It’s not often that I get really annoyed at something.
Lately, I’ve been on an even keel. I haven’t lost my temper, I haven’t given into anger, and I really haven’t snapped back at anyone, even when it would be totally deserved.
But two things have happened in the last 48 hours that basically broke that streak, and I need to get them out of my system so that I can move on and keep working.
The first? I dared write a fic that used a pairing that wasn’t traditional. In addition, I mentioned a scenario within the fic that wouldn’t be possible in real life. But this is fanfiction, so of course everything could be explained away. Right?
Well, wrong. The first comment I got on the fic was a sarcastic, “This is good, but” comment. Basically, a weak compliment, a massive complaint, and a sarcastic salutation. In short, I was wrong to write this pairing, and I was wrong to even suggest the thing that wouldn’t be possible in real life. Oh, and I should change it, because I’m wrong.
Now, I understand that not everyone likes rare pairs. I get it, and it doesn’t bother me all that much. Until I joined the 9-1-1 fandom, I rarely read the rare pairs in fandom. Instead, I would stick with the canon pairings, or whatever pairing was considered the most popular (Sterek would be a Teen Wolf example of the latter). Not everyone likes rare pairs.
But I make a conscious effort to tag everything in a fic. That’s what I love about AO3’s tagging system. It’s so detailed. You can tag a little or a lot. I always make sure to hit main themes and anything that could be triggering. But I also make sure to tag the pairing. That way, if it is something I don’t want to read, I can scroll past it.
For example, returning to Teen Wolf for this (since the only pairings in 9-1-1 I don’t like are ones that only have a story or two). There is a pairing for Scott McCall and Stiles Stilinski (I can’t remember their pairing name). I’m not a fan of Scott, I think he’s a complete idiot and a terrible Alpha who puts himself first, his current woman of choice second, and the rest of his pack third (and half the time Stiles in last). So, I wouldn’t want to read any story that is based around the Scott/Stiles pairing. So, when I go searching for TW fic, I always exclude that pairing.
It’s so simple.
Now, I sat on that comment for a while. I didn’t immediately respond, especially since it came at 5AM, and I didn’t see it until 9AM. But around noon, I did respond. I was polite, but I know some fury came out. I thanked the person for their comment (because my mother raised me with class). I told the person that yes, I know what happens in the real world, but this is fanfiction, and I made a comment to it in the author notes. I also said that I would probably continue writing the pairing, and that I respectfully request that he avoid any and all of my fics in the future, lest he not like something else I write and write another rude comment.
But honestly, I was still seething. So I mentioned it on Discord. And one of the people there begged me to unfreeze the comment thread so that she could respond. She did so, in beautiful anger. And honestly the only reason I let her do it is because she is one of the major players in the fandom for that pairing, and I know she’s also gotten some heat for it. (It’s a pairing with consenting, over age adults, thanks so much. Nothing wrong here.)
It actually threw me for a day but I thought I got over it.
Until something happened on Discord last night.
So, someone put out a call to find out if our show had DVDs. I pulled up Amazon as I answered, as I knew that Fox had released season 1 on DVD, but couldn’t remember if season 2 had also been released (nope, thanks Fox you suck). I quickly typed out my response, and ended up scrolling on the page for the DVDs, down to the comments. And low and behold, I got annoyed.
The top comment gave the DVDs for the first season one star out of five. While I would be totally reading, as people are allowed to have their opinions on media, if the entire basis of their reasoning was because the show promoted equality. Seriously, the amount of homophobia in that comment was, in a word, sickening. They also took aim at the fact that the show was pretty open about sex, especially because it aired on a family network, therefore making it a family show. Dude, it’s 8PM on a weeknight on Fox. Shut up. But it was the homophobia that actively made me sick.
The fact that this was the top comment (and 13 people marked it as helpful) was disgusting. I reported it, but of course Amazon doesn’t let you write exactly why you think a review is abusive. Which of course means it won’t get pulled.
So I mentioned on the same Discord thread that I wish Amazon still allowed comments on reviews, because I would love to comment on that one. Because it was a review written to be disgusting. The person I had been talking to agreed with me, and then we moved on.
Until someone decided that I was wrong to dislike the comment. Basically, I got told that if I didn’t like a review, tough luck. It was their opinion, and they were allowed to have it. That she (the person talking to me, not the commenter) was a book reviewer, and that’s just how the world was. That I was open to making my own review, but if I didn’t like theirs so much, I might as well not bother, as it would just open me up to being attacked for my own “beliefs”.
Well, I’m proud of how I responded to this.
I commented back with basically this: “Sure. Okay, I’m stepping far away from this conversation. I don’t want to be rude and say something that I might regret tomorrow.” I then messaged one of the mods that was on and told them that I was stepping back, but that if something wasn’t said, I would be blasting the person come morning. I clearly had been talking about the blatant homophobia that was featured in the review, and that if this person was going to actively defend it, I didn’t want to be anywhere near them.
The mod did take care of it, but I’m still kinda annoyed. Yes, I became one of those people. I reported the comment for abuse, but I doubt the robot will agree with me. (Also, thanks Amazon for having a totally useless report button. Why can’t the reviewer have the ability to explain why the review is abusive and inappropriate?) I also tweeted at their help account on Twitter.
This just… set me off. I had to step back. And honestly, I’m glad that I did, because I’m in a much better headspace today.
Until next time!
