![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Why write this stuff at all?
Six Apart has posted a clarification of its policies. More commentary here at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
fandom_flies
On this controversy I feel rather caught between my writing journal and this one; most of my friends there are variously up in arms over this situation, while many of my friends here are likely bemused over the controversy or approving of Six Apart's actions. After all, why would anyone but a pedophile write and/or draw about characters under 18 involved in sexual situations at all?
I wanted to explain why without invoking Lolita or any of the works on the big list of published literature featuring teenage sexuality that someone compiled the other day (I'd link to it here but I can't find the link in my files), when I saw that Altoidsaddict had a very good answer to that question. So I asked her (with the help of a friend *wave*) for permission to re-post it.
Hm. What about "We see these characters as complete people, and in paying tribute to their characterization, we recall that as teenagers we ourselves had sexual feelings. Barbara Kingsolver, who wrote the Poisonwood Bible, believed it was poor writing to ignore sexuality as a crucial defining element of one's being and one's character; if we'll write about what they eat, the dreams they hold, and the thoughts they have, why should sex be exempt? We know it's a part of their characters because we were teenagers once, too.
[I snipped a bit here, which deals with kink and taboo, and so is unrelated to the point I'm addressing here. Well, not unrelated, actually, but not directly about it. At any rate, she went on to say:]
For the adult, what is so attractive in writing about teenage sex in particular is that we renew in ourselves not a desire to have sex with an underage person - I mean, ew - but the exploration and excitement of discovery we had at that age. If we took that away from these characters, who are at an age where they think about sex more than any other demographic, we would be doing them a disservice. Anything we find sexy in what we write is not because they're teenagers, but because we were once teenagers and there are some parts of that adventurousness we wish we hadn't discarded." For what it's worth, I don't read or write fanfic, but this is the larger sense I've gotten as to why people appear to do it in a way that outsiders might understand.
I think this is a valid artistic choice, to refuse to pretend that people under 18 have no concept of or dealings with sexuality, and that this choice need not be at all anything approaching an endorsement of adults abusing teenagers. So that's why I wanted to post this quotation here.
fandom_fliesOn this controversy I feel rather caught between my writing journal and this one; most of my friends there are variously up in arms over this situation, while many of my friends here are likely bemused over the controversy or approving of Six Apart's actions. After all, why would anyone but a pedophile write and/or draw about characters under 18 involved in sexual situations at all?
I wanted to explain why without invoking Lolita or any of the works on the big list of published literature featuring teenage sexuality that someone compiled the other day (I'd link to it here but I can't find the link in my files), when I saw that Altoidsaddict had a very good answer to that question. So I asked her (with the help of a friend *wave*) for permission to re-post it.
Hm. What about "We see these characters as complete people, and in paying tribute to their characterization, we recall that as teenagers we ourselves had sexual feelings. Barbara Kingsolver, who wrote the Poisonwood Bible, believed it was poor writing to ignore sexuality as a crucial defining element of one's being and one's character; if we'll write about what they eat, the dreams they hold, and the thoughts they have, why should sex be exempt? We know it's a part of their characters because we were teenagers once, too.
[I snipped a bit here, which deals with kink and taboo, and so is unrelated to the point I'm addressing here. Well, not unrelated, actually, but not directly about it. At any rate, she went on to say:]
For the adult, what is so attractive in writing about teenage sex in particular is that we renew in ourselves not a desire to have sex with an underage person - I mean, ew - but the exploration and excitement of discovery we had at that age. If we took that away from these characters, who are at an age where they think about sex more than any other demographic, we would be doing them a disservice. Anything we find sexy in what we write is not because they're teenagers, but because we were once teenagers and there are some parts of that adventurousness we wish we hadn't discarded." For what it's worth, I don't read or write fanfic, but this is the larger sense I've gotten as to why people appear to do it in a way that outsiders might understand.
I think this is a valid artistic choice, to refuse to pretend that people under 18 have no concept of or dealings with sexuality, and that this choice need not be at all anything approaching an endorsement of adults abusing teenagers. So that's why I wanted to post this quotation here.