TRANSGRESSIVE COPING
GOAL: To help this audience understand, empathize, and reconsider the optics of transgressive fictional media.
WEEK ONE
The first steps of this entire process were to come up with ideas. Something that, contrary to popular belief, I'm not quite good at. Once I have an idea, I can run with it for miles and miles, but it's coming up with things that are complicated and a bit more of a longer process. When thinking of ideas/directions for the thesis, I dove into myself and tried to figure out what exactly I like, and what I'm passionate about. Usually, that falls in line with the kinds of issues that come with my personal identity as a black woman, and the issues that people may have/have been debating in my hobbies. That's how I came up with these three initial ideas. In deciding which would be my official direction, in short, I chose the one that has likely been talked about the least. One of the big things I wanted to remember during this process was to not be cliche and to do something that kind of scares me. Something that makes me face a side of me that I don't normally face and therefore will need to for the sake of creating the most successful thesis I possibly can.Below are my thesis ideas, including a general explanation of the concept and questions that I may or may not ask myself during the process. My final thesis choice is highlighted in green.
1. Introducing Nuance to Taboo Art (First Choice)As an avid enjoyer of taboo/transgressive works, it has come to my attention that there is a growing movement to reject its existence in the artistic world. The dismissal, nearing outrage (in some spaces) comes from a place of fear and moral high-ground/panic. It prevents people from separating their own personal tastes and boundaries from the objective existence of a particular medium/media. I hope to provide some insight on how to make that distinction when viewing taboo media, as well as educate my audience on why such art exists today.I will explore the following under this topic:Why do artists/consumers enjoy taboo media?
How can my designs encourage my audience to introduce nuance to their viewing of taboo art?
To what extent do we allow modern sociopolitical forms of morality to dictate, shape and inform, limit or dominate artistic expression? Is there an obligation to do so?
What benefit does transgressive media and art serve beyond personal enjoyment?** 2. The Sexualization of the Female (50/50)**Often when approaching the question of the gender norms established in our society, we reach the conclusion that despite any of the past distinctions made about us, we should ignore them and move forward into a future that doesn't acknowledge such assumptions. While I agree that it's a correct step in the right direction, I believe that looking a bit deeper into the past will help with our progress in the future. For this concept, I will be further researching and exploring the beginnings and evolution of various avenues that are involved in this particular question: the origin of gender, sex, and the distinction of male and female. With these findings, I am hoping to find something that separates the woman from the inherent sexualization that has been placed upon her.Considering the risk of coming across as 'typical', I have chosen to narrow this topic down to these specific questions:What is gender, at its core? Sex? Sexuality?
What makes a woman or female inherently sexual?
Is the identity of a woman at its core, minus any previous perceptions, inherently sexual?
Are my designs capable of showing and communicating the evolution and origin of these intricate topics to an audience?3. The Oreo Lifestyle (Initial Idea)A black individual who has grown up or acts within the reestablished standard of our white counterparts is considered an 'Oreo' to their peers, whether they be white or black. This topic of discussion comes from a personal place, as this is a name I have been called numerous times in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood alike. A question that has repeatedly come to mind, considering my upbringing, is where the idea of 'being black' and 'being white' originated. How certain personality traits and behaviors were assigned to certain races, and how these expectations formed a generation of black people growing up in an inherently white America.I will ask myself the following:What does it mean to be black in America, versus other regions?
How does being rejected and accepted by other racial groups based on individual, organic personality traits affect an individual?
Where does the idea that one is not black originate?
WEEK TWO
Now came the time to propose an argument.My argument for this thesis was that transgressive media deserved to exist under the impressions of artistic freedom and the uses that it had in terms of coping and mental and physical health. This week we also had to begin going through the process of creating a mind map that breaks down our topics. Below are the three phases of mind maps that I went through; one was redesigned to be black and white but essentially matched my actual, transformed thesis in the end.
WEEK THREE AND WEEK FOUR
Week three & four brought about the first round of investigative research, as well as a prompt to ask ourselves questions about our topics. Questions that would manage to help us get closer to the answers that we sought.For me specifically, I know that I needed to separate my own opinions on this topic from the general ones, as well as the ones of my audience. I needed to understand two perspectives in order to create a piece to connect them together. I needed to understand the people who feared the transgressive just as much as the people who embraced it. These were the questions I came up with in order to reflect those needs:Why do artists/consumers enjoy transgressive media?
How can my designs encourage my audience to introduce nuance to their viewing of taboo art?
To what extent do we allow modern sociopolitical forms of morality to dictate, shape and inform, limit or dominate artistic expression? Is there an obligation to do so?
What benefit does transgressive media and art serve beyond personal enjoyment?
What stances and ideas surrounding fictional content will you need to focus on in order to defend transgressive media and stand against its censorship?
How can the censorship of transgressive pieces and media be harmful?
If there is a need to, what boundaries need to be emphasized or put in place when it comes to transgressive media?
What type of media do you want to focus on? Writing.
What is considered “non-problematic” or “not taboo”, and what isn’t?In the 'RESEARCH' section of this blog, my first round of research is available for viewing.
WEEK FIVE
This week was mostly spent working on reading through the rest of my research, highlighting important evidence, and getting a full understanding of what I was reading from there. Honestly, it takes me a while to fully understand some things due to my difficulty staying focused at times.Besides that, we were told around this time to start thinking about our process books. At the time, I didn't really understand why we needed a process book, but I realized that it was just an artful version of our binders and just went with it.My initial ideas for the process book were to have it match with my thesis, though I didn't really have any idea what my thesis would look like at the time. What I did know, was that book and thesis would capture the following aesthetics: for my thesis, I wanted it to be geometrical and map-like. For the book, the complete opposite of the thesis; I wanted it to be more of the image version of transgressive media; the spookiness and aweing mood that can't really be captured through the writing of the transgressive piece I wanted to map out.
WEEK SIX AND SEVEN
Around this time, we were starting to conceptualize what form our thesis projects were going to take. At the time, I was thinking about doing a poster, you know, but it felt like an easy way out. I wanted it to take the form a poster normally would, but I also had to consider being unique and bringing something new to the table. So instead, with the help of another professor in the program, I was able to brainstorm an idea about creating a fold-out poster book, essentially. Below is the form I decided my thesis would take.
WEEK EIGHT
I also at this time, had to start establishing an actual schedule for the rest of my thesis, as well as
REMAINDER OF THE CREATION PROCESS
The remainder of my creation process got a little lost in translation, as I began to start working through different variations and iterations of my thesis. This project is very near and dear to my heart, and because of it, I tended to often find myself rethinking and reorganizing and, tragically, redesigning everything. The rest of my time working on my thesis reflected that back and forth.The visual inspiration for my project as well as my process book can be found in the 'RESEARCH' tab as well.Below are my sketches for the final thesis project. I wanted to find a way to map out the words in a specific shape like a brain scan, for example (being that my thesis ended up being more about coping mechanisms within creation of transgressive media, than the general creation of it), but I ended up mapping them out differently in the final project.The following components that had to be designed for the final project are:
the poster book cover
the poster book back cover
the poster
the inside pages with the interviewOut of everything, the map was the most complicated to put together. Specifically when it came to organizing the pieces all together.
SKETCHES
PROCESS BOOK LAYOUT (DIGITAL DRAFTS)
INITAL FINAL PROJECT LAYOUT
First RoundFor my initial stages of research, I wanted to read through different perspectives and thoughts regarding transgressive media. Through this research, I realized that most of the accounts that I gathered referred to the written word over any other art form. It was this that made me finally decide to simplify my thesis and focus on independent/indie writers, and transgressive literature.Fiction: A Transgressive Art:
This article goes into the creative process of an author, questioning the limits and abilities of a fictional writer and how fair the potential of their content can go. There are a lot of interesting parts in the beginning of the article, talking about the difficulty of finding one’s inner self, and how writers constantly crave to find that inner self. In ways, analyzing one’s self as an artist/writer or whatever one identifies as, leads to the idea of “life being elsewhere”, as described by K. Anis Ahmed. This desire to explore that belief is what formulates the drive of young artists and writers.The Lacuna of Usefulness: The Compulsion to 'Understand' Transgressive Fiction:
This article is centered around transgressive media from the nineties, so though the content is a bit dated, I decided to read it anyway and found that a lot of the conclusions drawn, and the ideas conversed still related to today. For example, the article’s main idea was centered around the initial reaction that is directed towards transgressive media, which, well, is its intended purpose. Specifically quoted from the text:
“These negative responses are produced by the dominant mechanism of Transgressive Fiction, which is not transgression but frustration. Transgressive texts systematically set about to frustrate all the desires that a reader brings to the text: the quest for meaning, the desire for escape, the consolations of mimesis, the pleasures of voyeurism, even the desire to transgress.”Ready Made Rebellion:
Ready Made Rebellion is an article that defends the complexities, depth, and benefit to literature that problematic themes have by stating from the get-go: “Good fiction has never been about moral instruction; it would be much easier to write if it were. Its more imposing task is to do justice to the inexhaustible complexity of human motivation.” It’s the perfect way to explain one of the main benefits of having controversial and problematic media in the world, which is the fact that most actions, even the vile ones, are that of humans.Why We Need Problematic Books: In Praise of Dangerous Fiction:
In this article, “problematic” is defined as “: glorifying ‘bad’ things, positive or negative representation, and the ‘message’ the media presents. This is done through a ‘critical theory’ eye, seeking to make the world more ‘equitable’ in regard to race, gender, sexuality and class.” In a way, it dips into some works even being too “controversial”. (It should be noted that I have extended my research into the critical theory eye as well after going through this piece). It goes on to discuss why problematic works are needed amongst the works that are “socially acceptable”, as well as discussing the idea that depiction does not equal endorsement.The Problem of “Problematic” Literature:
This article dives more into the educational benefits and fallouts of problematic fiction and how we tackle the issue of having outdated literary works in our school curriculum that have come off and have been proven to be offensive. It acknowledges that completely removing these works has no form of value, considering the fact that literature can still be learned from no matter how outdated its content may be. What changes is how we approach teaching the content that is consumed in the novel.“we’d all be better readers if we realized that it isn’t the writer who’s the time traveler. It’s the reader. When we pick up an old novel, we’re not bringing the novelist into our world and deciding whether he or she is enlightened enough to belong here; we’re journeying into the novelist’s world and taking a look around.” – Brian Morton'Problematic' books are sparking a debate about what you're allowed to read:
This is another article surrounding the educational means of acts of censorship and what’s “problematic” and what’s not. The only difference is that this article dips into the responsibility that social media has in regard to the sudden censorship and “cancellation” of these texts and novels.
Second Round
Thesis: Transgressive Coping
This second round of research consisted of compiled research surrounding the following topics:
- Map creation, building and elements
- Expressing writing as a coping mechanism
- Information design
- Empathy tools used in graphic designWriting Can Help Us Heal from Trauma:
This article discusses the effects that writing has on us as a tool by reflecting on the events of the pandemic and how people used writing to heal during the collective trauma of it. It goes into studies about how people use emotional and expressive writing in order to improve the healing of their mental and physical health.
This was essentially used as a way to back up what I’m trying to convey in my thesis about transgressive media. The fact that transgressive behaviors occur in our life means that there will be media that reflects those behaviors in real life. Some of that is created as a means of coping.Evoking Empathy: A Framework for Describing Empathy Tools:
This article discusses how empathy tools are used in designs specifically as a way to frame experiences and evoke empathetic responses by placing individuals in others lived experiences. I wanted to look into articles and pieces like these because I was aware that my topic is a bit of a triggering and tough spot for some people, but it doesn’t change the fact that my goal is to overall encourage people to understand the experience of others. It’s all really about the sensations that viewers experience, therefore the article studied these experiences and outlined them.
I used this, as well as the next two articles, in order to decide on a color scheme for my thesis.12 Colors and the Emotions They Evoke:
In short, this article discussed colors and what type of emotions they evoke. Using this, I decided on what main colors I wanted to derive my scheme from. In all honestly, there was nothing much else to this.Empathy in Graphic Design – Horanin: Strategy and Design:
This talks about the four main qualities of empathy: perspective-taking, staying out of judgement, recognition of the emotions of others, and communicating it. It discusses how we need to develop intuition as well as emotional sensitivity in order to reach the kind of insight that is needed to create designs. Though, this article states that empathic designs are, essentially, not possible. I wanted to get an article that denied the claims of empathy expression within design as well as one that supports it. Rather, it discusses the ways that empathy can exist in certain places in design.What is Information Design?
This article discusses the basics of information design. When it came to my attention that I would be creating an information design for my final thesis, I wanted to ensure that I knew exactly what I was supposed to be creating in terms of information design. All in all, it just gave a general explanation of what it is and what purpose it serves. That, and how it and graphic design began to work hand in hand, as well as the overlap with environmental and experimental design.Ultimate Infographic Design Guide:
It’s in the title—this is a general guide for ‘infographic design’ that I found. Though it isn’t exactly what I’m designing at the end of the day, I thought that some of the content featured in the guide was helpful. Essentially, things that I should consider when making it. One of the elements that stuck out was to find and remember the story I’m telling/thing I’m informing people about when putting together the design. The fact that there is going to be a bunch of information there, but I still need to find a way to communicate it all artistically from a standard perspective.Different Mapping Techniques and Practical Modern Mapping Technologies & Mapmaking Techniques: (two articles)
Mapping techniques were something that I needed to consider and research thoroughly because of the fact that I had every intention of designing the written work I was given as a map. These articles go over different types of ways to create a map (all physical ways) as well as explaining the purpose of a map in the first place (which is, essentially, to guide). It also discusses legends/keys and other symbols that should be included in them.Emotional and Physical Health Benefits of Expressive Writing: Advances in Psychiatric Treatment
This was an article I forgot to include in my last round of research, but this was about how writing about traumatic, stressful, or emotional events lead to results in physical and psychological health. This article, unlike the others, talks about the specific impacts it may have. For example, immediate impacts of excessive writing are a short time increase in negative feelings (in the moment), but there’s also a long-term effect that we desire; that improvement in mental health, and emotional health, and more. It also lists the physical benefits. Some examples are reduced blood pressure, improved mood, improved immune system, and more.
VISUAL INSPIRATION
Bibliography“2.1 Maps and Map Types.” Maps and Map Types, https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/geographic-information-system-basics/s06-01-maps-and-map-types.html.K. Anis Ahmed. “Fiction: A Transgressi¬¬ve Art.” World Literature Today, vol. 90, no. 1, Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, 2016, pp. 42–46, https://doi.org/10.7588/worllitetoda.90.1.0042.Hoey, Molly. “The Lacuna of Usefulness: The Compulsion to ‘Understand’ Transgressive Fiction.” Word & Text: A Journal of Literary Studies & Linguistics, vol. 4, no. 1, June 2014, pp. 26–39. EBSCOhost, search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.montclair.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=97082763&site=eds-live&scope=site.Dee, Jonathan. “Ready-Made Rebellion: The Empty Tropes of Transgressive Fiction.” Harper’s Magazine, vol. 310, no. 1859, Apr. 2005, p. 87. EBSCOhost, search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.montclair.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsglr&AN=edsglr.A131786910&site=eds-live&scope=site.Cleavenger, Craig. “The Safety of Transgression versus the Risk of Honesty.” LitReactor, 17 Mar. 2013, https://litreactor.com/essays/craig-clevenger/the-safety-of-transgression-versus-the-risk-of-honesy.Jones, Madeleine Rose. “Why We Need Problematic Books: In Praise of Dangerous Fiction.” Snowy Fictions, 21 July 2021, https://www.snowyfictions.com/why-we-need-problematic-books-in-praise-of-dangerous-fiction/.Prose, Francine. “'Problematic' Books Are Sparking a Debate about What You're Allowed to Read.” Australian Financial Review, 16 Nov. 2017, https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/arts-and-culture/the-new-and-troubling-debate-over-what-is-a-problematic-book-20171113-gzkluo.Siegel-Acevedo, Deborah. “Writing Can Help Us Heal from Trauma.” Harvard Business Review, 1 July 2021, https://hbr.org/2021/07/writing-can-help-us-heal-from-trauma.Yonemoto-Weston, Leah. “The Problem of ‘Problematic’ Literature.” The Owl, 20 Mar. 2019, https://bhsowl.org/1180/uncategorized/the-problem-of-problematic-literature/.Sydney Pratte Computer Science University of Calgary, et al. “Evoking Empathy: A Framework for Describing Empathy Tools.” Evoking Empathy: A Framework for Describing Empathy Tools | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, 1 Feb. 2021, https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/3430524.3440644.Cao, Jerry. “12 Colours and the Emotions They Evoke.” Creative Bloq, Creative Bloq, 26 Jan. 2021, https://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/12-colours-and-emotions-they-evoke-61515112.“Empathy in Graphic Design - Horanin: Strategy and Design.” Horanin, 28 May 2020, https://horanin.com/empathy-in-graphic-design/.Interactive, Blue Oak. “What Is Information Design?” SEGD, 20 May 2014, https://segd.org/what-information-design.“Ultimate Infographic Design Guide + Design Tricks.” Venngage, 23 Nov. 2021, https://venngage.com/blog/infographic-design/.“Different Mapping Techniques and Practical Modern Mapping Technologies.” Kullabs, https://kullabs.com/class-10/social-10/geographical-studies-or-our-earth/different-mapping-techniques-and-practical-modern-mapping-technologies.“Mapmaking Techniques.” Omeka RSS, https://apps.lib.umich.edu/online-exhibits/exhibits/show/the-geography-of-colorants/a-brief-history-of-color-in-ma/mapmaking-techniques.Martino, Maria Luisa, et al. “Linguistic Markers of Processing Trauma Experience in Women's Written Narratives during Different Breast Cancer Phases: Implications for Clinical Interventions.” Europe's Journal of Psychology, PsychOpen, 27 Nov. 2015, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4873081/.
The Message:
‘Transgressive’ is defined as relating to fiction, cinematography, or art in which orthodox cultural, moral, and artistic boundaries are challenged by the representation of unconventional behavior and the use of experimental forms. Many creators have taken it upon themselves to explore the depictions of transgressive behavior through a multitude of forms in the safe space of the fictional realm. As it states in its meaning, the presence of broken moral standards in today’s media, has garnered a particular outcry against the existence of such content.
Today, it is common for creators to express transgressive behaviors in fiction as a means of coping with traumatic events, whether it be their own, or a collective trauma. Despite this being a more than acceptable as well as extremely common coping mechanism, there are still a significant number of groups and individuals that support the censorship of it. This mindset comes from a lack of empathy, logical thinking, and understanding of an artist’s potential true motivation behind creating a select piece.
With that being said: writing, since its beginnings, has served as a powerful means of expression that has opened endless dialogues. It has been able to do so through various themes and perspectives. At the same time that writing has served as a powerful outlet, the lacking limit of the writer and their mind and motivations, whether they be positive or negative, moral, or immoral, has been brought into question.An age-old battle between censorship and artistic freedom has risen once again, disguising itself in the mainstream, branching off today’s “cancel culture”. In this thesis, I aim to defend the existence of transgressive, problematic writing as a means of coping by visually exploring a common motivation of a transgressive author and showcasing the benefit it may serve.Thesis:
Creating and/or consuming fictional media that depicts transgressive behavior is commonly used as a coping mechanism for those going through, or processing, traumatic events. Despite this, there is a demographic of individuals that forcefully disagree. My goal is to help this audience understand, empathize, and reconsider the optics of transgressive fictional media. In order to achieve this, I aim to visually explore the thought process, anecdotes, trauma, and motivations behind a transgressive piece of fiction, and the individual that wrote it.Research Points:
- History
Exploring the historical beginnings, evolvement, and backlash surrounding the rise and existence of transgressive media.- Author/Creator Motivation
Looking into the reasons why authors may be inspired to create such works through general research and personal anecdotes and interviews from small authors.- Psychological reasoning
The psychological reasoning as to why our brains often tend to dive deep into the more immoral and problematic aspects in life, and why exploring them through a fictional outlet is good.Visual Representation:
I plan to represent my argument through a visual representation of an author’s transgressive piece that will take the form of a ‘reading guide’. Featured in this reading guide will be a personal interview, explanations and anecdotes from the author that will be showcased beside the full piece. As a designer, I ¬will be essentially visually piecing together the author’s motivation and building a “case” for them. This could take the form of an interactive website, or it could be a physical visual representation (a poster, print, or something similar).
INTERVIEW:
This is the interview that I had with the author of the work I decided to make a visual reading guide of. ‘She’s Hot’ by slowlange, or, Sage, is a story by an indie creator that posts their works on Archive of our Own, which is an archive for transformative and original works. Through a couple of friend circles on Twitter, I managed to get into contact with them and get permission to use their work and interview them about their work. So I sat down with them and asked a few questions about them, their writing, and their opinions on transgressive media.Sage is a small indie author in their mid-twenties. With no intentions of becoming a published author in the near future, they partake in creating transgressive/problematic content not only as a hobby but as a coping mechanism as well.ME: How long have you been writing in general?SAGE: I’ve been writing since I was a teenager. But now, it’s on and off as I continue to advance in my career. Write when the time comes, you know?ME: How long have you been writing transgressive/problematic media?SAGE: I just started, actually! I didn’t really dip into anything transgressive until I started reading it a little more. When I was a teen in fandom culture, I didn’t really have the understanding that I have now to consume such works. Now that I have, I’m kind of obsessed with exploring the different relationships I hadn’t considered exploring before.ME: How do you feel about transgressive behaviors being displayed in writing and today’s mainstream media?SAGE: Today, I’m okay with it. When I was a teenager/in college, I didn’t approve. If I thought the same way today, I would have likely sided with the audience today that speaks out against anything remotely transgressive or ‘immoral’ being presented in media. But I’ve learned overtime that there’s a lot more too it than what it seems.ME: Tell me about how writing helps you cope with and/or process your own individual trauma.SAGE: When I was a teenager, I was sexually abused by someone in my family. It happened, and no one in my family really knows about it other than my younger sister, mainly because making a stir about it at this point wouldn’t help me recover at all, rather harm me and cause more stress and pain than it needs to.At the time, when it had happened wasn’t something that I had even processed as not necessarily “wrong” (because I’d known, even when it was happening, that it was wrong), but rather, that it was something that would fundamentally affect me as a person. It happened on a vacation, so growing up, I thought I could just live until the memory had just about disappeared.Well, it didn’t. And eventually I found my way to writing my way out of these thoughts and feelings. At the time, I didn’t really have therapy or anything in the professional realm of mental health that could help me, so this was my only solution. Today, I do both therapy and coping through writing. It served its purpose at the time, helping me through tumultuous times, but now it helps even more.ME: Tell me about the story you’ve created. A short summary, or just an overview of what the audience should know about it before reading.SAGE: ‘She’s Hot’ is a story about two brothers; one, who was groomed, manipulated, and sexually abused and assaulted by his older brother. The story focuses on the effects that these experiences had on the main protagonist (the younger brother) once his elder brother leaves for college. The younger brother then decides to act on those emotions that were incited within him.ME: What motivated you to write this piece?SAGE: Originally, this story was a single scene. I was in a really weird headspace one night, and I started thinking about my incestual trauma and what happened to me when I was in high school. There’s a feeling of worthlessness that comes with being a victim of assault sometimes, and it’s hard to sort through. For me specifically, theThe one scene that I wrote was meant to be the end of it, but sometimes when you read things back, they sound much better than they did when things were getting planned out. So eventually I decided to turn it into an entire work.ME: What transgressive themes are present in your piece that would cause an outcry to the general viewing public?SAGE: Outside of the established incestuous relationship, a lot of manipulation, (like, a lot of manipulation), abuse, jealousy, possessive behavior, gaslighting, and on top on the incestuous relationship, there is a sex scene between them, as well as flashbacks of previous sexual encounters.The entire story is generally about the rises and falls and consequences of an abusive relationship, so at its core, it’s definitely transgressive from the get-go. Certainly, enough to get me “canceled” amongst the general viewing audience.ME: It’s common knowledge amongst all creators in all mediums, that there is a borderline requirement to properly warn readers about anything that could potentially trigger or frighten them before they consume your content. What precautions do you take to ensure that only people that want to see your work, see it? Can you talk about the importance of such precautions to you and others in your community?SAGE: The website that me and many other creators in my circles post on, Archive of Our Own, is one of the cleanest, most efficient ways of sharing and tagging content properly. It’s known for fanfiction, as you and I both know, but there’s also a space for original works and content. But besides that, I use that tagging system like it’s a bible. I tag every single one of my works with insane accuracy and preciseness, merely because I know the stuff I write is a little messed up. I think every creator online should take those precautions though, 100%. It’s worth it to make sure your readers are fully informed before they read.ME: How does reading back this piece after it’s been written make you feel? If you can answer, how did it overall help you process your individual trauma/emotions?SAGE: I feel a bit sad, reading it back and knowing how I felt when writing this. But overall, it helps in the moment. Temporary bliss within this outlet. That, and when I posted it, I received a lot of comments from people that related to the experience with the characters in the story, and in turn, my own experiences.And those feelings that I projected onto those characters don’t necessarily go away either, you know. It’ s just an outlet that helps me make peace, even if it’s little by little.ME: What would you say to an audience that doesn’t quite know how to operate fictional media that may present themes that they find discomforting or problematic?SAGE: There’s plenty I would love to say, being that I’ve been treated poorly by many people that have looked at my works at first glance and chosen hostility over understanding, but there’s a couple things to remember when it comes to consuming transgressive content that people should remember:First, the consumption and creation of a specific topic doesn’t mean that the individual condones it. Second, no creator owes you an explanation for why they’re creating something. I know that your thesis surrounds using these works as a coping mechanism, but it’s important for people to remember that writing about and exploring these transgressive themes needs no justification. Creative freedom exists for a reason. That, and the fact that today, in the age of social media, where everyone can see anything, while people need to curate their own experiences online, creators as well need to understand that they have a responsibility to tag and warn people about their works.BELOW: FINAL PROJECT
