Kompera
patreon
On Warnings in Stories
🕑 Added 2024-03-01 12:57:25 +0000 UTCA long time ago in academia, someone suggested that I put a warning about a character dying in a short story I wrote. The warning would have spoiled the whole story. It took me a moment to properly articulate how ludicrous this request was. And how unfair it was to me as an artist.
From then on, I wasn't a fan of warnings. If you require any warnings at all, you probably shouldn't consume any media that isn't geared towards young children. I'm not trying to be condescending, I am being entirely serious.
Most writings already have some sort of ratings system in place. For example, this page is 18+, and you should not be able to access it unless you are 18 years of age or older. Because you are all 18 or older, I operate under the assumption that you can handle most of my narrative content. Most my writing is actually pretty mild compared to other fetish or erotica writers. I don't write explicit sex scenes, at least not in the last decade. I have yet to stray into lurid descriptions of cannibals feasting on each other's intestines. And even those things wouldn't warrant a warning on this page.
I'm going to post some responses to a interaction I had with a patron recently. Keep in mind that I just can't participate in these conversations anymore. I value everyone's patronage, and I'm happy to respond to quick questions, but my time has been in severe deficit lately, and that won't change in the foreseeable future.
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Q: Person suggests an 'abortion-denial' tag for Cow Boy II, says that the story has not aged well and they had to stop reading it, talks about recent legislation in the USA that is particularly unfair to the transgender community.
My response:
A lot of these stories can fall under uncomfortable themes such as sadism, masocishim, body horror, etc. This has been consistent for many years, and the majority of my stories feature a character who does not want to be pregnant and/or does not have access to abortion. Shark, Malcolm, The Janitor - these are just some of the ongoing male stories with this subject matter off the top of my head. The expansion themes in my stories have always been unwanted (hence bordering on body-horror). There is media all over the internet featuring characters going through unwanted bodily changes (including unwanted pregnancies). It's a common theme in horror, sci-fi, and fantasy, with more content being produced every day. This is in fact what inspired me to start writing these stories.
I would say that the majority of the population does not enjoy body horror, or even horror themes, whether they find them in stories, movies, or other forms of media, which is completely understandable. They have no obligation to consume my or any other entertainment content. I will take a look at the disclosures on my pages to see if they need modification, but editing thousands of posted chapters and e-books on different platforms would cost a lot of time/money and fall somewhere between superfluous and redundant. I feel like I would never reach out to a famous author and ask them to modify their publications because I find their themes to be problematic. It might seem easier since I am just a small-time online writer, but that's all the more reason not to hold me to higher expectations.
Additionally, patreon is a global platform, and I can't modify my content every time there is a change in the politics or legislation in some country. Abortion is a constant, fluctuating topic throughout the globe. Someone else could message me saying that abortion is offensive and there should not be any mention of it existing in my content. In the end, I can't please everyone. We can't assume that everyone here falls within a particular political sphere or lives in the USA, it's just not accurate. Though I have spent time in USA, I don't live there myself, so you can't expect me to keep up with the politics.
Q: Person mentions that I made some good points, but also notes that they find it odd that I haven't used a trans man in my stories for narrative convenience.
My response:
It looks like my DA account is 15 years old, I probably started writing online 5 years before then, and I didn't learn what "transgender" was and meant until around 2015. I can't say I thought much about it in relation to these writings. If you look at my old and new stories, the characters tend to be unhappy about their changes, and I don't think that would fit in with transgenderism. I'm not sure why I would try to shoehorn transgender characters for no reason into stories about fetishism and body horror. It wouldn't make a difference to my income yet I would have to expend a lot of time dealing with people complaining about being offended or attempting to report me for my literary abuse of such a vulnerable population. In contrast, the exclusion of transgender characters fosters fewer complaints or concerns about oddness. Also consider the fact that I don't use things like race, nationality, or ethnicity in my writings. These things are entirely unnecessary to me.
It's like asking why I don't use more disabled characters, sick characters, or Italian characters. I personally find it odd that I don't use more characters with crippling hand pain.
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If anyone else has concerns about warnings or politics or gender usage in my content, they can refer to this post. In the end, I'm just here to write some silly stories. I'd appreciate if people didn't come here mining for issues, and also consider other perspectives outside of their own.
Comments
Kompera
1- I did not post a private conversation. I did not quote you or post any personal or identifiable information. 2- I have a responsibility to share my perspective when anyone intimates that my content is problematic. 3- The only person who destroyed your anonyminity is you. The only person posting your personal information is you. 4- I have had conversations with other patrons on these topics, especially when it comes to contests & rewards that allow patron writing or plotting. 5- I cannot indulge whatever you are seeking here. My participation is over and so is yours.
Lupus
I certainly don't appreciate a private conversation being made public. Also there has been far more assumptions made than what I meant. I specified that it was a request only for categorisation going forward and specifically stated that in no way was I asking you to change any stories. Just like you bother to tag multiples or male/female or the types of expansion - those aren't warnings but a way for readers to find their favorite themes. People making this about artistic freedom are entirely missing the point. I brought up being trans because most people ask why I care in the first place. And I only said I found it unusual that you don't use the existence of trans men for narrative convenience as observational humor and I was trying to express that I was glad.
Sam McDonald
I completely agree with you it's perfectly valid to say you aren't going to tag your work and the reader should accept the risk of encountering something they don't want. It's not on you to coddle people. And on using trans characters the same people who are complaining would complain that you are potentially traumatising trans people so don't worry.
