oceana

I don't want to get into the whole incest debate again, because this is fandom, and it is fiction, and if I have learned one thing from this whole experience, it is that tastes differ, and not everyone who likes to read Snape/Underage Harry is a child molester in real life. (I know I'm not.)

But let's make one thing clear: incest, in real life, is wrong and abusive (as are Teacher/underage student relationships).

I know that it's not all as easy as it seems. There may be culture (or may have been) in which incest was acceptable. Just as it was acceptable in ancient greece for older men to have young boys as lovers. But we don't live in these worlds, and in the world we live in, incest is one of the strongest taboos, and I dare say that in 99% of incest cases, it really is child abuse and it destroys children, families and lives.
(No, I don't have numbers. I doubt there are any, but I still think they are right. Unless you count a cousin marrying his cousin somewhere in Texas incest, in which case I admit that there might be love involved.)

Incest in fandom, of course, is different. Personally, I chose not to read it, but I don't judge anyone who does and I don't hink half of my friendslist are axe-murdering pedophiles because they like their Wincest or Don/Charlie. At least I really hope you aren't.

I've read Dale Edmond's excellent "Parallel Connections over Symmetric Spaces" and I loved it, because Don and Charlie really loved each other and it destroyed them that they weren't allowed to. This is the kind of incest story that I would love to read, but I don't go looking for it, to avoid all the PWPs and other things that I simply do not like.

So, if someone writes a story in which Dean abuses his brother, coerces him into something he doesn't want and can't understand, why, I ask, do people get mad? Because this is exactly what incest is about in real life. I think if you are playing in such an ambigous field like this, you better be prepared to face the realities from time to time, even if they are unpleasant.

Is such a story in character? Oh please, that's just like debating if Dean would be gay ("No! Never!" - "Yes, so gay, did you see his pants?"). It is a redundant question in our fannish world. Of course there are characterizations, and if a story had Sam smoking and drinking and keeping Dean on a leash in rosa underwear, I'd say it's rather OOC. But a hypothetical young Dean, a character we haven't really seen on the show? Don't tell me there is a characterization for him. Two damaged kids whose Dad goes hunting for monsters - it could happen just as well as anything else.

What annoys me most are all the "Why? Why did you have to write this?" questions, because really, why does anyone of us have to write anything? That, IMHO, is not a valid question to any writer. Why someone has to publish something or refuses to use a spellchecker, are questions that make more sense to me. But even more, questioning the author's motivation for writing something so "horrible and wrong" speaks of an amazing innocence to me, no, not innocence, blindness. Blindness to what real life is like, because we live in our happy little fandom world, where brothers sleep with their brothers, fathers with their kids and teachers with their students every day, and it DOES NOT HAVE CONSEQUENCES. You lean back and enjoy, and then you go back to your safe and intact lives, with your husbands and parents and your DSL connection and pretend that the world really is that perfect.

Yes, fandom is an escape for many. I can understand why many of us do not want to think about real life problems when they are here. Curiously, however, the authors many of us like best write stories that are very close to real life. Jack and Daniel with honest to god real problems about coming to terms with being gay. Don't ask don't tell. Just holding up a relationship with its daily problems. Even in the totally unreal world of Harry Potter authors and readers strive for the "reality" of growing up in mortal danger, of living in a world where evil is real. But as soon as someone writes about talking beagles, we judge them as crazy and a bad writer. And no one seemed too fond of the story where Jack is breastfeeding Teal'c's child either. No, we want our characters to be as close to reality as possible, so we can feel like they do and understand their motivations.

Why, now I have to ask, can't we deal with reality in incest fic? Because it reminds us that incest, in the world we live in, is wrong? Because we have to open our eyes and realize that the world is not as pretty as we'd like it to be?

Well, here's what I think: just as I think it is stupid and naive to ignore "Don't ask don't" tell when you write Stargate slash (and yet, sometimes it works, and it doesn't need to be mentioned in every story), I think it is stupid and naive to write and read incest fic without at least knowing the real consequences it can have. And yes, sometimes ignorance works and not every incest story has to be about the wrongness of it all.

Just don't come screaming if it is. Showing such a blindness to real life shows to me that you are not old enough to read incest fic. Or maybe to be in fandom at all. (And I use a very generic you, I don't mean anyone on my flist in particular)

And - just for the record: Underage wincest and non-con sounds - to me - exactly like child abuse and rape. But then, I don't read any of this in the first place, so maybe I'm the wrong person to ask.

Also: I do think the people who were turned on by the story in question are more than just a bit weird. And I'd find it definitely wrong if that story were written with the intention to turn people on. But then again, I learned not to judge people in fandom on things like that. To each his own, as long as you are prepared to face the reality about what you create so peacefully in our virtual world. At least sometimes. If I want those people on my flist is a different question altogether.



Go ahead, start yelling at me.