the birth of the squick

[seperis]

Random moment of squickery. And this is not related at all to anything except I got to thinking on my primary squicks and wondered if anyone else had really weird ones.

I mean, I have like, one major pairing squick (will run in the other direction and occasionally refilter my flist to avoid seeing even mention--yes, I know, My neuroses and I are one), and a few minor ones in SGA. But I developed this entire host of bizarre characterization squicks as well that always throw me, because honestly, there is no way to warn for them, some people have entirely differnet ways of seeing the character--which is fine! I swear! Except the sociopathic John thing, that is just stupid--okay, and the robot-of-no-real-emotions John thing, also mindblowingly stupid--but beyond that. And weird, *weird* plot squicks. And there's this entire *litany* of John-related and Rodney-related almost-squicks--I'll read them if this person write it, but not that person, and I'll only read it if this person was making me pre-read it early on and I'm allowed to insert such comments as WHY DID YOU DO THAT? EXPLAIN DAMMIT and then they do, and then I'm okay (see Astolat's Tango for fic that first squicked me, then much later, after a line by line with Amireal, really loving it and adding to re-read list). And I think Bone is still the only person I can read John/Ronon from, and I think a lot of that is because I was reading it well before I hardened into my OTP, and a lot of it because no other character suffered for the making of the pairing, which some John/Ronon fics I read seemed to have at least some bit of Rodney-left-out-and-hurt, which kind of sours it.

But okay, I'm asking for other people to tell me their weird squicks, I'll tell a few of the less-humiliating ones. I just want to feel less weird.



1.) partner betrayal - this is a stop-traffic squick. I'd like to thank rageprufrock for destroying my soul, because it's Pru and I read it, even though I knew I'd be homicidal before, during, and after. I love you, Pru, but OHMYGOD Directional Theory. Still not over that one. Immortality. Never, ever getting over that one. And that's been five years! Even the implications of it get to me in some really weird, primal way. Even if it's *informal*, I get mildly freaked out. But I am weird, and I embrace my weirdness.

2.) consensual non-con - okay, just go with this one. One of the characters wants to have sex, the other doesn't, or doesn't want it to have this certain kind of sex, first person drugs them and/or ties them up, they still say no, but then there's orgasm and they really really like it! *thinks* This also goes for the aliens made them have sex, but only when after, there seems to be no consequences, becuase the second person is still a-okay with everything even though they were totally not okay beforehand or even most of during, and the first person is smugly sure he did everyhing perfectly, which I have read not as many times as the first kind, but still, really, ewww. Okay, I have read some I could get through like that, and some I couldn't, and I think a lot depends on how I read author intent. eleveninches fic Them Other Boys Don't Know How to Act didn't even ping me on the freak-o-meter, but part of that is a.) I know her b.) she gave me a pre-fic synopsis so I knew exactly what I would be getting into and c.) I've read her fic enough to see where her characterization comes from, and so could go with it and laugh hysterically. Because honestly, that was funny.

3.) humiliation for use of teaching character a lesson - it's not conditional, I will always, always, always hate it (see some of the post-Trinities for dramatic interpretations on both sides; Rodney the trod-upon and bullied by everyone and cutting himself while people hope he suicides and John and Elizabeth teh evil monsters destroying his soul with their cruelty, cause for serious--wtf?). There are two or three really good fics that made me flinch with the humiliation teaches this character an important lesson--Transcendental is an excellent fic with a good example of John-learning-to-take-orders, and after my first few reads, I discovered the fine art of skipping the key points and moving to the fun plotty stuff again. And it's never come close to a few of the others that try to Teach Rodney To Be A Better Person, or John To Be More Emotionally Open, or Rodney To Not Take John For Granted or...yeah.

3b. Humiliation in general, but this is slippery-slope and there's no solid rule here. I just learned to hit back really really fast. More often than not, back. I think it honestly depends on how I read author intent in this one. Sometimes it's hysterical and funny and fun and reads like it, and sometimes, or a lot of time, it reads like a grudge against a certain character.

4.) death fic - this isn't as much a squick as a generalized preference of never, ever seeing it. Even long after post-death. I've read a few and some were good and a couple were great, and still, no.

5.) Anything At All To Do With Anyone Turned Into a Sex Slave. Period and end. I have yet to read a fic that can convince me otherwise. At least, not since 2005.

6.) Anything With Mutilation - I have been persuaded to a few. It took a lot of persuasion. And three people in chat telling me, they promised, I would love it. I would not want to kill them. I really, really wouldn't. They promised, promised, promised. They know I know where they lived. But general rule--no.

7.) Grudgefic - being OTC more than OTP half the time, you cannot freak me out more than by writing an entire story explaining how much John sucks as a human being and Rodney putting up with him and John's unspeakable gratefulness for it. Drives me *nuts*. Rodney doesn't get that treatmetn quite as much--well, outside a few key archives--but teh back button is well exercised. I mean, don't get me wrong, I get grudgefic--I who turned Lana into a heroin addict prostitute, special hell for that one--but see OTC and OTP. Squick. Anytime you spend an entire story punishing a character--oh God, that one with John agreeing he totally deserved to be drugged into Rodney's slave because he told Cameron about the lemon, Jesus H--no. Seriously. I am totally back button girl. And will possibly whimper about it to svmadelyn.

Hmm. Codicil to 7 - a lot of my issues with fic outside this list do have a great deal to do with John. I'm really not going to apologize for that one--I don't flame the authors or do antirecs or wander around talking about how much Author A sucks, but I'm not going to be sorry I can't read something I think just uses John in ways that to me make no sense. But I have found over time my patience gets thinned by my perception of either OOC or character abuse and there's this short list in my head of authors I simply don't trust and can no longer read without a specific rec from someone who knows me well enough, and some people write fic that to me, was so *wrong* I can't read anything else they write, because of that one fic, so all fics after it have that intent behind it. Which is freakishly limiting--there are reasons I trust implicitly anything ltlj recs, because I've read every one of her fics and her characterization of John, to me, is spot-on--and a couple of other reccers that tend toward the same taste I have. And I do recognize this is a taste issue--every fic I've mentined here is fic I like a lot, for various reasons, but is also fic that had a squick factor for me--it's not a quality issue. I don't tend to talk about fic I hated. It causes fine lines and early aging.

But sometimes--and this is just sometimes--I get the crazy feeling that it's not quite done anymore to have fairly specific tastes in fic, or to not like something due to those tastes, and the warnings debates had a side issue wandering through in a few ljs that seemed to emphasize the fact that if you have an issue with a particular kind of fic, you have a serious problem. I cannot read unequal OT3 or OT4, unless the author is basically Pru, or anything Rodney/Ronon period and end right there, and have come to really flinch around Sheppard/Weir. Some Ronon fic has started to get on my nerves, which means I'm skipping that pretty much consistently outside a specific rec, and some Weir fic have done the same thing. I get weird about John/Teyla now, and don't read it as much as I used to. The longer I'm in SGA, the more rigid the squicks and tastes have become, too. And there is definitely a--hmm. Maybe a generalized feeling that if you aren't reading all of it, or don't like some aspects of something, you're just not open minded enough. I am perfectly okay with everyone having their own take on characters, their own pairings, etc--except the sociopahtic John thing, God, just stop that shit--I just quietly, for the most part, exercise my option to stop and say "wow, that totally did not work for me at all."

The thing is, a squick is less a voluntary choice than a start of surprise, a "I am not enjoying this at all" and finding a pattern in it. Reading outside that is impossible, at least for me--if squick is hit, I cannot enjoy. If I do not enjoy, I stop doing it. It's not a personal judgement on the writer, though I can see, and have felt sometimes when I hit someone's squicks, that it can seem that way. It can also seem like a judgement--the non-con-really-he-meant-it I actually do get is a fantasy type and I don't actually think the authors are fine with rape and rohypnol being an awesome dating tool. And there is the part of me that knows that what we read is only a fraction of what the author really meant to get across, and what I get out of it can be diametrically opposite to what they meant. But the thing is, my reading will always trump author intent, with a few key DVD commentary exceptions that i have read that explained a lot something that bothered or confused me.

But saying what I do and do not like--outside those fandomwide things that everyone will claim--does feel sometimes like I'm quietly stepping on a landmine and waiting for it to blow. And I say this as someone who got feedback about The Principle of Exclusion stating that poor Rod was humiliated and ostracized by everyone--and you know, did my freakout in private that my author intent did not get the right thing across. I know that what we read isn't always the same as what the author meant.

Okay, now, so I feel less like a black peep at Easter--squicks? Issues? Oooh. In case I offended someone,and I'm pretty sure someone had to have been, I openly throw this one out--have I written anything that squicked you? How and why?

Comments

[brynnydd.livejournal.com]

Also, for me, and this just makes me picky. Non happy endings are a squick for me. I read fanfic for fun. I want my boys to end up together and happy in the end. Torture them all you want through the fic but give me hope in the end. Comming from Highlander fandom, it was often hard to find this.

[seratonation.livejournal.com]

I've been squicked by a couple of things in my time, but i usually have an open mind to all that stuff. Its how I got in to slash (yeah can you believe it? I was squicked by slash and now, well :D)

But yes about the humiliation fic, and non-con. I don't read that. I especially hate hate fics where one character has to change (especially Rodney loosing weight and what not) before the other character(s) realises how awesome or whatever, that character is. I think there was only one fic, I read it and got half way through before I realised reading that fic was torture, to me, to the characters, geez how did the writer even think this was a good idea, before I pressed back.

I don't like incest. it squicks me to no end. Its the reason I've decided to stay out of supernatural fandom (coz apperently their major ship, their mcshep if you will, are brothers). Having said that, I read last will and testament, if I had know it was incest I wouldn't have read it, because incest is just ewwww for me. But. I really loved it, have recced it at my lj and put it in my memories. I've read like two in my whole fic reading time, one was that one, and the other was, like you said, by an auther that I knew I'd like her stuff (alright it was trinityofone's MPreg story, where John becomes pregnant with Rodney to save him, but it still made me squirmy).

but yeah I avoid stuff all the time. especially when I don't see any back up for the ship in the show. I don't read 'sparky' coz their interactions on the show when they were trying for romantic got all wierd. I've recently been getting in to Rodney/Teyla, but just by the one writter because she makes them so adorable together. even tho I think on the show Teyla/Ronon is all good.

I guess it all comes down to how things are written (for me at least), I squick can be easily looked over (for that particular story) if the story was good enough. I did it for last will, and for a couple of others I can think off, so maybe my most major squick is bad writting :S

PS um, sorry, I think I rambled on a bit... and apperently I can't read who the poster is, sorry for the double post. *headdesk* -> oh my god, I can't even tag properly. again sorry hopefully this one looks fine.

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

Here from the sga_newsletter.

I have whole levels and layers of squicks, sorted by author and fandom (SGA, The Sentinel, Jossverse). The universals are poorly punctuated dialog, over-use of dialect markers, daddy/teacher kink,and full-on BDSM.The last two may make me less useful as a fic rec writer, but I've gotten way over worrying about that.

In SGA, I find myself nodding with those who are reluctant to see Ronon in in-series relationships; he's just too undefined as a person and the imbalance of emotional power is discomforting. I don't like military people as individuals, and in general made to seem unintelligent or pointlessly cruel, although this doesn't make me disbelieve an individual enlisted man or officer being a jerk, or the chain of command being manipulated by either civilian or military villians: I've spent more than fifty years on the civilian front-line in a highly militarized area, and I'd have to be stupid to believe that doesn't happen in real life.

And I feel betrayed if Stargate fic writers are as lazy at plotting as the PTB of canon are.

My most comprehensive and specific squicks are in TS, though, which, since I'm an Anthropologist from Western Washington is hardly surprising. Theres a recentish Sentinel fic where a long discussion about how including women on an anthropological expedition is a Very Bad Thing almost made me put my fist through the monitor.

Julia, I like your list, although it differs from mine, and am using it to help me think more clearly about why I hit the back button so often of late

[ellex42.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...this is a really interesting post. I know what you mean, for the most part - I have a few unbreakable squicks, although sometimes I can enjoy the rest of a story and kind of put the squick bit in a voluntary blind spot.

Any character calling any other character 'babe' is a little squick that I try to read past, because I've come across plenty of fic that I really enjoyed - other than that one, tiny squick.

Breathplay and bloodplay are almost unbreakable squicks for me - except that there's this vampire AU (I forget the author's name), and so far I love it, even though there has already been bloodplay and she keeps warning of impending breathplay. And if/when she writes the breathplay, I'll skip past that bit.

Overly romanticized stuff, like a lot of the Sheppard/Weir and Sheppard/Teyla found on Fanfiction.net puts me right off. Humiliation is a definite squick, although I've come across some fics where it's used as a dramatic device and it works really well. But if the author seems to be just dumping on a character because they don't like that character, it's not only off-putting, it makes me wonder why that person even bothers to write about them in the first place. You called it 'grudgefic' - that's a good word for it.

For the most part, my squicks depend a lot on how the author handles the issue. Some authors seem to be able to make just about anything work for me, and others...don't. But my absolute biggest squick is poor grammar/punctuation/spelling/sentence structure. It can be the greatest plot ever, with spot on characterizations...if I can't get past the mechanics of the language itself, I won't even bother to try reading it.

I'm surprised that you get the feeling that having particular preferences in fic is 'not done'. I actually feel that the opposite seems to be true, and that fic readers are divided into three preferences: gen, slash, and het, without a lot of cross-reading. In fact, I feel that there are more writers crossing these boundaries than there are readers crossing them.

You've only squicked me once: The Rain Gods. Not the story itself, which I love - but the fact that it's still sitting there, unfinished, and I desperately want to know what happens!

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Hmm. That's a thought. About writers being more flexible than readers. It's kind of true, at least for me. I'm more likely to write something I don't like than read it. Part of that is I know my authorial intent while writing, so if I'm writing something I don't like, my head has this elaborate backstory reason why it happened--partner betrayal, for example--that makes it acceptable. Or because I'm testing a mental theory, which is one reason I'm trying to write a John/Rodney/Teyla threesome--to see why that would happen with them, and to see if I can. But outside OT4--and OT4 is not a big draw for me on the best of days--I can't see it, so... Hmm.

Gen/slash/het divide--okay, I can see that, but in my experience--and this is reading in sga and spn and sv--it's a slash-gen-het continuum almost. A lot of slash readers, at least on my flist, read gen fairly regularly. While I default to slash, plotty gen I'll at least try, and in samdonne's case, with actual john/ofc, utterly adore beyond words. And my favorite stories in SGA are, for the most part, very gen, because--again, my total personal feeling here--most Sheppard/McKay doesn't have the strong independent plot thing I also love. And the gen I love always has a strong Sheppard and McKay friendship that I alwyas think of as a very weird pre-slash, even though I know most of the time the author didn't mean it that way.

It would be interesting to see how we all fall in the fanscale of slash-gen-het actually. A Kinsey scale of fannishness. I wonder if a poll would work.

[ellex42.livejournal.com]

Yes, I really think that the writers - the ones who are serious about striving to do their best and improve their craft, as opposed to those who merely ramble on in the worst fangirl fashion (again, a lot of the content at Fanfiction.net) - are pretty flexible as readers. At first, RPS really put me off - and then I read a couple of extraordinary fics by authors who had always pleased me before. I don't know if I'll ever write RPS, but it's not the automatic squick it used to be. I know that a lot of slash writers also read/write gen, and I'm friends with several gen writers who have been drawn, almost unwillingly, into slash.

I'd love to see a Kinsey scale of slash-gen-het fannishness. I think that each group has a die-hard core that doesn't venture outside of that type, and there are people on the fringe of each group that tentatively peek at the other groups, and there are some people - like myself - who do have preferences and favorite pairings but happily poke their noses all over the place, happy with a good story no matter what the type.

Hmm...you'd have to cross-reference the slash-gen-het scale with a ratings scale, though. There are a fair portion of people who will venture out of their gen core group into slash and/or het, but only up to about a PG-13 or mild R type rating.

Something to ponder at work tomorrow!

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I don't know, though. I read both slash and het, but have very little use for gen (unless it's vignettes or character-exploration pieces, because plotty adventure stories are what canon is for), and I know I'm not the only one.

[alizarin-nyc.livejournal.com]

I have a lot of "dislikes." But to call all of them squicks and swear them off altogether *except for the authors who are my friends* seems limiting to me and therefore I try not to let the dislikes fester. (But oh they do, they do!)

I've recently been "squicked" by genderfuck and extensive AUs in SGA and when I really thought about it, most of my fave writers have tried one or the other or both, so it may be just that I'm a little tired of those tropes and need a break. Most of the tropes/storylines/character interpretations have been done to death and yet I keep reading them, because I NEED to read.

So I plan to back off of "Rodney's got boobs" fic, or "John's a stripper" for a while but yet not to ignore authors who give it a shot. Because as an author, I need to push the envelope too and don't want readers to shut me out because of a preconceived squick -- if and only IF, I've written a fic that has merit on its own outside of the aforementioned fandom tropes.

But sometimes--and this is just sometimes--I get the crazy feeling that it's not quite done anymore to have fairly specific tastes in fic, or to not like something due to those tastes, and the warnings debates had a side issue wandering through in a few ljs that seemed to emphasize the fact that if you have an issue with a particular kind of fic, you have a serious problem.

I think it's definitely still DONE, as I hear about it all the time. I don't know anyone who likes ALL fic. I guess what I'm saying is that I always hear folks talk about what they dislike and praising the popular authors that we all KNOW are awesome to the nth degree. Is it only those authors who can write the squicks and succeed? No one else can go out on a limb and do it well? And who's searching out good fic by unknown authors? (There must be the occasional winner out there and I wish I had the time to find the jewel in the rough.)

I appreciate that you chalk it up to taste -- so many people simply trash and bash without taking that into account. Which is maybe why this comment is so long, oy vey. And for the record, none of your fics has ever squicked me, nor have I found one I actively dislike. Quite the opposite actually. I lurve them, the ones I've read. Now please go write some sex-slavefic, thx. ;)

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*thougthful*

I see your point on popular authors, though, and it's come up before. I can explain why I would tend to trust them, but hmm. Okay.

Basically, no one, not even samdonne or cesperanza, could write a Rodney/Ronon I would like. No matter how good. It's just not there for me outside an equal OT4.

With my squicks like slavery, I can't get past it anymore. IT was done a lot, it was done badly, and for the most part, it was done to John so consistently for the same reasons with teh same results that it got insulting. So even doing it well now--and I'm sure somewhere out tehre it is being done well--brings back the same basic revulsion. There's nothing new or, to me (this is very personal feeling) interesting in it. To me, it's degrading and watching my favorite character get degraded sexually, and sometimes in ways that glorified it, became absolutely impossible, so I moved it into squick. I just can't go there, no matter what.

Partner betrayal is a squick I just--can't get around at all. To make me believe it, it takes a lot of work beforehand to bring the characters to a point that I can see them do it. The last one I got through was Pru's Directional, and my instant reaction now is again, instant revulsion. Either character. I just hate it.

I've codiciled others, but the thing is, I'll trust one author more than another is the body of work of theirs I've read in the past. It's kind of like finding my favorite chocolate, and then findign out they added cayenne pepper or something. Eww, but also, this brand I know and is always my favorite ever. I'll try it. I'll like, shave off a bite and eat it. I may eat all of it. I may not love it like I do the regular or special dark, but it's still the chocolate I love, and teh cayenne didn't make me thrilled with it, may have taken away from the overall chocolate experience, but I'll go with it.

I cannot believe I just wrote a chocolate to author analogy. Wow.

[crysothemis.livejournal.com]

I have a huge set of fannish likes and dislikes and really, I'm okay with that. Seriously, I think everyone has the right to read or not read whatever she wants. In fact, I think fandom tends to be a less positive experience for people who feel like they have to read everything.

For example, I have never and will never read "Freedom's Just Another Word" because it's deathfic and I just can't read deathfic. Same with "Directional Theory," because I like my heart where it is in my chest, thanks. I am sure they are both marvelous pieces of writing, but I'm in my happy place of ignorance, and I'm good right here.

One preference I haven't seen mentioned is POV. I will backbutton for head-hopping and certain kinds of omniscient points of view. I also get annoyed if there's a lot of tell-don't-show, although I'll let a writer get away with more if it's in the character's POV and sounds like the character's voice.

Speaking of which, I give huge bonus points to any fic that makes me hear the actual characters' voices as I read. In fact, I will read out of my comfort zone for voice, which, yeah, sometimes gets me in trouble. But usually it's worth it.

[attaccabottoni.livejournal.com]

Here via the daily_snitch.

Did you mean "Immortality" by Grail? I reread that whenever I'm murderously angry at someone, just to prove to myself that I could still feel bad about the idea of hurting someone for whatever motives.

As for squicks, well if you entered the Star Wars fandom at the impressionable age of 15, I learned I could read just about anything for the sake of OTP or a fic with my favorite character in it. Sex in the GalaxyFarFarAway is as crazy as it can get, even when there's Jedi, or maybe, it's especially because there are Jedi (Force-supressing collars OMG). Then I stumbled upon The Sith Academy (http://www.siubhan.com/sithacademy/internal.html) and after reading everything there, all my squicks that involve most paraphilias went out the window. I find that I can read anything now, but sometimes I skip over the intense/illegal sex parts when I don't particularly care to read them or I'm really into the plot instead.

The only thing I can't stand are pairings I don't like, esp. when they involve someone under 14 (I don't understand that in Harry Potter). I don't read a lot of het like I used to, but it's the ones I don't understand that squicks me (Lionel/Martha, and to some extent, Clark/Lana). I can read anyone with Lex, Spike, Obi-Wan, and Sirius, though, even het ones I don't understand.

Like my weird reluctance to use the horn while driving, I don't know how to press the back button in my pursuit of a good story, except when there's spoilers or bad writing.

[annon-of-rhi.livejournal.com]

I hate deathfic, or fic where one of my favourite characters is horribly injured and/or disabled - and they don't get better. Of course, I don't read a fic's ending first, so it's hard to tell if it's going to be okay. Mainly I skip them, just in case.
Sociopathic!John is another no-no to me, mainly because though I can ignore canon in all the right places, that's just (to me) compete and utter crap. There is no reasoning there, for that type of fic (I feel). Fics like Crimes Against Humanity, I get, because it was a general theme all around, but I couldn't finish that, I can't read Rodney, and John, and even Elizabeth like that. To me it's too OOC, even though it's meant to be.
Humiliation and embarrassment are also squicky to me - I had to skip the punishment parts of that fic, with the BDSM alternate universe?
Non-con, consensual (I don't even GET that reasoning) or otherwise, a big no-no, same with rape and torture. Any fic with the word 'dark' in the summary, basically. My favourite fics tend to be John/Rodney crack AU's, where they are penguins or flowers or something, lol.

And in conclusion, I should remember that just because I read someone's LJ a lot, doesn't mean they read mine (there's nothing good in it anyway, so there's no real point), and I should remember that before I post a huge comment, that they didn't really want my opinion on anyway. Thank you.

[hardlyfatal.livejournal.com]

My squicks are many and varied, it would seem. These will prevent me from clicking, or if tricked into clicking by a poor summary/warnings, make me hit the "back" button at superluminary speed.

1. Rodney/Sheppard. Ugh. I loathe this pairing with the white-hot passion of a thousand suns. I am so rock-solid in my conviction of what they are to each other (and it ain't lovers) that the concept of them as lovers sends me into a frothing rage. I have to hurriedly skim past the lengthy list of McShep fic on sga_newsletter for fear of suffering an embolism.

2. Established relationship. This is mostly a problem with slash fics, where the assumption is that everyone already "knows" they're hot for each other, and therefor all that's left to do is show the at-last-my-love-has-come-along buttsex. I'm interested in how they get there, not so much what they do once they are there. This is likely just me, however.

3. Mpreg. Enough said. [flinch]

4. "Aliens made them do it" premises. Ugh. Little better than rape, these, no matter how much "but he's been thinking about it for a while so it's not really rape" nudge-nudge-wink-wink rubbish the author adds.

5. Team sex, like they're all one big happily sodomizing puppy-pile. Unrealistic, much?

6. AU. I ain't here to read a different story, folks, I'm here to read more of the one we've got in canon.

7. OOCness. Makes me cringe. Sheppard is emotionally constipated; he says so himself. Wherefore, then, the fics where he reveals his inner workings to his one twu wuv Rodney with nary a moment of hesitation?

8. Am really off Weir, as protagonist in gen as well as paired with anyone. Possibly because no one seems to write her well; she always seem to end up either boring as hell or Elizabeth-Sue and it makes me cranky.

9. "Cock is king" fic, aka "penis solves everything". Um, no, sometimes problems can't be fixed with a hot shag. Sometimes-- this is radical, I know you'll doubt-- issues are completely unrelated to sex. Amazing, that. I am no prude, I love sex-- the filthier the better, IMO-- but even I get tired of the sex obsession and lack of realism in how sex-focussed EVERYthing is.

10. Have I mentioned that I hate McShep? Because I really, really do. [breathes fire while gagging]

[elspethdixon.livejournal.com]

#1 Brain damage. I don’t care whether it’s head-injury, alzheimers, what; it is my iron-clad, Oh, Hell No squick. Not only will I bail from a fic (or television show, or film, or book) right then and there, I may never read anything by that author again. I literally could not force myself to read the second half of Flowers for Algernon in middle school — the only time I ever didn’t finish a book assigned for English class.

#2 Humiliation. (so glad to know I’m not alone in this). I feel physically ill watching characters humiliate themselves. This renders me incapable of watching most sitcoms and recent comedy movies.

#3 Cancer. It’s not as all-consuming a squick as the first two, which I can’t handle under any circumstances, but it’s almost always a back-button-worthy squick in fic — unless I can scroll to the end and make sure that the character recovers, but even then, only a really, really good author can get me to keep reading. Oddly, I can handle it much better in canon, at least, I can as long as I’ve been spoiled and know it’s coming. Unless it’s brain cancer, in which case it turns into squick #1 and I’m gone.

#4 Partner betrayal/death of half my OTP/any other break-up of my OTP in a fic. And non-happy endings in general. Unless it happens in canon or is done with high, Italian-Opera/Gothic Novel-level melodrama. For some reason, I can handle Elizabeth chaining Jack to the mast in DMC and Iron Man and Captain America beating the snot out of one another over Civil War, but can’t stand most breaking up of my OTPs in fic. Or most deathfic. And I refuse to read fics where a member of one of my hardcore OTPs (Rogue/Gambit, Sirius/Remus, Spike/Buffy, etc.) is shipped with someone else (well, unless it’s season 1-3-era Buffy, and she’s shipped with Angel, or it’s a Buffy/Angel/Spike threesome).

#5 As another poster put it: “disaster, disability, years pass and nobody gets better" stories. I generally refuse to read fic where a character is afflicted with a permanent disability. Oddly, I’m totally okay with canon disabilities. It’s the creation of new, not-present-in-canon disabilities in fic that get me (unless it’s comparatively minor, like a limp or the loss of one eye — blindness or the loss of an appendage is only do-able if the character gets compensation in the form of sixth sense or a cybernetic arm or something).

#6 Bashing of a character I like, or pairings that strike me as totally ooc (Harry/Snape comes to mind).

#7 Intergenerational incest (parent/child or any similarly close child/parental-figure relationship) and anything that resembles it. For example, vast sections of DCU slash are closed to me because of my violent dislike of Batman/Robin (any Robin). I can handle canonical parent-child incest, though, as long as it’s clearly presented as creepy and abusive. Sibling incest doesn’t do anything for me one way or the other.

#8 Fic that is really obviously about the author’s personal issues rather than the characters. Psychologists are for therapy. Fiction is for entertainment. We’re all happier when authors remember that (or at least confine issue-fic to their bedroom drawer).

#9 Mind-control/evil telepaths squick me, but in a good way (if that’s possible) in that it makes my skin crawl, yet I can be enthralled by it anyway. I tend to place it in the same mental category as rapefic (altering someone’s will/controlling their thoughts=metaphorical rape), which can either squick me or enthrall me or leave me utterly indifferent depending on the way the writer handles it.

Mpreg doesn’t actually squick me, but it almost always throws me irreversibly out of the narrative. A good writer could make me buy a shapeshifter or alien getting pregnant, but regular human men… pretty much never. I can read about superpowers and vampires and magic all the livelong day, but human men getting pregnant is for some reason beyond my ability to buy into.

I’ve got a lot of fandom-specific squicks, mostly relating to characterization, but there’s too many to list here, and they mostly involve fandoms other than SGA.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I can read about superpowers and vampires and magic all the livelong day, but human men getting pregnant is for some reason beyond my ability to buy into.

I have the same problem and only in trying to explain it to a friend was I able to work out why those things are different. For me it's that vampires and magic and superpowers and ghosts and aliens, etc. are all totally fantasy (I know some people believe in aliens and ghosts, but I'm talking about me, so), whereas pregnancy does exist.

Therefore, when I read about men getting pregnant, I can't help but think of what is actually involved. If it's a fic where magic is used, then I might be able to buy it, but only if it's spelled out for me what's involved. A potion that makes one pregnant through anal sex is not enough to do it. A potion that temporarily gives you a vagina and the necessary internal organs? Okay.

So that basically limits it to couples who want to conceive deliberately taking a potion, yet most mpreg in fic mimicks a woman's RL dilemma of having unprotected sex and accidentally getting pregnant in that it's almost always an accident. And I so I'm left sitting there wondering how this happens. Even if something happened to give them a uterus, etc. how does sperm get from your ass to this shiny new uterus!?!?!?!?

I just can't take it. The rest of the story is lost as I ponder these burning questions. I have yet to see an accidental mpreg that explained things to my satisfaction.

I really gave a lot of thought to how it could be done, too, because a friend of mine challenged me to write a more realistic mpreg and I was originally thinking of going the accident route because I wanted the guys to be horrified. In the end, I had to ditch the accident angle and managed to work out a plan that involves a post-apocalyptic society and a totalitarian government that experiments on the remaining population.

I am happily reading Max Brooks' World War Z right now, and have no problems imagining a virus that turns people into zombies, but I don't have enough knowledge of how diseases work, so I can handwave it. The same goes for other disease/genetic scenarios. But pregnancy...no.

[seekergeek.livejournal.com]

My squicks are apparently few and far between because I'm a fic reading *slut* and I find things like the dreaded mpreg amusing, but here goes:

1. Piss poor understanding on the writer's part of how DADT actually works.
2. Guys calling each other babe, baby, etc.
3. Carson. Canon ruined any and all fic for me concerning this character.
4. Death fic. Although I loved "Freedom's Just Another Word". Superb writing can over come this particular squick in my case.
5. John/any female. My brain just can't go there. I *especially* squick on John/Elizabeth because she's his boss and that just really makes my skin crawl.In' fact, even talking about it makes me ill. *shudders*

Everything else I can think of comes under loathe or dislike rather than squick.

[c425cc33.livejournal.com]

I haven't read anything else in this post yet because I just choked when I saw Directional Theory. Truly squick come to life for me. Worse, the author wrote one of my very favorites, Hindsight! So, confused and squicked. Thank you and now back to the regularly scheduled reading of metafandom.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*dies*

Yeah, that one...I mean, I have no excuse, she warned me *and* pasted bits to me. It still completely knocked me out. I still can't eevn look directly at the title if I can help avoiding it. Jsut--gah.

[hack-benjamin22.livejournal.com]

*just wondering* But what if there was a specific reason for sociopath John? I get that the military does not turn you into some sort of killing machine, but what if there was a specific plot driven reason for John to go whacko - would you buy it or be able to read it then?

On all the other stuff: I pretty much agree. There is some stuff that's just so embarrassing that I physically cannot bring myself to look at the page. It works for the TV too. If I'm watching something and the humiliation thing kicks in I have to change the channel and wait until it's over before going back.

Threesomes and moresomes definitely squick me. I read one story that I liked and believed and that was it.

Partner betrayal makes me turn into an emotional pile of goo. I usually try to avoid it, but if it's an author I know and like then I'll give it a shot. It still leaves me feeling emotionally wrung out, but sometimes that a good thing.

Fics where the character gives up part of their personality that is inherently them make me very, very angry and I cannot read them. Sadly it's hard to pinpoint things like that from a summary and I don't realize it until I've reached the end and find that I've been grinding my teeth and given myself a headache. I've read one fic that was amazingly written, but all I have to do is think about it and I feel nauseous.

Kidfic - if it's in the warnings I won't even click on it. Same goes for Mpreg.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*just wondering* But what if there was a specific reason for sociopath John? I get that the military does not turn you into some sort of killing machine, but what if there was a specific plot driven reason for John to go whacko - would you buy it or be able to read it then?

I'm writing an AU with a sociopath John--but I did an equal shift of the universe itself to match, so it's mostly sociopath Atlantis - all bad guys, all the time.

Okay, a plot driven reason for sociopathic tendencies--I don't think they are a part of the character as established in canon. If we're talking a mindwhammy of some kind, that would be a different story. Mindwhammy, brain damaged during a mission, alien possession, those would work becuase they'd establish a change in the character himself from his baseline. So yes, sure, I'd accept that, or possibly an AU. Whether I liked it depended on the story itself. But if you're writing outside AU and mindwhammy, no, it wouldn't work for me.

Fics where the character gives up part of their personality that is inherently them make me very, very angry and I cannot read them. Sadly it's hard to pinpoint things like that from a summary and I don't realize it until I've reached the end and find that I've been grinding my teeth and given myself a headache. I've read one fic that was amazingly written, but all I have to do is think about it and I feel nauseous.

Yeah, I've--run across stories like that. And no, there's no way to warn for it.

Hee. Kidfic and mpreg. Those are *really* common. Interesting.

:D

[3goodtimes.livejournal.com]

Your squicks ares my preferences. *is dirty* :P

Although a few of them (sex slave, grudge fic) are just bad in general, whoever the writer is.

And I know that humiliation to teach a lesson is completly immoral and psychologically damaging, but it still turns me on. Can't say why really. Perhaps it goes with the teacher-student kink.

I'm not big on angry sex (both partners fucking ferociously). I mean, when I'm pissed I'm never, ever in the mood for that kind of thing. And it just seems more illogical than sexy.

[therisingmoon.livejournal.com]

it's a very interesting list of squicks that you've listed and i've got my own list of things that will make me hit the x button really quick. there's a lot more that i haven't thought of, but these are the ones that i can list off the top of my head.

* the embarrassment/humiliation one seems to be a pretty major one and i'm inclined to believe it and because of it, i don't watch most tv shows because of the situations that the characters end up in and my irrational hatred of reality tv.
* rape, sex slave, and/or non-con. just...no.
* genderswitch/cross-dressing. not so much a squick but a preference for not wanting it in certain fandoms. i've read genderswitch and crossdressing in previous fandoms, but it's only because the characters in question were already canonically semi-androgynous looking. to do that to a clearly male character just hits the squick button.
* john/rodney. it's not so much a squick but as more along the lines of it bores and annoys me by being *everywhere* and then the actor rps and slashing the characters that the actors previously played just adds to that and i flee in the other direction. don't get me wrong, i enjoy the dynamic and willingly read the friendship fic but anything else i just turn the other way and find something else that i might like.
* character bashing of any kind. i know that there are certain characters that i hate but i wouldn't go so far as to channel that hate through the other characters.

[saldemonium.livejournal.com]

I have a stange one. heh. One my wife just can't understand, and I don't know how to explain it. I don't like John bottoming. I don't read it. I either hit back, or if I like the story a lot, I just skip over the sex. I'm very, very picky about who's doing what to whom in my fic. Also, I find het sex kinda squicky. I either use my back button, or skip the sex. Other squicks are more common, I guess. I don't go in for scat or humiliation either.

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

I have humiliation squick so badly that I've named it. "The I Love Lucy Syndrome," is a dreaded affliction that causes the viewer/reader to cringe in sympathy/anticipation of a character making a complete ass of themselves or being made an ass of by another character. I will literally get up off the sofa and hide behind a door until it is safe to watch again.

Of course my husband loves shows like The Office.

Non-con. Heavy BDSM (bloodplay, slavery, loss of identity/individuality anything harder than a spanking)

It takes a while for me to see patterns in fandom and form squicks. In the BtVS fandom, I loathe over-feminizing certain characters (Wes, Spike) to make them well-nigh helpless so that the Big Sexy Angel of Loooove can take care of them.

Bitchy!Buffy as a plot device to get her away from any of her exes. Bitchy!Horrible! Anyone really, when used as a device to villify one character in order that two others may get together. I once saw a insenstive!selfishclod!Tara, actually. It was astonishing.

I don't like sociopath John anymore than I liked the Ripper/Giles being non-integrated personalities in one body. Sure, there's a dark side to "Leave No Man Behind," and "I would do anything for you," but it doesn't make you a sociopath any more than Sydney Bristow or any other spy/warrior in history has been. John is more than likely Special Forces, so he's going to have some skills and training to deal with the things he has to do. It's called compartmentalization. I will buy that John sometimes compartmentalizes more than is probably good for him, and has some PTSD issues going on, but I won't buy that he's a sociopath.

and another thing.....

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

Oh, and incest. ::shudders:: No no no. No thank you.

John and any female is getting to be an ick squick with me, and some genderswaps, though I do buy yin_again's Human Vacillation as being a very cool concept. Reset button/genderswap as sort of a cheating death sort of thing for ATA gene holders. Bit of a surprise, yes, but cheating death=cool.

John/Ford. That's like sleeping with a puppy. Also, see incest.
John/Beckett. WTF? Do not see that AT ALL. Carson, I betcha would be a perfect gentleman, but after three dates, you would start wishing that he wasn't.

Okay, okay, I'll say it; pretty much John/Anybody other than Rodney. Their love is so pure twelveyearoldcrushes!
I will read multiples if it's McShep + value-added package. But warily.

Oh, characters just gaying it up and going at it in locked conference rooms/huts/handy meadow with, like, six other people there stretch credulity with me. Orgies are so awkward.

Coming on someone's face is a shudderiffic thing for me. I mean, deliberately making like the atomizer of loooove, you know? Ick. Perhaps this is the contact-lens wearer in me, but it has a tinge of humiliation to it I don't like.

Inadequate lube/spit as lube. Nooo thank you.

Okay, I think that's out of my system, now.