Writers here, how do you handle both moral outrage and pressures to censor your work?

Which is just about the most 2021 thing imaginable. It sums up the fragile jobsworth mentality of the majority of the West. People seek offense, entitlement and attention like heat-seeking missiles.

But, alas, the debate room this is not.

 

also, it's a wee bit tiresome.

 

Selbbin didn't say the First Amendment. He said 'censorship,' which is accurate when applied to private entities or state actors.

[EDIT: more posts while I was typing that--sorry to have repeated those points. I agree the company has the right as well, however whether they have the right is separate and apart from whether it is a good thing or a bad thing.]

 

Merriam Dictionary definition of censorship: "to examine books, movies, letters, etc., in order to remove things that are considered to be offensive, immoral, harmful to society, etc."

Amazon, the Dr. Seuss trust, whoever is removing reading material from public circulation may be doing it as a business measure or to take a moral stand, but it is censorship by the above definition. First Amendment issues needn't be involved in order for censorship to exist.

 

I don't have the words to properly express how much I agree with all of the above, so have a hug emoji as the closest I can get.

 

Lol. If I just got poisoned by a cursed apple and my two choices are an unconsentual kiss or living as a vegetable, I would hope a guy would kiss first and we'll sort out the rest later.

I know this is off topic, but I couldn't resist saying.

 

Not to mention the unbelievable stupidity of judging a fairy tale as if it's the real world.

 

I'm guessing it has something to do with believing the evil white man incapable of separating fact from fiction and will be liable to go round kissing random female strangers...

 

I don't think it's a problem in that example, Snow White is probably fine in that regard, but it's worth questioning with examples of problematic things in fiction being justified by the plot whether or not it was necessary to include that problematic thing. There's a possibility including it will help to desensitize people to it and make it seem more justifiable, even if not in the same ways as in the story. Especially if the story invokes circumstances that are unrealistic but align with the narratives used to justify problematic things in the real world. Like, if a story had the hero killing innocent children as the only possible way in order to stop the big bad dark lord, people aren't going to go around killing children to stop the dark lord, but it might mean when innocent children do get killed, say from a bomb during a war, people might think of the time their favourite action hero also killed children and compare the justifications that will be given for the real thing to the media they know. And that's something we need to be considerate of. The message people take from media is not just what is stated outright or even included, but how it reflects on the real world.
To use an extreme example, Birth of a Nation doesn't portray black people being killed for being black as okay, it portrays black people as villainous and deserving of being killed. The circumstances of the plot are more realistic than in Snow White, obviously, but people who grew up watching Birth of a Nation didn't just take away that killing black people was okay in those specific circumstances, but also the idea that black people are like that on a wider scale and similar situations could justify the same response, and the more they consumed racist media like that the easier it was for them to find justifications to kill black people. If it had been a fantasy story instead, that might have made the racism less obvious, but it wouldn't have made it okay. And that is surely something we want to steer more than a little clear of. It's worth keeping your guard up somewhat or you won't catch things that might have already affected your worldview.

 

Hmm, you said Snow White but it made me think of Sleeping Beauty. Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty that is. That definitely has material that erotica and romance self publishers are told to avoid because it's banneable. Let's just say Prince Charming doesn't wake up this princess with a kiss but instead takes more full body approach. Haven't read it myself so I'm just going off reviews.

 

Sleeping Beauty is right. That's the one I was thinking of.

Ah, so not actually Sleeping Beauty. I think I've heard of that version before. That is more questionable.

 

Isn’t Anne Rice a tad notorious for adding questionable sexual content into her works? I recall that some of her more famous vampire novel had some rather extreme pedophile undertones.

 

Sleeping Beauty was the most extreme as far as I'm aware. After "waking up" Sleeping Beauty, she then becomes his sex slave. Top review on goodreads is "I want to clean my brain with bleach".
The vampires in her books weren't actually capable of having sex, though she did still manage a few questionable scenes... However, those weren't erotica/romance but low fantasy/horror so it's hard to compare those two bodies of work. I read those books so long ago I can't really remember much about the little girl vampire. I remember the movie though--which did bring up romantic tension between the girl and one of the adult bodied males. This actually reminds me of that other active thread on here about "young looking but not actually children" thing. However, in the movie it felt like they were approaching why vampires weren't supposed to turn children, because they were trapped in bodies they shouldn't be and weird things happen and it's not right.

 

Histrionic criticism. At least it generally is. That's how the cool kids earn upvotes.

 

well.. in the original story of sleeping beauty, she wasn't awakened with a kiss, either. maybe we should decry that pearl clutching censorship too. i mean if it's bad now, it was bad then. right?

 

It's your discretion that charms me the most.

 

In regards to moral outrage, I would love to know what the offended party in question would do if I didn't change my work. Complain more? Kill themselves? Whatever their answer I ain't changing my work for them.