Hi I really like your blog but I was kinda shocked and disappointed to see that you reblogged that fic based on the USA gymnastics scandal? That's really insensitive to real victims of abuse, and using a real scenario that really hurt people for a fic idea is beyond gross.
sorry for the delayed response here- it’s been a few months since I’ve had the opportunity to check tumblr proper from my laptop, and mobile doesn’t inform me of new messages. This was by no means my trying to ignore your message. HOWEVER I think, somehow, you’ve come to the conclusion that people aren’t allowed to explore things through art and writing. Whether they’re affected by something of that nature or not, the purpose of fiction (not even just fanfiction, but visual arts and such as well) is to EXPERIENCE. People use fiction as a means to process, a means to explore, and the writing or even the enjoyment of something FICTIONAL is by no means somehow belittling or taking joy from a non-fictional person’s suffering.
Unless, somehow, that fic is directly attacking someone or exposing secrets/experiences that someone has personally asked to be kept quiet?
But if it’s just about the general idea of the scandal and the realities those people faced- pretending those weren’t real experiences, weren’t things that could happen to people, to anyone is what would do them a disservice.
To have things happen and, however horrific they are, be forgotten because of people being unwilling to speak of them even tangentially (for what creator hasn’t put at least a little of themselves into every creation?) would be the greatest disservice.
I don’t know what kind of content consumer you are, I can’t claim to know your story or your traumas and I have no need to. It’s YOUR responsibility to filter what you consume, and how you interact with someone’s creation. You’re under no obligation to enjoy what I do, and I’m under no obligation to cater to your subjectivity. I’m not going to apologise for enjoying something someone put their time/love/effort/energy into creating. I’m sorry if you believe otherwise and if it means you no longer enjoy myself as a being/content consumer/creator. But I’m not moving on this.
1- I am, incredibly unfortunately, American and that scandal is well known to me, I do not take their abuse lightly; 2- I come from a pretty psychologically abusive home, through every fault of my grandparents’ abuse on both sides making my parents unwilling to acknowledge their own gaping faults and flaws until recently though they’re working to be better now. Abuse takes many forms, and I would never dare to assume that I somehow know better or can understand something I haven’t experienced.
But I’m not going to police what someone creates- it’s all subjective, and the standards to which modern fandom holds people to strike me as ridiculous.
I come from a generation of content consumers that was happy to have content at all. I’ve separated the art from the artist, or from the source material, too many times to count. You can’t say you love something, or live on this planet in the reality we face now, without being critical of it.
But being critical doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it anyway.