position of authority, people still seem to blame Hermione for everything - including his actions. This problem isn’t exclusive to Tomione, it’s a problem in nearly every ship for every fandom as well as in reality. Our fandom unfortunately isn’t exempt from it.
The second reason I think people do this is that because Hermione is so regularly used as a self insert, people become irrationally angry when she does something they personally can’t relate to or disagree with. In a lot of Hermione based fics, her character is warped so much that she hardly resembles her original characterization beyond her name, her talent, and her perceived attractiveness. Sometimes not even that. As I’ve said before, that’s not a problem in and of itself. Fanfiction and fandom are entertainment and we should have fun. What’s not cool is readers bullying content creators for creating something they personally didn’t like.
Should authors be mindful of the double standards when writing?
This is probably an unpopular opinion, but in general I’d say only if they want to. I’d love to see more authors make Tom accountable for his own shit and not give Hermione the role of therapist and handler, but I don’t think authors should have to change the content of their fiction if the purpose of the writing is purely entertainment. If content is written and rated as being for adults, it should be expected that readers have the critical thinking skills necessary to understand things like “murder is bad even if someone says otherwise” and “just because someone says sorry doesn’t mean they deserve to be forgiven.”
If something is written for children or teens who haven’t yet developed those critical thinking skills/are still learning morality, then that’s a different story. That being said, I’m not a professional author and that isn’t my area of expertise so I have no advice here.
I’m big on reader responsibility. If you can’t responsibly consume a certain type of media, then that is on you, not the content creator. To use a personal example, I have an eating disorder and I know that reading/watching things with graphic depictions of disordered eating triggers me. If I read or watch it anyways, it’s not the author’s fault if I get triggered and relapse.
Has the possibility of reader backlash affected how you’ve written your stories?
Yes and no. This is something I’ve repeatedly struggled with, and am currently fighting myself on.
I’m a sensitive person. Negative comments and reviews get to me. I enjoy interacting with readers, get excited when they’re excited, and get disappointed when they’re unhappy. That’s just the kind of person I am.
As much as I would love to say, “I write for myself,” that’s just not true. Not entirely. I create the stories for myself, but writing, plotting, editing, and posting is time consuming and a ton of work I would not go through if I didn’t have a reason. The stories are created by and for me, they’ll always exist in my head, but they’re written down so I can share them with other people who might also enjoy them.
I can’t say that I really change much of the content for readers, though. If I’m really committed to something within a story, I can’t force myself to change it for the sake of readers even if it makes them unhappy. Writing I’m not invested in always turns out so bad I can’t bring myself to post it. I’ll include little details or scenes for readers, but the stories are mine.
