{"id":281834,"date":"2018-10-06T12:20:57","date_gmt":"2018-10-06T12:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2018\/10\/06\/atlinmerrick-reynardinepttr-atlinmerrick\/"},"modified":"2018-12-08T13:27:42","modified_gmt":"2018-12-08T13:27:42","slug":"atlinmerrick-reynardinepttr-atlinmerrick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2018\/10\/06\/atlinmerrick-reynardinepttr-atlinmerrick\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-281834 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2018\/10\/06\/atlinmerrick-reynardinepttr-atlinmerrick\/attachment\/281835\/'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/tumblr_pg3iqcLMUp1qja1bno1_640-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/tumblr_pg3iqcLMUp1qja1bno1_640-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/tumblr_pg3iqcLMUp1qja1bno1_640-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/atlinmerrick.tumblr.com\/post\/178758857943\/reynardinepttr-atlinmerrick-theyre-the\" class=\"tumblr_blog\" target=\"_blank\">atlinmerrick<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/reynardinepttr.tumblr.com\/post\/178741299395\/atlinmerrick-theyre-the-stick-youre-the-bear\" class=\"tumblr_blog\" target=\"_blank\">reynardinepttr<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/atlinmerrick.tumblr.com\/post\/178740531579\/theyre-the-stick-youre-the-bear-man-women-are\" class=\"tumblr_blog\" target=\"_blank\">atlinmerrick<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h2>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/us14.campaign-archive.com\/?u=0b3c41ccca3b1f531445341f9&amp;id=6f4b4b1ee3\" target=\"_blank\"><b>They\u2019re the Stick, You\u2019re the Bear<\/b><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/us14.campaign-archive.com\/?u=0b3c41ccca3b1f531445341f9&amp;id=6f4b4b1ee3\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><br \/><\/h2>\n<p>MAN: Women are more emotional than men.<br \/>WOMAN: *begins speaking*<br \/>MAN: No really, they are.<br \/>WOMAN: *begins\u2014*<br \/>MAN: It\u2019s so obvious.<br \/>WOMAN: *be\u2014*<br \/>MAN: They\u2019re completely at the mercy of their emotions.<br \/>WOMAN: *nuclear explosion of teeth-baring hatred*<br \/>MAN: See, I told you.<\/p>\n<p>This little expositionary tale (paraphrased from an actual Twitter exchange) is to make a point and that point is this: to get attention, some people will metaphorically poke and poke and poke a bear with a stick, so they can prove bears are dangerous.<\/p>\n<p>Next time someone wanders into your comments with their stick, telling you that your favourite character \u201cwould never\u201d be a top, a bottom, bi, ace, or whatever, I\u2019d love it if you think of that someone as an idiot with a stick, an idiot who doesn\u2019t want conversation or to enrich fandom, they want you to get your bear on and growl.<\/p>\n<p>Do not give them the pleasure.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t usually have nasty comments but once, oooo, once I had a reader tell me Sherlock \u201cwould never\u201d and I replied \u201cfor me he does.\u201d This riled her and she got rude. So I deleted her comment. She made a new account and repeated herself. I deleted. This went on for seven new AO3 accounts before she stopped.<\/p>\n<p>See, the thing is, anyone who\u2019s something other than a jerk comments in a way less jerklike. So people and their \u201cwould nevers\u201d? They\u2019re not there to talk, they\u2019re there to tick you off. For fun.<\/p>\n<p>Because riddle me this: If they\u2019re so sure whomever would never\u2026why did they click to read your fic?<\/p>\n<p>If something\u2019s not their preference, kink, one true turn on, why did they come to and continue reading your story?<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll tell you: they have a stick and they\u2019re bored, lonely, or just fecking mean, and they want attention.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t give it to them.<\/p>\n<p>As so many genius writers for Spark have said in their own essays\u2014the characters we love? They\u2019re not real. They don\u2019t care what we do with them or have them do. They have no opinions, needs, or feelings.<\/p>\n<p>But we do.<\/p>\n<p>And the bear pokers? They don\u2019t care about those. So don\u2019t care right on back.<\/p>\n<p>Me, I delete rude comments. Life is rough enough without fools messing up my fandom playpen. So I delete, delete, delete.<\/p>\n<p>Then I take my angry bearness and I go have coffee with a friend, growling awhile about the idiots of the world. Afterward I write porn. Maybe the people in that porn are top, bottom, bi, or ace. They aren\u2019t real so they can be anything, everything, or nothing. And that\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s all fine.<\/p>\n<p><i>By the way, men commit <a href=\"https:\/\/improbablepress.us14.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=0b3c41ccca3b1f531445341f9&amp;id=beb9f33519&amp;e=8ca76d5188\" target=\"_blank\">96% of homicides<\/a> worldwide and most all the violent crime. Who\u2019s more emotional now? *Atlin will not growl or eat people she will not growl or\u2014*<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>P.S. Read more in this week\u2019s free writing newsletter Spark<\/i>: <a href=\"https:\/\/us14.campaign-archive.com\/?u=0b3c41ccca3b1f531445341f9&amp;id=6f4b4b1ee3\" target=\"_blank\">Top, Bottom, Bi, Ace: It\u2019s All Fine<\/a>. [thanks for the image <a href=\"https:\/\/tmblr.co\/m1ETYteEGdc5ef7lMyYu1cg\" target=\"_blank\">Pickingwinkles!]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Listen to the mustn&#8217;ts, child, listen to the don&#8217;ts. Listen to the shouldn&#8217;ts, the impossibles, the won&#8217;ts. Listen to the never-haves, then listen close to me: anything can happen, child; anything can be. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Shel Silverstein\u2026what a marvelous time to quote <a class=\"tumblelog\" href=\"https:\/\/tmblr.co\/mSyWa4VT7fnsV-J6HXQB6aQ\" target=\"_blank\">@reynardinepttr<\/a>, thank you!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>atlinmerrick: reynardinepttr: atlinmerrick: They\u2019re the Stick, You\u2019re the Bear MAN: Women are more emotional than men.WOMAN: *begins speaking*MAN: No really, they are.WOMAN: *begins\u2014*MAN: It\u2019s so obvious.WOMAN: *be\u2014*MAN: They\u2019re completely at the mercy of their emotions.WOMAN: *nuclear explosion of teeth-baring hatred*MAN: See, I told you. This little expositionary tale (paraphrased from an actual Twitter exchange) is &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2018\/10\/06\/atlinmerrick-reynardinepttr-atlinmerrick\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[15992,338,8571,25034,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281836,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281834\/revisions\/281836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}