does anyone have like a default obsession
like your mind switches through these current obsessions and once the hype kind of dies down, there’s always this one fandom that it switches back to when there’s nothing else new and it’s like always there without fail
happy neil banging out the tunes day!
the only excuse I see from people who think it's okay to give fanfic writers unsolicited criticism is "if writers can't handle criticism, they should not be posting their works online" and tbh I think it's such a weak, pathetic excuse to be entitled.
someone not wanting unsolicited criticism on something they do for themself — for fun, as a form of self-care — out of love and passion has nothing to do with whether or not they can handle criticism. because we're not talking about a job they get paid to do. we're talking about a damn fanfiction. a hobby. something writers do in their free time as their source of comfort and getaway.
it's their art. not yours. it can be whatever and however an author wants it to be.
instead of trying to justify your action by gaslighting writers — whose works you read for free — that they "should be able to handle unsolicited criticism", ask yourself why you feel the need to go to someone's fic, read it, and then complain about things you don't like when you can always quietly leave if you don't have anything nice to say.
"can fanfic writers handle unsolicited criticism?" "can you learn basic manners and how not to be entitled?"
either respect artists or shut the fuck up forever.
Scars? Not body horror. Limb differences? Not body horror. Facial differences? Not body horror. Feeding tubes, colostomy bags, etc? Not body horror. Movement disorders? Not body horror. Visibly disabled people just existing is not horror.
I've greatly deliberated over whether to say something about this post and its reblogs, for it would be out of place and go against the purpose I have for this blog. This is neither about schizoid pd nor about some other mental health related observations, but a contribution to discourse I prefer to avoid.
But I would just like to make things clear to people who harbor some misconceptions about this genre.
Body horror is a subgenre of horror characterized by the violation of the human body typically represented by transformation, mutilation, or some other loss of autonomy represented by the body. The stories that use body horror as a theme or genre typically relate to a personal sense of identity as it connects to one's own body.
I see many people in the reblogs describing their gripes with body horror as "spooky person in a film characterized by spooky either by having a deformity or not acting right", which is typically represented in horror movie villains, which aren't classified as body horror.
Body horror is meant to focus on the personal experience of an individual as their body is warped beyond recognition and the horror that is experienced from that. Not based on how other people react to it, even though that's bound to happen, it's not the core theme.
Disabled people might even resonate more with body horror, should they have the correct conception of what it actually is. Loss of autonomy, lack of ability to perform things you know you should be able to do, your body doing things you don't want it to. Like for instance, the chestburster in the original Alien was partially conceptualized as a metaphor for crohn's disease.
Body horror genre films, books, tv, etc., are generally meant to be a contained personal story about grappling with your own potential loss of humanity or control over your body, whether your identity is even still intact.
This can look different from story to story, like Alien (1979), to The Thing (1982), to The Fly (1986), or even more modern films like Ginger Snaps (2000) and The Substance (2024). Depending on the themes and metaphors, the use of body horror will look different.
I was intubated during surgery. I wasn't conscious for the intubation, but when I came out of anesthesia, I had a sore throat. I wasn't horrified, but that is particularly interesting to me. Something like that could be used in a body horror story: the idea that our bodies remember things we weren't conscious for, even if they weren't harmful.
So disability in body horror isn't about "ugh look at how unnatural this looks on this person, they don't even look human", but more about how it feels from the individual's perspective. When you recognize the former in a film or story, it likely isn't from a true body horror perspective.
This is all. I'm not going to argue or respond to potential arguments.
I can't bury my thoughts on the tags I have to go off
I would like to add that body horror, within the bounds of fiction laid out above, can totally mean every specific example that op mentioned. It's all in the context and framing. It's not body horror if it's not framed as such, but if it is, it just is. You might not find it particularly horrifying, but horror is subjective and can be more about the psychological than the physical. (Example: A tracheotomy can be body horror because it was just performed on a kitchen table with a rusty butter knife by a man in a horse mask, but it could also be body horror because the character has always had a fear of losing their voice/choking and now every time the character sees the scar in the mirror they have this deep sense of dread) These depictions can be tasteful or distasteful depending on the context and framing of the narrative. It can be ableist, but is not always.
However, op is right when they say disabled people existing in real life do not deserve to be treated like a horror show for living in bodies that are different from the majority. And they shouldn't have to tag their own likeness with "horror" of any kind. It's dehumanizing and sets the movement back.
However however, I think it's also perfectly acceptable to sit with yourself and say, "I am uncomfortable with/triggered by [specific imagery/discussions] and I would very much like it if I could not interact with [specific imagery/discussions]."
However however HOWEVER
It's kind of really easy to figure out what tags to block if you feel that way. I have a lot of tags related to eyeballs blocked, and I figured out that people with artificial eyes usually don't tag with "eye horror" when they take pics/videos with the artificial eye out. It was really easy to find out I needed to block "artificial eyes" and "eye socket". It's not bulletproof, not everyone is going to tag their visual differences for other people's comfort, and they shouldn't have to! But tagging reblogs with neutral language and blocking neutrally worded tags like the ones I do is a good method that doesn't make anyone feel shitty.
importantly, 'normal' things can be body horror. losing hair/teeth can be body horror. getting pregnant can be body horror. getting cancer can be body horror. undergoing surgery can be body horror. puberty can be body horror.
all body horror needs to be body horror, imo, is 1. a change to the body/a change of the mindset toward the body, and 2. horrifying to the person experiencing that change firsthand.
aside from that, don't refer to people's real life bodies as body horror. learn some decorum.
poncho poncho man
daily draw #5-6 OOOoobbhhh buddy they got me bad with this one . 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹
