There’s a certain attitude that scares the shit out of me – let’s call it destructive sensitivity. It’s the philosophy that, if an idea is uncomfortable, it needs to go away. If an image upsets you, or reminds you of a bad experience you had, then not only should you not have to look at it, no one should be allowed to look at it. And if you can’t eradicate it completely, it should at least be buried so deep that a casual viewer would never stumble upon it. This kind of censorship is nothing new, but I feel like it’s becoming more and more common. So, why do I think it’s a problem?
FICTION
An important question we need to ask ourselves first is, what is the purpose of media, and particularly of fiction? Why do we read, why do we look at artwork, why do we watch movies? To only see happy things? As escapism? That’s certainly a valid interpretation, but it’s not the only one.
For the artist or creator, fiction can be a way to communicate the inner self to the outer world, through the use of symbols. It’s a means of expression. What they express might be deep, might be simple, might be beautiful or disgusting, might be for a niche audience or the whole world, but in the end, it is the artist taking pieces of their own experience and creating something new.
For the viewer, fiction is a way to understand things that are outside their experience, and a way to expand their experience safely. Fiction allows us to go places and do things that we can’t or wouldn’t in our own lives, without risk, without physical harm, and without causing harm to others. Fiction can teach us what we fear, what we love, what we’re missing. It can show us how others live, how others see us, how we see ourselves, and we’re free to engage with it as shallowly or as deeply as we want.
But fiction is not equal to reality. Watching Friday the 13th doesn’t make you a murderer, and it doesn’t kill you. Reading Lolita doesn’t make you a pedophile. Writing a story where a character is raped is not the same as committing rape, and reading that story is not the same as being raped. Thought is not crime.
CENSORSHIP
Censorship is a way to force your interpretation of material on others, to reduce or destroy another’s experience by prejudging it as harmful to them. But part of becoming a well-rounded human being is accepting that not everyone has the same sensibilities, and not every experience needs to be positive.
What you find offensive, some might find enjoyable. What you find traumatic, some might see as an exercise in empathy, or a means of catharsis. Sad songs can be beautiful. Horror stories can be fun. When you decide to silence the things you don’t like, you’re cutting off others from that same experience. You’re making decisions for others, and you’re essentially saying that your feelings (and the feelings of people who agree with you) are more valid than anyone else’s. I find this darkly ironic, because the audience that holds these particular sensitivities also tends to be the first to champion acceptance and non-traditional viewpoints, while organizing witch hunts for those they feel disrespect them.
So, why is this important to me? Why does it scare me? Well, as an artist, the complaint of one sensitive viewer can erase my work in an instant. When complaints are made, content is removed first and questions are asked later. Artists are guilty by default, and viewers are treated as victims. No content host wants to be the one to stand up for freedom of expression at the risk of being seen as supporting offensive material. Most alarming of all, this is all seen as totally acceptable, or even justified. When an artist’s work is taken down, I see comments like, “Well, that’s the risk you take when you post stuff like that. Can’t be helped.” Even the people who disagree with censorship just shrug their shoulders.
SENSITIVITY
To those who are sensitive, I’m not trying to say, “just get over it”. Emotional hurt is real, traumatic experiences are real. I would never belittle someone else’s pain. But you have to realize as well that your experience is not the be-all, end-all of the world. Not all content is made with you in mind. It is inevitable, if we want to exist in a world with other people in it, that we’ll be exposed to things we don’t enjoy. The answer is not to destroy or degrade those things, but to try to understand them – and if that fails, at the very least, we can allow them to exist on equal terms. It is that frightening desire to homogenize the world, to eliminate that which we fail to understand or which causes us emotional distress, that can lead as to real prejudice, to real violence and real crime. Please understand that allowing content you dislike to exist is not the same as advocating it.
THE ANSWER
What I would love to see is a perspective shift. I want to see a world where responsibility is on the viewer, not the creator or the content host. If you have a problem with something, it’s up to you to not see it, not for the artist to hide it for you, or add unavoidable warnings that prejudge a work. I want a world where, rather than censorship by default, censorship is a conscious choice for those who want it. No work is hidden until a user hides it themselves. Artists are not punished for merely posting content that some find offensive, only for not tagging it correctly. Freedom of expression and variety of content is seen as more important than protecting viewers from fiction, from discomfort, from viewpoints that don’t mesh with their own.
Accept others. Take responsibility for yourself (and only yourself). Understand that not all content is meant for you. Understand that fiction is not crime, and fiction does not equate to real-world harm. That’s all I’m asking.
(please don’t let this become a shitstorm… TT _ TT)
I love this movie. This was the first vampire movie I ever watched. I was 8 years old. This movie literally changed my life. I spent years trying to remember the title because I had originally thought this was the Leslie Nielsen vampire movie. When I finally saw it again at 11. I read the entire series. A series that was far too mature for an 11 year old but I couldn’t put it down and my taste in literature dramatically changed. I went from being an extrovert to being an introverted book nerd. Throughout my teen years no other characters could compare to my love for Lestat. I was completely obsessed with the antagonists in books and always sided with them. So thank you Anne Rice for making a book series so powerful and moving that it changed my personality. I don’t know whether to hug you or slap the shit out of you.
^This happened to me similarly, too. Not quite the same, I was given IWTV when I was 11 and saw the movie after, sneaking over to a friend’s house bc it was rated R and I wasn’t allowed to watch it. I have the same feeling for AR, the VC had a huge enough influence. For better or worse *shrugs*
I was an ambivert. I was completely obsessed with antagonists, too. The VC encouraged me to develop all those extroverted traits I loved in Lestat, which other characters didn’t always approve of, but he dgaf! He marches to his own drum. Among so many things, he taught me that you don’t need anyone else’s validation or approval to be happy. The VC has been a huge source of strength. So much great advice. Here’s one:
“It’s an awful truth that suffering can deepen us, give a greater luster to our colors, a richer resonance to our words. That is, if it doesn’t destroy us, if it doesn’t burn away the optimism and the spirit, the capacity for visions, and the respect for simple yet indispensable things.” – Lestat, Queen of the Damned
Jack Crawford III Modern Renaissance Portrait (2015)
As always: Please do not remove the caption or the source. I would really appreciate that. Thank you guys! Reblog it to the end of time but don’t repost it without a source/link.
//You know what we all want, anon? We all want the people who send anon hate and form hate campaigns, and start drama by spreading rumors to find new hobbies (knitting is good! And you can do it alone, without anyone bothering you!)
We want our friends to be able to log onto their RP accounts and not find an inbox full of hateful messages. We want people to be able to RP with anon on because anon is a big part of this game. We want to come here to blow off steam, distract ourselves from boring vampire-free reality for ten minutes, and to celebrate this series of books together. We want these kinds of messages to cease.
What does the anon hate accomplish? BC honestly it’s getting redundant at this point. We got the message, we know what you think you want.
You know what would actually make you happy, anon? Probably not wasting your time sending messages like that, but instead, spending that time on a more rewarding hobby. If that means celebrating these books together, great! If it means something not fandom-related like knitting, ALSO great!
If you disrespect OCs, you disrespect all authors.
OC stands for Original Character. Whether or not they exist in a fandom that is not their own does not matter. That’s why it’s not Original Story it’s Original Character. An OC is created solely off of the imagination of the author to carry out their purpose whether it be to love another character, to solve a conflict, or something else.
It is understandable if someone does not like a character that is a mary-sue or gary-stu. These are characters who are either a writer’s self-insert (which the reader wouldn’t know if they don’t know the author) or characters that seem too “perfect”. However, making mary-sues or gary-stus is a step in the OC creation process. These are typically made by beginning authors. They need time and people to help them develop their characters. No one is going to make a first draft of a character and call it a final, it takes time for characters to develop fears, strengths, weaknesses, hobbies, etc. It’s like revising an essay. You’ll move things around and change things until they’re nearly perfect, but nothing is ever “perfect”. You’ll ask your peers for their advice and to revise any potential errors. In the roleplaying world, a roleplay partner should point out any flaws or something that may improve a character. This is what makes characters less of a mary-stu or gary-stu. But the thing is, no one gives them a chance.
As an author in the roleplay community with several OC roleplay blogs, I myself and a few other OC authors have been having a hard time being accepted by those who play canon characters. This is why I’m writing this. Someone was bashing OCs in general, saying that they were an annoyance. Maybe it’s hard for some people to grasp, but canon characters are original characters. Someone created Tamaki Suoh, someone created Harry Potter, someone created Captain Jack Sparrow, but only when they got a popular movie, anime, book, etc. did they become what we know as “canon”. They’re still original to someone regardless of what people say. There are also canon characters that are more than perfect, but no one bashes them as much as people criticize original characters.
I’m not saying that there aren’t people who aren’t accepting of the creativity and imagination of Original Characters. It’s just that there isn’t enough people who are willing to look deeper into a character. Many criticize OCs before they really get to know them or their story. It’s disrespectful of people to do this without getting a good look. Maybe if people give more constructive criticism, OCs will receive a new makeover and the stereotype will be changed.
Let’s please get rid of the stereotype that all OCs are mary-sues or gary-stus.Because let’s admit it. There are people who will go onto an OCs page and say, “This character is an OC, they must suck,“ and not look into the backstory, the canons, or the intricate details that the author spend days, weeks, years putting into a character. And because of what? A lousy stereotype.
Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Don’t judge a character by their author. Don’t judge an author by their character. Help us develop our characters. Give us constructive criticism to make us better. Respect that we have flaws and that nothing is perfect.
I love how werewolf/vampire/monster tv shows are now considered girl shows. Like, that genre is ours now. Fangs, claws, and the supernatural are now considered girl stuff, and that pleases me far more than I’d like to admit.
The first werewolf story written down was Bisclarvet. Written by a woman.
Mary Shelly.
Christina Rossetti’s goblins.
Ann Radcliffe’s Gothic horror castles. Angela Carter’s women with fur and fangs and fear of nothing.
Anne Rice telling of a woman vampire goddess. Shirley Jackson and the horrors rooted in our own suburbia.
Flannery O’Conner. Margaret Atwood at times.
Three sisters on the cold English moors writing stories of ghosts and death and wicked love.
Massive slews of ghost stories written by women and churned out by 18th and 19th century literary pamphlets.
When I say I try to be the RPer I want others to be, I absolutely don’t mean replying to threads with ninja speed and being on top of your RP tumblr like being Lestat, etc, is your job. (Unless you have managed to make into a job in which case please explain how.) Everyone is busy and has obligations outside of tumblr. If you want to and can reply to things quickly, power to you! If you can’t, it’s not a big deal and anyone who doesn’t think your replies are worth waiting for you is probably not an RP buddy you want.
What I mean is that I try to follow the Golden Rule: treat others as you want to be treated. Which means, essentially, put stuff out there, sending things out, foster interaction, and be open to being sending things to you.
You’ve probably heard about reblog karma. This is a good thing, where if you reblog a meme, you send an ask to the person you reblogged from. Great. But how about instead of reblog karma, you think of it like RP Karma. This is a game that falls apart if everyone sits still and waits for things to come to them.
So for example, if 6 people on my dash post a meme and I have time, whether or not I reblog it, I try to send everyone an ask. Sometimes the memes require thought and I can’t think of a question or ask for everyone and that’s fine. Sometimes I’m busy or on mobile and just can’t get to it. But if I can and and I have time, I make an effort. Especially if it’s a “send a symbol for a headcanon” type meme, just send some out! You can copy and paste the same one into everyone’s box if you want.
Beyond memes, if you think of a question you want to ask, say, Louis. Send it to a Louis you follow. Hell, send it to ALL OF THE LOUIS RPERS! Why not.
Or if someone posts an ask answer or a one liner* your muse has a reaction to, comment on it! React IC! That’s the point. If, say, Armand posts a line like “Banzai trees are hideous!” Lestat can reply that he’s making Banzai the official Coven Tree, Louis can argue that his banzai in Trinity Gate is quite lovely thanks, and Daniel can complain that he has no sense of cultivating something and watching it flourish.
I’m also a fan of reblogging replies you really love or sending people messages to tell them how much you appreciate their work. RP seems to be a hobby where everyone has days they doubt themselves, so a little positivity goes a long way!
TL;DR: Basically, when you have time, energy, and inspiration, put things out there. Reply to other muses’ IC asks & posts, send asks (anon or IC), reblog replies you like, comment on posts, send kudos out through VC Positivity or just in general. Be the RPer you wish everyone else was in terms of what you put out there. Because if you don’t send things out and interact and make RPland a happy place, no one is going to do it for you.
(*Obviously check RPer’s rules and if they don’t want people responding to things IC, heed their wishes.)
^THIS.
Same goes for interaction with fanartist, cosplayers, general fandom ppl, etc. Don’t wait from someone to drop into your inbox, reach out to them! Be the blog you wish to see *u*
“Now it’s time to celebrate the truely “King of the VC-Illustrations” garama! None got the point right in drawings as he does – mixed up with great humour, a fabolous line art with its speaking characterizations just in the drewn lines and coloring. Surely, he should be supported for a new comic /grafic novel adaption and I would buy ever single on. Never I will quit follow this greatness of this lovely human he also is.”
I-want-my-IWTV 