Lisbet_Adair

I really don't think racism is a "minor" form of xenophobia. People within certain groups who have been on the receiving end of derogatory language, sometimes try to claim the words back to change their meaning, as a way of taking power from the people abusing them, and that makes a big difference. Unfortunately, we have the people who gone before us to thank for that. I think we just have to be grown up about it, realise that we might feel differently to a member of a group who have been abused and that the best way of solving it is not to be an arsehole about it. There's also what's appropriate between friends who know each other well, and know whether something is an in-joke or not, but that's a situation where the boundaries have been adjusted on an individual basis. Well, it's about educating yourself, and finding out what's considered an acceptable term or not. But I think it's a cold day in hell before I'd prefer "What do you want, cunt?" over "What would you like, madam?" We're just going to have to disagree here. I think government and law can separate "legitimate protest" versus "being an arsehole" and you don't think they can. We're going to go round in circles. I'm not really sure what you're hoping to achieve by that statement. You've built up a straw man whose offended by something innocuous. It's a facetious arguement.

It's libellious to make a statement that's just not true e.g. to accuse Justin Bieber of having sex with a horse. That would be libellious if it appeared in the national press, but saying something racist isn't by definition libellious. Politcal correctness is just politeness enforced on a grand scale. The fact is, there are tensions and differences, but the point is to create an environment where the politeness occurs as second nature, rather than us being surrounded by obnoxious people calling other people "niggers". I've already pointed out that I don't condone the removal of legitimate protest again the government. As a case in point, if you live in Belfast and wish to stage a rally in support of the devolution and eventual sucession from the United Kingdom, that should be your right to do; however it's another thing to stage a big parade with flutes and drums singing that all Catholics should die. And vice versa. Hate crimes are just the terms that have become accepted for assaults against people because they belong to a particular group of people: transgendered people, people with disabilities, goths and gay people. Yes, when it comes to physical assault, there already exists adequate legislation; however these people have the right to live free of harassment, and I believe that their rights need protected more than the guy shouting "You Paki cunt, why don't you fuck off and die!" across the street every day. I'm not saying the guy shouting those things shouldn't go to a political rally in support of tighter immigration control, I'm just saying he should stop being a racist dick. I've not read De Sade yet, so I'll have to decline to comment.

Enjoying the idea of being dominated or dominating other people doesn't make you inherently evil. Enjoying the idea of inflicting pain on others doesn't make you inherently evil. What I'd consider to be evil, which I'm using interchangeably for "unethical", is exploring these feelings in reality in such a way that other people involved without their consent and are harmed as a result, because that shows a blatant disregard for the life and welfare of another person. If you have fantasies where you enjoy inflicting pain on others, the mark of an ethical person is one who finds a way to reconcile these fantasies by exploring them without harming others. E.g if you have a fantasy about kidnapping a man, tying him up and penetrating him with a cucumber, then you find a person who wants to be kidnapped, tied up and penetrated with a cucumber. You don't just abduct someone and assault them. If you want to explore your fantasies involving sadism (and not wanting to switch is a normal variation of BDSM) then I strongly advise finding someone with whom you can talk it through in detail, understand the use of safewords and engage emotionally. That way, you can ensure that you both get joy out of the encounter.

I totally agree that it's paramount to teach your children good manners, and I support the state stepping in to create an environment where we treat each other respect from the early years. If we were nice to each other, we could make the world a better place!

Is there any friction between him and the Marines who accompany him? Are they annoyed to have to come all this way to babysit some geek so he can fix this thing they don't understand or are any of them interested? Are any of them doing this military duty to fund college or further training in engineering and are interested in what he's doing? In which case, if he has friends within the group, is he not devastated that they have all been killed? Do they respect him as an engineering geek, in which case how has he won this respect or do they bully him? If he's a military engineer, he must have done some basic training, no? I'm fairly sure that everyone, even the pastry chefs in the army should be able to pick up a rifle and know which end is meant to be pointed at the enemy in case of emergency.

"Classic" for the first or "Ne" (e acute) from the French "born" as used to describe people born with a different name like John Smith ne Cadogan in obituarities. "Morphs" for the second, to mean that they have changed into vamps and "Laz" for the last one from the myth of Lazarus who rose from the dead.

Well, we have specific legislation where I come from regarding hate speech and threatening behaviours, which I'm agreement with. We've had a few high profile convictions in the UK of persons prosecuted for leaving abusive messages on tribute pages for young people who've died: saying they were sluts who deserved to die etc. Obviously, this was extremely distressing for the families of those people and I have say, I question the value of the speech of those people who posted those abusive messages, and I don't see that speech as being something that requires protection. At no point do I think that the right to legitimate public protest should be removed, but some adults do not have a sense of etiquette or good manners, and the I think law needs to step in where it causes harm. Obviously, it's a tough piece of legislation to write, and I don't want to remove anyone's right to say "change the government!" or "free this person who's been imprisoned wrongly!". I'm talking purely about erotic fiction where the subject matter is used to arouse and titilate. If you write a book set in times where slavery was acceptable in America, and that's part of the plot: that's acceptable. For example: Neil Gaiman wrote in American Gods about a character who was a victim of slavery and the dreadful things she experienced in order to explain a bit about who she was as a character. I think that's acceptable. If you write something on AFF where a character is aroused by those dreadful things in such a way that it's designed to titilate, I have issue with that because I see being aroused by the degradation of people of a particular race without their consent as being unethical. I should also point out that I don't have issue with power play or BDSM within erotic fiction where that is consensual. BDSM is not the same as torture used in interrogation, it's not the same as the judicial floggings in some parts of the world and it's not violent rape. I have a serious ethical objection when people get these confused. I know my opinion is not shared by everyone, but the question was asked, and that's how I feel.

Personally, I don't believe in Freedom of Speech. I believe that speech does have the power to harm others any my rights to speak end where they infringe on the rights of others to live their life free from harm. I don't write fics about non-consenual sex, or sex involving children because I believe that the existance of the fics, and the agreement of reviews that the fics are arousing confirms to those would act out these behaviours that there is a culture of acceptability of their behaviour, regardless of the legal situation. When a person eventually harms another, it's not a snap decision they've made: it's part of a process where they've gradually changed how they feel about other people over time. Eventually, cultural barriers and personal barriers are overcome and they're able to commit harm. This is the process explored within Itzin's "Pornography" which was an analysis of widespread misogyny within pornography and the violence against women in wider society. Regardless of how I feel, the owners of this site have made the choice to allow fiction that I don't agree with to be published here. I appreciate that the fiction is tagged appropriately, as it means that I can just not read the stories I would find offensive. I'm not going to berate the writers for their choice to write their fics, because using the site demands a certain etiquette; although if someone asked on the forum whether or not I thought writing rapefics was acceptable behaviour, I'd post my opinion as I'm doing now. Personally, I think if you publish writing that includes rape and child abuse as a means of titillation, you sanction that as being acceptable behaviour. That is my opinion on the matter. Using AFF to publish work is a complex ethical question for me, because I am sharing space with people who I believe are saying that behaviours I find unacceptable, are acceptable. But that's a compromise I've had to make, because there is a limited amount of space for the erotic fan fiction I write. If I want to write graphic descriptions of men having sex, I can't put it with the rest of the PG stuff on FF.net for the same genre.

I had a read of this, and left you a review. May not have internet access until Monday, so I'm not ignoring you if you wanted to discuss anything.

I think you could make this work, but I would personally chose Harry and Dudley. Dudley's at an exclusive private school where I imagine you could have a deeply ingrained hierarchy where some boys pay others for favours. I'm sure Stephen Fry had a book where there was a lot of exploration of the sexual hierarchy of boys at a private school which incorporated the idea that deprived of females, some males will explore sexual interaction with other males (vis, the idea of Gate Gays in prisons), but who would not do so if they hadn't been put in that particular environment. The Dursley's have fiscal and social power over Harry, which he must find frustrating. Being able to manipulate someone sexually might be gratifiying for him.

I'm just starting. I managed a single one-shot which went up complete and am posting chapter-by-chapter a continuing story which is not likely to be particularly long. I am not sure if I would do this in future or not. There's a value to putting your work up to find out what people like and don't like to improve the later chapters, but there is also a value in having a whole story that ties together completely.

Hmm... I don't think that women can't write a male point of view regarding sex. I certain know of one professional erotic fiction writer who writes male erotic fiction that's read and enjoyed by male fans (I went to a talk on how she makes money from her work). She said it was important to research properly, and she worked to get into the mindset of her characters, who often had very different sexual desires from her own. I agree with all that, because nothing boils my piss more than in the middle of a fic I'm enjoying, to read something wholly anatomically inaccurate or that would do someone an injury. That's a mood killer.

I have a fic I'm currently writing that had a lot more exposition and character backstory in the original first draft, but I felt that it detracted from what I was trying to pace a short erotic fic. Now I realise there was some really useful information in those scenes, so I have to keep a note of what I haven't mentioned so far lest people get confused; however I accept that those scenes just slowed the pace. I kept them in a first draft just in case I want them for another similar story later.

I have finally found the intro thread. I'm not new to the concept of fan fiction as I was writing X-Files stories when I was thirteen. None of these survived. I want to get back into writing, and I'm currently using Call of Duty: Modern Warfare as a stepping stone. I've never tried to write romance or sex before in my life. It's a learning curve.

Apparently I'm writing Call of Duty slashfic like Arthur C Clarke. I've never actually read any Arthur C Clarke, but he never struck me a producer of quality erotic fiction. Obviously, there's work to be done on my part.

I do think it's a bit of a shame when people read the stories and don't review them, and I can see it bothers other people too. I quite agree with everything said above about ratings that are low, with no explanation. How does anyone expect you to make your work better if they won't say what it is about it that they didn't like? That said, it does annoy me to see a story which is tagged completely appropriately and giving a full description of all the acts likely to take place within the text, only to have a review that is upset by the acts they were warned about, or that they don't like this fandom. I can understand if you want to leave a review saying "This was not a pairing I thought would work, and I think you might need to do x or y in order for it to be convincing." My only review is a snub that questions why anyone would write slash for that particular fandom, and I find it terribly ironic that it's from a named user who writes the same for another fandom!