Annie wrote:
Exactly. It is an insult and I certainly took it that way. Calling slash "character assassination" is also more likely to be perceived as an insult than an opening to a discussion.
But the way you present slash, it _is_ a form of character assassination. Twisting characters around so they're not like the writers intended... using actors' likenesses without their permission in ways you _know_ they don't approve of... taking a show which was basically about fascism and resistance and turning it into some kind of hardcore fantasy... seems to me like a form of violation.
And then folks wonder why lists like Freedom City have to exist and why there can't be open discussion among fans about slash.
_Au contraire,_ Annie. Look at Fiona and Betty's discussion last month on the canonicity of slash. Look at Tavia and Dana's intelligent posts on the politics of slash-writing. Nobody was calling anybody names-- until _you_ came in and started calling people sick and disgusting. You're just trying to prevent slash from becoming a subject for intelligent discussion, you are.
Personally, I don't give a flying flip if someone else doesn't like slash, whatever their reasons. It's not like anyone is forcing you to read said "character assassination" against your will. If you don't like it,
don't
read it. Problem solved.
You might want to go back and read what Mistral (I think) said about how if you're using Netscape, your browser opens offensive posts before you've had a chance to delete them... and you might want to consider that newbies to fandom often get slash presented to them as the 'thing to do' in fandom before they know the other side... or that again, people have been known to buy slash zines without knowing what they are, or find a slash story in a mixed zine... in short, there's a lot of ways for people who don't want to read slash to come across it. I bought five slash zines in an auction some years back, I had no idea they were slash until I cracked the spines. Have you ever wondered why people keep complaining about it?
I've come to respect some of the people on this lyst who post in favour of slash... but not the people who are continually in-your-face, offensive and generally snarky about it. Guess who I'm talking about.
Shane
Largo: Why do I feel as if I'm on trial here? Avon: Why do I feel as if you should be?
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