adevyish | Thoughts on AO3 Warnings

In light of everything I’ve been thinking over what kind of suggested racism warning I’d like to see.

I do want a warning, but I prefer a narrower warning for reasons of clarity. I agree with a lot of people who think that a generic racism warning would be difficult if not impossible to introduce.

1) People don’t read the rules. I repeatedly have seen writers not use the Underage tag because “the age of consent in [insert country] is less than 18” even though archive rules clearly state the warning is for characters under 18 regardless of local law.

2) Drawing the line is difficult. Remember when Sherlock got big? Fandom loved it, but I very clearly remember watching S1E2 and going “what the fuck” to myself because it was so clear to me as an ethnic Chinese person this was a racist depiction. And yet fandom as a whole seemed ignorant to it!

However, that said, I’ve stumbled into some egregiously racist fics. Partly it’s my fault for being in certain ship tags at some points, but when a fanfic advocates and shows the genocide of a fictional group of people (e.g. all non-magical characters) — the “Graphic Depictions of Violence” warning is really not enough there.

I personally favour a warning much like the “Graphic … Violence” warning, for example “Graphic/Extreme Bigotry”. This could also cover other forms of bigotry not just racism, like misogyny and homophobia.

As a reader, my motivation is twofold. A “Graphic/Extreme” warning is much easier to comprehend, report and action on. Additionally, if I see this warning I have a much clearer idea of whether or not I need to avoid the fic. A general “Racism” warning might catch Sherlock S1E2 which made me cringe for an hour and spawned at least three in-person rants, but was not actually traumatizing to me. Whereas a “Graphic/Extreme” warning would catch those anti-non-magical fics I’ve stumbled upon, which have genuinely been upsetting enough I had to immediately quit out of the page and go do something soothing for a few hours.

For writers, I see this tag as operating in the same way as the “Rape/Non-Con” and “Graphic … Violence” warnings do. Most fic writers do have the courtesy to add “Dubious Consent” or “Mild Violence” tags when the major warnings do not apply, but the the major warnings set a threshold of expectation for writers and readers alike. As always, writers can opt for “Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings” if they so prefer.

Another benefit of having a higher threshold for a major warning is giving volunteers tasked with enforcing major warnings more clarity and, hopefully, a manageable workload.

Having a higher threshold for a major warning communicates expectations better to writers, readers, and moderators alike.