hydratrashmeme | Chatter post

I haven't been online in a few days, and reading through the comments in this thread makes me want to quit the community and stick to AO3. As an author struggling with confidence issues due to writing in a foreign language, seeing someone being viciously attacked for making a feel-good post about supporting authors of all skill levels makes me feel really bad about my own efforts.

If someone who masters English so well can be dragged for giving their post the wrong title, for the tone of their post, for using the wrong words, and for being supportive of authors, then I have no chance. No chance. I literally can't see a single of the problems people have pointed out in the first post, and that means I can't avoid making the same mistakes myself. I'm going to get something wrong and I'll be attacked or frozen out and ignored.

Do you think it'd help to add a note on English not being my first language? Or saying I would appreciate comments because they help with my self-esteem issues? Or would that also be a social faux pas? I honestly don't know what to do anymore.

Didn't some vintage asthma cigarettes have some cannabis in them?

Seriously, don't worry about it. From this post alone it's pretty clear you've got perfectly good English skills.

(New Anon)

I hope this silly thread doesn't make you feel uncomfortable or afraid to participate. There can't be more than a few people participating in the wank and I have been laughing over it with friends (who I know are regular posters on here) and we all think it's ridiculous. This wank doesn't represent our community. I don't comment as much as I should but I support anyone's decision to write or not write and I like when someone is moved to write even if they don't have much experience or aren't used to writing in English (typically, they sound perfectly fine though even if they are worried about it) just because they are motivated by the glory of trash.

I think it's fine to say you'd appreciate comments. Even if people like me are lazy and often don't get around to writing comments on stuff we like, it's all anonymous so it's not like you're pressuring anyone, just saying you would like comments.

<3

OP here, I hope you stick around because that's the opposite of what I wanted :(

For what it's worth, English is not my first language either.

Same. Like... if someone writes something that you enjoy, it's nice to comment on it? Why are people so bent out of shape about that idea?

I've abandoned kinkmeme fills before because nobody was responding to them. Yeah, I write for my own entertainment and fulfillment, but it is still an effort, and I have other things to do in my life, and I'm not always going to wrestle through a difficult plot issue if it feels like I'm doing it for an empty room.

Any Russian-speaking nonnies here who'd be willing to translate a couple of phrases for me? It's kinda important to the story that the character be speaking Russian, but it's a long enough sentence that I don't want to go the Google Translate route.

I don't think it's the idea at all, but the way it was presented.

I don't think anyone's bent out of shape by the idea of commenting on things we like. The problem is being nagged and told off by writers who feel like they DESERVE feedback and readers who don't give it to them are assholes.

I think it's time to accept that there are different views on this. If you make posts in public begging for feedback or complaining about how you're not getting enough attention, some people might feel sorry for you and leave a comment...and others might roll their eyes and tell you to fuck off. That's just how it is, and you're still free to make those begging posts if you want to.

DA

Only this was not someone begging for attention? It was specifically someone wanting to encourage other authors they liked. Honestly the 'authors wanting attention", at this point, is more rare than people complaining about it.

No, they wanted *us* to encourage their fave authors for them. And then got really, really upset when we declined their instructions.

Sorry, that's still not the same. "Look at meee, I want attention," is not the same in intention and tonality to me as saying: "hey, I think my friend did a great job, I think it's sad it's getting ignored, would you encourage them?"

Also they did generalize, and totally do have a valid point about round 3.

If you don't want to encourage anyone, don't. I just don't get why you (general you, I don't know if you're the original commenter who was pissed off) must make a huge point of expressing your malcontent over a well-intentioned post. You could have just as easily ignored it and let people who are interested in doing that react.

AYRT

Look, I don't know why you've decided it's a good idea to try and reignite this wank just when it's been dying down, but no dumpster consensus was reached last time and I doubt a dumpster consensus is going to be reached this time.

It's great that you think OP's message was appropriate. Some people disagree, and for a whole variety of explanations why, you can just reread the whole thread above. If you're so invested in making the dumpster an uwu supportive space, you'd be better off spending your time leaving comments on people's fills than complaining about it to an unreceptive audience in the chatter post.

Because the post was patronising and people hate being told what to do.

I leave comments on fills I read and like, but I stopped reading and commenting leading up the the American election because I was too stressed out and anxious to be able to, and now afterwards it is even worse. I know I am not the only one in this position, so the assumption that people are just ungrateful for not commenting irks me; just look at the damn time period the comments declined in.

Me too, anon. I wish that wank had never started.

oh shit, good call! http://www.herbmuseum.ca/files/images/Cannadonna%20Asthma%20Cigarettes.JPG

I want to know what's the sentiment behind the worst thing happening to characters having to be rape. I know it has to do with violation and losing power, etc., but for a trash meme it seems that everyone steers toward sexual violence as the worst that could happen to a character. There doesn't seem to be a lot of variety here and all the prompts are various flavors of gang-banging, etc.

My second question is why most vehemently defend the HTP as not fetishsizing rape, when almost all of the rape prompts are met with applause and people drooling and openly stating that they want it? Why not simply admit it's a kink? Even if it's as a coping mechanism, just admit you enjoy characters being put through trauma. It's a harmless kink and the only harm done is by people unwittingly reading it, which hardly ever happens since there's tagging. Do some not want to admit it's a kink because they feel it makes them dirty? Why not embrace your rape fetish?

Please don't take this as an attack. I'm really curious as to why this is the general theme among people that enjoy HTP.

Words like kink and fetish implies it is sexual, that I get something sexual out of it. I really, really do not, so I have nothing to admit or embrace, and rather resent the implication that I should. It is not a sexual thing for everyone.

Often the reasons for why people think rape is the absolute worst tends to be pretty personal in nature.

What I mean is that rape is synonymous with trash on this meme. Might as well have been named Hydra Rape Meme. There's a few dismemberment and mindfucking, but most of the stories still go back to rape after all of that.

The general theme of htp IS non-con. If you read the rules/top level posts or the fanlore page, you can see the basic idea of it was based on this. I personally enjoy some of the non-sexual stuff, but I have to admit it's an offshoot of the original idea. That's why it makes up the minority of prompts.

As for your second question, I don't really see people acting the way you're saying (i.e. denying it's a kink). Also, whether the prompts are about rape or something else wouldn't define whether people have a kink.

Okay, so. You claim to not be trolling, and then say we should have named the place Hydra Rape Meme?

Look, it's just not very catchy. Trash is more than rape, and "Hydra Rape & Other Human Rights Violations Meme" is not at all catchy.

I for one am completely comfortable with saying that rape fantasy, and fantasies about powerlessness in general, are sexual kinks of mine. I'd say so are most people I know personally in this fandom.

From what I've seen though, whenever someone accuses us of "fetishising rape" they collapse the distinction between fantasy and reality to give their argument more emotive power, claiming we're getting off on the real trauma of rape survivors. We're not. We're getting off on fantasies. I've been raped twice and I can promise you I didn't enjoy it. When I argue that I'm not fetishising rape, I mean that ACTUAL rape is not something that gets me off.

(I also personally wouldn't say I have a "fetish" for fantasies about powerlessness because the term "fetish" often entails connotations of pathology. Occasionally getting off on rape fantasies does not cause me any psychological distress, or negatively affect my relatively vanilla sex life.)

As for the first question, I'm not sure I accept your premise that most people here believe sexual violence is the worst thing to happen to a character. As a couple of others have said, we focus on sexual violence here because that was the context in which the community was originally created: the idea of Party Favour Winter Soldier, being passed around among Hydra goons at Hydra Trash Parties for sexual exploitation. It's expanded a bit to include other kinds of dehumanisation and violation, but sexual violence was always the trashy core we built ourselves around.

The name predates the meme; for better or worse, fetch has happened. I actually use "trash" as shorthand for sexual violence in other fandoms too now.

^^^ This. People are not getting off to rape. People are getting off to rape FANTASIES.

I have never met any HTP member (and I've met some, on and offline) who's not horrified by the thought of real rape. FICTION IS NOT REALITY.

Really, it's like a BDSM roleplay – how can you (or any anti who's not against BDSM) be ok if me and my partner think up a story about, idk, a pirate captain and their prisoner, but not if it's a super soldier and a HYDRA agent?

Honestly, it baffles me so much. It's the exact same thing.

+1 I'm not here for the kink aspect of it, not that I mind that there are others who are. "Rape fetish" takes all the nuance out of why a lot of people are here for a lot of different reasons, and I resent being told by antis and trolls that obviously the only reason anyone would read it is for perverted kink purposes. If it is a kink, there's nothing wrong with it, but it's also not just for kink.

Chatter post

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Need Russian help!

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no subject

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Seriously curious - not trolling

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