#in defense of darkfic

[legofemme]

Honestly the problem w darkfics is that these new writers/young writers wholly believe that writing something shocking or 'edgy' is the same as writing something good, so they rely on ableist talking points to try and convince an audience of fellow new/young readers that what theyre reading is super good. Even tho thats literally not how writing works?

And im sorry to say it but if people cant keep an audience without leaning back on demonizing psychotic people then maybe they shouldnt be writing. This isnt 2012. You cant win internet fame by writing 'psycho killer' aus of your fandoms. If youre a teenager and you write this stuff u need to seriously think about if people would read your work if you removed the ableism, and if the answer is no then it Isnt Good.

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #5187:

As much as I know that 'shipping to cope' is a real thing and I don't want to minimize that, I hate that it's become the primary go-to defense of darkfic, which is something that never should have required someone to provide "a good enough reason to do" in the first place because it's fucking normal, no matter how much you want to rant and scream and rave about it NOT being normal. I know the intent is to say "hey, quit trying to lecture me about trauma, believe me I already know what I'm about, much better than you do" but I don't think we're setting a good precedent when we normalize someone being forced to spill their guts about details of their trauma to uncaring internet strangers who've already decided they hate you and will most likely decide they STILL hate you except now they know deeply personal information about you, which they DEFINITELY won't go on to use to torment you even further. Why are we deigning to ask bullies for a permission slip they have no intention of giving?

[diejager]

Alright so reader ends up pregnant, mom thinks it's horangis kid, reader moves in with him and we have the whole nursery situation

What happens next, like how will they treat her when she's 7 months pregnant? How will they deal with her cravings and stuff?

And what will happen when she gives birth and the baby's a carbon copy of konig? Will the mom be like "🧍‍♀️oh well that's interesting" or will horangi and Konig take reader away and disappear from the face of the earth? Or even worse, they make sure the mom's not gonna bother them anymore (yknow like ⚰️💀⚱️🪦)?

The whole story line is amazing btw and if I could, i would kiss your brain because of how amazing it is

I’m gonna expand on Baby Scenario since it’s almost the same principle. Cw: DARKFIC, DUB-CON/NON-CON, STEPCEST, kidnapping, forced pregnancy, childbirth, tell me if I missed any.

Your mother had adamantly encouraged you to move in with Horangi, it would only make sense, no? Since he was the father of your kid. You’d have more space from both her and your stepdad, and would be able to spend more time with Horangi, to build that intimacy and relationship that you’d need if you were to care for a child. You would have extra room for your stuff and a nursery fro your upcoming child in Horangi’s home since he lived alone, his ultilitarianlydecorated house was a perfect place to start building a warm home —a blank canvas coaxing you to paint. 

You reluctantly agreed to her proposition, not having much of a choice when she was obliviously overcome with joy, König’s hard stare and Horangi’s tightening grip on your hip, low enough to make you uncomfortable but not too much that it was improper. The move was made quick, the sudden change of your environment left you disorientated, confused and lost while they carried box after box into the living room of your new house. 

They hadn’t made a move on you since the test, leaving you alone to do your own things: fix your side of the room, paint and move furniture around the nursery when Horangi and König were busy with other things, or reading on the bean bag you moved near the window for better lighting. It made the move a bit better, neither feeling as oppressed as you felt nor as freeing as you used to be, but it worked nonetheless of your change of ownership. It, however, hadn’t last long, they were quick to lay a hand on you, their fingers kneading and wandering over your sensitive skin, moving you to the bed and leaving you mewling and panting from their mouth and fingers alone.

When your cravings knocked down the door with weird and changing tastes, both men were eager to help, buying or ordering whatever you’d cried about wanting even if you ended up throwing it away because you didn’t want it anymore. They were accommodating to your growing needs, at your every beck and call when you had a sudden craving or sickness. Your mother couldn’t be any happier about how it turned out, that you were with someone she could trust to care for you and not a boy who’d leave you the second he heard you were pregnant, she booked everything for you until the assumed date of birth. 

But on when you gave birth, staring at a boy with auburn strands and brown eyes, and a girl with black locks and pale eyes, your mother looked as horrified as you were, much unlike Horangi and König’s pleased gaze. She fought with him, screamed her head off and tried to pry them away from you, to protect you from the men who forced themselves on you and knocked you up. You learned that she kicked König out, throwing all his items out and had tried to have them both removed and taken away from you, but there was little she could do against powerful men. Their names and reputation the blade of their defense, to use and to wield to take you away from her. 

The last time you saw her, she was in tears, sobbing and fighting against someone’s arms, clawing her way towards you while you were pulled away and into a black SUV. They cut your contact with your mother and the rest of the world, keeping you in a locked box of their own making. You didn’t know what happened to your mother or how she was, you were completely cut off from anything than your penthouse. Your only physical contact was your kids and the men who called themselves your husbands, caring for Leon and Yoon-Suh and making sure they had food when they came home. 

And it wouldn’t take long before they’d ask for another child.

Taglist: @sae1kie @yeoldedumbslut @bvxygriimes @distracteddragoness @konigsblog @daisychainsinknots @0alk0msan @danielle143 @tuttifuckinfruttifriday @notspiders @brokenpieces-72 @petwifed @randominstake @cassiecasluciluce @hayleybarnesx @shironasumi @lucienbarkbark @sparky--bunny @bloobewy @223princess @maylovesyousomuch @infpt-zylith @sweetnanah @aldis-nuts @evolutionarry @kaoyamamegami

[tossawary]

Part of the problem with discussing how racism manifests in fandom and in fan organizations is that to present a nuanced and thorough take on a complicated problem, which actually consists of a number of different complex issues with lots of different potential solutions each, you have write really, REALLY long posts about it.

And people don't read long posts.

Or they read the first part and get stuck on one point they don't agree with or can't 100% agree with. So they get caught up in proving one point wrong instead of at least expressing sympathy or sharing the parts they do actually agree with.

(Or people make fun of you for caring about "people being mean in fanfiction communities" as an issue. Because caring is cringe, apparently. Racism in hobbies like book clubs and local knitting groups and kid sports leagues is also important, even if it's "not that big of a deal" in the grand scheme of things in your opinion.)

Which can have (unintentional or intentional) vibes of telling fans of color to shut up about racism. Which is rude and understandably upsetting to people who have experienced this kind of harassment. Saying "go make your own archive" implies that the affected fans of color have not been a part of building the OTW or in running AO3 and don't belong there as writers or readers, which is untrue and unkind.

Now, I know that people have a kneejerk defensive reaction to any form of "We Need To Ban The Bad Fic That I Don't Like". I have that too. And I won't deny that this is a conversation partly about content moderation. And I won't deny that within this broad conversation between lots of different people who want to do something about fandom racism, there are probably some people who are calling to ban everything they find even a little problematic. They're always popping up. I don't agree with those people.

I didn't reblog End OTW Racism's Call to Action post the first time that I saw it because my brain wanted to chew on the thoughts it inspired. I thought a lot about how exactly to write detailed policy that could explicitly ban the worst examples of fanfiction used as intentional hate speech provably for the purpose of targeted harassment, while still ensuring the protection of the queer content, the problematic darkfic, and the explicit kinky fiction that the archive was created to host (which EOTWR also cares about). I do want fans to be able to explore some disturbing and distasteful topics, even if they don't always write it well, without being censored. And yet I also thought a lot about the "Paradox of Tolerance" as a social contract and what it meant to be "Fair to Unfair Voices".

I also thought a lot about how AO3 volunteers can never review every single thing posted to the website (which was not being suggested). And about how this issue intersects heavily with the structural issues that leave some AO3 volunteers overworked and underappreciated. And the structural issues that leave some AO3 volunteers feeling isolated, neglected, ignored, or mistreated. And also how AO3 is shockingly enormous now for being the result of volunteer work on a budget that's small compared to other non-profit organizations.

And honestly, I was fucking exhausted from my job that day and I cynically thought to myself, "I'll read through the links later, but I don't really see how changing the names on a bunch of fics is going to inspire great change within an organization."

(And the people behind this online protest are pretty open about the fact that they didn't expect their awareness campaign - and that's what it is: it's just an awareness campaign - to do anything on the front of "Solving Institutional Racism Immediately".)

But then I thought to myself, "Okay, but I do believe in antiracist action. And even if I don't think some of these suggestions are workable with the current state of things, or that the OTW will ever agree to some things here, there has got to be something here that could be done right now to make things a little better."

I kind of like the idea of expanding the required archive warnings so that more well-meaning people will opt-in to tagging triggering material, which is a form of content moderation. Like the way that the "Graphic Depictions of Violence" tag works already. Major Archive Warnings are left up to the author's best judgement unless reported. And even if people repeatedly refuse to use any relevant warning tags when writing blatantly racist stories, when they get reported for not even using "Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings", then we'll be pretty sure that they're doing it to be a jerk, and AO3 volunteers can suspend or ban them for it.

I like the idea of expanding the abuse policy and clearly defining its terms so that Policy and Abuse volunteers can still retain some freedom of best judgement, but also be more consistent about recognizing when someone is being a racist jerk in the comment section or being racist by gifting violently racist fic to fans of color or otherwise behaving badly. And I like the idea of improving the reporting system while keeping potential misuse in mind. And giving PAC volunteers better admin tools and other resources.

Even if you believe that AO3 is largely run by well-meaning queer women, I personally don't 100% trust that every single volunteer will be great at recognizing the many varied forms of racism, or antisemitism, or transphobia, or prejudice against bisexual or asexual or polyamorous people, or against mentally ill or physically disabled people. And part of this discussion is about when individual members of the PAC team have failed to address malicious behavior that is already explicitly covered by AO3's existing anti-bullying policy. Or that can't be solved by just blocking and muting someone.

Like, this discussion is about racism, and it's worth caring about solely for how it affects fans of color, but optimizing the abuse policy and protocols against harassment would better protect everyone. (And also, please do not assume that fans of color are not also older fans and/or queer fans who care about censorship.)

Some of End OTW Racism's offered solutions are suggestions originally made by AO3 itself back in 2020. A huge part of this discussion is just some fans (they're only, like, 5 people) trying to make some noise so that the OTW will give all users a thorough update on their progress. They are trying to raise awareness to keep the conversation about fandom bigotry going and recruit people to show up to OTW Board meetings to ask what obstacles need to be tackled. They want volunteers trying to change things internally to feel supported and for some more transparency on this subject to externally hold people accountable to their promises.

And I also thought, "Fuck it. This post is worth reblogging if only to remind people that AO3 needs work, to educate new fans on the history and present of fandom racism in general, and to maybe make one person out there feel less alone and connect them with some new friends. Fans of color don't have to be perfect to be heard."

I believe that AO3 has gotten bigger than ever anticipated and management of the OTW has only gotten harder. And I think hiring a diversity consultant, as per AO3's own suggestion back in 2020, sounds like a good idea to curb harassment of all kinds and improve the working conditions of volunteers. Outside contractors have been hired before and these professionals have no effect on OTW's non-profit status. A temporary consultant's job would be to identify where the organization is getting stuck and give suggestions on how to fight bigotry, and the OTW Board can just pick the solutions they think will work in practice with their mission statements.

Honestly, I kind of think it might be a good idea to also hire a security consultant of some kind after some of the harassment of AO3 volunteers in recent years. And if hiring some programming contractors would help the coding volunteers build better admin tools and make tag blacklisting happen sooner, then I support that as well. But that's all up to the OTW Board. And I want the OTW volunteers to know that I support their original suggestion to hire some outside professional help, so that fandom can begin to address some of these ongoing problems beyond just acknowledging that they exist, even if it simply starts with AO3 explicitly calling for more volunteers to get the planned work done.

Saying that there's nothing to be done is defeatist. Saying that the affected fans of color and their allies sound too angry or too serious or too ungrateful, or that everyone involved just doesn't understand how hard these things are, is pretty rude. I don't expect perfect solutions on the first try. I don't expect them immediately. I expect some of these things to take the OTW... years, honestly. I don't always feel very optimistic. I find this entire discussion discomforting and depressing. I'm not ungrateful to the OTW and AO3 when the community has been an undeniably good experience for me personally over the past 10 years. I want people to be able to escape into fandom at the end of a shitty day.

End OTW Racism's awareness campaign is one small part of a much broader discussion and you don't have to agree 100% with everything that they say. Or with what other people talking about fandom racism say (and some people, including academics and journalists and media critics and video essayists, have been talking about fandom racism for a long time). And you definitely don't have to 100% agree with what I've said here.

You don't have immediately volunteer all of your time to the OTW to fix these problems to be a good person. We all have other shit going on in our lives. Just... keep some of the points being made in mind moving forward, yeah? If you have a moment, maybe listen to some of the frustrations with an open mind, and maybe show a little extra love to your fellow fans who are going through it.

And if you have the energy to tear down what you think just one of EOTWR's suggestions is as bad - and they are NOT calling for every single fic on AO3 to be reviewed for problematic tropes or racial slurs before posting, that would be ridiculous, and it's disingenuous to misinterpret them that way - are you also separately talking about and supporting any of the antiracist actions and other harm reduction policies that you think are genuinely viable?

[tomionefinds]

Hi! Any fics where Hermione got married, engaged, or into a relationship with someone else when Tom supposedly “left” her? Then Tom found out and takes her back.

Because I just finished reading “Happy House” by screamingmandrakes, and how Tom went feral after finding out hooked me. Thanks! 💓💓

Hi Anon:

That good vibing stuff, but I can't actually think of it any besides the three below, and I'm sure there are more. Jealous is a Tom Riddle natural state. No one touches his stuff or his Hermione. - Haus

Altered State by Ginnyruin

E | WIP | 249k

Six years after the Battle of Hogwarts, Auror Hermione Granger activated a mysterious dark object, which unexpectedly sent her decades into the past. Tom Riddle, now known as Voldemort, returned to British wizarding society in 1966 after a decade-long absence. Under the guise of interviewing for the Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching position, he arrived at Hogwarts to conceal one of his Horcruxes. But he soon discovered that the coveted position had been stolen a week earlier by an intriguing witch. As manipulative schemes emerged, tension evolved into a ruinous obsession.

You Should Know by Phantomato

E | Complete | 74k

Hermione, born in 1934 and Minerva McGonagall’s best friend, meets Tom Riddle, the boy whose scores were always just better than hers, at a wedding in the summer of 1961. She’s comfortable with what she wants from him, but he’s about to enter the next stage of his plan to take over the Wizarding world and test the limits of her acceptance. AU where Hermione and Tom are contemporaries, but meet as adults during his rise to power. Older characters, not a darkfic, HEA.

Peripety by BiscuitsCaramel

E | Complete | 193k

Hermione thinks there’s something not quite right with the new defence against the dark arts professor. Something that has very little to do with his unorthodox teaching methods, nor his penchant for dark magic. No, there’s something not quite right with the sense of recognition she feels when she looks at him- recognition she can’t quite place, unnerving in a way she can’t describe.

Ooo I also would like to add this one ~ AprilRose

Endless Night by cassidyblackwrites

E | WIP | 92k

The one in which Hermione is Abraxas Malfoy’s step-sister. 1940s - 1950s AU.

[olderthannetfic]

There's a lot of talk in defense of darkfic about how it's a valuble coping tool and how it can be uplifting or cathartic for readers or writers who are Going Through Some Shit. All of that is entirely true, but I feel like trying to give this stuff a noble purpose as an excuse for it to exist is kind of missing the point.

If you like writing or reading horrifying scenarios in fiction because they're fun and exciting, that's good enough. It's fiction, it's ok if it entertains and does nothing else. You don't need a big lofty mental health Reason to read or write something scary, you can just enjoy the thrill of being scared by something that can't actually hurt you.

Darkfic (and horror movies, and heavy metal, and video games about shooting demons, and every other form of entertainment that makes squeamish people uncomfortable) is something people should read and write if they want to, and it needs no more excuse or explanation than that.

--

[jimmywilsonschutzpah]

Ok, @microwaveonwheels asked for House fic recs, specifically fics that were older, so I put together a little list of some of my Hilson recs for fics written pre-2013 and that can still be found online nowadays and haven’t been recced here on the webbed site recently.

Title: Asphyxiation and In High Seas by nieded

Summary: Wilson learns his pre-history, gets naked, and jumps off a cliff

Notes: Two of my favorite H/W fics in the fandom. AU, in which the first fic is very ethereal and Wilson-centric, and the second is more logical and House-centric. Warning for suicide themes.

Title: Letters of Transit by nightdog_barks (or at AO3)

Summary: Wilson is Wilson, no matter where or when.

Notes: Lovely and sweet AU

Title: Defensive Strategies by Milkshake Butterfly

Summary: There was probably some parallel universe where it ended there, just another slightly odd event in a more than slightly odd friendship.

Notes: H/W fic written during Season 1. It's a great look at Wilson as a character at that point and a lovely development of the hilson relationship.

Title: All Over But the Crying by simple__man

Summary: A spilled drink in a bad place

Title: Denial by Pun

Summary: Everyone knew House never denied Wilson anything.

Title: Every Day Sees Another Scar by karaokegal

Summary: Five times Wilson got a message and one time he left one.

Notes: Darkfic. What happens after the end of House, and how House slowly self-destructs. Not pretty but a fic that explores the darker what-if.

Title: The Open Road by Pun

Summary: Wilson goes along for the ride.

Notes: Beautiful road trip fic, written in 2008. H/W with a beautiful ending that stuck with me.

And two threesome recs:

Title: Deriving the Prime by rageprufrock

Summary: Two is the wrong prime number.

Notes: House/Wilson/Cuddy. One of the first fics I ever read for these three and I never forgot it.

Title: Changeling by Topaz_Eyes

Summary: "We're feeling generous right now. We might not be so bighearted tomorrow." House and Amber go apologize to Wilson for the bachelor party.

Notes: House/Wilson/Amber (sort of). Darkfic and dubious consent. House hallucinates Amber after the bachelor party held at Wilson's.

[not-poignant]

79/? - Underline the Black (omegaverse) - Efnisien/Gary

Title: Underline the Black Rating: Explicit Pairing: Efnisien ap Wledig/Dr Gary Konowalous Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Darkfic, Disturbing themes, Age Gap, Omegaverse, Alpha/Alpha, no Mpreg, Medical experimentation, Medical trauma, Dominance/Submission, Dystopian universe, Forced bonding, Forced relationship, Imprisonment, Nonconsensual medical procedures, PTSD, Flashbacks, Nightmares, Chronic illness, Mating cycles/Heats, Knotting, Miscommunication, Trauma recovery, Mind control, Child Abuse, Hope, Hopeful ending.

Summary: Efnisien ap Wledig is an omega born into an all-alpha family. Abandoned by his birth mother and raised by his aunt, he is subjected to a lifetime of medical experimentation and brainwashing and believes himself to be an alpha. But the experiments begin to fail, and he is abandoned yet again to an Omega Rehabilitation Facility, where the family expects he will be retrained into the ‘perfect omega’ and placed in an arranged marriage, or be eliminated if this is no longer possible.

The Facility don’t know about the experiments, and Efnisien doesn’t even know why he’s in there in the first place, since he’s an alpha…isn’t he? One thing’s for certain, he definitely doesn’t need an alpha companion, no matter what the staff at the facility seem to think.

Underline the Black - Chapter 79 - Protective Omega Instincts @ AO3

In which Efnisien meets Flitmouse for the first time, and has his first ever one-on-one conversation with an omega. Flitmouse goes from defensive to protective during a short span of time, when he realises just how neglected and tormented Efnisien's life has been.

– Thanks to all the Patreon and Ream supporters for making this story possible!

The following early access extras are also currently available on the Augus & Gwyn, and Efnisien & Gary tiers at Patreon and Ream:

Underline the Red - 05 - Caleb/Faber Underline the Red - 06 - Caleb/Faber Underline the Gold - 07 - Flitmouse/Anton The Nascent Diplomat - 41 - Augus/Gwyn Constellations - 04 - Efnisien + Gwyn (post Falling Falling Stars) Constellations - 05 - Efnisien + Gwyn (post Falling Falling Stars) Constellations - 06 - Efnisien + Gwyn (post Falling Falling Stars) Underline the Blue - 11 - Nate/Janusz Underline the Blue - 12 - Nate/Janusz Underline the Blue - 13 - Nate/Janusz

Want another way to support my writing? // I have a Patreon account! // Come check out REAM! (Patreon mirror) // Buy a Ko-Fi!

[selchwife]

this is maybe not the blog to have this little bitchfest on but here we go. because i love bitching and am a hater.

i do get angry pretty often that nuanced conversations about things like abuse in fiction as a reflection of and dialogue with the society in which said fiction is created and how certain common narratives can genuinely influence people's thinking and how they interact with other people in subtle ways and how to create art as ethically as possible given all that have been like. kind of subsumed under this really simplistic shipcourse debate where i think both "sides" have, to a degree, kind of lost the plot (in that i think vocally profiction people are generally really noxious and horrible and morally indefensible, and antishippers who identify strongly with that label and who get really invested in Doing Discourse frequently stoop to the level proshippers often dwell at and fail to make actual cogent points, NOT in that i'm neutral or something obvs).

because the reality is that there is a deep and wide and vast can of worms opened when the base discussion is like, "what is and isn't okay to write and what should the consequences be for people who do write something that isn't okay?" because i think the reality is there are a myriad of positions to take in relation to those questions between the two extremes of "being offensive is COOL, actually," and "no one should ever write anything." like, an entire world of nuance that gets lost there. especially because the whole hashtag Debate is confined to the sphere of people's fucking dumb ass fanfiction. i don't think fic has no literary merit or something but it's so deeply entrenched in the realm of arguing over shit that largely is like. i don't know. i don't want to be insulting to fic but having read so much of it it astounds me that so many people argue on the side of like "but the ARTISTIC MERIT!!!! of these depictions!" and then you read some piece of Problematique Erotica with about as much Artistic Merit as the back of a box of cereal and you just have to stare out your window and wonder about the general state of intellectual discourse

anyway of course you guys already know this but i think in evaluating whether or not a depiction of a taboo subject like abuse is valuable one has to figure out what it is that the narrative is ultimately communicating first and how that message, like, idk gels with social discourses that already exist about the subject. this is why i tend to be more sharply critical of these elements in fanfiction; typically i feel like the only message is like "what if there was an excuse for this behavior/what if it was desirable" because it's, you know, erotica, or it's poorly-done Dark Romance, or whatever, and then there's a whole further debate to be had about like "well if it's just kink etc and clearly labelled as such does that actually feed into the dominant social narratives you're complaining about" but generally i think like, just the sheer volume of this stuff portrayed in a positive light is kind of concerning and there needs to be some kind of wider analysis of like, how that potentially perpetuates and is certainly perpetuated by external elements like rape culture or a society that largely has a lot of discomfort with actually criticizing behaviors it outwardly condemns when those with power and social capital are the ones doing the abusing.

but like i said, yknow, that's all complicated shit and i think your average like ~problematique darkfic~ writer has not really attempted to wrestle with any of those points in relation to their own work. or even cares about them or finds them valuable questions. it's really readily apparent too when people from this general "camp" are like "but what about when people like hannibal from tv show? he ate people???" like, as if there's the same sort of cultural defense of cannibalism as there is of fucking rape that makes idealized depictions of rape dangerous. like, get real.

also ive bitched about this on my personal but 90% of people who are not incest survivors like just in general have not even the barest understanding of what is actually objectionable about incest, so i don't tolerate its incursion into fandom shit basically at all. not to mention that debates about it tend to be massively offensive toward actual survivors on both sides (protip: try not to rely on arguments about how it's 'gross,' it's really fucking stigmatizing to hear repeatedly that abuse you have endured is primarily objectionable because other people think it's yucky rather than because it causes extreme harm physically and emotionally).

anyway tl;dr i am just really tired of people being dumb and knee-jerk in their endless quest to find justifications for being just as utterly offensive and vocally reprehensible as possible without any criticism or repercussions and how said desperation has really watered down any useful dialogues that could be had about fiction and its impacts on survivors of abuse in favor of, like, having to anticipate utterly inane bad-faith arguments from people who do not give a shit about anything but their own sense of being pleasurably naughty and transgressive. like the majority of proship arguments have all the intellectual honesty and depth of "but i WANT to stick my hand in the cookie jar!" to me.

[onewomancitadel]

I was thinking recently about what sort of warnings for sexual content I should put on something I'm going to post and it made me rethink the expectations of tagging for sexually explicit content. I find the tag 'dubcon' almost universally offensive because it's sexual assault/rape or it isn't. There is no 'grey area', particularly and especially in, say - this was an example that cropped up to my mind - magical scenarios.

The point of a magical scenario ('fuck or die') is to force the characters to admit what they really want. It's not literally analogous to a real-life situation. It's a tool of the genre. They both really want it and it literally requires magical forces to make them have sex. If you are taking it as a literal mechanic, if, say, it's true and romantic love and not a problematic relationship you're depicting, the characters would achieve any means possible to not rape their love interests. Like I don't know how to convey exactly how offensive the idea is of taking the magical scenario, construing it as dubcon, and then writing that as a lovey-dovey wholesome romance. It's fucking insane. It's not fucking dubcon. In that case, just straight up admit what it is if they cannot plausibly and fully consent!

I especially hate inebriated characters tagged dubcon because nobody's really in agreement about if a tipsy/sober character sex constitutes dubcon or not because it's an awkward conversation in real life which is complicated by the fact that alcohol is working as a narrative lubricant. If both characters are inebriated/drunk that's probably less a grey area, but we all know someone who is black out drunk, slurring etc. is not in a position to have sex and whether or not there is sex taking place, I'd be concerned about a friend or a love interest who was black out drunk/slurring/loss of coordination etc. It's not just a question of consent but caring for those around you. It's not just strict romance mechanics.

Like, either say it is rape or it isn't. Stake some actual ground. The reality is that rape is a terrifying idea and it's not a word people like thinking about; the archetypal idea of rape is forcible, violent sex, and that's basically it. You don't use the word and people are alright talking about it, both in the sense of victimhood and in active battery.

What's incensing to me is that dubcon does not have any equivalent in real life. It really doesn't, and I'm sorry to talk about such a brutal topic but it really, really doesn't. There are plenty of scenarios no one wants to call rape. There is no way that 'dubcon' as a concept can hold up legally or morally. It completely neuters the ability to disambiguate between sex and rape. If you accept that there are circumstances where you can reasonably argue that consent is blurred then you effectively neuter the defense to talk about rape in a meaningful way.

It is so patently absurd I can only hope that it's just a logical consequence of the phenomenon of overtagging for the most bizarre things. The reality is that in overcorrecting with 'dubcon' you are now tagging for potentially much more violent content than it is (is it rape?) which thereby makes so many sexual dynamics in storytelling murky. Is it rape if they both really want it but one of them thinks the other doesn't and is trying to get them to stop? I've seen this type of thing tagged dubcon.

To circle back to romance, excluding darkfic (I mean, even use of dubcon there is absurd), I never ever ever ever want my characters in a situation where they have plausibly sexually assaulted/raped their love interest. It's true love. They would rather die than do that. You have to actually consider the implications of what dubcon actually means.

I get that there is probably some defense of dubcon - and it's uncomfortable to consider the fact that one may not enjoy dubcon but enjoy reading about rape - but frankly I think it doesn't speak to a feminist 'overcorrection', I think what it actually speaks to is the prevailing discomfort surrounding the topic of rape and the self-awareness of it being an uncomfortable topic that people are starting to talk more about, but without any of the actual determination and grit to confront what it really is and what that really constitutes for sexual politics and, well, tagging shit on your AO3 fic.

To be completely straightforward the politics of forcing people to tag for potentially problematic content has a) obviously backfired, and b) is rooted in crybully fandom policing and control; it's not something practised in published literature as it is and reading is where you have the most consent and control over something you're participating in even without warnings. You choose to imagine the things that you are reading. Yes, I'm aware the common refrain of protecting 'problematic' fic and darker literature is that it's 'tagged for', but I don't think that's the first or last justification for its existence. The practice of tagging (in my eyes) has more to do with classifying what a fic is, not to serviceably cover every conceivable potential trigger.

That, to me, this practice of overtagging and more specifically 'dubious consent' actually has extreme feminist implications is maddening to me. Because it's not about feminism or safe spaces or looking after people. Not at all.

The irony is that critiquing this is what would incur accusations of anti-feminism or somesuch nonsense, which is obviously the problem rooted in adopting feminism as merely an Internet aesthetic and as a corporate image. But I think it should be patently clear that the implications of dubcon has on the concept of sex, rape and consent have not been thought through.

[xhda1449x]

I think my most controversial opinion is like. About shipping?? I enjoy reading really messed up stuff sometimes. And yeah sometimes its NOT about it being a darkfic, sometimes its just about me having yucky kinks. And i think all of this is My Business Completely and it always breaks my HEART seeing these authors having to leave their work untagged and having to get all defensive and agressive out of fear of getting harassed. Like what the hell............ 💀

okay yeah that's Valid and Good and you should do that I think

[freedom-of-fanfic]

What do you think of people who enjoy creating/consuming darkfic (and related) without having been through similar experiences as depicted in the text/media itself? So, they enjoy it simply because it interests them, but obviously still are horrified by the discussed concepts irl. They just don't use it as a healing tool, per se?

I think that’s an extremely normal thing to do. The events we like to explore with our imagination often don’t have any sort of direct correlation with what we want to do or to occur IRL.

This ever-increasing demand that we justify our interaction with fanworks that include kinky or problematic-IRL themes with ‘coping’ or ‘healing’ has created a frankly dangerous pressure on queer fandomgoers. Nobody should feel compelled to disclose a history of trauma to justify their interest in dark or kinky themes, nor should people who lack such trauma feel guilty for consuming dark or kinky works.

(& frankly, I think the lives of most queer fandomgoers have been traumatic enough to explain the rather high interest in dark & kinky themes, even if none of the trauma has been ‘major’ for most of us. Capitalism is traumatic. Marginalization is traumatic. & if you feel like you need a reason to like something in fiction that would disturb you IRL, that should, imho, be reason enough.)

[rosemoonweaver]

People who complain about darkfic and then turn around and censor the word "rape" really piss me off. Most the time they don't even tag for it either. Like there's not "rape mention" or "tw: rape" tag on their posts. 

Perhaps I'm totally off base but it makes me wonder if they actually even care. Like, I'm pretty sure they've been told at least a dozen times that sometimes darkfic is written by and for people who've gone through some shit. But it offends them so why should they care about the rest of us, right? The word is offensive to them. The word rape is a dirty, awful, horrible word that must be censored because seeing it written out hurts them. So, sorry if you've been using blacklist to keep from seeing posts that discuss the topic because now you're going to see it discussed because someone decided the word was icky, not the content, and they're not going to tag so you don't have to see it. 

And that's the irony, right, because current fandom conventions require you to tag for rape and/or non con in your darkfic if you post to ao3. The word has to be there, right up at the top, so you can see it and know what you're about to get into. It's even filterable now! 

I just... there's something I find really despicable about censoring a word like rape. It's not a slur. It's not a swear. It's a thing that is done to people, thousands of people, all over the world. Like, it just feels wrong. Word that are censored in writing are usually censored in speech and is that really what you want to do here? Like, it's bad enough that the people who attack darkfic have been told over and over that survivors read and write this stuff and trying to tell us "no, don't let this exist in the world" is asking us not to relate our stories in ways that help us heal, but to then make the words that describe what happened to us put on the level or slurs and vulgarity... that's not right. Seeing the words may make you uncomfortable, but the more we turn saying or writing those words into a taboo the harder it gets for people who need to use them to actually use them. 

[tomionefinds]

Any fics that take place in the 60s or the first wizardiny war?

Hi Anon:

Here are some - Haus

Altered State by Ginnyruin

E | WIP | 249k

Six years after the Battle of Hogwarts, Auror Hermione Granger activated a mysterious dark object, which unexpectedly sent her decades into the past. Tom Riddle, now known as Voldemort, returned to British wizarding society in 1966 after a decade-long absence. Under the guise of interviewing for the Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching position, he arrived at Hogwarts to conceal one of his Horcruxes. But he soon discovered that the coveted position had been stolen a week earlier by an intriguing witch. As manipulative schemes emerged, tension evolved into a ruinous obsession.

Invictus by greyana

E | Complete | 458k

Voldemort intended the object to be used by his most loyal follower in the event that his horcruxes were destroyed, but it ended up in Hermione’s possession instead. It sent her back to a time when he was much less the monster that she’d always known him to be. Nothing could have prepared her for the intelligence and charm of Tom Riddle. He isn’t who she thought he was. Hermione discovers that it’s a dark descent into the madness of the man she should hate, but can’t… a descent she will never emerge from.

Diatribes by Anianeme, witchywrites

M | WIP | 5k

After Hermione slips through the cracks of her reality, she falls victim to a rule by grains of sand and time. Landing in 1944, with both a Muggle and Wizarding War, her memory loss appears as both a barrier and aid. Unbeknownst to her, the gaunt face of a fellow Sixth Year has recognised the girl who crossed the wards. It may be a blessing from the fates that she does not recognise his face. Or a curse that she knows his name before he offers her his hand to shake.

You Should Know by Phantomato

E | Complete | 74k

Hermione, born in 1934 and Minerva McGonagall’s best friend, meets Tom Riddle, the boy whose scores were always just better than hers, at a wedding in the summer of 1961. She’s comfortable with what she wants from him, but he’s about to enter the next stage of his plan to take over the Wizarding world and test the limits of her acceptance. AU where Hermione and Tom are contemporaries, but meet as adults during his rise to power. Older characters, not a darkfic, HEA.

[gaslightgallows]

If I have the energy tonight (or tomorrow), I may need to write some intense af Thorki smut.

Why? Because petty, that's why.

[amplexadversary]

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