Bitch, please.

[marguerite_26]

First, I am not speaking of any individual when I say this. This is something that has been bothering me for a while because I get told this a lot. Frankly, it is driving me insane.

Harry/Scorpius does not equal chan.

Cross Gen does not equal chan.

Why do people think this? Is ALL Snarry chan? I'm sure there are plenty of Snarry authors that would be unimpressed to hear that. We can accept that in every pairing there are some 'common squicks' that are more prevalent than others, like Harry/Lucius and non-con. But they do not have to go together.

What if people went around saying HP fandom is full of nothing but teens having sex in the Room of Requirement? Ok, granted, some people do say it. Doesn't that make you want to scream? I mean really, wouldn't it drive you nuts if someone reduced your fandom to a bunch of teenage fumblings? Like the entire fandom was restricted to Hogwarts days? The boys could never grow up and get careers?

I've written 8 Cross-gen fics including 6 Harry/Scorpius. NONE are chan. Chan is not implied by ANY pairing. Chan is about the ages of the characters.

Draco/Scorpius implies incest. It just DOES.

Harry/Scorpius DOES NOT IMPLY chan. Please stop assuming that. If you don't want to read the pairing, don't read it. I really don't care. Maybe Harry/Draco is all that you ever want to read. Maybe you don't like age disparity. Maybe the epilogue makes you want to spork you eye out. Totally understandable. But please don't dismiss the pairing because some fics in the ship are chan. There are chan Harry/Scorpius fics. There are also wonderful of fics with Scorpius over 17. If anyone wants non-chan harry/scorpius recs, you just let me know.

*jumps off soapbox*

Comments

[fourth_rose]

*facepalm*

I always thought chan required one of the partners to be underage? (Which leaves the question where you draw the line, because if you go by the British age of consent, Harry/Scorpius with a 16-year-old Scorpius isn't chan either. Personally, I wouldn't call something "chan" unless there was an actual pre-pubescent child involved.)

Then again, I've never got why cross-gen is such a squick to some people. Is it because only the young and pretty are supposed to get some?

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

The definition of chan is a bit of a mess. I was discussing with people last night about creating an ADI (Age Desparity Indicator) to clear things up.

Like warning: chan(40/15)

meaning Harry is 40, Scorpius 15.

I always thought that 17 would be the age of consent in the Wizarding world because of the whole '17 you are an adult wizard thing.'

But I think you are right, most people go with 16.

[fourth_rose]

Age of consent and legal adulthood are often not the same, though (in my country, you come of age at 18, but the age of consent is 14). It would be interesting to speculate about the wizarding age of consent - since, according to JKR's Black family tree, Bellatrix' father was 13 when she was born ;)

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

according to JKR's Black family tree, Bellatrix' father was 13 when she was born

*spits coffee all over keyboard*

oh, JKR! How I love your foibles.

[fourth_rose]

*g* There's at least one more 13-year-old father on the family tree, and a 14-year-old as well, if I remember correctly. Perhaps you could tell that to the people who keep complaining about the "chan" issue? ;))

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

I can see it now:
It's CANON! That's the way those people live. ;)

[fourth_rose]

I've been saying that ever since the Black family tree was published ;))

[ravenqueen55.livejournal.com]

I agree with the pre-pubescent comment ~ I said that over on romaine24's LJ yesterday, actually, that for me 'chan' denotes a pre-pubescent character. If the character is 15 or 16, though, it depends on the tone of the fic and how the characters are written. The only time I clearly see a 15 or 16 year old being with an older character as chan is if there has been continuing abuse by the older character, from the time the younger character was a very young child and continuing on through the teen years.

I think that's why it's so challenging for authors to know what to class their fics, because there's no set definition, and each of us have differing views as to what we see chan as.

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

I think that's why it's so challenging for authors to know what to class their fics, because there's no set definition, and each of us have differing views as to what we see chan as.

I hadn't realized there were so many definitions in everyone's heads. It certainly makes it all clear as mud. :D

[ravenqueen55.livejournal.com]

LOL! Exactly. And, like I said, for me it's not just the age, but how the character is written and the motivations behind the actions and a crapload of other variables that are just too numerous to mention. It's a tricky one!

[fourth_rose]

I think that's why it's so challenging for authors to know what to class their fics, because there's no set definition, and each of us have differing views as to what we see chan as.

Very true, and I don't think there'll ever be a definite solution. On the other hand, it has been my experience that some people don't read warnings anyway, so no matter what you put in the header, there's always a chance that there will be complaints ;)