A Note on Censorship
We’ve talked about this somewhat tricky subject before, but in light of recent events the topic is due for a little dusting off.
Every so often we get a message asking us to no longer reply to certain kinds of asks, or rec certain kinds of stories, or touch on certain kinds of topics. Things to do with rape, HTP, incest, underage, BDSM, disease, war, A/B/O; things that the sender thinks are wrong, bad, disgusting, disrespectful, condoning, propagating.
Not to be blunt or anything, but that is never, ever, ever going to happen. We’ll reiterate our mission statement: to find lost fics and to recommend the right story to the right person. Any story. All stories.
To further repeat ourselves: we firmly believe that every author has every right to write anything they like, in the manner that they prefer, about the subject they choose, and in the words they love, and that every reader has the right to read any story that they want or need to read. It might not be what we ourselves like to read, but that doesn’t matter one bit. It’s not our story. We’re not the people who need to read that story. It’s not on us to cast judgement on anyone who writes, or reads, and loves that story.
It’s not on anyone to cast judgement like that. No one has that right. Throughout the history of fandom, people have tried. It’s the very reason we have the Organization for Transformative Works, the very reason we have the Archive of Our Own. Because people have always tried to censor things they didn’t like, with the same kind of rhetoric and the same kind of excuses over and over that were really just puritanical right wing moral crusading disguised as liberal concerns all along.
There will be no content policing or censorship on this blog. We are a Library and that is antithesis to everything we stand for. No matter that we get reported for explicit content or inundated with messages, we won’t do it. We’ll fight back every time. It’s not happening. We’ll always find a way to get the stories out that you don’t want to be told. The Ao3 was built specifically to ensure that fandom would never be censored again, and we can only wholeheartedly pledge ourselves to that cause, because we are a Library and that’s what we do.
That being said, it’s not because everyone can write and read whatever they want, that we don’t understand that sometimes there are things you, personally, would really prefer not to come across. Because it triggers you, or squicks you, or just because it’s not your cup of tea, plain and simple. Thankfully, there’s a few tools out there to help you achieve that! This is how you can protect yourself:
We’ve talked about Ao3rdr and Ao3savior before. These tools will help you blacklist anything you need to on Ao3 to keep yourself not only spoiler-free, but also safe and happy in your reading endeavours.
Please be kind to yourself and use these tools to protect yourself and your mental health. Also be kind to the other people in the fandom sandbox and don’t expect everyone to conform to your idea of how we should all play in that sandbox. Take responsibility for your own experience. Unfollow blogs who post things that make you feel bad. Don’t go into the tag of something you dislike. Don’t read stories that have content that squicks you out. Heed tags. Use the ‘back’ button if you need to. Don’t like, don’t read is not just there for the author; it’s there for the reader, first and foremost. So please, be kind to yourself and just don’t. It’s ok if you don’t. Fandom is supposed to make you happy, not angry or upset or sad or scared or panicked or any of that. We want to help you be happy by finding you your kind of story. And everyone else their kind of story. So please help us do that by taking care of yourselves.
With much love,
The Stucky Library Librarians
