I have things that really (I mean really) squick me out. And some things just glide by.
Sometimes I already know these and avoid reading them. Sometimes they can be a surprise ... in which case I know to avoid in future.
All of this is a me thing. I'm more than happy for people to create fiction that works for them.
Repeat after me:
It is OKAY to have content preferences and to be uncomfortable with certain ships or topics, controversial or not. It is OKAY to distance yourself from such content and block certain tags or creators.
It is NOT OKAY to actively hate and harass real people for creating content of fictional characters that features things that make you uncomfortable.
never let anyone tell you that trawling through mediocre victorian poetry isn't worth it. we just happened upon an absolute BANGER of a worm poem. go read it or else 🪱🪱🪱
Neil Gaiman: [inhaling fresh morning air] ahhhh what a great day for a race!
Clive Barker: what race?
Gaiman: the HUMAN race
Gaiman: i was just thinking of the awesome potential of the human mind
Gaiman: and the limitless vista of the human imagination
Gaiman: just imagine! with the awesome power of imagination, YOU are in control of your own fantasies
Gaiman: all you need is a pinch of curiosity, a dash of wonder
Gaiman: and an ounce of whimsy!!
Gaiman: butterfly in the skyyyy
Gaiman: i can fly twice as hiiiigh
Gaiman: why, you could imagine anything!
Gaiman: you could imagine a clockwork alligator as big as the sky!
Gaiman: you could imagine a railroad conductor made of lemon drops!
Gaiman: you could even imagine
Gaiman: a boy who wears glasses and goes to a wizard school
Rowling: hello children
Rowling: my lawyersss inform me there'sss some copyright infringement happening here
Gaiman: ah but joanne
Gaiman: if you check the time stamps, i'm sure you'll find that Tim Hunter actually PREDATES harry potter
Rowling:
Rowling: curssse you gaiman
Rowling: you win thisss round
Rowling: curssse you gaiman
Rowling: not even i am rich enough to overcome the limitsss of chronological time!
Rowling: not yet
Rowling: but sssomeday
Rowling: if only i hadn't ssspent sso much on that fence
Alan Moore: [appearing in a clap of thunder] Behold! The Arch magus!
King: the arch magus!
Koontz: the arch magus!
Lovecraft: the arch magus!
Barker: the arch magus!
Poe: the arch magus!
Alan Moore: behold! the story of the boy wizard antichrist!
Rowling: ALRIGHT i can definitely sssue over this
Moore: ah foolish mortal, observe and know... i never specifically SAID harry potter
Rowling:
Moore: i just said the boy wizard named [mumbles] who goes to school at [mumbles] school of witchcraft and wizardry and fights [mumbles]
Rowling: curse you moore!
Rowling: alwayssss one ssstep ahead of the game!
Rowling: curssse your plausssible deniability!
Rowling: hmmm "plaussible deniability" huh?
Rowling: well TWO can play that game...
Rowling: so anyway the nazis didn't actually commit those documented crimes
King: gosh joanne that uh kinda sounds-
Rowling: oh but you'll notice i never said the word "holocaust"
Rowling: haha i'm too sslippery for you!
Rowling: johnny law can't keep up!
Rowling: they'll never catch JK Rowling with her molted ssskin around her anklesss!
Just a standard day on normal island. Nothing to see here.
Midnight Pals: Trucks and Dolls
[mysterious circle of robed figures]
JK Rowling: hello children
Rowling: the time of our ultimate triumph issss at hand
Rowling: the cassss report says girlss play with dollsss and boyss play with truckss
Rowling: finally! sssomeone sssaid it!
Rowling: lisssten to these incredible findingsss
Rowling: "it is difficult to guess a person's gender based solely on their height and no other info"
Rowling: ok i'm not really ssure what that meanss
Rowling: but the conclusssion that transss people should be illegal is obviouss
Rowling: [reading paper] this casss report provesss the ssscientific, indisssputable fact that
Rowling: biologically ssspeaking
Rowling: girlss play with dollsss and boyss play with truckss
Rowling: because of
Rowling: [squinting at paper] hormones
Rowling: uh
Rowling: ok ssso that's what it sssaysss here
Rowling: that sseemss kind of
Rowling:
Rowling: well
Rowling: i guesss that's what we're going with now
Rowling: yes actually
Rowling: the more i think about it
Rowling: the more obviouss and rational thiss ssoundss to me
Jesse Singal: but mommy
Singal: what if a girl doesn't want to play with a doll or a boy doesn't want to play with a truck
Rowling: oh we will MAKE them want to play
Rowling: every boy WILL play with truckss, every girl WILL play with dollss
Rowling: thank god we can count on our government to make thiss a national priority
Rowling: instead of that sssilly raw sssewage on beachess issssue
Rowling: i will sssee a britain ressstored to perfect immutable divission between men and women where NEVER the twain shall meet
Rowling: and i will persssonally burn EVERY copy of Marlo Thomassss' Free to be You and Me
Rowling: really jesse i'm surprised at you
Rowling: a boy who doesn't want to play with trucks wouldn't be a boy
Singal: i thought our line was that sex was genitals
Rowling: OH MY GOD jesse at least TRY to keep up
Rowling: it's about trucks now
Rowling: or
Rowling: as we call them here in britain
Rowling: lorries
Helen Joyce: dark lord dark lord i have a question
Rowling: i'm not talking to you right now
Joyce:
Rowling: you embarrasssssed usss
Rowling: you embarrasssssed usss all
Rowling: you had one job, helen! one job!
Rowling: you were ssssupposssed to be vetted as an expert in trans! how do you fail that?
Rowling: i mean for god'sss ssake
Rowling: how did the australianss figure out you were jussst making shit up?
Joyce: i don't know!
Joyce: i really did think trans people laid eggs!
No "show results", if you're not a fanfic writer just be patient.
I saw a post about an anon saying it was embarrasing to have an ao3 account in your 30s (it's absolutely not), so I want to do a poll and see what the age range actually is.