I just think it's sad, I suppose, that fanfic authors are always made to feel like they should be cowering in shame and hide their fanfic from the world, while every other form of fanart is shown and featured and celebrated without any issues.
Like. I was joking around about them being on ao3 and looking at fanfic, but... I don't think I'd actually care? If they poked light-hearted fun at my fics, I'd laugh, if they read it, I'd be honored, whether they liked it or not, I'd have my fun with it. But now their entire comment section is a war zone of people debating whether or not they should be allowed showing 1-3 fanfic summaries in their videos - not even the fics, just some summaries - and I already know they'll never ever do it again in order to respect fandom spaces, which is fine. It's sweet of them to care.
I'm just so tired of the stigma. "Fanfic authors might get harassed" yeah but that's- that's partially because we're so determined to hide it away from the world that even creators who speak exclusively positively about the RPF created about them aren't allowed to acknowledge it as an *artform*. Like. We won't ever get rid of the "it's all ridiculous/it's all smut/it's all invasive and disrespectful" stigma by simply... never speaking about it.
They can show phanart of phan tentacle hentai without anyone batting an eye, but the second they read a fanfic summary, it's war.
I'm just a little sad I guess. And I know not everyone wants them to see their works, but man, there's features for that on ao3, you can literally lock your fics for people without accounts. You can disable guest comments. You can protect yourself from that alleged harassment everyone is worried about and from dnp looking in so easily. I'll never get it. Idk.
