I'm trying to stay away from the remains of the warnings wank, but this one thing is just bugging the shit out of me, and I have no idea if this is a coherent post about it but I just need to vent. A few people have been implying or claiming that white women shouldn't be using language that has been primarily used for anti-racist work to talk about sexism, ablism and sexual abuse.

I think that maintaining some skepticism with regards to white people using language that originated with anti-racists is probably a good thing. However, I had really hoped that fandom might have grasped the basic concept of intersectionality by now. Being gay doesn't negate having white privilege, being a woman doesn't negate having straight privilege, being a PoC doesn't negate having abled privilege, etc etc. Fucking duh, right? This is like Anti-Oppression 101.

In this particular context, being able to read any kind of fic without getting triggered is a privilege that I have that many survivors don't have. When we use language that came out of Racefail, that is not meant as a comparison between racism and ablism in fandom--NO ONE is saying that this issue is as bad or worse as racism. The entire point of intersectionality is that this kind of stuff is not "either/or," it's "both/and." Anti-racists don't have some kind of copyright on language--it is oppressive and frankly moronic to say that you only want us to fight this way for your particular issues, because all of these isms intersect and affect each other anyway. Claiming that we can only use particular tools to fight for you and no one else pits groups against each other and hurts everybody.

Sometimes I write stories that have twists, and sometimes I don't want to give those twists away, and often I'm extremely reluctant to post spoilery summaries of anything I write. That might make me pretentious by fandom standards, but whatever, I'm okay with that.

But I would never want any story that I write to cause someone to relive a traumatic experience. Some of the comments I've been reading claim that how can we be expected to warn for triggery stuff if there's no consensus as to what can be triggery, but I think there is consensus--or at least, I feel that it's been made very clear to me that I should specifically warn for anything involving dubious consent. Beyond that, if I write something that includes violence or dark themes or whatever, I warn for content that may be disturbing or whatever. If anyone were to comment to ask me to warn for something triggery that I hadn't warn for, then it doesn't seem like it would be all that difficult for me to edit the original entry and type a few words in order to keep someone else from reliving trauma.

I don't have anything to add to this debate beyond adding to the chorus, really, I just. Don't understand how this is even an issue. It's not about my reluctance to spoil my story where Merlin cheats on Arthur with Gaius, it's about us as a community doing what we can not to contribute to rape culture.

Dude, so--how many of you follow Questionable Content? Can we talk about how much the current storyline is making me flail and bite my nails? Because ( flailing that's kinda spoilery )UGH IF ANYONE WANTED TO WRITE REALLY SCHMOOPY FIX-IT FIC THAT WOULD BE PRETTY AWESOME.

What do you care about? What do you want the new administration and our new Democratic congress to focus on? What do you want to happen differently, now that the Bush administration is out the door? Do you want your voice to be heard?

This year, I am planning on writing one letter a week to my elected officials--to my representative, to my senator, to my state legislators or to my president. One letter or one call, once a week, for a whole year.

And I want you to speak out with me. One letter from one person isn't much, but 52 letters is something, and 52 multiplied by however many people do this with me might even be a significant something. This is something that anyone can do, the most basic way beyond voting to participate in our democracy.

Because not very many constituents bother to write or call their representatives, letters and calls to your elected officials really do make a difference. I am so excited for Obama and for a Democratic majority in congress, but I still think that we need to put as much pressure on our people as possible to act on the issues that we care about, because the stakes right now are too high to just hope for the best.

All I'm asking is twenty minutes out of your week to write a letter (or less time than that, to make a call) on whatever you're most concerned about that week. November 4, 2008 already showed us that we have the power to change things--as President Obama said, the ground has shifted beneath us, and now it's time for the real work of encouraging it to shift together. And while for me this project is geared towards influencing American politicians, I encourage anyone anywhere to take part--every country in the world could use a little more civic engagement. Please write a letter with me, make a call with me, raise your voice with me.

You can contact your representative over here, you can contact your senators over here, and you can contact the president over here.

Please join 52letters with me and write or call your elected officials, and please feel free to pimp this project far and wide.

Oh man. zimshan made a vid chronicling the Obama movement, and it's--yeah. Whatever, it totally made me cry, and I can't believe that he's going to be our president tomorrow and that we really did this. Wow.

All These Things That I've Done by zimshan. Watch it.

The Falcon Cannot Hear The Falconer
By Zee

Summary: This is how Merlin is trapped. Futurefic, gen, PG. 2,622 words.
Notes: Warning for sadness. Thanks to tricksterquinn and miss_saigon for audiencing and betaing.

( Merlin had thought this through. )

I'm so excited for the inauguration on Tuesday that I'm tearing up all the time and I can't think straight. Today in my U.S. Government class, the professor lectured about the Declaration of Independence and its context, and we watched a short TV special on Thomas Jefferson and how he consistently wrote about his moral objections to slavery and wanted to address the wrongness of slavery in the Declaration of Independence, yet he owned slaves all his life and was never really a huge vocal advocate for abolition in public. It's amazing to me that we've made our way from there to here--it's amazing both that we have chosen an African American to be our president, and that we're experiencing such a huge transfer of power peacefully. It's not necessarily proof that our system of government works for everyone, but I think it is proof that our system has the potential to work for everyone, and it's proof of our ability as a nation and as a species to improve.

The Obama transition organization (or whatever they call themselves, I've forgotten what it is exactly) held an essay-writing contest last week, to write about what the inauguration means to you. They're going to select ten winners to receive a trip to D.C. and the inauguration. I submitted an essay, and I'll be extremely surprised if I win, but I'm glad for the opportunity to write about my experiences with the Obama campaign. This is a personal account and it's pretty cheesy, but then I am absolutely a cheesy cliché when it comes to President Obama. ( He gave me my hope back. )

helluvalot and dreadfulrauwr linked me to Scrivener, and I know that a lot of people on my flist are doing getyourwordsout, so I thought I'd pimp it out. Because dudes, IT IS MY NEW FAVORITE THING IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. It's software designed for writers working on novels or other big projects, and it's basically designed to help you keep all your research, drafts and ideas together in one place.

You guys, it is SO COOL. You can import photos and webpages, organize things according to whether they're just notes or part of a draft or whatever, you can search for a character and view all the documents with that character on one screen--um, I'm not describing it very well because I've only just started using it, and also because I am actually so excited about a freaking piece of software that I am flaily and inarticulate. Like, if I'm describing an idea in chat with someone, I can c&p that into a file in Scrivener and label it "concept" and know exactly where it is and and--! Best writing tool evaaarrrrr. ♥___♥

Also, sockkpuppett posted a new Supernatural vid the other day, Broken. It's actually two vids in one (or--one vid in two, I guess), and they're both awesome, and they're kind of tempting me to watch SPN season 4, because apparently Castiel exists and also looks at Dean like that.

And I've become kind of obsessed with the song she used, because it's exactly the kind of song I love to write to. I've been listening to it close to nonstop since watching the vid two days ago, ugh, it's so awesome: Unkle- Broken

Woke Up New
By Zee

Summary: Merlin and Arthur switch bodies; complications ensue. Merlin/Arthur, NC-17. 22,083 words.
Notes: Spoilery for the series in general. So much thanks to tricksterquinn and geekturnedvamp and miss_saigon for betaing and listening to my babble and helping this along.

( Woke Up New, 1/3 )

Before We Get Much Older
By Zee

Summary: Gwen and Morgana grow up. Gwen/Morgana, R-ish. 12,626 words.
Notes: Spoilers for Merlin 1x3, 1x4 and 1x12. Thanks to tricksterquinn for being my chief partner in Merlin babble, and miss_saigon for the beta. Title from Baba O'Riley by The Who. I know /o\

( Before We Get Much Older, 1/2 )

That Shall Achieve The Sword, Merlin 2008, gen.

This is probably the best fic I've read in Merlin fandom so far, and considering how well it uses the canon and integrates the larger mythos, it might be one of the best pieces of fanfiction I've ever read, period. The dialogue and the characterizations are incredibly spot-on, especially Arthur, and the story grabs you and doesn't let go. I really don't know what else to say about it because I'm still stuck in flail mode, but geez, read it.

...so like, I have no clue what happened, but I watched one episode of Merlin and then I watched some more and then I wrote 10,000 words of fic in three days. And started a vid, for the first time in two years. And if someone were to ask me right now what single thing would make me the happiest, I would likely answer "an Arthur Lord King Bad Vid to Natasha Bedingfield's Unwritten."

New fandom. So shiny. ♥_______♥

For fuck's sake. Discussing whether one set of tactics in a movement might be more effective than another set of tactics is not the same thing as advocating that we should be conciliatory, nice and invisible.

We just achieved one of the most important victories in history by electing Barack Obama, and we sure as hell didn't do it by finger-pointing and yelling at our allies and friends.

I've been thinking about this stuff for a while, but the debate tonight--both Palin's obvious strategies and some of the reactions I've seen already--really brought it into sharp focus.

I am so tired of and angered by this country's culture war. I'm sick of it from both sides, honestly. I'd welcome a VP candidate from Alaska who spoke in a folksy manner if she didn't have policies I find utterly abhorrant; it's so frustrating when I feel that other liberals' hatred for her stems from a place of deep resentment of 'hicks'.

If it weren't for the culture war, McCain and Palin wouldn't have a leg to stand on. Tonight's debate would have looked so different. The whole political landscape would be different. I'm so sick of the democratic party letting itself be constantly defined as elitist when our policies are better for the working and middle class and their policies are better for rich corporate businessmen. And I'm sick of us blaming that redefining on the conservative spin machine or on the middle-America populace that we're so quick to dismiss as stupid--for fuck's sake, are we so powerless that we can barely fight back against accusations of being too rich and snobby? I'm tired of people whining about anti-intellectuallism and why-is-elitist-a-bad-word-anyway. I *hate* it when liberals buy into the culture clashes and lash out against regular Joe six-packs because we feel attacked. It's fucking classist, and it's stupid politics.

I feel like the guys at the top of everything have manufactured this culture war to a large extent, and I'm just--I want an entirely new political discourse. Obama's just another politician, yeah, but I do think he's in a good position to shift things and break down cultural barriers. I think people in this country are beginning to get past these divides, considering Obama's numbers in a lot of Western states and in Virginia and North Carolina, and hopefully the Rovian politics surrounding Palin is the last gasp of this wedge strategy. The last thing we need right now is for the Left to stay stubbornly closed off to the possibility of bridging culture gaps.

Oneirology
By Zee

Summary: The study of dreams. Bert/Quinn, NC-17. 5,847 words.

Notes: Not canon-compliant, and highly questionable Neil Patrick Harris characterization. Written for sinsense in the usedfic exchange, for the request of Bert/Quinn and magic realism. I hope it satisfies! Huge thanks to helluvalot for cheerleading/betaing/listening to me gibber like a moron for two weeks about this.

( I don't know that Jungian shit. )

L.E.S. Artistes
By Zee

Summary: Pete/Travis coda-type-thing, starting after this unfortunate incident, and also referencing Pete's blog post today. 1,667 words, PG-13.

For miss_saigon, just because. ♥

( Pete calls minutes after Matt's posted the bail. )