We are Fandom, hear us roar

Jeepers, that whole fan survey thing has BLOWN THE FUCK UP in the most wicked way possible--the survey's been taken down after the "scientists" Ogi Ogas and Sai Chaitanya Gaddam had their asses handed to them by fandom and by the IRB they apparently never consulted. This essay by sympathetic-non-fan academic N Pepperell is loaded with links, including to screencaps of the final wtfNO! that happened when the "researchers" responded to complaints that their use of the word "transsexuals" was unclear and othering by replacing it with "shemales". And of course, because fandom is awesome and occasionally evil, the internet is now filling up with badfic, art and macros enthusiastically slashing Ogas and Gaddam in terrible wonderful ways (which is immature, yes, but also funny).
Y'know what? I'm retracting my categorical endorsement of the parody fanworks. I'm not at all surprised that it's happening (you crap on someone else's lawn and keep doing it even after they've told you to stop, you've no right to be indignant when they set their dog on you) and some of what I've seen is clever or entertaining, but I don't want to encourage it because soon this will be getting more attention than the stupid survey and we will look like jerks--not to mention, some of the tactics used to "humiliate" the poseur!scientists are totally uncool (ascribing to them desires like rape fantasies, transvestism, tentacle or furry fetishes, or poking fun at imagined physical characteristics; I haven't yet seen it but I'm sure there's stuff saying they've got STIs or are secretly involved in sex work). It's uncool not because it's "mean" to them (crap on lawn, get mauled by terrier) but because using any of these things as punishment, to try to shame someone for misbehaviour, reinforces stigma around these desires, identities and circumstances and has the effect of shaming all the people who DO live with them, secretly or openly. I'm trying not to play that game. If anyone can show me works that don't do this, I'm happy to look at them, but I'm not supporting the rest.

In other news, the for-points round of Kink Bingo is now closed, and the amnesty period for completed works that didn't fill a bingo and for works completed after deadline/between rounds will be opening in a few days (remember, if you signed up you need to post at least one fic/vid/drawing/whatever in order to be eligible to participate again next year). I am proud to have finished one bingo and two postage stamp stories, all of which are posted here with a "kink_bingo" tag. I don't expect to be writing much for the next little bit while I recover, prepare for the new school year, and catch up on all the awesome stuff other people have done for KB (expect recs).

I'm NOT signing up for "heroes_bingo", not even linking to it, although I'm eager to see what people make for it. My objection isn't that they're copying KB's idea (it's a good idea, it should be copied, though giving credit would be nice) but that they, like cliche_bingo (which I think may be the more direct intellectual progenitor?), are copying a lot of the prompts without identifying them as kinks and with no recognition for the consequences of their selections or the gravity of that action (defining what is and isn't kinky, calling these things clichés or just--what? titillating? the positive spin would be to say that not marking them as kinky de-marginalizes them but that's not the vibe I'm getting) for people who actually practice these things outside of fiction or even (what a thought!) self-define as kinky. I'm reluctant to participate in the latest heroes kink meme (beyond feedback and the few prompts I've already left) for related reasons: the fact that anonymity is not only allowed but subtly enforced as a norm discourages people from owning our desires, even if we only desire these things in the "distanced" way of fantasies, and it reinforces the shame we've already got piling on us, telling us we're sick and deviant and wrong. You know what? I am deviant. I'm deviant because I try hard not to deny that I like this stuff--reading it, writing it, watching it, doing it--even when I've got people everywhere including the fucking internet telling me to.