Kicked Out of Writing Group

[SleepingPoppy]

Oh, I already believed you and therosesword that you weren't shaming anyone. So it sounds like they didn't warn for the dubcon?

[rajillustration]

You were doing them a solid when you told them that it was offensive. A lot of people would say "well this other romance book does the same thing--so it's OK for this genre" when it's like...if you go by that metric you can say literally everything ever written is OK. Because everything has been written. But offensive things don't stop being offensive to other people just because the author themselves might think it's OK. Doesn't matter if you call a serious crime a "kink" or if you try to redirect blame on the person critiquing you--if you offend someone, you can't click undo. that's their feelings, not the authors, and like who are they to tell you that rape culture is fine in erotic fiction and that you shouldn't be offended by it.

And like...most readers if they read something offensive on the internet just click away, unsubscribe, that sort of thing. Very few people would speak up about their free online fiction and say "yo freakin stop." So again, you did them a solid, because their readers that will leave once the forced pregnancy happens, will not. They will just stop reading silently and never come back. Since you are their critiquer...it is your job to bring up if something is offensive in the fiction.

And like this a thing that makes people stray from reading romance in online fiction, myself included. When this becomes so freakin common, it can just make you turn off of a genre entirely.

[cherrystark]

I guess not. There were red flags all over the place.

@rajillustration I agree. I love a good romance but they are becoming harder to find in online fiction.

[DiegoPalacios]

IOW, what are the boundaries that make one egregious abuse of a human being acceptable in fiction but a different egregious abuse not acceptable in fiction? Surely, it's a very wide gray border defined by personal opinions?

I think the line is drawn when such messed up actions are portrayed in a positive light by the story, like romanticizing abuse or the story tries to justify actions like rape.

[indagold]

This is why I try to not hang out with creative types much. All a bunch of coomers.

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

You may be right, I haven't read the story, of course. There's a lot of non-consensual yandere stuff being happily consumed. I wonder if it's just a case of human inconsistency & selective sensitivity.

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

And I think they were way-out in the wrong to respond as you described. You certainly attempted to put a finger on what was preventing their progress and you may have been right, too, but it seems they didn't listen & consider.

[Kaydreamer]

I absolutely think people should be able to write (and sell/share) whatever they want, especially in adult-targeted fiction; dubcon, and even non-con, are pretty common kinks, and fiction is a really safe way for people with those kinks to explore those scenarios.

BUUUUUUUUUUT

It has to have a trigger warning. It shouldn't be shared willy-nilly among in a space which includes people unprepared to encounter that kind of thing. And when someone is stupid enough to post something like that in public without giving anyone a warning about the content in their writing, they shouldn't get their knickers in a twist when somebody is shocked by it. They should have added a trigger warning. That's on them.

[libs]

I think you should be free to write anything you want but at the same time be responsible for what you write. if you write something controversial you should be aware of the controversy it can create. especially if you're writing about something taboo like kidnapping and rape.