So there is apparently yet another discourse about AO3 donations. It comes back every time like clockwork. The argument against donating—and more specifically about the donors’ morals—centers around the global pandemic most of us are living with. Some people claim that we need to reconsider our priorities and privileges and reproach us to give to an archive fanfiction website instead of the various organizations currently asking for donations as well.
Many sentences keep reappearing in their tirades, whether it’s a response to someone’s post or their own, most of them referencing the content AO3 allows to be hosted on their website in general, their tone suggests strong disapproval—and sometimes outright hate—for the website’s lack of censorship when it comes to subjects they oppose the depiction of. Just like with sentences, words and accusations are circulating in their rants; ‘abuse’, 'incest’, 'pedophilia’.
It causes a strong reaction from people reading, including me, because decent people have a visceral repugnance toward the crimes mentioned above and those people are using it, intentionally leaving out the adjective that belongs right before each of their words. Fictional. It’s important to note this because it covers those people’s strategies to link the content creators’ to the works in a way that implies their endorsement for the crimes they write about.
Without the fictional nature of their work—as opposed to autobiographical, in that case the creator, whoever they are and regardless of the quality of their art, deserve to be punished—most of the famous writers we know would be in jail. Vladimir Nabokov would be in jail for grooming, incest, murder, and pedophilia. Thomas Harris would be in jail for cannibalism, torture, mutilation, and murder. Bret Easton Ellis would be in jail for rape, torture, mutilation, and murder (including child murder).
I wanted to make that difference clear before continuing. Fiction and reality, the real and the imaginary dreaming and being awake… One can influence the other when a person is already predisposed to it, but those are entirely separate entities. The word 'blood’ on paper will not bleed on a page. It’s a distinction you should be able to make on your own. It’s not anyone’s else job to limit themselves on account of your failure to do so and certainly not someone’s duty to impose censorship on other people because you can’t process something as simple as that.
It’s something I wanted to make clear =because I think it should be pointed out that the pandemic and the anxiety it causes to everyone is serving as a tool to impact people and more precisely people donating to AO3.
This post seeks to address a trend I have seen in debates regarding donations to AO3 in the middle of the pandemic.
They accuse donors of being selfish, of valuing entertainment more than human life, and essentially make them responsible for people dying, sometimes not even subtly. They know it will hit home because many of us are still under lockdown, know people who are sick or even dead, have to worry about health, our loved one’s health, our countries, and also the prospect of losing our jobs and the repercussions of a global economic recession. In one word we are scared. Many are also paranoid about contamination and unsure about the future after the pandemic, supposing the virus goes away at all.
Those people are exploiting this just as they are used to exploiting the worst crimes and use it to further their agenda. Blaming someone for treating themselves to some entertainment is ridiculous. I have noticed that some AO3 donors answer back that they have ALSO donated to charities almost as if to defend themselves. They shouldn’t have to do that. It’s ridiculous that they have to disclose any information about their expenses because antis feel entitled—with their followers—to tell random people on the internet what giving a few bucks to a fanfiction website mean about their integrity.
I want to stress not only that but also that people deciding to spend their money on entertainment without having donated to anyone else is not unethical or unscrupulous. I saw someone comparing AO3 to Nexflix and I think it is the best analogy regarding that debate.
On Tumblr, surrounded by a cultist and narrow perspective about fiction and money and politics, it’s easy to forget that this approach is not normal.
Do you justify yourself when you buy a book on Amazon despite not having donated to the many charities in the world at different times of the year—because there’s always a catastrophic event happening in the world, just not of that magnitude—or when you buy that dress you’re only going to wear on Christmas for one evening but saved for months to buy? Do you defend yourself when you buy a Spotify Premium account because the mobile app has fewer features? Do you explain to the cashier that yes you have donated to impoverished countries and homeless people when you go to the movies with your friends and buy overpriced popcorn that could feed someone in a third world country?
I give to charities and to homeless people and volunteer and I do it because I want to to, not because I am obliged to do it and you are not either. That attitude that dictates that you can’t spend and enjoy without giving first or feeling guilt over it id you don’t is unhealthy.
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