criticism - venting
20 Apr 2004 06:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wren_kt7ozSpent some of my rare down time today posting a gi-normous post to the bj-lj.
Someone posted something highly critical of the story. Nothing wrong with that.
(Although I found the criticism odd, actually. Unsettling, because it had a whiff of double standards, in that what seemed to have triggered the most negativity was Brog needing to pretend to be gay - as if that's some really horrendous fate. I don't know, not that exactly, but it just rubbed me the wrong way. A la Hal Sparks, actually, if that makes sense. Well, probably not, but it does to me.)
Anyway, after I'd thought long and hard about what they'd said, I posted a very detailed response, paying the original poster the respect to address the issues they'd raised one by one, hoping that either it would give them pause to reconsider their views or that it would start a constructive discussion. However, of course, what I really expected to happen, happened, and the person involved posted a 'oh, well, if I'm not allowed to express an opinion' type post back.
See, that gets me ... it signals that they expect that they have the right to express a negative opinion and criticise away, but if anyone claims the same right to criticise what they've written, it's all hurt feelings and huffiness. I don't deny anyone the right to engage in debate, but it needs to be a two way street, with a flow of opinion back and forth. I come from an Irish heritage, that stuff is the breath of life to me. But if someone expects just to throw criticism at something or someone and then walk away with no one having the right to criticise their opinions in return - well, that's not, to me, legit criticism, it's just abusiveness.
That, I find irritating.
As my gran would have said, "It got my Irish up."
Just thought I'd vent a little about it.
Someone posted something highly critical of the story. Nothing wrong with that.
(Although I found the criticism odd, actually. Unsettling, because it had a whiff of double standards, in that what seemed to have triggered the most negativity was Brog needing to pretend to be gay - as if that's some really horrendous fate. I don't know, not that exactly, but it just rubbed me the wrong way. A la Hal Sparks, actually, if that makes sense. Well, probably not, but it does to me.)
Anyway, after I'd thought long and hard about what they'd said, I posted a very detailed response, paying the original poster the respect to address the issues they'd raised one by one, hoping that either it would give them pause to reconsider their views or that it would start a constructive discussion. However, of course, what I really expected to happen, happened, and the person involved posted a 'oh, well, if I'm not allowed to express an opinion' type post back.
See, that gets me ... it signals that they expect that they have the right to express a negative opinion and criticise away, but if anyone claims the same right to criticise what they've written, it's all hurt feelings and huffiness. I don't deny anyone the right to engage in debate, but it needs to be a two way street, with a flow of opinion back and forth. I come from an Irish heritage, that stuff is the breath of life to me. But if someone expects just to throw criticism at something or someone and then walk away with no one having the right to criticise their opinions in return - well, that's not, to me, legit criticism, it's just abusiveness.
That, I find irritating.
As my gran would have said, "It got my Irish up."
Just thought I'd vent a little about it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 20/4/04 03:59 am (UTC)*sigh*
I think I'm gonna leave it alone, I hate flame wars.
no subject
Date: 20/4/04 02:37 pm (UTC)What bothered me most about it was it seemed to me to really smack of a sort of hidden homophobia.
Because she saw Brog having to pretend to be gay as such a terrible thing, I guess. That putting him in that position was the final intolerable thing that Ran had done to him, the thing that "mocked" his pain.
That made me very uncomfortable with the whole thing. Because I don't think she would have felt the same way if Brian had had to go there pretending to be married to a woman. And there's no difference. None at all. Or only if you consider that being with a woman is natural and being with a man is somehow not.
I hate flame wars too.
But I also know that Randall has too much class to get overly involved himself in such a debate, and I believed that there were things that needed to be said on his behalf.
Well, really on all our behalfs, because right of the bat, I took offence to the 'slave-like masses' comment. I've read that comment before about the fans of the bj-lj, and not from friendly sources.
Interestingly, that person only created their lj yesterday. It was as if they'd done so deliberately to post in relative anonymity, since the guys now have the 'collect ip addresses of anonymous users' thing on. That also made me wonder.
:shrugs: What can you do? (Not unlike Brian's inner debate - "whether to take arms against a sea of troubles" LOLOL)
no subject
Date: 20/4/04 03:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 20/4/04 03:31 pm (UTC)an insult to the LJ posters AND to Ran/Cael.
no subject
Date: 20/4/04 12:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 20/4/04 02:28 pm (UTC)It's the thing about heat and kitchens, I guess. Don't like the heat, don't go in there.
Seems obvious to me. :g:
no subject
Date: 20/4/04 02:36 pm (UTC)'nuff said.
no subject
Date: 20/4/04 01:37 pm (UTC)*tink*
no subject
Date: 20/4/04 01:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 20/4/04 02:26 pm (UTC)I had a great birthday, but today it's back to the humdrum and I have to leave for work in 20 mins. sigh.
Here's the link.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/brianakinney/85444.html?thread=2089156#t2089156
((((happy))))