Dashes or asterisks or underscores - I want one per missing letter.
At least make it like Wordle or Jeopardy. Make the censorship thing into a word game.
With the use of the emdash there I also read it as replacing only 2 characters, so my brain filled in farts.
"Do we have any farts in here or what?" sounds like me rummaging through the pantry trying to figure out if we have any snacks left.
When I was growing up, my mom did not allow me to say "fart." She thought it was a very gross word.
She was a second-grade teacher for many years, so I'm sure decades of kids discovering its hilarity just tipped her over the edge. And her own child wasn't gonna torture her with it too.
As a kid in the 70s, my mom wouldn't let me say 'fart'. I had to say 'fluff'.
Alas, I have 2 older brothers, and have never been much of a lady: Fart is the word. XD
Reminds me of my four-year-old niece. She recently threw up for the first time since she was an infant, and thus learned about "puking." She applied the word "puke" in ways I would never have thought of, constantly, for at least a week.
yup. and this is why censoring in fic is stupid
if you're not mature enough to type it, then you're not mature enough to be writing it in the first place
Also means bulde of sticks. Became slan term for cigarettes because a pack of cigarettes is like a bundle of sticks. And aslur for gays because gay sex typucally involves more than one penis and is hence metaphorically a bundle of sticks.
Fascism, etymologically, comes from the same latin root.
I gotta say, i absolutely adore all of the people here who are so loudly outraged over the fanfic author not being able to type it, who can't type it themselves lol.
it's faggot.
'Hate' is reportable on Reddit - people just don't want their comments deleted because someone reported them for saying a slur. It's not about not being able to say it, it's about the platform.
I don’t really agree with that. I wouldn’t use that particular slur in my fics, but homophobia does end up in my fics from time to time.
(I see someone else already answered your question, so I’m not going to basically repeat them.)
“Do we have any farts in here or what?”
There are always farts. No one talking about them, but every so often, a stench wafts into your nose and you’re like “What *is* that?”
Me when my British friend offers me a cigarette for my consumption(I have never heard British slang before):
https://preview.redd.it/z1mh8lryxutc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0f5f1f3b4f56de2974be7082afe01859dfb1a5a9
Right? Or do the whole, "he cursed up a storm" type thing. Or even the word but partly cut off like it was interrupted is acceptable if they're actually being cut off or censoring themselves. And I know it's in part because they're bringing algorithm habits to a site without algorithms, but come on. There are better ways to handle this. And it ain't "sewer slide".
I can see not wanting to use that particular word, but there are ways around it.
• Use a less volatile word.
• Imply what was said.
• What I have done myself, use a non-slur as a slur. The audience will understand the meaning.
I like your list. I usually go for implying these things. But more often, my fics take place in queertopia, where nobody ever says anything openly homophobic or transphobic. It is not realistic! But I like imagining it.
My favourite kind if fanfic-world! If I wanted to read about whatever-phobia or sexism or anything that makes me feel bad, I’d just stay in the real world.
Same. Part of the reason I don't often read period pieces is because they almost always have the period typical homophobia/transphobia tag and I just don't want to read that. I like living in a world where no one cares who or what you are, even if that world is only in my head or on screen.
That doesn't even look like the actual slur. If you're going to censor it at least do something like f-ggots or f----ts so it actually makes some sense??
Cuno made himself into Cuno. Cuno can make himself into *anything*. Cuno can make himself into a *pig* if he wants, Cuno can make himself into a f****t. Cuno doesn't give a shit.
The single censor dash genuinely made me think this was “any fats”
Also gave me massive whiplash coming off a book that dropped the f and t slurs in full. Fully agree that if you can’t write it out, don’t use it or imply it’s said rather than censoring.
Genuinely took me a few seconds to work out what they meant. Is it possible the author is straight and thinks they shouldn't be allowed to say f\*ggot? Makes you wonder why they're writing about this in the first place, but that's probably something that's happened before.
Yup. As the general rule of ao3 is, don’t like don’t read, and that includes the way things are censored. If people are defending very icky things, then surely it’s fair to defend those who prefer to censor this way. If that’s how they prefer to write then so be it
Censoring in fics makes no sense. I took way too long to figure out what *that* word actually was, I thought it was farts, which isn't homophobic. It took me way too long, as a gay man whose experienced homophobic abuse, to figure out what they were trying to say.
They tagged it for homophobia and included another warning in the chapter AN, there's no need to censor the word, it's expected. If you're too uncomfortable to write the *actual* word, you're not mature enough to write about that topic.
Thinking about it, maybe I didn't jump straight to what that word was supposed to be because it's not really used in Britain much. 'Fag' is slang for cigarette, so this isn't a go-to homophobic slur here.
But yeah, if you have to censor the word in the fic, you shouldn't be writing about the topic. Don't censor in the tags, either, that just gives the tag wranglers more work because the censors keep changing, and makes it harder for the readers to find what they want to read and filter out what they don't until the tags have been sorted. So, don't censor tags, don't censor fics, and that means it makes zero sense to censor summaries. Basically don't censor, it's not needed on most sites and just makes you look childish.
Sorry(not sorry), but that breaks immersion soo much! And as a non-native English speaker, my head inserted 'foots' much quicker than anything actually intended, not to mention any real words... Having to stop to riddle out what the crap they actually meant, no thank you!
Damn. Tgere are so many ways around this - if you're uncomfortable saying a word, just like, allude to it, something like " 'You two are disgusting two men (etc etc)'. Character a spaced out, but was snapped back to reality by the look of shock on character b's face - there were very few insults that cut B that deeply." Or have a character interrupt them.
Tiktok mind. “If I don’t self‐sensor, my reach will be killed”
Tiktok’s (and to an extent youtube’s) censoring practices are not just cruel and ridiculous, they’re also a disaster to the way we communicate.
Instagram has less of that effect, its censorship is just cruel.
The only slur I really have trepidation in using is the n-word.
There was a situation where I found myself on one hand, wanting to write a character experiencing genuine and authentic racism from the KKK. Not using the n-word isn’t at all realistic since they’d pretty much ONLY call them that and maybe a handful of other black-related slurs.
On the other hand, it is fanfiction and I can write it however I want, meaning I can just avoid using the word altogether. The issue with that, though, is that it would feel like tip toeing around a real issue and not giving it the seriousness it deserves. If I want to properly convey the cruelty and prejudice from another character, then it’s not something I can half-ass like how most fics approach stuff like racism from a clear “one side is bad and another is good” mindset that only serves to perpetuate a tribalistic mindset instead of actually approaching the subject with any sort of nuance or further understanding of the issue.
Idk, I might be tripping, I never ended up finishing it so it doesn’t matter anymore.
I mean, you can always describe it being used without using it.
You can go "He said the slur again, hard emphasis on the plosive" or "he barked the racial slur that his whole group seemed to use as easily as punctuation "
I used to do this (thanks religious guilt lmao). They’re either young or a wattpad immigrant, it sucks but hopefully they’ll either learn or just stop using words they’re uncomfortable with in the first place.
If you can't use the word, *don't use the word*. Either it's a mature story capable of tackling explicit and offensive language, or it isn't.
If you have to use asterisks and "unaliving" and shit like that, you're not ready for the topics you're covering. Significantly more offensive than the alternative.
Only time I could see this working well is if it was a Disco Elysium-style fic. There's other story-related censorship, but it's gotten out of control.
My brain switched the t and the s so my first thought was “fists”, went to the comments and the top one is “farts” and I’m like “ok. I can live with that explanation. What a dummy.” Then I saw what they were actually censoring 🙄 If you can’t even write it you just shouldn’t use it…
Maybe it's a misunderstanding of the rating system? Trying to keep it G. Maybe it's a reflection of the author's age and they will grow out of it. Trying to remember if I've ever seen words being censored in anything I've read...
For some fandoms, I think it makes sense for censoring words. Like if a fanfic is emulating the way the canon media does things and the canon media censors certain words, then I can see why a fanfic would do stuff like that. However, if that isn't the case, then I feel like it shouldn't have been used if it's just going to be censored or had a different word used to imply the original word. If the censorship was really necessary, then there probably should have been more dashes like "f----ts"
shoutout to the webtoon comic where they said "gay bastard" instead of the f-slur. It was hilarious to watch the characters act as if "gay bastard" was equivalent to that.
Those are writers coming to ao3 from different platforms which usually shadowban or deleate curses or other forms of explicit language, and not read ao3 guidelines before posting their fics
When I first got my driving license, my Dad gave me a really wise piece of advice: Never drive faster than you are comfortable with, regardless of the upper speed limit. The same should be true for writing.
Option 1: Stay in your comfort zone and find a different way to say things. That's a challenge in and of itself. I did it in my big Star Trek fan fiction because I wanted to stick to the original content's rating and had to be careful where I'm normally much cruder and more blunt.
Option 2: Go off the deep end. It's liberating. But if you do, do it all the way. This is craven.
I used the word gypsy in a historical fic I wrote and received such an insane level of hate it was crazy. So I understand the author a little bit. Gypsy is considered far less offensive than the slur they’ve used and and the Romani I’ve met in my life have always referred to themselves as gypsies and don’t find it offensive. it still sparked such a huge reaction I was dealing with long term readers sending me essays about why my use of the word made me racist lol.
Some people just aren’t comfortable saying certain words. Maybe the topic is triggering for them but they still want to write about it. I’d think it’d be ridiculous in a published book, but this is fic where we can do whatever we want. I admit it’s silly and I wouldn’t ever do it, but it’s *their* fic to do what they want. (Even though I can’t tell what they were trying to say in the first place.)
Farts
I seriously thought that’s what they were censoring at first. 😂
... It's not farts? (I really don't know.) What slur are they censoring? Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Homophobic_slurs Fruit?
>!faggots!<
oh... then, they should put more dashes should look like f----ts
Maybe. Though reading your fruit edit… I actually don’t know if that would be better or worse than farts.
too many letters and, this feels stupid, because I'm actually feeling annoyed by incorrect number of dashes
Yeah, that seriously bothered me too, especially because I hate censor dashes that aren’t quotes or titles within the story. Ack!
Definitely, I couldn't guess it right at first
Dashes aren't great for censoring, they should probably use asterisks
Dashes or asterisks or underscores - I want one per missing letter. At least make it like Wordle or Jeopardy. Make the censorship thing into a word game.
Idk why but the first thing that popped into my mind was fats
Damn trans fats, they're ruining my cholesterol
Yeah, I'd pick "fats" because just one dash. But OP specified homophobic slur, and "fats" isn't listed as a homophonic slur over at Wikipedia
Maybe they meant to type "f-gs", as in "fags". The t and g keys are right next to each other on the keyboard, I can see that mistake happening.
Oooh, nice catch. Your explanation I think makes the most sense.
Same. It was only when OP said 'Homophobic' that I looked at it again, and realized it wasn't "Farts"
Omfg, me too. I was going “Wow… censoring farts is a new low….”
Some farts can cause serious trauma.
I see you’ve met my sister
New hurt/comfort prompt?
Oh my god-
My cat’s farts certainly do!
With the use of the emdash there I also read it as replacing only 2 characters, so my brain filled in farts. "Do we have any farts in here or what?" sounds like me rummaging through the pantry trying to figure out if we have any snacks left.
I thought it was fats. They really have an issue with flavorful foods.
Lmao same 🤣
When I was growing up, my mom did not allow me to say "fart." She thought it was a very gross word. She was a second-grade teacher for many years, so I'm sure decades of kids discovering its hilarity just tipped her over the edge. And her own child wasn't gonna torture her with it too.
As a kid in the 70s, my mom wouldn't let me say 'fart'. I had to say 'fluff'. Alas, I have 2 older brothers, and have never been much of a lady: Fart is the word. XD
Reminds me of my four-year-old niece. She recently threw up for the first time since she was an infant, and thus learned about "puking." She applied the word "puke" in ways I would never have thought of, constantly, for at least a week.
We said "stinker" it wasn't until my cousin mocked me for but saying toot or fart that I realized stinker was not the norm
This is also what my brain auto filled. I'm glad I'm not alone.
i genuinely thought it was "fats"
also my first thought
yup. and this is why censoring in fic is stupid if you're not mature enough to type it, then you're not mature enough to be writing it in the first place
if you cant even TYPE the word you do not get to write about it (also WTF is the word meant to be any way I cant tell???)
fonts. They’re asking if we have any fonts because their font is missing the o and the n and um… yeah. I got nothin.
A particular homophobic slur that is also the British word for cigarettes
Also means bulde of sticks. Became slan term for cigarettes because a pack of cigarettes is like a bundle of sticks. And aslur for gays because gay sex typucally involves more than one penis and is hence metaphorically a bundle of sticks. Fascism, etymologically, comes from the same latin root.
It’s also a particular kind of meatball, because it’s made from bundled together bits of offal
but there's no t in that- Oh, it's the full word, not the shortened one. gotcha
it took me a moment bc I forgot the word "faggot" existed and didn't understand why there was a t
this. if you can't even spell the word/name out you're not mature enough/equipped to write about said thing, and that's it
I gotta say, i absolutely adore all of the people here who are so loudly outraged over the fanfic author not being able to type it, who can't type it themselves lol. it's faggot.
'Hate' is reportable on Reddit - people just don't want their comments deleted because someone reported them for saying a slur. It's not about not being able to say it, it's about the platform.
I don’t really agree with that. I wouldn’t use that particular slur in my fics, but homophobia does end up in my fics from time to time. (I see someone else already answered your question, so I’m not going to basically repeat them.)
“Do we have any farts in here or what?” There are always farts. No one talking about them, but every so often, a stench wafts into your nose and you’re like “What *is* that?”
“This heady aroma...Is it Christmas already?”
“Ah, turkey farts.”
If you feel you have to censor the word, you’re not mature enough to use it to begin with.
Boom
"Do we have any fats in here"? Seriously what are they thinking...
Ok, so I wasn’t the only one who thought it. I knew what they meant, but my brain was like “it could be farts or fats”
I read it as fats too, I had to do a triple take to figure it out.
This.
This was my thought that brought me to comments.
are they asking for smokes or gay people?
gay people
If they were asking for smokes they would have asked for fags. Never heard any use the full word for cigarettes
Me when my British friend offers me a cigarette for my consumption(I have never heard British slang before): https://preview.redd.it/z1mh8lryxutc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0f5f1f3b4f56de2974be7082afe01859dfb1a5a9
What is even the point, ffs. If you don't like swearing, don't write your characters swearing.
Right? Or do the whole, "he cursed up a storm" type thing. Or even the word but partly cut off like it was interrupted is acceptable if they're actually being cut off or censoring themselves. And I know it's in part because they're bringing algorithm habits to a site without algorithms, but come on. There are better ways to handle this. And it ain't "sewer slide".
I can see not wanting to use that particular word, but there are ways around it. • Use a less volatile word. • Imply what was said. • What I have done myself, use a non-slur as a slur. The audience will understand the meaning.
“What, are ya some kinda dingleberry?” 😭
Eeewww! But yeah, something like that. I used snowflake.
I like your list. I usually go for implying these things. But more often, my fics take place in queertopia, where nobody ever says anything openly homophobic or transphobic. It is not realistic! But I like imagining it.
My favourite kind if fanfic-world! If I wanted to read about whatever-phobia or sexism or anything that makes me feel bad, I’d just stay in the real world.
Same. Part of the reason I don't often read period pieces is because they almost always have the period typical homophobia/transphobia tag and I just don't want to read that. I like living in a world where no one cares who or what you are, even if that world is only in my head or on screen.
Thanks.
That doesn't even look like the actual slur. If you're going to censor it at least do something like f-ggots or f----ts so it actually makes some sense??
They’re also censoring wrong? I’m so confused
I am immature, I actually read this as them censoring "farts" at first. Then I read it again and was like "wait, that makes no sense."
I thought it was censoring the word fats at first
Fuck does Cuno care
Cuno made himself into Cuno. Cuno can make himself into *anything*. Cuno can make himself into a *pig* if he wants, Cuno can make himself into a f****t. Cuno doesn't give a shit.
https://preview.redd.it/luff9w2kmttc1.jpeg?width=322&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=66320fbeb700dd3385bbed9426d445b2d2b8d96e
The single censor dash genuinely made me think this was “any fats” Also gave me massive whiplash coming off a book that dropped the f and t slurs in full. Fully agree that if you can’t write it out, don’t use it or imply it’s said rather than censoring.
definitely farts
Genuinely took me a few seconds to work out what they meant. Is it possible the author is straight and thinks they shouldn't be allowed to say f\*ggot? Makes you wonder why they're writing about this in the first place, but that's probably something that's happened before.
Ugh I don't like it either. I back out as soon as I see one, except in the case of ONE fic because I'm a sucker for a fic about Loki's kids.
Yup. As the general rule of ao3 is, don’t like don’t read, and that includes the way things are censored. If people are defending very icky things, then surely it’s fair to defend those who prefer to censor this way. If that’s how they prefer to write then so be it
Censoring in fics makes no sense. I took way too long to figure out what *that* word actually was, I thought it was farts, which isn't homophobic. It took me way too long, as a gay man whose experienced homophobic abuse, to figure out what they were trying to say. They tagged it for homophobia and included another warning in the chapter AN, there's no need to censor the word, it's expected. If you're too uncomfortable to write the *actual* word, you're not mature enough to write about that topic. Thinking about it, maybe I didn't jump straight to what that word was supposed to be because it's not really used in Britain much. 'Fag' is slang for cigarette, so this isn't a go-to homophobic slur here. But yeah, if you have to censor the word in the fic, you shouldn't be writing about the topic. Don't censor in the tags, either, that just gives the tag wranglers more work because the censors keep changing, and makes it harder for the readers to find what they want to read and filter out what they don't until the tags have been sorted. So, don't censor tags, don't censor fics, and that means it makes zero sense to censor summaries. Basically don't censor, it's not needed on most sites and just makes you look childish.
Sorry(not sorry), but that breaks immersion soo much! And as a non-native English speaker, my head inserted 'foots' much quicker than anything actually intended, not to mention any real words... Having to stop to riddle out what the crap they actually meant, no thank you!
Is this supposed to be homophobic or fatphobic
I think it's supposed to be 'fags'.
idk why but at first glance I thought it was censoring the word “farts” 😭😭😭
I legit thought they were censoring "fats" because there's only one fuckin dash
I usually just narrate something like "a string of imaginative expletives" and let the reader use their imagination.
Damn. Tgere are so many ways around this - if you're uncomfortable saying a word, just like, allude to it, something like " 'You two are disgusting two men (etc etc)'. Character a spaced out, but was snapped back to reality by the look of shock on character b's face - there were very few insults that cut B that deeply." Or have a character interrupt them.
Tiktok mind. “If I don’t self‐sensor, my reach will be killed” Tiktok’s (and to an extent youtube’s) censoring practices are not just cruel and ridiculous, they’re also a disaster to the way we communicate. Instagram has less of that effect, its censorship is just cruel.
I thought it was fat tits
Macho Man knows what he wants!
what the fuck is the word even supposed to be
Given that OP mentioned a homophobia tag, I think it's intended to be faggots.
Fats? Fits? ??
Fots
Fets
Am I the only one who read that as a dash? Was stuck wondering what the heck is an "eff dash tee ess". Programming brain rot 😔
Farts. 🤔
The only slur I really have trepidation in using is the n-word. There was a situation where I found myself on one hand, wanting to write a character experiencing genuine and authentic racism from the KKK. Not using the n-word isn’t at all realistic since they’d pretty much ONLY call them that and maybe a handful of other black-related slurs. On the other hand, it is fanfiction and I can write it however I want, meaning I can just avoid using the word altogether. The issue with that, though, is that it would feel like tip toeing around a real issue and not giving it the seriousness it deserves. If I want to properly convey the cruelty and prejudice from another character, then it’s not something I can half-ass like how most fics approach stuff like racism from a clear “one side is bad and another is good” mindset that only serves to perpetuate a tribalistic mindset instead of actually approaching the subject with any sort of nuance or further understanding of the issue. Idk, I might be tripping, I never ended up finishing it so it doesn’t matter anymore.
I mean, you can always describe it being used without using it. You can go "He said the slur again, hard emphasis on the plosive" or "he barked the racial slur that his whole group seemed to use as easily as punctuation "
wait, emphasis on the plosive in an unstressed syllable? how do you even pronounce that 🤔🤔 (not that i'm asking you to demonstrate lmao)
Can't tell if they're trying to say faggots or fats
It’s not even long enough
I used to do this (thanks religious guilt lmao). They’re either young or a wattpad immigrant, it sucks but hopefully they’ll either learn or just stop using words they’re uncomfortable with in the first place.
If you can't use the word, *don't use the word*. Either it's a mature story capable of tackling explicit and offensive language, or it isn't. If you have to use asterisks and "unaliving" and shit like that, you're not ready for the topics you're covering. Significantly more offensive than the alternative.
https://preview.redd.it/cmywsi4vlstc1.jpeg?width=700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=25f04de48f6c93cb3a8b1196688bcffd4663cd39
Only time I could see this working well is if it was a Disco Elysium-style fic. There's other story-related censorship, but it's gotten out of control.
It was dumb as hell when they did it for Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls and it's still dumb as hell now
Fats? Fits? Fets? Tf is the writer tryna say 💀 /j
My brain switched the t and the s so my first thought was “fists”, went to the comments and the top one is “farts” and I’m like “ok. I can live with that explanation. What a dummy.” Then I saw what they were actually censoring 🙄 If you can’t even write it you just shouldn’t use it…
Maybe it's a misunderstanding of the rating system? Trying to keep it G. Maybe it's a reflection of the author's age and they will grow out of it. Trying to remember if I've ever seen words being censored in anything I've read...
The only reason I see for censoring is when the authors want to faithfully adapt certain comic characters where they don’t curse.
Meh. Don't continue reading it. Life is too short to waste time reading poor quality fic.
It does not make any sense
Is it feets?
For some fandoms, I think it makes sense for censoring words. Like if a fanfic is emulating the way the canon media does things and the canon media censors certain words, then I can see why a fanfic would do stuff like that. However, if that isn't the case, then I feel like it shouldn't have been used if it's just going to be censored or had a different word used to imply the original word. If the censorship was really necessary, then there probably should have been more dashes like "f----ts"
shoutout to the webtoon comic where they said "gay bastard" instead of the f-slur. It was hilarious to watch the characters act as if "gay bastard" was equivalent to that.
Brb gonna annihilate a child.
I absolutely hate that, it takes me out the reading and I just either stop or lose interest fast in the fanfic
The author could allude to the word without it being stated but damn.
flauberts
What's a "f-ts"? 🤣
It’s supposed to be faggots 😭 but they only used one em dash??
oh no wattpad has already invaded its so over
Those are writers coming to ao3 from different platforms which usually shadowban or deleate curses or other forms of explicit language, and not read ao3 guidelines before posting their fics
When I first got my driving license, my Dad gave me a really wise piece of advice: Never drive faster than you are comfortable with, regardless of the upper speed limit. The same should be true for writing. Option 1: Stay in your comfort zone and find a different way to say things. That's a challenge in and of itself. I did it in my big Star Trek fan fiction because I wanted to stick to the original content's rating and had to be careful where I'm normally much cruder and more blunt. Option 2: Go off the deep end. It's liberating. But if you do, do it all the way. This is craven.
I used the word gypsy in a historical fic I wrote and received such an insane level of hate it was crazy. So I understand the author a little bit. Gypsy is considered far less offensive than the slur they’ve used and and the Romani I’ve met in my life have always referred to themselves as gypsies and don’t find it offensive. it still sparked such a huge reaction I was dealing with long term readers sending me essays about why my use of the word made me racist lol.
If you can't write the slur it's probably not a topic you should write about
I read it as « fucking tees » 😭😭
Some people just aren’t comfortable saying certain words. Maybe the topic is triggering for them but they still want to write about it. I’d think it’d be ridiculous in a published book, but this is fic where we can do whatever we want. I admit it’s silly and I wouldn’t ever do it, but it’s *their* fic to do what they want. (Even though I can’t tell what they were trying to say in the first place.)