Yet another post about why Six Apart sucks

[rusty_halo]

If you haven't seen it, check out bubble_blunder's open letter to Six Apart (and, y'know, sign if you agree).

Lots of interesting stuff in metafandom today.

I'm too busy reading to post any coherent thoughts, but I will say that one of the things that really gets to me is the underlying sexism and homophobia going on here. Both users were suspended due to homoerotic art. Would we have seen the same response to a piece that depicted a heterosexual couple? The younger party was clearly post-pubescent--he could've been anywhere between 16-24. If that had been a young woman instead of a young man, would Six Apart still be screaming kiddie porn? The idealized woman in our youth-obsessed culture is 16-24, so I have a hard time believing there'd have been a similar outcry.

I think that part of SixApart's underlying discomfort with this type of art is that it reverses the male gaze. The (male-dominated) company is worried about upsetting its (male-dominated) advertisers who are worried about a offending a (male-dominated) culture. Sexualize young women, fine, we'll look the other way. But sexualize young men and now we have a problem. They're getting a taste of the same discomfort that women have to put up with every day, and they don't like it--so they're banning us and trying to make us feel like dirty perverts.

It makes me really sad, because this community has been such a wonderful place for women to explore their sexuality in creative ways--and a refuge from a culture that objectifies us and stigmatizes our desires. Now the real world is intruding on our safe haven, and it totally sucks.

[I'm cross posting this to my InsaneJournal, which feels totally scary!]

Comments

[jerrymcl89.livejournal.com]

From all indications, I don't think Six Apart is organized enough to act with the kind of motive you are ascribing to them. I suspect they'd similarly overreact to something that showed, say, Spike having sex with an ambiguously-aged Dawn, assuming it generated similar complaints (which is, admittedly, the place where a double standard is likely). But I also think they have every right to ban that sort of thing if they wish to - they are legally responsible for what they allow, after all. I think where they fail massively is in communicating the rules, and warning people away from the boundaries before they shoot them.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

The poster who did the Snape/Harry picture also had a picture of a bound Hermione being raped and from what I read there was a time period where no one was really sure which picture she was TOSed for.

And the issue with the Harry/Snape picture to me is that while someone might argue that if you squint and try Harry can be interpreted as being older than 18, it's really difficult to say that this would be the general assumption given the context which frames these pictures. The context being series which is a young adult/child series where Harry is in fact a minor throughout the near entirity of the series. And by the time he graduates and is 18, Snape is dead. So while within the context of fandom, I can see someone approaching it from a fanfictional point of view and perhaps restaging the event into some nebulous point in the future where Harry is legal and Snape isn't dead, I think it's a bit of a jump to think that the reasonable assumption of people uninvolved with the fandom would be that Harry is under aged. Frankly, it's somewhat difficult for me to buy too whole heartedly into the interpretation that Harry is past the age of consent and that it isn't statutory rape. Harry certainly looked adolescent-like to me.

Anyway, if LJ is after slash on the basis of slash, I'll be as upset and willing to protest as loudly as anyone. But, these particular pictures, which are most easily interpreted and would reasonably be assumed to be graphic depictions of sex with minors aren't the test case that I'd prefer to hang my hat on if I could have my "I'd rathers".

I understand and empathize with being suspicious and vigilant about this, and perhaps LJ is acting out of homophobia. But I don't know that that can be determined with these cases, which I think most people uninitiated with fandom would tend to assume as portraying kids, not adults.

[jwaneeta.livejournal.com]

I was on vacation at Comic-Con and only heard about this through the grapevine. I'm just catching up.

The long and short is, as far as I can see, to stop giving these assholes our money. Right? Even a free account in a mark on the slate that 6Apart is showing to advertisers, and I feel it's really time to make a coordinated migration to a site that's not suddenly an insane corporate entity.

You know my opinion -- JournalFen only gets better and faster with every paid user. And if anyone wants a free account, I can do that too. We don't have to lose community... and we can keep our pride.