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tj_teejayFar wrong. Because I'm now being called misogynistic and a Sara hater, based on the fact that I've posted a request of not including Sara in a story prompt over at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
collarcorner . (I quote: "Characters: Neal, Peter, others of your choosing except Sara please") Did I post "Everyone but the red-haired Ellis bitch"? No. Because I don't think she's that. Did I post "I never want to see Sara in a fan fiction ever"? No. Because Sara Ellis and/or Neal/Sara fan fiction has a right to exist. Do I want to avoid having Sara in a story that I wish someone would write for me? Yes. Do I have that right? I'd like to think so, because it's not against the rules of the comm where I've requested this.
In all actuality, I think the whole discussion that broke out over at collarcorner is grossly unfair – or grossly unfair in the context that it started in. Someone seems to be having a big problem with the fact that a large portion of the White Collar community has a dislike for Sara Ellis. While that may be, I find it misplaced to take that out on the members of collarcorner. No one there ever explicitly stated they hate her, despise her, scorn her. Three different people have merely politely stated they don't want her in the stories they hope to be written for them. And that prompted an anonymous person to say they abhor the fact that there seems to be a general hate towards Sara and that she finds it gross, disgusting, absurd and misogynistic (and I'm not even paraphrasing).
It has gotten to the point where we are being accused of by default hating every single unattached female character introduced in the future, i.e. every woman who is going to touch Neal. We are being asked to start our own "no women" comm. Also, people asking to have Sara and maybe also Kate excluded from requested stories apparently means we're excluding most female characters. Hm, last time I checked, there were seven female regulars or recurring characters on White Collar (Elizabeth, Diana, Lauren, June, Alex, Kate, Sara). And excluding two of them is "most female characters"? Simple math tells me that this calculation is somehow off. But I'm getting sarcastic.
The thing is, and I want to explain myself a little more, yes, I admit to Sara not being my favorite character on the show. And, yes, I admit that I'm not fond of the Neal/Sara 'ship. Yes, I admit that I could very well live with her not being on the show at all. And, yes, I admit that I would rather see Neal be with another woman who is worthy of him (and I didn't think Kate fit that role either). Does that mean I don't ever want to see Neal with another woman? Hell no, because I frickin' do! I want to see juicy kissing scenes that are charged with sexual chemistry. I wanna squee and flail in delight when watching my favorite TV show because Neal and Female-X-Worthy-Of-Neal are making out. But I'm sorry to say that Sara just doesn't fit the bill. I find it hard to see the chemistry between Neal and Sara. It just doesn't translate across the screen for me. And I will repeat that this is not reminiscent of me denying Neal a female character on the show to be together with out of some misguided, subconscious jealousy towards Matt Bomer's character. (I mean, hell, the guy is gay and lives a happily married life with his male partner and three kids, which actually makes me all kinds of happy.) Okay, we're straying from the subject matter here a little bit...
I could rant on and on and repeat what I've already posted as replies to the comments over at collarcorner, but that'd be redundant. I'm just still riled up and, frankly, personally insulted that I'm being called names completely out of nowhere. And even though I'm not a touchy-feely person, it has hurt my feelings to the point where I think about it before I fall asleep. Which, considering we're talking about a frickin' TV show, is actually quite ridiculous. And if it wasn't so damn sad and libelous, I'd think it was hilarious for someone to call anyone misogynistic in a community where every single member is female.
I mean, I can even sort of understand where these people are coming from. It's never nice to see a character you like being shunned or insulted. And you tend to get defensive. But, please, take it out on the outspoken Sara haters, and not on a very respectful, mature, decent group of people in a gen fanfic community that never had the intention of going on any kind of personal vendetta against the Sara fans.
The argument has been made that Sara/Neal is now an official part of canon, and that it's wrong to exclude her from the fandom. Yes, I understand that, and I even appreciate how it might be upsetting when people do that. Still, there is no rule that every single fan fiction needs to feature each and every canon character. There are ways of writing season three fan fiction that is true to canon that has Neal in it but not Sara. I mean, she wasn't featured in episode 3x02 at all. Did that mean it was a bad episode or not true to the rest of the show? I think not.
I personally don't mean to be disrespectful to what has been established in canon. I am actually a big fan of keeping things true to canon (which is also the reason why slash isn't my thing). But if there are legitimate and unforced ways of writing season three fanfic that doesn't include the Neal/Sara 'ship, that is what I will strive for. It doesn't mean that I will never mention or write Sara or Neal/Sara. Who knows, maybe the rest of the season will prove me wrong and Sara will actually grow on me. That is not completely out of the question.
The saddest part about this is that it's pretty much shattered my view of the White Collar fandom. Up to now, every single person in this fandom that I've met has been nice and sweet and friendly and generally awesome. I have added a great number of people to my f-list with whom conversing online has been such a blast, even though a lot of them are slashers/OT3ers, which is so totally not my thing. I used to think the WhiCo fandom consisted of grown-up, decent people who were old enough to share the love of a TV show without getting lost in trolling and wank wars. Clearly, I was wrong.
I will still say this, though (and I've said it before): The quality of fan fiction written in the WhiCo fandom is outstanding. Seriously, folks, you can pat yourselves on the back. I have read a lot of fanfic in my time, and never have I encountered a fandom where so little fanfic is posted that I turn away from because it's badly written or riddled with mistakes, plot holes or formatting fubars. I used to be proud to be a part of this fandom, to be allowed into the circle of the writers whom I still admire and am not sure I'm worthy of. Now I've grown leery. I mean, yes, maybe it's uncalled for to let my world be shattered by two mavericks who might not be representative of the fandom when most people I've met are not remotely like that. But you all know it takes only a drop of poison to contaminate the well.
One last question. If I admit that explicit Neal/Peter slash weirds me out, does that make me a homophobe?
collarcorner . (I quote: "Characters: Neal, Peter, others of your choosing except Sara please") Did I post "Everyone but the red-haired Ellis bitch"? No. Because I don't think she's that. Did I post "I never want to see Sara in a fan fiction ever"? No. Because Sara Ellis and/or Neal/Sara fan fiction has a right to exist. Do I want to avoid having Sara in a story that I wish someone would write for me? Yes. Do I have that right? I'd like to think so, because it's not against the rules of the comm where I've requested this.In all actuality, I think the whole discussion that broke out over at collarcorner is grossly unfair – or grossly unfair in the context that it started in. Someone seems to be having a big problem with the fact that a large portion of the White Collar community has a dislike for Sara Ellis. While that may be, I find it misplaced to take that out on the members of collarcorner. No one there ever explicitly stated they hate her, despise her, scorn her. Three different people have merely politely stated they don't want her in the stories they hope to be written for them. And that prompted an anonymous person to say they abhor the fact that there seems to be a general hate towards Sara and that she finds it gross, disgusting, absurd and misogynistic (and I'm not even paraphrasing).
It has gotten to the point where we are being accused of by default hating every single unattached female character introduced in the future, i.e. every woman who is going to touch Neal. We are being asked to start our own "no women" comm. Also, people asking to have Sara and maybe also Kate excluded from requested stories apparently means we're excluding most female characters. Hm, last time I checked, there were seven female regulars or recurring characters on White Collar (Elizabeth, Diana, Lauren, June, Alex, Kate, Sara). And excluding two of them is "most female characters"? Simple math tells me that this calculation is somehow off. But I'm getting sarcastic.
The thing is, and I want to explain myself a little more, yes, I admit to Sara not being my favorite character on the show. And, yes, I admit that I'm not fond of the Neal/Sara 'ship. Yes, I admit that I could very well live with her not being on the show at all. And, yes, I admit that I would rather see Neal be with another woman who is worthy of him (and I didn't think Kate fit that role either). Does that mean I don't ever want to see Neal with another woman? Hell no, because I frickin' do! I want to see juicy kissing scenes that are charged with sexual chemistry. I wanna squee and flail in delight when watching my favorite TV show because Neal and Female-X-Worthy-Of-Neal are making out. But I'm sorry to say that Sara just doesn't fit the bill. I find it hard to see the chemistry between Neal and Sara. It just doesn't translate across the screen for me. And I will repeat that this is not reminiscent of me denying Neal a female character on the show to be together with out of some misguided, subconscious jealousy towards Matt Bomer's character. (I mean, hell, the guy is gay and lives a happily married life with his male partner and three kids, which actually makes me all kinds of happy.) Okay, we're straying from the subject matter here a little bit...
I could rant on and on and repeat what I've already posted as replies to the comments over at collarcorner, but that'd be redundant. I'm just still riled up and, frankly, personally insulted that I'm being called names completely out of nowhere. And even though I'm not a touchy-feely person, it has hurt my feelings to the point where I think about it before I fall asleep. Which, considering we're talking about a frickin' TV show, is actually quite ridiculous. And if it wasn't so damn sad and libelous, I'd think it was hilarious for someone to call anyone misogynistic in a community where every single member is female.
I mean, I can even sort of understand where these people are coming from. It's never nice to see a character you like being shunned or insulted. And you tend to get defensive. But, please, take it out on the outspoken Sara haters, and not on a very respectful, mature, decent group of people in a gen fanfic community that never had the intention of going on any kind of personal vendetta against the Sara fans.
The argument has been made that Sara/Neal is now an official part of canon, and that it's wrong to exclude her from the fandom. Yes, I understand that, and I even appreciate how it might be upsetting when people do that. Still, there is no rule that every single fan fiction needs to feature each and every canon character. There are ways of writing season three fan fiction that is true to canon that has Neal in it but not Sara. I mean, she wasn't featured in episode 3x02 at all. Did that mean it was a bad episode or not true to the rest of the show? I think not.
I personally don't mean to be disrespectful to what has been established in canon. I am actually a big fan of keeping things true to canon (which is also the reason why slash isn't my thing). But if there are legitimate and unforced ways of writing season three fanfic that doesn't include the Neal/Sara 'ship, that is what I will strive for. It doesn't mean that I will never mention or write Sara or Neal/Sara. Who knows, maybe the rest of the season will prove me wrong and Sara will actually grow on me. That is not completely out of the question.
The saddest part about this is that it's pretty much shattered my view of the White Collar fandom. Up to now, every single person in this fandom that I've met has been nice and sweet and friendly and generally awesome. I have added a great number of people to my f-list with whom conversing online has been such a blast, even though a lot of them are slashers/OT3ers, which is so totally not my thing. I used to think the WhiCo fandom consisted of grown-up, decent people who were old enough to share the love of a TV show without getting lost in trolling and wank wars. Clearly, I was wrong.
I will still say this, though (and I've said it before): The quality of fan fiction written in the WhiCo fandom is outstanding. Seriously, folks, you can pat yourselves on the back. I have read a lot of fanfic in my time, and never have I encountered a fandom where so little fanfic is posted that I turn away from because it's badly written or riddled with mistakes, plot holes or formatting fubars. I used to be proud to be a part of this fandom, to be allowed into the circle of the writers whom I still admire and am not sure I'm worthy of. Now I've grown leery. I mean, yes, maybe it's uncalled for to let my world be shattered by two mavericks who might not be representative of the fandom when most people I've met are not remotely like that. But you all know it takes only a drop of poison to contaminate the well.
One last question. If I admit that explicit Neal/Peter slash weirds me out, does that make me a homophobe?
