Problematic stories

Man I really can’t get into Game Of Thrones. Too much for me! :persevere::persevere::persevere::persevere::persevere:

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Its such a good serie, its just that little part that shocked me

Must have been pretty disturbing I guess

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what story is it?

Hold up.

Hooooold up.

The main character was sexually assualted by a lying love interest and is still a love interest?

Excuse me?

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Hello! We have created a new way to bring our attention to stories that may violate guidelines. Please see this thread:

I was thinking about this story again the other day. It is, to date, the ONLY time I ever reported an Episode story, and I think it’ll be stuck in my head for a while.

I reported the story in question back when I first read it, and I haven’t checked since to see if the author addressed the concerns with updates (it would take about 7 chapters to get to the scene the OP mentions, and I am NOT re-reading it), but I DID notice that the story is still up, and the author addressed some concerns in a response to fan-mail.

She explained that she hadn’t really considered that the MC doesn’t clearly consent because her intent was that the alcohol brought out the MC’s true desires, even though she was too blackout drunk to remember the encounter later and expressed a dislike of the LI while sober.

What a dangerous idea to perpetuate. She at least seemed open to the critique, but the number of fanmail comments from people who want the MC to “marry him and have babies” is concerning and, frankly, sad. :frowning:

It has 1.8 M reads at this point.

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Getting drunk and kissing hugging sexual stuff is not consent…its not ur “true self” ur were drunk while u can say certain stuff thts true when ur drunk thts cuz ur inhibitions lowered…but physical stuff…no
Thats not consent nor is it ur “true self coming out”

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I think I read this story.

Hehhh, I’m pretty sure the scene is still there, I thinm the story is being rewritten -if this is the story I think it is- but I don’t think that scene is going to be removed.

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Oh, I agree. I’m just paraphrasing what the author said in her response.

Weirdly, I think this is actually the motivation behind one of my least favorite Episode tropes: “The MC gets falling down drunk, and the LI shows he is a good guy by escorting her home and not taking advantage of her.”

It’s like the basic standard for respecting consent is SO low that it’s romantic when someone behaves halfway decently and doesn’t sexually assault a drunk person.

I won’t be reading the re-write to find out! :wink:

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Yeah ik u were was just ranting i hate tht trope and when ppl use it as "oh u act tht way cuz its how u really feel "…no…im drunk maybe only 10% of wat is said is truth 90 is the drinks x3

Yeah…hes so great he didnt assault her when she was drunk >-> the bars pretty low for being a decent person…

And theres unwritten rules to drinking tht no one seems to follow
Like a designated driver or friend who doesnt drink and makes sure u dont do stupid crap…

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I definitely reported it as well. Episode literally doesn’t care.

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Any time characters are like, “There’s a party…” I’m like, “Oh, god no.”

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I knoow
Cant we just watch a bad thriller movie at home x3

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I’m sorry. I just can’t. This has made me sick. I don’t know how to emphasize how wrong that is so I’m just repeatedly quoting @Cee. What kind of an author doesn’t really consider what message they’re sending when it comes to sex of any kind? I think about it a lot and I barely include it in my own. I’ve had fanmails of people telling me I should show more and describe it in detail. You know what else I’ve also had? 12 year olds follow me! Idk why they’re on the app, let alone stupid enough to put their age in their bio, but they do. They exist and the read my story where I make the occasional dirty joke. Do I break guidelines? No. Would I consider any of my scenes to be problematic? No. But I always ALWAYS ALWAYS do “really consider” what I’m including and how it will come across to those 12 year old readers I have. A story is just a story, sure. But words hold a lot of power and for someone with over 1 million readers to not “really consider” how such scenes and topics can be dangerously impressionable, especially by the way they’re specifically portraying it, is completely beyond me.

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Her actual wording was “I’ll pay attention more closely” in the future, but to me, if she doesn’t take it out of the story as it already exists, that’s not quite good enough.

Honestly, rape culture is so insidious I can believe that she made an ignorant error and internalized a victim-blaming mentality without knowing or meaning to. BUT what we should aim to do in such situations is immediately correct the mistake once it’s pointed out to us. Episode stories aren’t committed to print, which means authors can and do make edits to a published story.

But yeah. The scene shouldn’t have occurred in the first place. If we are going to depict characters having sex and/or consuming toxic substances, especially in an app rated 13+, we really have to educate ourselves responsibly about those issues in order to depict them in a way that doesn’t harm readers.

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Tomato, tomato - this saying doesn’t quite work via text, but you catch my drift.

I agree completely with what you’re saying. I honestly have a bigger concern for the author and any author’s who do this, because my first reaction is… what motivated them to write these stories in the first place? I’m not even saying this to be a sarcastic bitch, I genuinely worry for them and would recommend they seek help. Again, not being a bitch. This suggestion is coming from the goodness of my heart and motivated by the fear of innocent readers fantasizing about getting blackout drunk and having relations with someone they actually don’t even like when sober.

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I don’t think that’s bitchy! I had the same concern as well. :frowning:

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Well, I have a few people who will see that and know of my sarcastic personality and think I was teasing or something… But for real, this time I am serious… unfortunately… I wish the app wasn’t like this

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When I was last on this thread it was at 500k reads, now it’s surpassed a million? And no action has been taken?

  • promote or depict excessive violence or assault, including but not limited to sexual assault, murder, and torture against humans or animals;

This is exactly what I was talking about yesterday. Content guidelines are so vague, people can get away with blatant assault in their stories under the guise that it’s not “excessive”

This is just sad.

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