I ask this question because a story I wrote a while ago still haunts me. I have considered deleting it several times. I wrote a hardcore story about a woman blackmailing a cheating husband. He had to submit to some painful and humiliating play with her else she would tell his wife about his cheating.
A young male reader wrote me and said as a writer with a following of sorts I should have been more careful with my story. He said I spread the idea that cheaters shouldn't be forgiven and that blackmail was acceptable. He called me reckless with my words.
I have seen several authors personally attacked in comments recently for the actions of their characters. Are we kidding ourselves by hiding behind the "its just fiction" statement? If we write an unsavory act and a reader mimics that act, do we shoulder any of the responsibility for his actions?
For example, are we spreading hate speech if a character spouts it?
Hi Kimmi, that's a really interesting question.
I hadn't really thought about it until I published my cuckold story and some of the responses really made me think.
I'd created a scheming manipulative wife who cheated on a loving husband and father and rubbed his nose in her affair.
I had an element of domestic violence which some people felt condoned her action but it really threw me how it affected people.
So I think we do bear some responsibility..not that we should sanitise our stories or that we should change them.. My story is written and published and shall remain there. I'm not one for sanitising the past. However, I think we have to accept that some people can't tell fact from fiction.
I had several long conversations about that story with a close friend, whose reaction I really hadn't expected. So I think we should be open to dialogue over our stories, above and beyond just responses to comments.
I wouldn't go so far as to say we bear some responsibility if our story incited someone to do something. That way, censorship lies.
I don't know if I answered your question, sorry ?
2 competition winning stories, 1 Famous story, a smattering of Editor's Picks, a handful of Recommended Reads and one Clitorides award are scattered amongst my stories.
One of a handful of writers to get the Omnium badge for writing in every category
For a book club with a difference... try this lesbian romp
If it bothers you enough, then take it down. You're the only one who can determine whether you feel comfortable having a piece out there in your name.
That being said, this whole "responsibility for what we write" thing really sticks in my craw. It's fantasy. It's not some sort of authorial endorsement of how any character behaves just because you write it. Characters can only have a certain set of acceptable flaws now?
Somebody is going to be offended by everything under the sun. It's as impossible to avoid that as it is to please everyone.
And people who commit heinous acts are responsible for those acts. Otherwise, we'd best get around to locking up the surviving Beatles because a whakko-loon with a swastika cut into his forehead thought "Helter Skelter" was speaking to him.
The problem I see is that some readers have issues seeing the line between fantasy/fiction and reality. And that's not really the author's fault, that's on the reader. In short, if someone reads Silence of the Lambs and decides that becoming a serial killing cannibal like Dr. Lector is cool, I don't think it is Thomas Harris that has the problem.
After all, if we take the position you are putting forward for discussion, no one can ever write a murder mystery. Someone might try to emulate the murderer, right? No more torture scenes, even if they fit historical context, because someone might emulate them. And so on.
The other thing to take into account is that context matters. How you write and use an idea is really what determines whether you are promoting it. A character in a story spouting hate speech isn't really promoting that hateful idea if the rest of the narrative basically contradicts or deconstructs it, or if other characters express different views. It reflects on that character, not on what the author condones. OTOH, using authorial voice to spout hate speech is problematic. Portraying characters in a way that embodies a prejudice or hateful idea (e.g. including a stereotypical "savage Indian" in a Western story) is problematic. But simply having a character hold those views, while making it clear that it is that character's view, not the author's or one that the author accepts, is just fine. In fact, developing characters who we might not agree with or even that we find repulsive is part of fiction.
I have not read your story nor will I. Not my cuppa. The brief, rather broad, description you give makes it sound a bit dicey on the consent front but I assume that was dealt with to the mods' satisfaction since they let it in.
To cite a couple of my own stories, I wrote "The Good Neighbour" not to promote or condone cheating, but to explore how two people end up doing it. Ditto "Frustration and Relief". If someone cites those stories as support for their cheating, that's them misreading it, missing the fact that they are fantasy. They are about people dealing with a situation, not about suggesting that what they do is right.
In the end, anyone reading stories on this site needs to be of the mindset that they are fantasy; explorations of the erotic in diverse forms arising from the author's imagination. Even the ones claimed to be "real" are likely embellishing to some degree. If one insists on reading them as "real" and promoting ideas in real life, one is likely missing the point of the site.
Time to wipe out every story with casual sex and unprotected sex. Who would deny that those are both highly risky activities that shouldn't be encouraged by making them seem exciting?
You can't protect dumb/mentally unstable people from themselves.
None at all. Everyone is here by choice and no one is forced to read anything.
We need to be accountable for our own behavior and actions....simple as that.
This is my first and hopefully only post in the forum section.
I only recently published my first story on here. I ( and my wife ) found it to be totally fine as far as not offending anyone. How wrong we were. I shouldn't have been surprised though. We are living in an over the top period of bubble wrapping every sharp object. We are quickly slandered as a horrible person if we don't all order the vanilla flavor.
I will be very open and honest. I am as progressive and liberal as anyone. I have truck loads of empathy and concern for the underdog. However, I think it falls on folks like me to stand up and say enough. Stop the bubble wrapping of everything. Life isn't ( and shouldn't be ) safe all the time. Until I had published my stories on Lush I would have thought the topic and subject matter I wrote about was bordering on the boring. A softcore scene with a hint of non consent (that turned into a very willing sex) scene was treated like I had gone out and someone ( and I was told by a commenter it must be my fantasy). Meanwhile, on this site (and others), we are flooded with with every possible family member. Water sports, , monster sex, mind control, Fetish, BDSM. I don't like any of these categories. I'm repulsed by some of them. But, you know how I handle it ? I never go there. I leave those topics to people who enjoy them. Good for them. Problem solved. But instead, we have these keyboard crusaders that feel THEIR opinion is the right one and therefore mine must be wrong. The spoiled self-important arrogance of that is appalling.
I get that we need to try and keep our children safe. But, to my knowledge, this is an adult website. I'd like to see us make a stronger effort to act like adults. If you don't like something on here, ignore it. Turn the channel. Take the bubble wrap off. What you or I write about should have zero influence on what you or I do in the real world.
Ok, that's all I had to say.
Oh wait. Also, get off my lawn !
"I'm also available for children's parties" - Bill Hicks
That would be like crime writers, not being allowed to write stories about crimes or murders in case it encourages someone to commit a crime. The reader is responsible for their own actions. If you had written something and had said "Hey, reader, you should totally do this!" then that would be different.
It does take some guts to publish since some do judge the author as part of the story. The story I referenced is one of a few that don't represent any part of myself. I was just trying to write a different type of character. Another reader wrote me a 3-page email where he dissected me based on that one story. He felt the need to argue in defense of cheaters. I then felt I needed to defend my own character.
I agree we shouldn't live in bubble wrap. Maybe someone who reads about a punished cheater is a cheater and thus takes offense. Takes writing personally. I actually enjoy a story that shocks me. Characters that behave differently than myself. Fiction should be a place to experience things maybe you can't in real life.
Another spanking story offended a couple of readers, as they don't think that promotes a healthy form of play.
Taking down a story should be your decision not the readers.
If the Mods processing the story didn't see anything wrong w/ it, why should a readers opinion matter after?
''There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.'' Oscar Wilde
this is an adult site and we won't publish anything that of objectionable content, ie, containing elements of non-consent, , , torture, extreme violence, or racism. the stories are fiction. if someone has an issue with a particular category, they should just skip reading it. simple as that.
You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.
Kimmi, unless you tied the reader to a chair and forced them to read it, you bear no culpability for their discomfort. Given what this site is, we have to assume a reader is of age and reading of their own free will; if they find it unpleasant, the simple solution is STOP READING! Fuck, I've paid a lot of money for books that turned out not to be at all what I expected or wanted. I just put them away, maybe to pick them up another day or maybe not. That's what adults do. Someone bitching about a free story is beyond the pale.
I'm not sure at what point people became so butthurt about every little thing, like they're searching for something to be offended over, no matter how trivial, meaningless, or even silly it may be (Dr. Seuss, anyone?) that they somehow feel thay have the right to demand something like this. Whatever, they're best ignored.
It's petty and childish, and their little feelings do not cancel out your rights. In fact, I have a t-shirt that says, "Freedom of Speech; more important than your feelings." I sort of expected to catch some flak over it, given today's attitudes, but I've had nothing but positive responses, most from total strangers. That kind of makes me wonder who all of the cancel warriors are and think that there must be only a very vocal few.
As far as how our writing affects our readers, I always hope they're amused, involved, interested - or even fascinated - and hopefully aroused, this being an erotic story site. I've had many tell me the stories are relatable or meaningful to them. I've never had a reader here at Lush tell me to take a story down, although a few said they were reminded of something uncomfortable in their own past. Now, at Literotica, the trolls were numerous, terrrible, and terribly abusive. That's the main thing that brought me here, and I've never looked back.
If America isn't offended by "let's storm the US capital and kidnap and kill members of Congress and spread feces on the walls and urinate on the floor," why should we care if an erotic story on an opt-in web site offends someone? How about some perspective here, folks.
Some people are way too easily offended. There are always a few whiny 'Karens' male or female. I don't know why some people read stories that are in genres they don't like, then leave disparaging comments on them. That is just ugly and small.
The story mods work really hard and do a great job of keeping any story content not allowed from being published here. We catch that in the verification process and work it out with the submitting author before it is posted. In most cases, the author hasn't realized something isn't allowed, and is able to edit their story so we can approve it.
Kimmi, you have a good reputation as a writer, so keep up the great work, and be encouraged by the large number of encouraging and praising comments your stories receive.
Trust people to be themselves...
At the end of the day, it's about accountability. We as adults have to be accountable for our own actions and how we interpret what we consume. If novelists and screenwriters weren't bold in their creations, we would've missed out on a lot of great stuff.
I get being nervous about readers automatically assuming you're like your characters. My series is hardcore, and yes I enjoy cbt, pegging etc, but that doesn't mean I condone all of the actions my characters make. I have written drug use, but I do not use drugs. I actually enjoy exploring topics and potentially open up healthy debate.
I think in your case the reader felt personally attacked for whatever reason, perhaps identifying as the cheat by getting too drawn in, and couldn't separate fact from fiction. It's unfortunate they couldn't react in a healthy way. My husband finds certain parts of my book difficult to read with some events being similar to something that happened in his life (I started writing this before we met) but he doesn't slate my storyline for it.
Hi Kimmi
I believe that you are asking the wrong question, that your question contains within it two separate questions that need to be considered.
The first is: 'How responsible should writers be for the content within their stories?'
I feel that is only once you have satisfactorily considered that question that you can begin to consider the separate question of readers and their responses.
CG
Xxx
Yes, you should have a hazard label on you, "warning CG will be your every fantasy"
Writers should be responsible for their writing within the context of 'acceptable' * cultural, sexual and personal confines but we all have the ability to make our own choices and judgments - no one here is forced to read the content. So the choice of the reader determines their acceptance - if there is content that offends - simple don't read it.
* Acceptable is a difficult paradigm to define - as it is determined by many different factors
Isolation - A Tale Of Star-Crossed Lovers
By
hartclass & CumGirl
