#HATERSBACKOFF

nehemia, sorscha, and nesryn deserved so much better || anti-tog || im here for dat discourse || side blog for persephony

[aviiens]

tbh a lot of t0g was so so cool, like i don’t remember a whole lot but i remember that h0f was really…cool and interesting and i remember q0s actually being interesting (esp with characters like a/robynn and ma/non and ly/sandra) minus rowboat but it’s so sad that rowboat had to exist…like if he wasn’t a love interest the series could have already been 10x better (and there are still a lot of other problematic aspects but rowboat is a lot of them). dor/ian shattering the glass castle? awesome! ly/sandra killing aro/bynn ? awesome! kale doing his thing lurking around in the sewers like the super cool person he is? awesome! but like. the fae part literally ruined it.

[saltysorscha]

omg it's been almost 2 years since i've posted on this

[elains]

@erileanet​ event 2 — ships ∴ doraelin

they were eternity.

[saltysorscha]

y'all this girl really just tried to tell me that almost everyone in acotar is black. ive never laughed so hard in my life

[saltysorscha]

like i honestly believe that sjm sits in her writing room or whatever brainstorming ways to make her fae porn more appealing and she goes: "velvety dick! yes!" and laughs like she's shakespeare or some shit

[saltysorscha]

sjm: good character development and cohesive plot lines? i only know fae porn and abusive relationships!

[queenmorgawse]

it’s been bugging me since forever but??? even ignoring the fact that the magic system in t0g is wack, even the genetics make no sense? for example:

ae/dion’s father is gavriel, a full-blooded fae. aedion’s unnamed mother (i’m NOT going to complain about this it’s not relevant rn,) was evalin’s cousin, so it doesn’t indicate much. let’s assume she was human, or had little enough fae blood to consider it negligible. aedion is, at the very least, ½ fae.

a/elin has some distant fae ancestry on the galathynius side, and is ¼ fae through her mother. so that leaves her at ¼.

and all of this is assuming that evalin was actually ½ fae herself, since demi (christ it means HALF it’s not that hard) fae is a term that seems to apply to anyone who’s not full-blooded.

either way a/edion has more fae blood than a/elin

yet a/edion doesn’t have any powers besides enhanced strength, speed etc., but a/elin has both fire magic and the two forms of a shapeshifter. is that ever explained (minus mala’s blessing, wherever that came from)? what determines the amount of power demi-faes get, if it doesn’t match the amount of full fae blood they have? i know it’s because of the fact there is no defined magic system but it’s so frustrating

[ryzaphelle-deactivated20181214]

Hey so i saw you blog about throne of glass and decided to give it a try! I read the first 4 books so far, dorian is such a puppy lol, and i was so disappointed when nehemia died and aelin ended up with that weirdo instead of chaol but at least manon and elide got together!!! I love them so much im really hoping they finally kiss in book 5, i'm gonna go start it now so no spoilers please!!!

bls tell me this is a joak

[saltysorscha]

anon is an anti that cackled evilly as they pressed send

[melthedestroyer]

there’s a big difference between “i’m sad because a character i was emotionally invested in was killed off” and “this character’s death served no purpose, was used for shock value, and is the product of bad writing and i’m upset about that”

[sunbeamszs]

stop excusing an author’s blanketed racism or homophobia by using the line, “but look at _____, there’s barely any poc or lgbt characters in there.” two wrongs do not make a right. authors need to include minorities into their books. even if it’s a fantasy land with faeries and powerful beings, there are still going to be people with black skin, brown skin, olive skin, etc. a fantasy world is no excuse for exclusion of different skin colors and sexualities.

representation is incredibly important. and we don’t want the last minute token gay man who is a static character with no purpose other than to satisfy the people. that doesn’t cut it. it is not fucking hard to have more than 2 people of color or 1 lgbt character in your book.

[gayvilliard]

“If you have such a problem with lack of diversity in ya books why don’t you write your own” because none of you want to read a book with anyone besides a white male/female lead and a heterosexual subplot

[aelinphobic]

“i read t*g/ac*tar for the cute romance” to all the boys i’ve loved before outsold 

[saltysorscha]

im tempted to make a anti sjm aesthetic post

[saltysorscha]

my new icon is me looking at anything a sjm stan says

[battlestar-royco]

the sad thing about rice mansplaining feminism (yikes, even sadder than the fact that it’s a thing) is that it’s the most basic form of feminism. like, you believe women should have equal opportunity, that all women should have the choice to do what they want whether their interests are coded masculine or feminine? wow good for you rice, you and every other person learning the definition of feminism in 2012. discrimination against lesser fae who? nb, nonhet fae? i don’t know her. you and your inner circle could bathe in your gold while there’s literally people that are dying but go off i guess.

[saltysorscha]

every time a sjm stan makes a post telling us why we shouldnt "hate" on her (with the same 5 bulletpoints as all other posts of its type) i lose an entire decade off of my life and the anti in me rises again

[saint-lacrimosa]

Sigh.

I guess Sarah J. Maas is the new Stephanie Meyer. Everyone hated Meyer for writing smutty vampire fiction. Now everyone hates SJM for writing smutty fae fiction. 

Both SJM’s series are being adapted to either TV or the big screen. Once this gets big, I can’t imagine how the anti-SJM people will rip her apart… 

I don’t even think her books are perfect. What book series is??? I don’t know why a white, cis author is required to have diversity. I get that it’s 2018 and more and more authors are becoming educated on diversity, but I never expected SJM to write my experience. And the botched attempt at including diversity in ACOWAR is because people were sending effing threats to her for not being inclusive enough. Instead of “writing what she knows” she tried to appease everyone and people still aren’t happy. Trying to please an entire readership is hard and the anti-SJM crowd have an impossible standard they expect SJM to live up to. Why are we asking a white, cis, rich author to be the spokesperson for diversity??? Rather than hating her, elevate diverse stories. MOST OF YOU DON’T EVEN DO THAT. Most of you don’t even speak Tomi Adeymi’s or Dhonielle Clayton’s or name. Most of you don’t even bother with Sabaa Tahir or Renee Ahdieh. Why? Because ya’ll think it’s cool to hate white people now. It’s no surprise that SJM has a large appeal with Americans, the UK, and Australia. Why? Because it’s a Euro-centric fantasy… White Americans, the British, and Aussies feel close to home with Eurocentric fairytales. I’d rather an author not include diversity than have an awkward attempt at it because you guys screamed at her to write outside her comfort zone. Seriously. 

Not to mention, The Mortal Instruments is arguably “problematic”, the movie bombed, and the TV show is worse yet… Cassandra Clare doesn’t get nearly the same level of hate. Why? Because Malec. Because Clare has Magnus and Alec, she can do no wrong whatsoever. I see so little difference in SJM and Cassandra Clare as far as “issues” go. The men in TMI were aggressive and verbally and emotionally abusive and there was an INCEST plot line. Clary was willing to put her life on hold for a guy…………. like Bella was with Edward. I don’t understand the double standard. Cassandra Clare can write whatever she wants but SJM can’t? 

You don’t have to like her books but I hear more people saying they don’t like her books more than actually promoting diverse stories. It’s completely counter productive. 

How about leave well enough alone.

Not to mention, some of ya’ll blatantly lied about the content of these books. I almost stopped reading SJM and then when I read some things IN CONTEXT, I realized people were trying to be offended on purpose and then told all their friends something was problematic that wasn’t and make all their friends hate SJM. That’s so immature. 

And hating other women, is quite frankly, unfeminist. 

Constructive criticism. Calling out. Speaking your mind. Fine. 

But threats? Lying? Attacking. Yeah. Sh*t like that makes me stay away from “problematic” culture so I read whatever I want. Yes, there are teenagers reading her books but many people are in their twenties and up. You can’t tell grown ass women we can’t read what we want to read. There’s a whole “problematic” section of books called erotica that women have been reading for YEARS. How come no one is perusing the erotica section and telling grown women not to read those books??? (To be fair, ACOTAR is very New Adult…….. sure, we can talk about the content of the material another time) 

Anyway  I just can’t take the anti-SJM cause very seriously. I’m 26 and SJM is, what, 33? I’m not going to make fun of another woman 5 years my senior. I’m not a girl. I’m not a child. I’m not in middle school. Because that’s what that is. That’s what bullying is.  There are SO many books that make me cringe. There are authors that I side-eye. But you know what? I move on. If they aren’t willing to change, that’s on them.  Trying to “take down” female authors is pretty messed up. So few male authors who write worse female characters don’t get nearly as much sh*t. I find it strange that this side of “feminist” book movement spends all their energy attacking women rather than speaking up against the patriarchy in the publishing world and in America in general (or elsewhere).

H i p o c r i s y at it’s finest. 

Edit: 

Saying someone can’t read Sarah J. Maas books and still enjoy 100% more diverse books is like saying, Liking the Lord of the Rings is automatically racist…. I, as a POC, can say, “I like LOTR.” I can even say, “I want to watch the reboot of LOTR on Amazon even though I don’t expect it to be diverse in any sense of the word” and almost no one would care. <<< FYI I have no interest in a LOTR reboot. But you know what? The same voice attacking SJM, aren’t saying crap about the Euro-centric, heteronormative, LOTR reboot taking place in more “woke” times.

I know the “times” are different so people expect literature to be more advanced and diverse, but… honestly? There are so few types of fantasy to be inspired by that I don’t expect a white author to break ground on writing diversity. Secondly, A Game of Thrones may have been written in the nineties but the TV SHOW IS STILL EURO-CENTRIC AND ALL THE BROWN PEOPLE ARE SLAVES OR SERVANTS. GOT was written by a male and he still isn’t getting as much crap as SJM. All I’m saying is that nothing comes without criticism, but damn ya’ll hate white women the most, which to me is misogynistic AF because there are many current male fantasy and sci-writers who write worse things and write less diversely and who don’t get any sh*t for it. And sure, some of those things were written way back when. But they are getting REBOOTED by MALE directors and producers AS WE SPEAK and no one seems to care as much. smh.

[westvillard]

Okay, here we go.

1. Why are white, cishet authors required to write diversity? 

Honestly? They’re not required to write anything. But the thing with SJM is that she is a FANTASY author who makes up an entirely NEW world and has a LARGE cast of characters. She can write wyverns and witches and fae into her novels… but not PoC? Come on. It’s especially important for fantasy writers to incorporate diversity into their made-up worlds because writing an all-white, all-cishet cast w/ the only PoC being background characters is like saying, “Hey, look! I created this new world in my mind and you have no place in it!” to PoC. We are not asking SJM to be the spokesperson for diversity. We are asking her to make her books a little more realistic by being inclusive. If someone’s ability as a writer is limited by the typical white, allocishet bullshit we’ve been subjected to think is the “norm” or the “default” our entire lives, then that seems like a reflection on the skills of the author themselves, don’t you think?

2. Ya’ll don’t elevate actual diverse books!

Uhhhhhhh yes we do???? Don’t know where in the world this is coming from.

3. People don’t shit on CC as much as they do SJM!

I don’t read her books so I can’t speak on this but I’ve heard a lot of people say that CC improves on the diversity issues, which is basically what makes her different from SJM. I’ve also heard people say that the TV show actually fixes the problematic aspects of the books. Again, can’t vouch for it personally since I don’t watch the show, but if we’re comparing CC to SJM, then you see why SJM gets “more hate.” 

4. Hating other women is unfeminist!

No, hating other women for no reason is what’s unfeminist. Feminism doesn’t mean we’re automatically required to like every woman on the planet. Feminism doesn’t mean we are not allowed to criticize or rightfully call out the harmful actions of another woman, ESPECIALLY if said woman parades around as a “feminist” and claims that “diversity is so important” to her but whose work does not actually reflect those stances. 5. Erotica has existed for years but no one tells grown women not to read them!

Erotica is for adults. ToG is YA. ACOTAR, though supposedly categorized as New Adult, is listed under Children’s Fiction. It doesn’t matter that most of those who read these books are grown ass women because they are LABELED AS YA. Kids aged 11 or 12 can pick up these books with no clue as to what they’re in for. Internalized misogyny and racism are already rampant; we don’t need books like Maas’ to reinforce that shit on young kids. Also, bear in mind that there’s a stark difference between an adult who we can assume is aware of what is problematic and what is not vs. a developing teenager who may not know better reading these books. The more people read SJM’s books, the more  popular they will become which means publishing, SJM, and her stans will continue to not give a shit about the fact that these books are incorrectly labeled and could be harming teenage readers. I know a lot of people try to break into YA because it “easy” and it “sells” but fact is, whatever the reason they write YA for, ultimately these authors have a responsibility to their target readers. It’s part of the job. Clearly, Maas isn’t taking that responsibility very seriously.

Don’t have the energy to reply to several other points atm but if anyone wants to add on, feel free to do so!