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I was wondering if there was a way to Block certain authors on TG Storytime? There is an author on there that refuses to use she/her pronouns for Trans Women characters and I'm sick of seeing their disgusting trans misogyny. I've thought about reporting them but I doubt the admins will care but I could be wrong. Has anyone had any luck with the report function? I'm asking because I'm not going to bother if this person will be protected and nothing will be done. If anything I'd just like the ability to remove them from my list so I don't have to see any of their terrible work.

Thank you for your help.

Comments

It might depend on the story

In some stories using female pronouns for MtF characters might be the right idea, but in some it might be the wrong one:

1) One's gender is between their ears, not between their legs.
2) An author always holds an 'artistic license' - the liberty to break some bounds in order to better show the point of the story.

And if a writer goes beyond these and into plain trans misogyny, you can always just ignore their stories. Unless they spread deliberate hate, blocking then like you want is not protecting your rights, but violating theirs and their readers ones. This is not a right thing to do: when violating rights starts, it does not stop easily and where you would like it to.

The character in question

Said they were a woman. And not that it matters but they also by magickal means, science means, or surgery means got a vulva/uterus and they still refuse to call them she/her. Even when the character theemselves said they are a girl.

I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
Transgender, Gamer, Little, Princess, Therian and proud :D

I don't think I'd bother

Patricia Marie Allen's picture

If you know this is the kind of story that author writes, then don't read their stories. There are several authors on various site that I choose not to read for one reason or another.

Now as to appropriate pronouns. My rule of thumb, is what's inside the head of the trans person. Many of my stories don't swap the pronouns, because the trans person hasn't made the swap in their own head. Many of my characters don't make it all the way to full transition... mainly because that's me. I've not, and I'm not likely to fully transition.

Now on the rare occasion that my characters do transition then pronouns swap when they swap.

Hugs
Patricia

Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt

Shouldn't Confusion Rule?

I would think that (in describing, thinking about, or talking about) a TG person, confusion should rule (especially at the beginning). I notice that some authors use that as a literary tool (for instance, one author in a recent story, had a speaker say "Eric...ka"! In one of my stories, a girl switched between describing a friend as female and male when talking to a 911 operator!). In comments, I frequently use "he/she" rather than he or she.

On a logical level, some characters in a story cannot or refuse to recognize a TG character as a member of the other sex. Shouldn't these characters always use the ""CORRECT"" pronoun? Since some stories are about a process of discovery, I would expect language confusion even from the character who ""MAY"" be TG.

The author being criticized could argue (in ""HIS"" defense) that the criticism of ""HIS"" use of pronouns "smacks" of "political correctness". If a reader dislikes a writers style or story content, why not just skip the authors stories. There are several authors on BC that I avoid reading because I strongly object to their content/ style.

On the other hand, I am a proponent of notifying authors of spelling or factual errors [please note that I did not include grammatical errors - I have a habit of deliberately violating standard English grammer]. If I am particularly critical, I send my criticism via pm.

Even

At the end of hte storyu they use their deadname and refer to them as He/him/his... EVen if the character says they are a woman or a girl. Even if the character is transformed through surgery, medicine, sci fi stuff, magick. Still call them male and their dead name.

I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
Transgender, Gamer, Little, Princess, Therian and proud :D

I don't get this issue

Why is it so important that the person writing the story gets the pronouns right for their character? The way you state the issue is as if they are somehow personally attacking you, which doesn't sound to be the case. I sincerely hope they will be protected if the worst aspect of their writing is bad pronouns...it would be just as terrible to censor them for that as it would be to censor sites like BC for existing.

If you don't like their inability to recognize gender in their own characters, chart it up to bad writing and don't read their stories...reporting them as if it is somehow offensive is not saying anything about them at all.

Being able to filter out bad authors is not a bad idea in general, of course you never know when they will actually write something worth reading so you could miss out because you couldn't get past the thought that they didn't know a he from a she in one of their earlier works.

Also, if this is about TG Storytime, why post it here instead of on their boards or whatever?

Sorry, but this post kind of makes me twitchy because it appears to be more about "I don't like them because they don't get me" than about someone truly going out of their way to be offensive, or about getting filters on a website for personal preference. If the admins start removing stories over pronouns, what is next...removing stories because the femdom wife didn't bring over a REAL man?

When I first saw this entry earlier today I told myself not to comment because I found this post somewhat offensive, but after taking a nap and coming back I just couldn't help adding my two cents.

one option

Dawnfyre's picture

review the story(ies), mention how the author continually misgenders the character and that this leaves the impression the author actively dislikes trans folk.

That does 2 things, brings the issue to the author's attention and lets other readers know about it.

after all a review of a story is a part of the funtionality on the site, so you are only using the site for it's intended purpose.


Stupidity is a capital offense. A summary not indictable.

I've

Sent at least 10 different notes to the author, and he continues to chug out stories with the same concept. I don't think he cares honestly.

I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
Transgender, Gamer, Little, Princess, Therian and proud :D

Actually he may be being more honest than many writers

If a story is really about a male who is not wired to be female why should he NOT continue to think of himself as one no matter what the package on the outside. After all when or if you were or are presenting as male don't you still think of yourself as female no matter what the outside looks like? Do you tell yourself because I am physically male I must refer to myself as male? Why should it be any different for someone if the situation is reversed.

Commentator
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laika's picture

is that there's plenty of transmisogynists reading and writing it; as counterintuitive as that may sound. I've read comments about transpeople on the message board at another site that were astoundingly hostile to actual transfolk. They like the fiction, the fetish stuff, but out in real life they don't believe in the legitimacy of anyone who identifies with a different sex from the one they were assigned at birth. These people are not our friends. (They also tend to be pretty regular-misogynist too). If this author is one of these he probably LIKES that he's upsetting you; and considers his misgendering of his characters a blow against PC and those lib'ral fascists from the LGBT community who are trying to tell him what he can or can't say. You know the type.

I recommend backing off from trying to , living a happy life, supporting our transgender brothers and sisters and letting people like him go on their merry way to Hell.
~love Veronica

I am not transgendered

But don't really understand what a transmisogynist exactly is. While I would probably try to use the correct pronouns in my stories to represent a person's state of mind, I do recognize that the author has final say in how his story is written.

I don't understand how that is such a significant political or anti-LGBT statement. If I were the author though I would probably take offense at someone writing me irate letters about my pronouns and be just as stubborn...not to be anti PC or anti LGBT, but just to be contrary to someone trying to tell me how my stories should be written.

Please understand that I am not anti anyone. I do think that considering some of the really bad and evil stories that tend to pop up in TG fiction that worrying about pronoun usage is like Hermoine worrying about getting expelled. If that is the worst thing said author has done then he is already better than half of the TG authors out there. There are at least a dozen authors who you couldn't pay me to read any more because all of there stories tend to be evil and/or depressing. I think TG stories are the only type of stories I have ever read that people celebrate the bad guys winning more often than not.

Bad pronouns are nothing special next to some of the actual situations the protagonists go through in many of the stories that seem so popular these days.