seperis: (Default)
seperis ([personal profile] seperis) wrote2010-07-06 08:56 pm
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so the history of warnings 101, i could go for this

Picking up a thought from about three different conversations:

I wonder if it would be worthwhile to have a panel on warnings, not just common triggers, but the historical perspective on them as vehicles of exclusion in fandom and how they've changed in meaning and reason for existence. A lot of perspective on them during the debates the last time and now is still shaped by when they were used against slash or against certain types of fic, vids, etc. And I didn't know until some discussion enlightened me on this that VVC was at least partially founded on a period of time when warnings themselves were used to exclude, not to facilitate inclusion.

Now, we use warnings to make things more inclusive to other fans, but there was a time they were a form of social control, and it could be institutionalized in ways that marginalized.

In all the debates, I really didn't know that as more than an abstract thing, and when I was in Smallville, there were still slash websites under password and some authors requiring direct contact via email for their fic because that was the only way they felt safe. I mean, I feel as if I should have guessed that one.

Anyone have more information on that? I get the impression this was also an issue before regular 'net access as well and that it might have come from cons originally, but a complete perspective would be interesting to know about and read. A lot of discussion during these two debates makes a lot more sense if the original purpose of warnings was to restrict access and exclude certain groups of fans entirely.

And when I say, "I wonder if it would be worthwhile", I mean, "Please yes one day let's do that?" Any con; just someone take good notes and post them so I can read about it.
trinity_clare: (Default)

[personal profile] trinity_clare 2010-07-07 03:13 am (UTC)(link)
Are you making the distinction between porn and slash, though? *curious* Because I've seen people password-protect their PG-13 slash, and it still crops up semi-frequently in the warnings section (seriously, I mean; there's also quite a bit of tongue-in-cheek usage of warnings for both slash and het).
ext_9649: (Default)

[identity profile] traveller.livejournal.com 2010-07-07 03:22 am (UTC)(link)
no, I have never made that distinction. i've always found warning for slash to be insulting -- when I got started in fandom in the early 90s, slash was outright banned in a lot of places, and that never ever sat right with me. it's my habit to write both hetero and homoporn, as I am moved to. I say porn is porn, and you're either old enough to read it or you aren't.

people DO make that distinction, giving greater negative weight to slash, and frankly while I remember how unforgiving fandom at large was to it -- and to RPF -- I figured if you're going to have the nerve to write it, have the nerve to own it.

fwiw, while I still worry about underage readers and the occasional celebrity vanity google, I haven't used a password system since about 2003 -- but I no longer have seriously hardcore stuff up either.
trinity_clare: (Default)

[personal profile] trinity_clare 2010-07-07 03:26 am (UTC)(link)
ok that's actually what I thought you were saying but I wanted to be sure. I definitely agree with you that warning for slash is both pointless and insulting. God, it seems like the RPF wars were so long ago too, but I bet there's still places where they're still going on.
ext_9649: (Default)

[identity profile] traveller.livejournal.com 2010-07-07 03:30 am (UTC)(link)
oh yeah, probably, there's always someone who's new on the block that GASP can't believe people would write about SO AND SO my god don't you know s/he is a REAL PERSON?

yep, we sure do. that's what the R and the P stand for. have a nice day.