what the

[beelikej]

This morning I witnessed some awful parenting on the bus. A woman was confusing the hell out of her kid. He was trying so hard to be sweet while mom kept snapping at him for no reason whatsoever. It was painful to watch.

I'm also quite upset about yet another request that showed up on my communityflist. Is it just me or are new/young people in fandom getting more and more obsessed with humiliation and torture? What is the attraction of reading stories in which your favorite characters are being abused? I don't get it. I do understand the hurt/comfort idea, but it seems there is a growing need to see people being hurt for kicks and that just makes me shiver.

Sometimes I despair. And then I notice an update of my favorite comfort zone and life gets a little better. A little.

Comments

[bflyw.livejournal.com]

Tell you the truth, I am more scared of the mpreg request, than the hurt request....

But yeah, I see what you mean. Personally, I love really good angst where my boys are truly hurt... but ONLY if it has a happy ending. That might include permamently injured, like going blind etc... but that is not because I want them permanently hurt, or in dispare for ever, but because I like good stories about how they (together) overcome such difficulties. How they come to see that a tradegy might not be the end of the world, and see that you can cope.... in time. For me, that is sort of therapy (both reading and writing it).

So, in my opinion: Abuse/torture/hurt for the sake of PAIN... NOT GOOD. But the same thing for the sake or reading about finding strength and cope mechanism... Good!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't even want to think about that, it's all kinds of wrong in my book.

I agree with you about the journey towards healing, that can be interesting to read. Educational even. But it seems like 'the kids' these days specifically search for horrid pain and broken characters beyond repair and that worries me more than a little.