11 Scott McCall-Stiles Stilinski Fanfics That Prove Teen Wolf Fans Are Nasty AF

News Media Commentary
Title:	11 Scott McCall-Stiles Stilinski Fanfics That Prove Teen Wolf Fans Are Nasty AF later renamed 11 Dirty Scott McCall-Stiles Stilinski Fanfics All Teen Wolf Fans Must See - see below
Commentator:	Alexandra Daluisio
Date(s):	October 24, 2015
Venue:	online
Fandom:	Teen Wolf
External Links:	original article on the WBM, Archived version; Teen Wolf Dirty Fanfiction, Scott McCall Stiles Stilinski Fan Fiction (edited version, now offline), Archived version
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

screenshot of original article page

screenshot of revised article page

11 Scott McCall-Stiles Stilinski Fanfics That Prove Teen Wolf Fans Are Nasty AF was a controversial article written by Alexandra Daluisio and posted to the popular teen website Teen.com on October 24, 2015. It listed eleven fanfics that they believed best showcased the "inappropriate" nature of the Scott McCall/Stiles Stilinski pairing. The article, which resulted unwanted exposure for many of the mentioned fan creators, was widely criticized by fans on social media and ultimately renamed.

The article also included 4 Sciles gifsets, which were credited to the tumblr tag "sciles-day".

Response

After some fans objected to what they perceived as bullying and kink-shaming, the article was re-titled "11 Dirty Scott McCall-Stiles Stilinski Fanfics All Teen Wolf Fans Must See" with the following editorial note:

"Editor’s Note: The original title of this article has been changed, as we realized our word choice was poor. We love all Teen Wolf fans and commend them for their creativity!"

The article caught the attention of Sleepy Hollow actor Orlando Jones, who tweeted in support of the fans:

[@TheOrlandoJones]

".@teen maybe shaming fic writers & linking to their fics w/o permission so they can be harassed wasn't the best idea"

Within twenty-four hours, two of the eleven writers who were showcased in the article had either privatized or redirected their tumblr blogs. One writer posted the following day:

[cassandracillian]

"Despite a certain writer on a certain site trying to mock me and degrade me for writing sciles fic, it didn’t work. I’ve received so much love and support from within the sciles fandom and outside it today. And idk I just really feel so blessed to be apart of a group of people who are so supportive."

Another writer began a twitter campaign to persuade Teen.com to take the article down. Screencaps of their tweets are included below with their name redacted. Click to read the text.

• 

  "My reaction to hearing that they changed the article title"

• 

  Page 1 of a message sent to Alexandra Daluisio, the author of the article by one of the authors of a fan story mentioned in the article

• 

  Page 2 of the message

One issue raised by fans was how the negative tone of the article might reinforce a negative self-image of many teen readers and writers. While at least five of the eleven Sciles writers listed themselves as being in their 20s, presumably the majority of Teen.com's readership is in their teens and the TV show itself is often reported as being marketed to teens.

screencap of Teen.com's tweet, along with additional responses from the community. Click to read

Remove and Replace page

By 11AM EST, October 26, 2015 the page was removed and Teen.com sent the following tweet:

[@teen]

"Hi all, We appreciate your feedback, have taken down the Teen Wolf fanfiction post & are handling it internally. Thank you, Teen."

The page was replaced by the error message: "UH YEAH, THAT'S NOT HAPPENING. Sorry, This Page Does not exist. Go home or try a search?"

Readers continued to push for an apology:

[Romance author Megan Erickson ‏@MeganErickson]

"@teen “Handling internally” is not acceptable. There needs to be an apology. A promise to do better.""

[Dylan St. Jaymes ‏@Dylan_StJaymes]

"@teen Great. Now, where's the apology to the authors that had safe spaces violated & for the homophobic tone of the "article" in question.

Some pointed out that Teen.com seemed to be engaging in a pattern of cyberbulling:

[heidi heidi8 ‏@travelingheidi]

"But the fact that we have to hope that @teen stops bullying, shaming and silencing teens shows something is very broken there. #fandom"

[Tess Sharpe @sharpegirl]

"@teen has taken down that homophobic, bullying article, but have yet to issue an apology. Sadly unsurprising considering their behavior."

As one Young Adult author succinctly explained:

[Tess Sharpe ‏@sharpegirl]

"If you can't respect a teen's intelligence, individuality and creativity then you shouldn't write for them. End of story. @teen"

Original First Paragraph

"11 Scott McCall-Stiles Stilinski Fanfics That Prove Teen Wolf Fans Are Nasty AF

Even though Teen Wolf is one of the most dramatic shows on television, fans somehow get distracted by one thing — the relationship between Scott McCall (Tyler Posey) and Stiles Stilinski (Dylan O’Brien). And that’s totally okay!! We get it.

But, as with most diehard-fandom members, a love for a certain person or pairing seemingly always takes a turn for the…erm…inappropraite And as we saw with Fifth Harmony Camren fics, Teen Wolf fans DGAF about crossing any ~personal~ boundaries when it comes to Sciles! For example…

Edited First Paragraph

"11 Dirty Scott McCall-Stiles Stilinski Fanfics All Teen Wolf Fans Must See"

Editor’s Note: The original title of this article has been changed, as we realized our word choice was poor. We love all Teen Wolf fans and commend them for their creativity!

Even though Teen Wolf, ^{Archived version} is one of the most dramatic shows on television, fans somehow get distracted by one thing — the relationship between Scott McCall (Tyler Posey) and Stiles Stilinski (Dylan O’Brien). And that’s totally okay!! We get it.

But, as with most diehard-fandom members, a love for a certain person or pairing seemingly always takes a turn for the…erm…inappropraite. And as we saw with Fifth Harmony Camren fics, ^{Archived version}, Teen Wolf fans love to get personal when it comes to Sciles! For example…"

Fan Comments

At the Article

"I hope you, Alexandra, and you, editor/s of this site, are beginning to grasp the reality of how many people are willing to get involved to assure the mental safety and protection of our fanfic writers. There will some personal comments which are NEVER warranted, but the majority of us are willing to have a rational conversation with y'all to help you see how harmful what you have done is to those affected. Entire blogs removed, people feeling exposed and hurt and unsafe, some angry and bitter and disillusioned - just for a laugh, was it? Because there was no sense of respect or admiration for these talented writers; your opinion was completely obvious from the snicker-and-point style you used for the entirety of it. As to the "editor's note" debacle: Apologizing for the wording and then leaving the works obtained without permission tagged added another layer of tone-deaf sleaze that, trust me, y'all did NOT need. I haven't seen anything this cruel in awhile. Please take it down."

"As several have pointed out before, an half-assed apology and changing the name does little. Especially since it still states that these are "inappropriate". And referring to these works, by fans for fans, as such when writing about a homosexual relationship on their personal blogs and other sites which see no trouble with such issues, as inappropriate is what's wrong. And the fact you have yet to approach the fact you are linking to NC-17/Explicit material without proper warnings is also a problem from your side, which is supposed to be aimed at teens."

"You do realize that linking to sexually explicit material on a site which is aimed at underage teenagers is a crime, right?"

"Please show me exactly where you have written permission from the above authors to use their work in this fashion. To take what they've written completely out of context to be nothing more than a cheap blurb for your ridiculously poor quality website? How about you show me where you have been given permission by the authors to ridicule something that they have worked on, that they're proud of? Yeah, I didn't think so.

This isn't even about this particular ship, but if it were, it's still not something to be ridiculed - everyone ships their own ship, and THAT IS OKAY. EVERYONE IS ALLOWED THEIR OWN OPINION ON SOMETHING, AND NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO MAKE FUN OF THAT OPINION. No one has the right to make someone feel inferior.

What my main issue here is the bare-faced bullying of this entire article, and prefixing the article with a quick 'note' basically saying "Hey! You caught us, we're bullying you, but we're totally gonna pretend you're taking this article out of context!"

If it were an honest mistake, your Twitter feed and that of the 'writer' of this article wouldn't be dealing with the situation by blocking every person who dare comes and calls you out on this.

If you're really sorry? Take this article down altogether and let the matter die, and learn from this very obvious mistake of yours. And while you're at it, maybe take a few classes on how to behave on social media, and more importantly, how to be a decent human being, respectful of other human beings.

Pathetic."

"Changing the title of the article and changing a few sentences doesn't make this article any more acceptable. Some of these people whose tumblr blogs you linked to /without their permission/ have deleted their blogs and made new ones, and some have changed their URLs, all in order to keep themselves safe. Because you violated their personal boundaries by linking to fanfics that they've written for a specific audience that you don't understand. I won't be surprised if some of these fics you linked to, if not all of them, that are on AO3 get deleted, too, because of your carelessness and disregard of the /real people/ you harmed with this article."

"I wonder what exactly you think is "inappropriate", "crossing personal boundaries" and "nasty af". Is it a community of mostly female writers daring to write about two male characters having sex? Is it that they wrote about characters you think "aren't gay" and that their ~pure no homo bromance~ is soiled by it? Do you feel differently about similar stories written about male/female pairings? If no, why did you single out this one instead of striking against smutty fanfiction as a whole?

If yes, maybe think about how your homophobia has contributed to the writing of this article.

Your quote for item 8. on the list especially would not raise any brows at all, anywhere, if it was about a heterosexual couple. That section is tender and sweet with only a /hint/ at sexual urges. What makes it nasty? That it's gay?

And if you think these stories are so inappropriate and nasty, why do you feel it's okay to expose your teen readership to them?

I think moral outrage wasn't a reason at all. You're clickbaiting, trying to make money on the backs of (often) queer teenage girls* and exposing their safe space to mockery and online attacks and it's pathetic and morally bankrupt.

Ridiculing and shaming slash fic is not new and original, and it has always been a cheap shot, steeped in misogyny ("women expressing their sexuality, how revolting!") and homophobia, and people more articulate than me have written volumes on it. Go educate yourself, it's out there. Write an article about /that/.

"*not all fanfiction writers are female, or queer, or teenagers, but a large percentage of us are."

"I, along with many fans of Teen Wolf (or anything, for that matter), love and appreciate the writers of fanfic. This article is intentionally hurtful, outright homophobic, and quite obviously a form of cyber-bullying. This article not only uses multiple author's works without their permission, but uses them to shame and hurt the authors, their friends and family, their fans, and slash shippers in general. What was the purpose of this article, other than to hurt these lovely souls? You have such an important position at your disposal. You write for a website with a large number of readers, the vast majority of them adolescents. Did we learn nothing from the great Stan Lee? "With great power, comes great responsibility." The platform you have before you gives you a responsibility to be an example of behavior to young people trying to figure out how to navigate the world. You have failed greatly. Not only have you hurt a large number of people, but you have displayed the gross act of using your position of power to hurt others just to make yourself feel mighty.

I would strongly urge you to issue a sincere apology, and quickly. Slash shippers and fanfic writers will not allow ourselves and each other to be treated with the disrespect you have shown. We are gathering momentum and spreading the word about your misdoing, and we will not remain quiet. We will be heard. If I was a colleague at Teen, I would feel uncomfortable sharing a workplace with you. And if I was one of your superiors, I would immediately relieve you of your responsibility. You should no longer be allowed to write any content for this website.

I hope that you will learn from this experience, and in the future of your career as a writer, you have an open mind about fandom and treat the writers and shippers with respect, or kindly refrain from writing anything to do with fandom ever again. You do not realize how powerful and hurtful your words can be. I hope you fix this, because shippers will not remain quiet. We will be heard, and we demand your respect. If you refuse to respect us, then leave us out of your writing completely."

"Well, in the time it took us to comment on this article and spread the word about how utterly shameful and disrespectful it is, Alexandra has posted another -- equally gross -- article. The topic of the new article? Unsolicited and explicit sexual comments directed at a young woman. Teen.com is in it for the clicks, y'all. They do not care about tweens and teens at all. If they did, they wouldn't allow this to continue. I hope this site burns."

"I'm the parent of a teenager who reads and writes fanfiction. Maybe not in the Teen Wolf fandom, but it's there nonetheless. I'd be incredibly hurt, as a parent, if I found one of my child's fanfics posted here for your amusement. For a website who's allegedly "anti-bullying", what's happening here is nothing short of cyber-bullying of the worst sort. You don't know how old these people are, or what else they've got going on in their lives. All you know is that they wrote something you don't agree with, therefore you felt the need to publicly shame them. No rhyme or reason, just an arbitrary whim.

It's you, Alexandria, who are shameful. Not the authors of these fics. They've done nothing but share their stories in a community of like-minded individuals. Nothing was directed toward the cast or crew, nothing was explicitly stated as canon. These. Are. Just. Stories.

This is sick and sad, and my FANFIC WRITING, ANTI-BULLYING TEENAGER is no longer giving you their patronage."

"You can protect your tweets all you want. You have still published and linked to pornographic material without a warning on a site meant for teens (and tweens), many of whom may be under 18. Is this even legal? How is this still up?"

"Shame on the writer of this article for daring to call people who are manifesting their sexuality and enthusiasm for characters through fantasy, in a perfectly appropriate place and way, "nasty". Who do you think you are? I don't know if it's out of puritanism, homophobia or just plain ignorance, but it's nevertheless terrible. There's nothing dirty in slash, or gay sex, or girls thinking about gay sex, and this is objectively a terrible thing to do. If she understood the extent of her discourse, and the layers of wrong there is to using this kind of material completely disregarding permission from the authors, just to judge it in front of a young public, there's no way this would have made it through. It's an insult. Let this article be taken down now from the website, not only because it's a direct attack, or because it's ignorant, but because a fortuitous judgement against fanfiction and fandom, actual people, should have no place here by any means."

At Twitter

Tweets in response to Orlando Jones tweet:

"Never Stop Loving ‏@btvsvixen: @TheOrlandoJones @teen Our Teen Wolf community and fic writers everywhere appreciate your support Orlando! That article is extremely hurtful"

"sgbt ‏@sgbt1: @TheOrlandoJones @JackieBojarski @teen Changing title of the article doesn't help. Nor does "we love creativity" comment. #justclickbait"

"Linda ‏@bookdal: @sgbt1 @TheOrlandoJones @JackieBojarski Exactly. When fanwork is used as an opportunity to play mean girls, it demonstrates incompetence."

"Frankie Masson ‏@evilmun: @TheOrlandoJones @teen Such bullying is almost always directed towards slash fic. The not so thinly veiled homophobia breaks my heart."

"heidi heidi8 ‏@travelingheidi: @TheOrlandoJones Btw, @teen, I remember when sites worried that linking to NC17 stories (i.e. not images) risked violating server host ISPs."

"Kerry ‏@Nightwriter01: @TheOrlandoJones @teen I would suggest a spell checker - what the heck is 'inappropraite'. Perhaps your article was....ummm inappropriate"

Other tweets:

"Amber ‏@YAIndulgences: Gee, apparently @teen is a repeat offender with this fanfiction criticizing, she did the same thing to 5th Harmony."

"Mia Steinberg ‏@MiaSteinberg: Dear @teen readers who write slash fanfic: you are normal. You are creative. You are NOT nasty."

Mia Steinberg ‏@MiaSteinberg : Writing fan fiction is a healthy, wonderful way to spend puberty. It allows you so much joy, so much creativity, in a tumultuous time. @teen"

Mia Steinberg ‏@MiaSteinberg: Slash fiction is a safe, creative, EMPOWERING way to explore sexuality and attraction. @teen"

"SuperWiki Vampirate ‏@SuperWiki: So @teen responds to criticism of fanfic article which directed hate at individual fans by blocking accounts (inc me)."

"Sam Schooler ‏@samschoolering: Hey @teen. My first novel releases Monday. It's queer. Know how I learned to write? Fanfic. btw, I also signed a four-book deal last month."

"Samhain Verified account‏@SamMaggs: And if the idea of @teen girls writing super hot stories about two boys kissing squicks you out, maybe you need to look inwards. The end."

"Medie ‏@medie: Medie Retweeted Alexis Shaw: In case you need reminding that @allydaluisio & @teen have decided cyber bullying is an underrepresented market..."

On Tumblr

"For once on the internet, the comments are actually better than the article."

"I’m such a contrarian. My first immediate thought when I read that stupid teen dot com article was to go “wait, you think those fics were nasty af? time to run a week-long kinkfest.”

"Regarding that damn Sciles “article”? If you look at the very bottom of the page, it lets you know that teen.com is part of the Clevver Network. So is ClevverTV which is who did that awful thing at SDCC2014 where the cast had to read out fanfic and also said that s4 should have a Kate and Derek romance. Obviously they have not listened as a media presence about how they should be treating fandom or how to be, y’know, competent. So, what you can do? Contact them. If your work was linked, tell them they’re breaking copyright if you want. If not? Send feedback and make sure they know you’re not happy."

[in response to the article's title change]:"They are trying to placate us. This is in no way an appropriate response."

"AU where Stiles works for Teen.com and does a shitty write up about fanfic authors, one which happens to include Scott. Scott contacts him personally, and bluntly tells him to remove his links, citing that his site includes a disclaimer for third party use and gently lecturing him on journalism etiquette. Of course, Stiles complies, because he’s not that much of an asshole, and to apologize he takes Scott out for coffee. #too soon?"

""You Have To Be Some Type Of Stupid To Outright Shame A Fandom And Not Expect All Out War"

"I’m super hurt none of my smut was listed. What was the criteria, how much more kink do I need to add? -grabs pen and paper to take notes-"

Tags: "#and I want to print this article and set fire to it because it deserves to be burned to fucking ashes #it's just so unfair writers put so much effort into their amazing fics and then this her-who-shall-not-have-her-name-mentioned writes this #fandoms just get so much bullshit#teen wolf fandom maybe more than some #but seriously #this article is against everything believe in #it's just plain cyber bullying #and I swear to gods of fandom #that if I was a hacker #that teen website would show nothing but edited image of Stiles and Scott kissing themselves for as long as I was alive"

"Okay.. the usual namecalling, lack or research or information and getting down on young writers is not new. We’re used to that crap

…but to then providing a list of fic recs??????? Not even citing a couple but there’s a comprehensive list of fic in that “article.” That’s where they really got me.

Tags:

"#NO MENTION OF HOW TEEN WOLF WRITES TONS OF FEMSLASH COMPARED TO OTHER FANDOMS #NO MENTION OF ANYTHING GOOD WE DO#JUST EW NASTY BOYS KISS AND TOUCH WEINERS #AND HE'S A COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF FIC RECS JUST IN CASE YOU WANTED TO READ THEM"

"for a quick second, i thought this was gonna be a post about how all the subfandoms of teen wolf should come together to help get this taken down and i honestly didn’t expect it to go to ‘lets demonize everyone that likes a specific fictional pairing’

sterek fans aren’t gross, i’m not gross, but this person and their article very much is. you can bring people together with something other than hatred and if you actually took part in the sterek fandom, you’d find what i found - tons of people who multiship, tons of people who are willing and able to help but won’t help out if you constantly shame them for liking a ship and feel the need to add a hateful comment about all of them as a whole to things unrelated to sterek

by no means do you have to pander to anyone - if you have some personal grudge against the sterek ship as a whole, that’s your business and i’m no one to judge, but lumping a huge population of people on the internet into ‘gross’ and equating them to someone who is obviously being cruel is not only offensive and plain bullying but completely counterproductive to what you’re trying to accomplish.

if you want people to help take this down, the sterek shippers are large in number and my experience by and large in this fandom is that they are immensely kind, talented, helpful, intelligent and proactive people.

idk if you’re just trolling and i took this too seriously and i’m sorry if that’s the case. i’m super sick of seeing people saying this sort of stuff. i’m well aware that i am a nice person and i don’t deserve to be called gross or equated to what this person and their article is about, though. it’s seriously a lot easier to just ask for help from all of the teen wolf fandom for the sake of just being decent people than immediately demonizing a bunch of them and just adding to internet hate.

EDIT: also, for the record, i am helping to have this article taken down, it’s fuckin gross"

"Wow. I REALLY do not understand why some people’s dislike for Sterek and the Sterek fandom causes them to make incredibly wild assumptions. There’s exactly zero evidence for the claim that the author of that piece of crap is a Sterek fan. None whatsoever. Yes, she is shaming a specific subfandom that already has to deal with some really hateful shit, but she is also shaming fandom AS A WHOLE for EXISTING. How that leads anyone to assuming she’s a Sterek fan is a truly fantastic leap in logic. If anything, her use of .gifs and the fics that she pulled just prove that she is a fandom outsider, and has no goddamn clue what she’s talking about.

I really, truly don’t get it. I’m a Sterek monoshipper, I actively BL Sciles from my dash, and I spent most of yesterday afternoon in the comment section of that article just SCHOOLIN’ on why this shit is Not. Okay. I’ve sent an email to the editor. The only thing I haven’t done is tweeted about it because of all the blocking. I prefer to be able to creep an eye on both AD and the teen.com twitter to screenshot should any shit go down.

I will also say that there are multiple comments on that article that state “I’m a Sterek fan, but…” This large, obnoxious, inappropriate subfandom is trying to help. I’m not saying Sterek fandom is perfect by any stretch, and it definitely did get a little big for it’s britches there for a bit (which is what happens when a ship gets huge. Sterek was/is the first fandom for a lot of people who have a lot to learn about fandom culture. I can’t remember who, but I do recall someone describing Sterek in it’s heyday as Baby’s First Fandom, which is a dig but an semi-accurate one.) But when literally every comment on that article is negative, and there’s hundreds of people out there trying to help get this article taken down and protect the Sciles fandom, why does it need to be made about Sterek? It isn’t about Sterek. It’s about TW fandom in general, and Sciles subfandom in particular. Let’s keep it that way.

Tags:

"#sterek #anti-sterek sciles #the great teen.com sciles debacle #teen wolf #fandom #fandom problems #ship hate #I mean I know there's a portion of TW Fandom that is jumping up and down for Sterek fandom to STFU all the time #So why make something that's not about Sterek about Sterek? #unless you are trolling #in which case I guess you got what you wanted #congrats #also for a subculture that is all about protecting people and their safety and their mental health #we really do love making each other feel like shit #I mean hate just gets tossed around so easily #which is the nature of the internet #but really #I'm pretty tired of Fandom/Tumblr is a Safe Space #it isn't #we're mean to each other #we don't need outsiders being mean to us too"

"After 190 complaints, they changed the title of the ‘article’. Now it’s suddenly “11 must-see stories”. As if that changes the tone of the 'ewww nasty’ bits at all. And they still haven’t fixed that glaring misspelling…"

"@queerleighyours did you see their newly revised title and editor’s note? that if you squint in a dark room and weren’t paying attention might possibly mistake for an apology if your standards were very low"

"I’m nowhere near this fandom, and this is terrible. Fortunately, the outcry has been pretty loud. I’m seeing people in the publishing industry coming out in defense of fanfic. They know that’s where most of us started. Fanfic is legit, y’all. This kind of shaming is straight up bullying."

"This is awful what this person did. I’m sort of surprised that they went after Scott/Stiles rather than the biggest ship of Sterek but even if they went after that or actual dubious parings, it’s still awful how they post for public humiliation for fanfic writers to be mocked. There wasn’t anything even wrong with any of the stories and other than being a gay pairing or perhaps them just not liking Scott/Stiles, it was barely even above PG13. I was expecting hardcore smut or whatever at least but it was all cute fluffy fics. That was nasty? They’ve never read some really disturbing ones and they should not write anything ever again."

"To report Defy Media to the Federal Trade Commision.....

Also, under the Childrens’ Online Privacy & Protection Act (COPPA), sites like teen.com that promote their content to kids under the age of 13 and collect information from those children may be in violation of the Act’s requirements if they don’t get parental permission.

A plan of action that I’ve done and something you are also welcome to do is to report their web content to the Federal Trade Commission for being in direct violation of COPPA.

If you choose to report them for this matter, please be careful and do not mention the article or the explicit content linked as part of the violations; it’s not relevant, and the US doesn’t have as many restrictions on sharing links to adult content as other countries - many people share links, legally, in public on sites like tumblr, AO3, livejournal and Twitter. Yes, TEEN violated fandom standards and norms, but those kinds of links aren’t actually illegal. If they were illegal, Twitter, for example, wouldn’t allow links to adult content, but they do....

....The next page called “Additional Information” is where I put the following complaint:

The site states explicitly that it is:“the best teen and tween website and source for celebrity and entertainment news, freebies and giveaways, exclusive video interviews, red carpet style, movie reviews, new music and funny viral videos.” http://www.teen.com/#ixzz3pcWl0PIJ However, even though they claim to be for “tweens” - ie people under the age of 13 - they do not check for age information, or allow parents to remove information about those under the age of 13. Their interface with Facebook allows those under 13 to enter contests, share information, etc., in violation of COPPA....

....Reporting COPPA violations is a good start and the company may face large financial penalties for the violations...."

"hey @teendotcom can I get paid to write one paragraph (riddled with errors) and then just quote other people’s work?"

"So “inappropraite” means intense affection and love expressed in a beautifully artistic way, right? That piece of vocabulary is new to me, I have to admit, but given the context of the sentence in which I read it (”But, as with most diehard-fandom members, a love for a certain person or pairing seemingly always takes a turn for the…erm…inappropraite.”) I presume that’s what it means."

Other Places

"fanfiction is amazing!!! some people just suck

I'm trying not to only write blog posts when I'm angry about things that happen on the Internet, but I can't help it. I usually need inspiration, and this new "article" on Teen basically did it for me. If you don't want to read it, basically the lady who wrote it wrote about "Nasty AF Teen Wolf Fans" who wrote slash fic. Now, for the non fanfiction readers/writers out there - (and seriously, how have you not read fanfic before?) - slash fic is basically a story where the characters are queer and most likely have sex. In the stories this woman spoke about, the dude characters were loving on each other. I have so many problems with this.
1) Why the hells was this woman snooping through fanfiction? She obviously has the right to look, if she wants, but the fact that she then went and wrote an article "exposing the nastiness" is just so weird to me. It's probably because fanfiction feels like a safe space, at least for teenagers. I feel comfortable saying that because I know so many teens who love writing fic, have made friends through it, etc. I started seriously writing because of the comments I received while writing fanfiction. I don't know how I would've reacted if someone did this to me. I'm already angry that this lady used other writing for this article.
2) It's not like the stories were about the actors: I've seen people write fanfic stories about real life actors, speculating what's going on in their sex lives. I think it's really weird and invasive. But...the stories included in this Teen article were about fictional characters. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like once characters are tossed out into the world, there's a part of them that belongs to the fans. It's like a weird custody agreement - the creators get them half of the time, and the fans get them the other half.
3) WHY DID SHE PICK THE GAY FANFICS? For some reason, I can't imagine that the author of this piece would've had the same reaction if she stumbled across heterosexual sex in fanfiction. She picked the slash fic - the gay fic. She's labeling stories about gay characters as wrong. Actually, she's labeling them as "nasty AF," but you know.

That alone is enough to make me want to drop kick someone.
4) THE SHAMEEEEEE: When it comes down to it, teen girls are shamed for whatever they do. We're shamed for liking boy bands, or regular bands ("omg why are you wearing a Nirvana shirt do you even know what that is???"). We're shamed for the shows we like and the movies we watch and the books we read. No matter what teen girls do, we're screwed.

Fan culture is a really cool thing, sometimes. Tumblr and AO3 can spark friendships or goals, but can just be regular release from life. Fanfiction is an escape, like books or movies. The difference is that girls get to control what they consume with fanfiction, and there's actually diversity.

The fact that teen girls write slash fic isn't a big deal to me. If anything, it helps them express their sexuality in a way that isn't hurting anyone. Writing about two fictional characters making out (or - gasp - having sex) isn't hurting anyone. But shaming girls for doing this can hurt girls.

Just like shaming us for everything else can."

"While the change is a baby step in the right direction, it’s still clear that the original post was geared towards shaming Teen Wolf fans who write a pairing the author doesn’t agree with, as well as those who write NSFW fiction. While the new tone attempts to make it seems as though they’re celebrating these fics, there’s still a few word choices in there that make it seem like she’s judging. Like starting the second paragraph with But. There’s no need to do that unless she really doesn’t think it’s cool that people ship Sciles."

"AN OPEN LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF TEEN.COM

This is, as the title suggests, an open letter to the editor of teen.com about their recent homophobic, all-around disgusting article mocking slash fanfiction and those who read and write it. Her email is [redacted] if you’d like to write a letter as well. (Thanks to Tess Sharpe for leading the charge.)

Dear Kaitlin,

Yesterday, your site posted an article <http://www.donotlink.com/h4b2> that is actively dangerous to teens, particularly queer and questioning teens, in a number of ways.

We should really not have to tell you that it’s homophobic and NOT OKAY to say that queer kissing is “nasty as fuck.” And yet, here we are. I want to do more than that, though. I want to explain why it’s not okay. I want you to understand the harm your article could (and very likely did) do.

Not too long ago, I was one of the teens reading fanfiction that your article mocked. With one crucial difference: I didn’t read slash. I didn’t click on it. I wouldn’t even let my eyes linger on the pairings listed in summaries as I scanned for safer, cleaner fic with straight pairings. I didn’t dislike slash, but I dreaded seeing any hint of it. Just knowing it existed scared me because it was so clearly wrong, and if I shared any space with it (even virtual space, scrolling as fast as I could past it) might make me wrong, too.

At the same time, I was fantasizing about girls. I told myself if was just because I knew what girls looked like and felt like since I was one myself. I wasn’t imagining kissing girls because I liked them. I didn’t like girls. I liked boys. I wanted to kiss boys, like in the fic I read of my favorite straight couples. (You know what doesn’t seem possible when you only read hetero stories? Wanting to kiss boys and girls.)

At the same time, I was masturbating at night. I’d cry after, every time. Silent, heaving sobs that twisted in my stomach and lower, because I knew I shouldn’t be doing it. Because I knew it was wrong and I still didn’t stop. So I was wrong, too, right? (Het fic with more explicit sexual content existed, but I never read it. Sure, it wasn’t quite as wrong as slash fic with sex, but it was wrong enough. Nasty enough, one might say.)

It wasn’t until later that I realized I was so scared of slash fic and of sex in fic because I was curious. I wasn’t just afraid — I was ashamed.

Later, in college, I let myself click on some of those shameful titles before hastily closing the window. Even later, I finally let myself read them.

You know what I found? Stories where I could explore and engage my queerness and sexuality without judgment. I found stories that showed me sexual pleasure was possible and wonderful. I found characters who wanted to kiss people of all genders. I found out there were more than two genders to want to kiss!

I found myself in slash fanfiction.

It can be so hard to figure out your identity, to accept yourself, to love yourself, to recognize that you deserve a place in this world, that you deserved to be loved.

How dare you make that harder? How dare you mock the spaces that queer people and women and trans people have carved for themselves? When you tell teens that these stories are “nasty as fuck” or “inappropriate” (which is the language used after the initial reaction), you’re telling them that their desires and their questions and their creativity and their curiosity and their very selvesare nasty and inappropriate.

Words matter. They have consequences. You should have known better than to publish that article at all, but since you didn’t, you need to fix it. You need to take it down and issue an apology. (Note: “I’m sorry if anyone got their feelings hurt” is not actually an apology.)

Of course, there were other issues with this article as well. Tess Sharpe has done a wonderful job explaining them here. In short: you linked children to sexually explicit content without any warning for them, and you used peoples’ writing without their consent (many of whom are teens and have since been harassed and bullied because of this violation). Read her letter as well.

You exist for teens. Presumably you care about them. If that’s true, address this. Acknowledge you were wrong and why you were wrong.

And never ever ever invade and/or mock teens’ safe spaces or interests or creativity oridentities ever again.

Sincerely,

Kayla Whaley"

"But what is it about these fanfics or this fandom that D’Aluisio finds so inappropriate? Is it the fact that fans are shipping two male characters or is it because of the sexual nature of the writing? Perhaps a combination of the two? One can really only speculate. But it does beg the question: Why didn’t D’Aluisio aim any of her ire at fanfic featuring a heterosexual couple? She does, however, link to another of her articles citing the “dirty” nature of fans who ship and write about a different same-sex couple, Camila Cabello and Lauren Jauregui, from the girl singing group Fifth Harmony. D’Aluisio uses the same tactic of quoting and directly linking to fanfic examples and refers to them as “really effing dirty” and “inapprop.” Websites like Teen.com have an obligation to their audiences, especially when the word “TEEN” is a part of their brand, to actively discourage and condemn shaming and bullying of any kind. They have an additional obligation to protect young people from harassment. Directly linking to the personal blogs of these writers in an article meant to cast a negative light on them only opens the door to all manner of online trolling from those who read that article and see an easy target."

"Early yesterday occurred what can only be referred to as a “cautionary tale”. One for the insensitive, ignorant, obnoxious “mean girls” whose mentality never quiet escaped the 8th grade. Yesterday, one of the editors of Teen.com, published a story entitled “11 Scott McCall-Stiles Stilinksi Fanfics That Prove Teen Wolf Fans Are Nasty AF” (original title). Yes, you read right. No, this is not paraphrased. And if you think the article then proceeded to utterly shame and parade specific authors for their own amusement, just as the heading suggests? You’d be 100% correct! This from a site that purports to be anti-bullying and all about uplifting the tween and teen girls of the world. Unfortunately, this is not the first time this web site has failed to live up to its mission statement in favor of clamoring for hits. The author of said piece actually has a history of gunning for those girls/young women who revel in the fic realm. Alexandra D’Aluisio appears to take great pride in tearing into the spirit of those she feels personally offend her simply by being into things she, herself, is not. In a typically immature fashion, she fails to be the journalist she claims and instead uses Teen.com as her own personal “burn book”. In doing so, both she and the site she writes for have exposed themselves as the ones who are “nasty as fuck”."

Additional Reponses By The Authors

"Hey could you all do me a favor and report this, or make a comment? This article linked a bunch of sciles fic (mine included) and wrote a pretty nasty article about how we’re inappropriate and crossing lines or whatever. And I’m really uncomfortable with my work or anyone else’s being framed like this"

"I AM LIVID. MY WORK HAS BEEN USED WITHOUT MY CONSENT TO SHAME SCILES FANS AND MYSELF. Please signal boost this. Please leave comments on the article. Blast them on Twitter. I don’t care. I am pissed and I want my work removed from this."

"Aww thank you! I mean to be honest I’m hardly that offended. People have taken that approach to fic since basically forever and everything on that list was fluff with a bit of smut?? Some of my fave fics were on that list sooo. Anyways obviously that doesn’t make it okay! And I’m upset for the people who /were/ hurt by this. Writing is hard enough without having to worry someone will publicly criticize you like that sigh"

"Alexandra, I am so very disappointed in this article and they way Teen.com has handled the backlash.

Firstly, I'd like to say that I did not give you or Teen.com permission to link a work of fiction that I wrote on my *personal blog* to your website. Nor would I have even if you'd asked. Fandom is a safe space and *you've just invaded mine and forced me to leave.* I don't know if I can go back, so thank you for kicking me out of my one true safe space.

I don't accept your half-assed apology. I want a new one. One issued to each person that you decided you'd link so that the followers of Teen.com, who are *teens* by the way - *AKA children who you've linked pornography to*, could read your mockery of an article *shaming and bullying* young women and men for creating fanworks based on something that they love.

I am disgusted. I request that this article be taken down immediately.

We will keep fighting. We will keep tweeting (thanks for the block btw, Alexandra). We will keep reblogging until something is done about this. If the nearly 200 comments all putting down your article didn't give you the impression that you did something wrong, why don't you check out the hashtag #takeitdown on Twitter. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Also, I'd like to remind you that the internet is forever, so just because you've changed the name of that article, doesn't mean that it's not out there for everyone to see because it is.

Thank you for your time"

"this article is disgusting. thank you for letting me know.

this is so absurd. absolutely no regards to permission or consent, just a hateful, shameful blast on the personal blogs of writers. im absolutely furious.

get this article taken down"

Two Letters To The Editor By A Young Adult Author

On Oct 25, 2015, young adult author Tess Sharpe wrote a long letter to the editor which she posted to her tumblr account. After the article was removed she posted a second Letter to the Editor calling for an apology.

Second letter to the editor posted on October 26, 2015. Click to read

"A letter to the editor of teen.com

In light of @teendotcom​‘s blatant homophobia and mockery of fanfic writers (in this article: http://www.donotlink.com/h4b2) I have written a letter to their editor. I encourage all of you who think homophobia is bullshit and bullying is horrible to do the same. Her email is [email protected].

Dear Kaitlin,

My name is Tess Sharpe. I am a YA author who writes queer novels and I’m writing to you today because of the blatant and disturbing homophobia presented in this article: http://www.donotlink.com/h4b2

Firstly, the original headline declared fanfic writers–teenagers, your very demographic–as “nasty as fuck” for writing about boys kissing. Do you understand what kind of message that sends to queer teens? That same sex kissing is “nasty” That it is wrong. For a web site that supposedly has an anti-bullying message, you are failing horribly.

Secondly, when you changed said headline, you declared your word choice was “poor” not acknowledging that it was bigoted and homophobic, but also not acknowledging that you altered the text of the article as well. I have screenshots proving this. And despite your associate editor scrambling to tone down the language, she still declared same sex relationships as “Inappropriate”

What, pray tell, is inappropriate about homosexuality? Please, explain to me your justification in declaring this about a deeply vulnerable population that has one of the highest suicide and homelessness rates among teenagers.

Thirdly, you are linking to sexually explicit content with no warning on a web site that you claim is for children as young as 11. Why do you think it’s appropriate to declare these fics as things that fans “must see” when none of them are old enough to legally view that kind of explicit content? Do you enjoy tricking children into looking at what is essentially fanfic erotica? As someone who just finished a novel on childhood sexual abuse, I find your lack of awareness about exposing young people to sexual situations they aren’t ready for appalling. You wouldn’t post porn links on your web site, so why are you posting links to sexually explicit fics and telling teenagers they “must” read them instead of giving them a heads up about the adult content so they can make the choice if they’re ready to read things at that level?

Fourthly, when people brought this to your attention through your Twitter account, whoever’s in charge of it blocked everyone, including myself. Which is why I’m writing to you now. I realize that you probably go through a lot of content, you’re likely not monitoring your social media yourself, but you need to be aware of the sticky legal situation that your associate editor has put you in. Exposing children as young as 11 to sexually explicit material with no warning is not okay. And I’m sure the parents of the tweens and teens who visit your web site would be enraged to find out what you’re trying to expose them to with no warnings. A few nicely worded letters to some of the watchdog mom groups about the content you’re exposing your readership to would not be that hard to accomplish.

Fifth, you had no right to take someone else’s work and use it for your article without permission. Not only did you link to personal blogs of teenagers who are now being subjected to harassment and bullying to the point that several of them have erased their blogs, but you stole their writing and mocked it and then when people called you out, you tried to claim you “loved” their passion.

Your associate editor needs to either be fired or she needs to be put through a anti-bullying course as well as a LGBTQA awareness course. She and your web site needs to issue a heartfelt apology to each and every one of those writers. And you need to take the article down.

I am someone who has spent her life advocating for queer teens. Writing for them and helping them. What you have done with your ridiculous, homophobic, clickbait article is crush young queer creativity. You have made them fear putting something out there because they might get mocked for something they love and created out of love. You have exposed children who may not be ready for it to deeply sexual situations. You need to make this right. If you have any caring for your readership–which I’m honestly wondering about because of the poor, poor choices you have made in responding to this–you need to fix this. Remove the article. Apologize for being homophobic and bigoted. And either fire or completely re-educate your homophobic associate editor.

Sincerely,

Tess Sharpe"

Pattern of Similar Articles About Other FanFiction?

In the Sciles article, the author linked to another Teen.com article about fanficton which many fans felt carried the same negative characterization of slash fanfiction (in this case, femmeslash).

The article titled "The Dirtiest Fanfictions Ever Written About Camila Cabello & Lauren Jauregui" was published a few days earlier on October 17, 2015. Paragraph After Edits

"We know two things about Fifth Harmony fans — they’re dedicated, and they’re really effing dirty. And, when it comes to the pairing of Camila Cabello and Lauren Jauregui, they hold nothing back.

We know two things about Fifth Harmony fans — they’re dedicated, and they’re really effing dirty. And, when it comes to the pairing of Camila Cabello and Lauren Jauregui, they hold nothing back.

But while we knew that Harmonizers everywhere are basc obsessed with Camren, we did NOT know that the world of Camila-Lauren fanfiction is so stockpiled we almost couldn’t even handle it. And to take things a step further, it’s harder to find fanfics that are clean than it is to discover SUPER dirty, NSFW stories. Here are excerpts (yes, only small bits — do you really think we’re gonna show you the whole inapprop shabang?!) from the most raunchy Camren fanfictions you’ll ever read."

Commentary:

"Holy crap, there's another entire article of this drivel. Listen if you want to engage fandom you have to understand fandom and do your homework. Contact the Organization for Transformative Works they'll help you. Or barring that, talk to people in fandom instead of laughing and pointing fingers. We don't take kindly to what amounts to bullying and we are very protective of our own."

"Really effing dirty?" Really, Ms. Daluisio? Did you get permission from these writers before you posted their works here? I highly doubt it. You should be ashamed of yourself. Not to mention that you've linked explicit content to preteens.

Further Reading/Meta

• Internet Shaming/Bullying: Slash Fic and Teen.Com, Whitney Drake, October 24, 2015
• Update: Teen.Com’s Fanfic Shaming Post – Does Editing Fix it?, Whitney Drake, October 25, 2015

[please add links to commentary]

References

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