More musings on Yuletide, while I dink around with my letter and signup

[sholio]

... er, this is totally a serious question: does anyone consider it uncouth/in poor taste to use Christmas icons on Yuletide posts? I know that Yuletide-the-ficathon =/= Christmas, but the ficathon timeline is not-so-subtly built around it, and they're definitely associated in my head. Plus I rarely get to use those icons, SO... But I don't want to make anyone feel excluded by using holiday-specific icons, when I could just as easily use writing icons instead. Um. Thoughts?

Anyway, I've been pondering the new signup form. You can now add some new things to your request: you can specify kind of pairing (Gen, F/F, etc), you can add a freeform tag (like "hurt/comfort" or "fluff") -- none of these are guaranteed, but they might make it easier to match authors with other authors with like tastes.

I think for me, this actually makes it HARDER, because my requests are usually pretty varied (I'd love this OR this other thing OR this completely different thing) and now I have to figure out if I want Thing #1 enough to use tags specifically geared towards getting it. In a fandom where I would be very happy with gen or with pairings X and Y, do I check "gen" or one of the pairing options or just leave it blank? If I check "gen", will that make it less likely for my writer to write me Pairing X even though they love Pairing X as much as I do and have a great idea for it? *wails*

I already dithered a lot on choosing characters, because if I have several options for my writer involving different characters, do I pick all of them even though I don't actually mean "all of these have to be in my story"? Or do I pick some subset of them, even though I would be just as happy with pairing a/b as I would be with gen featuring b, c, d?

Don't get me wrong, I think it's awesome that they have all these options! I imagine it probably works better for Yuletide writers who are more specific than me, or more willing to exclude things. I think actually, the way my Yuletide brain works tends to go more in the "anything BUT this" direction than in the "must have THIS" direction -- usually I'd be happy with any pairing but the one or two that really squick me, for example, or I'd like a story from any part of canon except this one section that I really hated, or whatever. But it's hard to get that across in the signup in a non-judgmental way.

Don't mind me, just dithering, carry on. :D

Comments

[ratcreature]

er, this is totally a serious question: does anyone consider it uncouth/in poor taste to use Christmas icons on Yuletide posts?

I see plenty of Santa hats and other Christmas motifs in Yuletide posts. Though the icons tend to be on the secular side rather than say nativity sets or the like.

[sholio]

Good point! Yeah, I don't think I'd feel comfortable using a religious icon on a Yuletide post, but secular Christmas iconography is pretty common.

[abyssinia]

... er, this is totally a serious question: does anyone consider it uncouth/in poor taste to use Christmas icons on Yuletide posts?

Honestly? I associate Yuletide very, very strongly with Christmas. Between the word "Yule" (which I admit I don't know the origin of, but I tend to hear in association with Christmas and thus assume it's either a strictly Christmas-thing or, more likely, a winter-pagan thing Christians adopted for Christmas) and the fact that reveals happen during Christmas and, well, writing stocking stuffers and "while we tell of Yuletide Treasure" and everything. All the symbolism and language and timing associated with Yuletide is *very* Christmas (to my non-Christian eyes). So the icons seem, frankly, appropriate. Plus, dude, your journal and your icons.

(ie: my choice on whether or not to participate in Yuletide has nothing to do with the fact that Christmas is not my holiday and I think it's fine to use Christmas-related icons for what is a Christmas-related fic exchange)

[sholio]

*nods* I dithered a lot on the wording for that question, because, on the one hand, it is utterly disingenuous to pretend that Yuletide isn't very heavily Christmas-derived, in terms of iconography and deadlines and all of that. But on the other hand, I know a lot of people participate who are not religiously/culturally Christian, including some people on my flist/circle, and I don't want my icon choice to make them feel unwelcome. *flails*

Possibly I am overthinking this.

[abyssinia]

But on the other hand, I know a lot of people participate who are not religiously/culturally Christian, including some people on my flist/circle, and I don't want my icon choice to make them feel unwelcome.

Understandable. And I can say I do appreciate you thinking about it.

Let me see if I can make sense...

Christmas is not my holiday, religiously or culturally (aside from the fact that I live in America and my I do go to my father's family Christmas Day gatherings). I do often end up feeling very very overwhelmed during this season, because it's two months constantly surrounded by words and music and decorations and traditions that are like society constantly telling me "you are not like us." I think a lot of my frustration was due to how much Christmas I was forced to participate in while going to public school, where religion wasn't supposed to be taught.

At the same time, it's a beautiful holiday which is very important to a lot of people. I get tired with government institutions putting up Christmas decorations, and I admit I get tired of stores at this time of year, but I never mind when people are doing it in their private places (houses/blog icons/whatever) because it's special and important to them [well, unless they're putting up decorations saying I'm burning in hell or something, but we'll ignore the crazy fringe]. I don't mind it when I can choose whether or not to participate (aka: Yuletide. The Christmas themes don't bother me because it's entirely my choice whether or not to play).

So, for me, your icons are not remotely unwelcome. Did I just encourage your overthinking?

[sholio]

Did I just encourage your overthinking?

Hee, no, that made perfect sense, and thank you for explaining further. :) I know that Christmas has got to be an overwhelming, overbearing mess to deal with if you don't celebrate it, and I don't want to play a part (albeit a very small part) in making the problem even worse. But yeah, this all makes sense, and helped a lot with sorting out my tangled feelings on this end, as well. *hugs*

The public/private dichotomy of LJ (and DW, etc) is really interesting, because on the one hand, it is private space, but it's also public in a way that a lot of other private spaces aren't. Even one's workplace or the sidewalk in front of your house ... you typically have a much better idea of who's going to be dropping by than on LJ/DW, where you really never do know ... so I guess I'm more conscious of my choices of wording and icons and so forth than I might be if I was posting everything locked.