#Batman fandom (slash negative)

[ddesertmoon]

yeah im okay. thanks for asking. yeah it’s just that I’m part of a fandom that’s obsessed with the same character that I like. except every time they write about him they want to take away his autonomy.

so idk who they think they’re writing about because apparently This Guy has to have some other force controlling him when he makes bad decisions. you know. Just so that he can be perfect and completely blameless and a victim. And it’s making me like him less 😝

[kalinara]

There is no position that gives me a headache more than anti-anti fans.

Look, I get that "anti-fandoms" are annoying.

It is ANNOYING to post things about ships and characters and have people make assumptions about you based on your feelings about fictional characters.

I've had it happen to me. Hilariously, it wasn't even about one of my actual problematic ships, but because I had a "meh" reaction to the idea of pairing characters from the Umbrella Academy of all things.

But, I'll disclaim right now, I have plenty of ships that an "anti" could confront me about. There's a reason I don't always stay logged in when I peruse AO3. No one needs to review my fic reading history, including me.

So yeah, I get that it's annoying. And some folks take it too far. There's no excuse for threats or insults. Personally, I don't think this behavior is limited to antis, but as mentioned, I've seen some do it.

But I will always have a knee jerk disgust toward people who act like the very act of criticizing a ship or the reception of a character is the same damn thing.

There's some Bat-shipping post going around that equates people being disgusted by Bat-shipping to homophobia and real world oppression. And no, sorry. That's not the same thing.

I think you can definitely make the argument that moral panic can lead to some terrible decisions, particularly legislatively. Frederic Wortham decided that Batman and Robin were in a pedophiliac relationship, after all, and eventually we all got saddled with the comic code.

But, you know, we can still point out that IF Batman and Robin were in a relationship, while Robin was canonically 12 years old, in a comic book intended for children, that would have been categorically NOT OKAY.

Fans love to try to sidestep any criticism by equating their critics with some kind of censorship boogeyman. As though the average fandom critic has any kind of ability to legislate a form of media. Heck, disgusted fans can't even get AO3 to set limits on blatant extreme underage shit.*

(* Disclaimer: I respect AO3's very consistent position on content bans and censorship. I may not personally agree with every decision that they make, but I respect that it's their right to make it. My point is that the average "anti" has no real influence or power here.)

Here's the thing. If you ship something gross. More power to you. I do too. But you also have to deal with the fact that someone out there is going to say "Hey, that's gross." They may not be talking to you directly. Common fandom etiquette means that they probably shouldn't (unless you're invading the anti-tags, in which case, you're asking for it). But they're allowed to have opinions and say them. Free speech works both ways.

The older I get, the more protective I find myself of the right of people to be negative about things. "Don't yuck someone's yum?" I can yuck if I damn well want. I just need to remember that it's not your problem.

My own position is that fandom goes too far to protect the enjoyment of their largest groups, to the point where anything that could possibly cast a pall on said enjoyment is quickly shushed. We can't point out that a ship involves abusive tropes, because this is fiction. We can't grimace at the thought of an incestuous relationship, because that's judgmental. We can't point out hopefully-unconscious examples of racism and sexism because that would make someone feel bad and discourage them from writing.

I still remember how slash fanfic writers started bemoaning about how they can't possibly write FinnPoe anymore because they keep getting called out for racist tropes. The idea of actually making an effort to IMPROVE somehow never seemed to make it into the discussion.

Here's the thing. If I don't like a pairing, I'm going to say so. If I don't like a character (or maybe more accurately, fandom's treatment of said character), I'm going to say so. If I don't like a trope, for whatever reason, I'm going to say so. It's not my job to muzzle my own opinions to make random people on the internet feel better about how they get their rocks off. Why do you care what I think anyway?

Again, harassment's bad. But I think a lot of "anti-antis" are quick to equate "having a negative opinion that makes me feel bad" with an attack. Not the same thing and we all might be a lot happier if we kept that in mind.

[ao3feed-sladedick]

while you're looking at me

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/N5nsiPp by doingthewritethings “I have a proposition for you,” Jason says, six drinks in and filled with an insatiable need to get railed by someone who could probably kill him. “You’re drunk,” Deathstroke says, unimpressed. He eyes him in a way that tells Jason he’s not being nearly as subtle about what he wants as he thinks he is. - - - i have never once been peer pressured into drugs. i HAVE been peer pressured into Horny On Main Words: 5451, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Series: Part 1 of ambivalent and bad Fandoms: Deathstroke the Terminator (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Jason Todd, Slade Wilson Relationships: Jason Todd/Slade Wilson, past Dick Grayson/Slade Wilson - Relationship Additional Tags: Trans Male Character, Trans Jason Todd, Vaginal Sex, Daddy Kink, BDSM, Size Kink, Belly Bulge, Kink Negotiation, kink negotiated TOOO much, Jason Todd’s Journey Of Sexual Exploration As A Late Bloomer, Bottom Jason Todd, Top Slade Wilson, Good Slade Wilson, sladick as messy exes, Sex Toys, in canon these boys would never ever ever discuss their sex before having it., but this is my sandbox, the haunting specter of dick grayson in the bedroom, porn with a nonzero amount of character study, mentions of luke bryan slash neg, Unrealistic Sex, it is not fun to have your womb fucked., do not try that at home., Multiple Orgasms, Cervix Penetration, Breeding, Dacryphilia, Praise Kink, Oral Sex, i tried my best but i kind of think there are way more hands than is plausible at any given point, Sexual Overstimulation, Rope Bondage, Consensual Non-Consent, Safe Sane and Consensual, Consent Play, Safewords, Begging, Anal Plug, Double Penetration in Two Holes, Degradation Kink, Dirty Talk, messy and emotional one night stands read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/N5nsiPp

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Negative

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/sjEVKWm

by marirah

Dick meets a cute photographer on his patrol route

written for day 137 of the Birdwatchers 365 day challenge

Words: 1362, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 20 of DickTim Works

Fandoms: DCU, Batman - All Media Types

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Gen, M/M

Characters: Tim Drake, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne

Relationships: Tim Drake/Dick Grayson, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd

Additional Tags: Batkids Age Reversal, Pre-Slash, Pre-Relationship, Flirting, Dick Grayson is Robin, Damian Wayne is Nightwing, Reverse Robins, Photographer Tim Drake, League of Assassins Tim Drake

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/sjEVKWm

[archiveacademics]

Tags, Terminology, and Tropes

So let’s talk tags.

No, not gang tags. Tags on fanfic. 

If you’ve interacted with fanfic, or even just fandom at large, you’ve likely experienced tags. Hell, if you’ve used Tumblr or Twitter or I think even Facebook at this point, you’ve experienced tags. Tagging is, by now, a digital way of life, a way to organize the chaos that is this giant cultural archive and project of capitalism that we call the internet.

So. Why are tags important?

I’m glad you asked, hypothetical reader! Tags are important for a number of reasons. For one, they allow others to find your fanfic. Whether you read on Tumblr, Wattpad, or AO3, there are thousands upon millions of stories to wade through and it can be hard to find exactly what you’re looking for. Hence, tags.

Fansplaining has a great episode called “Cataloging Fandom” where they discuss tags from an academic standpoint. If you’re into that sort of thing definitely check out that episode. Meanwhile, Tumblr user salt-of-the-AO3 has a great post explaining the who, what, when, where, and why of tagging. It’s a great starting point if you’re just learning about tags. They even have a list of tags to get you started, whether you’re writing something and want to post it or looking for something new to read.

Say, for instance, you want to read a story about Harry Potter. You type “Harry Potter” in the AO3 search bar. But wait!

You don’t have the time, much less the energy, to wade through over 240,000 stories. So maybe you decide to narrow it down a little. You still want to read Harry Potter, but maybe you want to focus on Draco Malfoy, because you’ve got a thing for bad boys.

Yeesh. That’s better, but still not great. So now you’ve got to decide: do you want to read a Draco love story or a Draco adventure? Since you’re a hypothetical construct and an extension of myself right now, you want to read a love story. Results for “Draco Malfoy, romance”?

Ok, that’s a bit more manageable, when compared to 240,000. But it’s still a lot to sort through. So we’ll give it one last shot. Who do you want Draco to be in love with? Not Harry (that would shoot our search results up through the roof again). Not Hermione, or Ginny. You’re looking for something to read, not trying to sort through thousands of hits. So let’s go with Lavender Brown. 

Eh, good enough. You’ve got it down to under 1,500 hits. From here you can either start sifting through the results to find something you like, or you can go even more down the rabbit hole and try another search by character and event. Draco and Lavender go to the Yule Ball. Draco and Lavender at a wedding. Draco and Lavender in a coffee shop AU...

The tags are your oyster, is what I’m saying. Or the world is in the tags. Or some clever reuse of a common phrase that replaces one of the words with “tags.” 

But Chris (you hypothetically ask) what the heck is an AU?

Ah, my dear sweet hypothetical reader, I’m so glad you asked that, because it brings us to the terminology part of the post.

To start with, a fanfic writer that goes by the name of Moonbeam has a great Fanfiction Terminology master post. It covers a lot more ground than I’m going to get into today, so if you’re very curious, it’s a good place to poke around and find out what things mean. There’s also an article by Aja Romano called “Canon, fanon, shipping and more: a glossary of the tricky terminology that makes up fan culture” that’s a really good starting point for this stuff. Thirdly, the podcast Fansplaining has an episode on this topic called “~fanspeak” you can listen to. Or you can just continue reading.

Now, back to AUs.

AU stands for alternate universe. An AU usually takes the characters of a story and puts them in a new setting. There are many popular types of AUs from coffee shop AUs to high school AUs to magical AUs to either a historical or a modern AU (depending on whether the story itself is modern or historical). An AU can also change the plot of a story, taking familiar characters and sending them down different narrative paths. What if someone didn’t die like they did in the canon? Or what if they did die at a critical point? Either change could send your characters down a wildly different narrative path.

So in your hypothetical search for a story, maybe you decide you want to see Draco Malfoy the barista fall in love with Lavender Brown the Instagram Influencer who comes to his shop everyday. Or maybe you want to read a story that takes place at Hogwarts where Lavender becomes obsessed with Draco instead of Ron. Either can be considered an AU.

Now, I used a word up there that may or may not be familiar to you, depending on how deeply you live in the world of fandom. 

Canon.

Canon is the original, the progenitor, the common ancestor from which all fanfic descends. Harry Potter in all it’s seven book glory is canon. As are all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And however many there are of Angel. And all the comics... What I’m saying is, canon is the original work that fanfic is based off of. It’s the official, some might say the “real” version, but there’s a bit a value judgement there, so I wouldn’t. Anyway, that’s canon.

(If you don’t already, you’ll get why this is funny in a minute.)

The word “ship,” in the fandom sense, is short for “relationship.” In the vaunted old days of the early internet and the X-Files fandom, fans who wanted Mulder and Scully to get together began to refer to themselves as “relationshippers” or “r’shippers”. Eventually, the term became shortened to simply “ship” and became both a noun and a verb. A ship is the pairing of characters you want to see together. To ship is to want a pair of characters to get together. 

In our hypothetical example, for instance, you ship Draco and Lavender. 

If you’re still a bit confused by the term, the podcast Fansplaining has a great article about it called “To Ship or Not to Ship,” and they also ran a survey that garnered over 16,000 responses which are gathered together and presented for your perusal here. And last but not least they produced two episodes called “The Shipping Question” and “The Shipping Answers.” 

Alright, I’m going to go through a couple more definitions as fast as I can because this post is getting long and I haven’t even gotten to tropes yet.

So, in no particular order I present...

Slash: A word used to denote a male/male pairing, original so called because of the “Kirk/Spock” fanfic of the Star Trek zine era. 

Fem Slash: Like slash, but with women. 

OTP, or One True Pairing: Your favored pairing in a fandom. 

OC, or Original Character: A character you introduce into a story. So maybe the new transfer student to Hogwarts or the new Starfleet lieutenant on the Enterprise. 

Headcanon: Your beliefs about the motivations of a character or potential plot points of a story that may or may not be supported by the canon (but are at least usually not actively disproved by canon).

Fluff: A fanfic that is short and sweet and not at all angsty. There’s is generally not much plot advancement but the stories are comforting and often domestic.

Crossover: Where characters from separate works are thrown together. For instance, I have a friend who writes Batman and One Piece cross over. 

Gen fic: A story without an overt romantic element. While pairings might happen they happen despite the story, not because of it. 

Filing off the serial numbers: When a fic writer scrubs their story of all recognizable copyright (names, places, vampires or wizards or whatever) in order to publish it. Think 50 Shades of Grey. 

Self insert: An original character that is obviously, consciously or not, based on the author. 

Mary Sue: A character who is “special.” The word has a pretty negative connotation these days. It’s usually a self insert character who is better and stronger and smarter than everyone around her and without whom the problem of the plot could never be solved. The line between what is or is not a Mary Sue (or Marty Sue/Gary Stu if the character is male) is pretty blurred these days, with trolls sometimes shouting that any female self insert character is a Mary Sue and thus obviously sucks. Elizabeth Minkel, of the Fansplaining podcast, wrote a great article about the issues of Mary Sue and the patriarchy and she and Flourish discussed those issues in an episode of the podcast.

There are so. Many. More. I could go on forever talking about different terms. But these are some of the big ones that I tend to throw into casual conversation, and, well, Google is your friend. If you don’t know the definition of something, look it up. I still have to do that sometimes. 

Now, let’s talk tropes!

TVtropes.com has a great explanation about what a trope is:

“A trope is a storytelling device or convention, a shortcut for describing situations the storyteller can reasonably assume the audience will recognize. Tropes are the means by which a story is told by anyone who has a story to tell...

Tropes are not the same thing as cliches. They may be brand new but seem trite and hackneyed; they may be thousands of years old but seem fresh and new. They are not bad, they are not good; tropes are tools that the creator of a work of art uses to express their ideas to the audience. It's pretty much impossible to create a story without tropes.“

Tropes in fanfic are fun. “Five Tropes Fanfic Readers Love (and One They Hate)” is a another survey run by the folks over at Fansplaining. You can read the article above or listen to the episode on the topic. They discuss the variety of different tropes that are either loved or hated by the more than 7,500 respondents to their survey. 

As TVtropes discusses, “Tropes are Tools.” They aren’t good or bad in and of themselves. They simply exist. Fanlore.com has a great list of different tropes. AU fic itself is a trope. And thus we’ve come full circle. 

Thanks for sticking with me this long, this post kind of got away from me. 

Make sure to tag your tropes, folks!

[ao3feed-sladedick]

while you're looking at me

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/aAvTbPw by doingthewritethings “I have a proposition for you,” Jason says, six drinks in and filled with an insatiable need to get railed by someone who could probably kill him. “You’re drunk,” Deathstroke says, unimpressed. He eyes him in a way that tells Jason he’s not being nearly as subtle about what he wants as he thinks he is. - - - i have never once been peer pressured into drugs. i HAVE been peer pressured into Horny On Main Words: 5451, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Series: Part 1 of ambivalent and bad Fandoms: Deathstroke the Terminator (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Jason Todd, Slade Wilson Relationships: Jason Todd/Slade Wilson, past Dick Grayson/Slade Wilson - Relationship Additional Tags: Trans Male Character, Trans Jason Todd, Vaginal Sex, Daddy Kink, BDSM, Size Kink, Belly Bulge, Kink Negotiation, kink negotiated TOOO much, Jason Todd’s Journey Of Sexual Exploration As A Late Bloomer, Bottom Jason Todd, Top Slade Wilson, Good Slade Wilson, sladick as messy exes, Sex Toys, in canon these boys would never ever ever discuss their sex before having it., but this is my sandbox, the haunting specter of dick grayson in the bedroom, porn with a nonzero amount of character study, mentions of luke bryan slash neg, Unrealistic Sex, it is not fun to have your womb fucked., do not try that at home., Multiple Orgasms, Cervix Penetration, Breeding, Dacryphilia, Praise Kink, Oral Sex, i tried my best but i kind of think there are way more hands than is plausible at any given point, Sexual Overstimulation, Rope Bondage, Consensual Non-Consent, Safe Sane and Consensual, Consent Play, Safewords, Begging, Anal Plug, Double Penetration in Two Holes, Degradation Kink, Dirty Talk, messy and emotional one night stands read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/aAvTbPw

[ao3feed-sladedick]

while you're looking at me

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/nR07fT5 by doingthewritethings “I have a proposition for you,” Jason says, six drinks in and filled with an insatiable need to get railed by someone who could probably kill him. “You’re drunk,” Deathstroke says, unimpressed. He eyes him in a way that tells Jason he’s not being nearly as subtle about what he wants as he thinks he is. - - - i have never once been peer pressured into drugs. i HAVE been peer pressured into Horny On Main Words: 5451, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Series: Part 1 of ambivalent and bad Fandoms: Deathstroke the Terminator (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Jason Todd, Slade Wilson Relationships: Jason Todd/Slade Wilson, past Dick Grayson/Slade Wilson - Relationship Additional Tags: Trans Male Character, Trans Jason Todd, Vaginal Sex, Daddy Kink, BDSM, Size Kink, Belly Bulge, Kink Negotiation, kink negotiated TOOO much, Jason Todd’s Journey Of Sexual Exploration As A Late Bloomer, Bottom Jason Todd, Top Slade Wilson, Good Slade Wilson, sladick as messy exes, Sex Toys, in canon these boys would never ever ever discuss their sex before having it., but this is my sandbox, the haunting specter of dick grayson in the bedroom, porn with a nonzero amount of character study, mentions of luke bryan slash neg, Unrealistic Sex, it is not fun to have your womb fucked., do not try that at home., Multiple Orgasms, Cervix Penetration, Breeding, Dacryphilia, Praise Kink, Oral Sex, i tried my best but i kind of think there are way more hands than is plausible at any given point, Sexual Overstimulation, Rope Bondage, Consensual Non-Consent, Safe Sane and Consensual, Consent Play, Safewords, Begging, Anal Plug, Double Penetration in Two Holes, Degradation Kink, Dirty Talk, messy and emotional one night stands read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/nR07fT5

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Negative

by marirah

Dick meets a cute photographer on his patrol route

written for day 137 of the Birdwatchers 365 day challenge

Words: 1362, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 20 of DickTim Works

Fandoms: DCU, Batman - All Media Types

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Gen, M/M

Characters: Tim Drake, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne

Relationships: Tim Drake/Dick Grayson, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd

Additional Tags: Batkids Age Reversal, Pre-Slash, Pre-Relationship, Flirting, Dick Grayson is Robin, Damian Wayne is Nightwing, Reverse Robins, Photographer Tim Drake, League of Assassins Tim Drake

source https://archiveofourown.org/works/47247946