That Question Again

[smalltrolven]

Do you feel like you have to "warn" for who tops or bottoms in your slash stories?
I don't, but am I supposed to? Should I be?
I'd honestly have to go back and re-read all of my stories to tell you who tops or bottoms in each one, really and truly.
I don't keep track and it's not usually the main point of the story.

I guess it's just not that important to me and I don't understand the comments I've been getting on AO3 lately.

Honestly the amount of them makes me want to just stop posting my work at all.
I'm writing mainly for an audience of one...me.  It's a selfish thing, I know it is.
But I'm honest with myself about it. If other people read my stuff and like it that's awesome, I love that. I really do, and I of course really love
hearing from those readers. So I shouldn't be complaining when I do hear from those readers, should I?

But I remain confused. I don't see why the top/bottom thing is so important to people that they are making demands (sometimes rudely, sometimes not) in the comments to my fics.
I received a few comments in this vein on the last fic I posted that have me scratching my head:

"I love this fic, but any chance for fic (put in s11) with bottom Sam from you?"

This comment is mostly fine by me, I could have chosen to be put off by the 'but' in it, but instead I answered by saying yep there are a few i'm in the process of writing. But I didn't take the time to explain that those in-process stories already existed before I ever read the comment.

But when this one was posted by another reader in reply, and I was very surprised at the turn it took:

"I love this story soooo much!:DThank you author writing this amazing fic!But this comment really make me feel a little disgusted.It feels like there will always be one guy asking for bottom sam under every single bottom dean fic. And everybody just go write bottom sam for them... Please,don't do this again,there are still some people who perfer Bottom Dean&Jensen,please give us more respect.I can hardly see any bottom!dean now. It really makes me sad...."

Here's what I wrote in response:

"Thank you so much, I'm very glad to hear that you like the story.

I wanted to point out that the comment you were replying to requesting bottom Sam hasn't changed anything that I've written or am going to write in the future. I was just answering their specific question about upcoming stories I'm working on. And neither will your comment requesting bottom Dean impact my writing plans. As I've said before, who tops or bottoms is just not something I'm personally invested in, I like both, it all depends on the story that I am writing. Sometimes they switch, sometimes they don't have penetrative sex at all, and in my big bang this year there is all of that plus an ongoing MMF relationship. It's hard to explain to a reader, but that's just how it works for me as a writer, it's all about the story that I'm telling, and the way I'm writing the brothers in that story. I hope you'll find something of mine that you'll like to read again in the future."

I erased several heated responses before I came up with that hopefully more measured one. I wonder if I should just ignore it and not respond to them at all, maybe that would be better.

Have any of you experienced this kind of response on your fics, and if so, how have you reacted or handled it?
Thanks for listening to me ramble about this.

Comments

[anniespinkhouse.livejournal.com]

No. Rude, entitled and just well, odd. Character or physical attributes do not equate to whether or not a person like to take it up the ass on a particular occasion, and it is horribly stereotyping to make those assumptions. It isn't a trigger. Do we demand to know the top and bottom in any published fic or novel? How strange would that make the cover summary? No, we let the author take us on a journey to explore the emotions and dynamics of a relationship and it is the writer's story.

[smalltrolven.livejournal.com]

I think I agree with you, about the assumptions that most people seem to make about who tops or bottoms being a form of stereotyping gone awry. Which just rubs me wrong about the whole thing to begin with. I wouldn't say that all of the people who have a preference do that thought, sometimes you just like what you like which is totally fine of course. The shortly worded requests do come off as rude and yes, odd. Which is why I was curious how others were approaching responding or not.

I love your last line about the author taking us on a journey, that's exactly why I write and why I read, so thank you for reminding me of that!