I was reading a rather different serially posted TG story on another site. The story is well written and the plot is subtle and slow in it's development. It was about an extremely conservative religious patriarchal rural family that found and took in an abused TG youth near death. Even though they thought the child was going against their religious beliefs, they decided to support the child and foster him/her. They really did go out of their way to accommodate the child's desire to transition. I thought the story might give both the family and the child a chance to learn some good things about each other.
As the story progresses, the religious characters are depicted as benign, wise, and highly educated. The transgender characters and institutional professionals looking after the TG child's interests are depicted as uneducated, vapid, and blindly pushing a TG agenda without counseling or reason. An administrator introduced a helper for the TG child that was very beautiful, but admitted to everyone that she had over a dozen surgeries to achieve her beauty, and she prostituted herself in order to pay for them. There were some other TG characters that were introduced that were described in a particularly creepy way.
At that point I decided that the story is just a well written propaganda piece against transitioning. I left a comment that has since been removed. I hoped to see if other readers felt as I did.
I said something like, "This story is going down a path I hoped it wouldn't and I don't see it changing course. I am going to stop reading here."
So, was I out of line leaving that post?
Comments
Unh-uh
No, your comment was politely phrased and not at all out of line. Some people seem to think that only praise should be posted; I think it is important that an author recieves feedback from all sides.
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
Re: Unh-uh
I agree with Karen. Your response, as shown here, Wendy, was quite civil, very restrained as a matter of fact. You made it quite clear by your wording that you didn't agree with what you saw taking place within the story and you chose to move on from it.
I didn't see it, but...
If that's all you said I think they were wrong to remove your comment. It's their call, but it's not like you insulted anyone. If it's the site I'm thinking of they remove comments at the request of the author. So maybe the author really does have some weird agenda. Calling the kid "a transgender" in the synopsis is sort of a red flag to me...
~Veronica
Well shit, I guess it really CAN happen here..,
.
Comments
Because comments are directly attached to stories here, I will remove them at the request of an author. Sometimes I try to talk them out of it. I would not have removed your comment without the author asking me to do so. And I understand why you did not wish to engage in a PM or email exchange with the author.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
My Own Opinion On Transgender
I am post op and have lived as a woman for 15 years. Oddly, I do not seem to get challenged. Essentially my transition was not voluntary. The real challenge of a religious life is to make ourselves pleasing to God, not to force others to do so.
Still, I would hope that those who feel strongly about transitioning would do so, but if asked, I would never tell them that transition is not a very painful and rocky road. I think that the Gay Agenda, or perhaps Homosexual Agenda was first published around 1972 and that the authors promoted a very militant agenda that has perhaps gone too far.
I'm still extremely conservative, painfully so, but have learned through my own experiences that following the path that Jesus laid out for us is quite hard. The challenge to the religious is to actually be loving to all others even when they do things we find repulsive. I believe that most T folk here write their stories but still live that double life, trying their best to impersonate normal family men. These are the truly strong and brave.
Yes It Was Inappropriate
The person running the site, or the person who is monitoring the site, took your comment down, so -- by that definition, it was in inappropriate.
Whether or not you or I think it is inappropriate is not salient in that context.
However -- In a sane and balanced world your remark was appropriate and should not have been a bit controversial.
As a rule, I think an author has the right to construct the world their story exists in. They should give an indication to the reader early on as to the rules that are outside of a certain norm so that the reader is allowed to make an informed decision if they want to invest their time reading.
There is nothing wrong with writing a story with a bias. In fact, I would think every story carries a bias to a certain degree.
I've written several stories with villains that seem to come out of central casting as anti-trans morons. That is to be expected on this site. I would find it very hard to write the kind of story you outlined, but I wouldn't fault the author for expressing their opinion.
Your response was the same that I would have had.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Hmm
Inappropriate? Not so much, imo.
An author looking to censor their audience kinda creeps me out anyways and to that extent raises my flag to 'no thanks' heights.
Re: Hmm
I posted a piece here, the prologue to Spring Hill Academy, and one "guest reader" made a comment that, at first, was only moderately nasty. It wasn't until the second paragraph that they came out slamming me as being the "Knower of All Secrets" and other things that I considered to be a direct attack against me, not the story. If that part had not been there, I likely wouldn't have worried about the rest of it.
I asked Erin to remove the comment. Erin did so, but within minutes, the jerk had put it up again. S/he kept doing so, apparently using something to mask his or her location on the net, redirecting it, thus making it appear as if it were coming from one of BCTS' own servers.
I'm not tech savvy enough to know how someone could do that. I'm smart, but not that way. LOL
It's been about 3.5 months since that happened, I might ask Erin to remove it again to see what happens.
Sometimes, an author censoring comments is appropriate; this site is supposed to be, in Erin's own words, "a friendly place." It would have been far more appropriate for the jerk I've mentioned to send that message to me in a PM rather than publicly posting it.
Edited to add: The jerk is still watching that story four months later, his comment was back three as of hours ago. *sighs*
Edited again to add: Erin unpubbed it again and turned off comments on that chapter for the foreseeable future.
Ugh
Ugh, sounds like the jerk was harassing rather than commenting. I totally get where you're coming from with that. I think. My foot doesn't taste good right now lol
Meh, I dunno what I'm saying *shuffles off mumbling about coffee*
^^
Re: Ugh
Could do with some nice coffee myself. Maybe we can virtually relax over one? *grins*
Yeah, harassing was about the extent of it. Erin just unpubbed it again, we're hoping it stays that way this time.
As for the comment of yours that I originally replied to here, it wasn't in any way offensive, no need for you to get upset. There are times where, as I showed, it is perfectly appropriate for an author to censor comments and others where it is clearly not appropriate. If I saw someone just asking to have comments removed because they simply wanted nothing out there that puts that author in a bad light or simply because they don't like what was said even though it was politely done, I'd be ticked off myself.
No worries
Mmmm, virtual coffee is of the good too.
Admittedly I wasn't upset so much as having a face-palm moment at letting my mouth engage before my brain caught up lol. Posting a slightly flippant rather than cogent comment.
I believe the dynamics between author and audience is a complicated subject at the best of times. But long story short, I kinda think we agree on the spirit of commenting..?
Generally, I stick with either an encouraging comment for the author or expressing how I feel in response to their concept. I leave critiquing writers to writers ^^
Hugs
Jenna
Creepy
Sorry to hear your stalker/harasser is still, well, stalking/harassing. Unless it's automated or something... Any case that's pretty frackin' lame.
Hugs
Jenna
Hugs
Looked like you could use a hug. Perhaps you'd consider creating an account here and introducing yourself properly? Of course if you've already got an account, as seems likely, that would be somewhat redundant lol
And yes, I'm sticking my nose in as expected pfft.
Jenna
Re: Hugs
I'll gladly take hugs. Now you can see what I was talking about, Jenna. *shakes head and wanders off again*
Ginormous huggles
Aren't hugs just the greatest?
More big huggles
Jenna
Snuggle huggles
and my deep abiding affection.
In the immortal words ...
In the immortal words of the late bard Roger Miller, "It takes all kinds to make a world..." Perhaps they should be tolerated, if only to make the rest of us seem smarter and better adjusted.
Sara
Between the wrinkles, the orthopedic shoes, and nine decades of gravity, it is really hard to be alluring. My icon, you ask? It is the last picture I allowed to escape the camera ... back before most BC authors were born.
I agree with Angela
If an author chooses to write a story depicting a group as crude, uneducated, and mind controlling, that's their right. As long as it doesn't violate the site rules. And, I suppose, If a reader's remark is offending to the author, they can request the remark removed. Just like you can bar people from PMing you.
I do believe an author can write what and how they want,
and request the removal of a comment if that's the site convention. As a non author I was conflicted about leaving any non positive comment. I wrote what I judged was a respectful comment of what bothered me enough about the story that I decided to stop reading. I just wanted some feedback here. There are a lot of good responses to consider and I appreciate them.
Censorship/ Removal of a comment on another site
So you decided the story had an agenda and decided it was going on a path you no longer wished to follow and told them you were both discontinuing reading and briefly why. So what maybe they don't like someone calling them with an opinion and were not prepared to accept you publicly stating your view. I feel they were wrong as, assuming a comment is well stated and not abusive, it is only criticism and that is part of life..
Please accept my apology,
My second comment on this blog spawned several replies, some for info, some for clarification, one that was impolite at best.
That was when the guy that I was mentioning in a fairly anonymous manner here waded in and showed his true colours to all of us.
I find it funny, but sad, too, that his comment proves the case of there being reasons for authors to exclude comments on their stories.
It sounds like an honest
It sounds like an honest comment about the story.
I mean, you could have ripped the author apart (although there would be no reason to personally attack the writer)
You could have bashed the story because you didn’t agree with it (and if said writer ever publishes this work they’re in for a shock with Goodreads and Amazon readers) but didn’t.
The question they should have asked you was why you felt that way.