Queen (Dragonriders of Pern story)

"Queen" is a short story by Unwinded set in the world of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series some time after the end of Dragonquest but before The White Dragon. It stars a pair of OMCs, with a cameo appearance by Mirrim, who is a canonical character in the series.
The story was a Yuletide gift for Xylaria in 2011. It was the subject of fannish controversy over whether it was an appropriate gift for a recipient who had requested fic about Mirrim.
==Synopsis==
Soryn is being beaten up by fellow holders for being gay when he is suddenly rescued by a bronze rider from Benden Weyr, P'Gren, and his dragon, Tagranth, who are on Search. After being treated for his injuries by Mirrim, Soryn is presented at the Hatching where he Impresses a gold dragonet.
==A Male Gold Rider==
From a generic perspective, "Queen" is an example of one of the commonest forms of Pern fanfic. There are many Mary Sue stories in which an underdog teenager, bullied and despised, is found on Search and impresses a dragon, often a high-status gold or bronze, and thus finds a sympathetic home at a Weyr. These stories are perfectly in keeping with McCaffrey's canon themes. The first Pern story, Weyr Search, published in 1967, is about a beautiful young noblewoman disguised as an ugly drudge, secretly using psychic powers to ruin the land stolen from her murdered family; she is found on Search and impresses a queen dragon. "The Smallest Dragonboy", published in 1973, expressly depicts a bullied youngster who struggles to the Hatching despite a concussion and broken limbs, and impresses a bronze dragon. The theme also appears in Dragonsong/Dragonsinger, where a musically gifted teenage girl runs away from home to escape extreme parental abuse, and is later welcomed into the guild of Harpers, which does not normally accept women.
Thematically, however, Unwinded wrote "Queen" to make a point about canonical gender roles for dragonriders on McCaffrey's Pern.
===Background===
Anne McCaffrey's Pern series initially had strictly delineated sex roles for dragon riders: fighting dragons were restricted to male riders; women were only allowed to impress the egg-laying golds. To a degree, this was relaxed in later books in the series, especially those by Todd McCaffrey: female characters now canonically impress green and blue dragons. Some games and clubs therefore adhere to the original rule, while others permit women to impress greens, blues, and browns; and there is considerable fan fiction in which women impress and/or ride fighting dragons of any colour. Nevertheless, the official policy on fanworks still requires bronze dragons to impress exclusively heterosexual men and gold dragons only heterosexual women—which logically requires leaders of the Weyr, the Weyrleader and Weyrwoman, to be always a heterosexual couple. There has long been criticism of the sex-role restrictions.
===Comments===
Ever since "Queen" was posted, fans have commented favourably on the conclusion.
Several readers have added that they would like to see a sequel, both for the sake of the characters and to explore further the reactions within Benden Weyr to the existence of a male gold rider.
It is clear from the comments that, whether or not these readers had previously been familiar with Pern fan fiction that expands the role of women riders, many of them had not heretofore considered sexist the constraint on male characters not to impress gold dragons. "Queen" therefore opened their eyes.This is not to say that there are no other recent fanworks in which men ride gold dragons. See also Xazz's Southern Gold (started in 2011, unfinished) and vamprav's The Boy Who Immpressed a Gold (started in 2014, unfinished). From their perspective, therefore, Unwinded was implicitly making a cogent meta point, not only about Pern canon, but also about fannish concerns.
===Another Perspective===
On the Fail_Fandomanon community, however, there was a different perspective from some oldtime members of Pern fandom who were familiar with fiction from the period before McCaffrey instituted her strict constraints on fan writing. Not only were they familiar with fan fiction in which unconventional dragon/rider pairings are used to "correct" the canonical gender bias of published Pern fiction, but they considered stories of male gold riders to be a commonplace.For the full FFA discussion of male gold riders in early Pern fan fiction, see this subthread in the "Re: Preachiest Yuletide Story" thread, posted 26-27 December 2011.
This says much about the history of Pern fandom.
In the 1980s, fan fiction was largely published in zines, about which McCaffrey was relatively tolerant, since she felt that they reached a limited audience. The advent of the internet, however, meant a potentially enormous audience for stories published on the web; and this led in the mid 1990s to the official crackdown on fan fiction and strict guidelines for Pern RPGs—a situation that lasted for several years. As can be seen here, this break between zine and on-line Pern fan fiction has resulted in a discontinuity in the fandom's traditions. As well, of course, Yuletide stories attract casual readers who, while familiar with the books (and thus fans in the broader sense), have never been in Pern fandom proper.
==Controversy==
Some time after Yuletide went live on 25 December, comments to "Queen" indicated that some readers had strong objections to the author's presenting it to xylaria as her Yuletide gift. Within a few hours, discussion had become so heated that several threads of comments on AO3 were summarily deleted.
The controversy quickly also became heated on anonmemes. In the comment that opened the thread "The Preachiest Yuletide Story" on Fail_Fandomanon, "Queen" was dubbed "The Gay Bashing Dragon Story".The term "The Gay Bashing Dragon Story" was used in the comment that opened the thread, "The Preachiest Yuletide Story", in which three stories were proffered for discussion. The post was made to Fail_Fandomanon on 26 December 2011 at 04:49 pm (local). The nickname was rapidly adopted, and is now used more often than its actual title. 
===Background===
"Queen" was written as a gift for xylaria in Yuletide 2011 to her prompt:
Presumably Xylaria's assigned writer defaulted, for her prompts went out as No. 187 on the pinch hit list (apparently late on 22 December 2011). 
As Unwinded later described in an author's note posted some time after Yuletide went live, s/he had already started and uploaded "Queen" to the Yuletide collection, not as an assigned gift, but as an unsolicited present for a friend who was a Pern fan. Seeing Xylaria's prompt, however, Unwinded asked this friend to relinquish the story so that it could be repurposed as a pinch hit.
What is apparent to anyone comparing the actual story with the prompt is the incongruence of "Queen" with Xylaria's request. Although, as the Yuletide rules clearly state, "optional details are optional", she clearly wanted a story about Mirrim, not merely one in which the character got a walk-on part. Failing that, she offered a list of other favoured characters, all female. "Queen", on the other hand, features two male OMCs. It is a bit of special pleading for Unwinded to say that "most of what I'd already written (Dragonriders, Mirrim, AU--three out of four)" is to be found in the prompt. 
Nevertheless, nominally, since Mirrim does appear, "Queen" does fulfil the requirements of the Yuletide rules. Controversy swirled therefore around several issues: the then-anonymous author's chutzpah in proffering "Queen" in fulfilment of the prompt; the recipient's response; the Yuletide moderator's response; and the various comments posted to the story itself, i.e. on AO3.
===Initial Response on Fail_Fandomanon===
It was early on the afternoon of the 25th (i.e., shortly after the 2011 Yuletide collection was opened) that an anonymous "friend" of XylariaThis "anonymous friend" may, of course, be Xylaria herself. posted in a "Re: Yuletide thread" on Fail_Fandomanon about the dissonance between story and prompt. (It should be noted that this was before the Author's Note was appended to the story.) The following excerpts some of the comments: 
What is noticeable, especially in the context of comments that came later, on FFA, on Yuletide_Coal, and on the story itself, is the relatively dispassionate reaction. This is particularly true in further comments:
Further comments in this thread come after the recipient's response, the author's note(s), and the strong reaction from other anonymous commenters elsewhere.
===Initial Response on AO3 (Yuletide 2011 Collection)===
By contrast, the people who first read "Queen" on AO3 after the collection opened on December 25th (that is, before the Author's Note was appended to the story), were not aware of any incongruity between Xylaria's prompt and the story that she received. These first three commenters therefore wrote only in reaction to the plot.
===Xylaria's Response===
Xylaria did not formally respond to the gift until the day after the Yuletide collection opened. This may be because, in 2011, not only did Yuletide open relatively late compared with previous years, but Christmas fell on a Sunday; so that, not surprisingly, some recipients were not in a position to read their stories immediately. However, it is likely (given that one of her friends had already commented anonymously on FFA) that Xylaria was aware of the story and wanted time to compose her response with care. It was therefore the fourth comment posted to the story. (Again, the timing is significant; so it should be noted that Xylaria responded before the Author's Note was appended to "Queen".)
===First Comment on Xylaria's Response===
The first comment to "Queen" after this response came from Paper Weight, who felt Xylaria had been ungracious. However, this reaction was itself the object of criticism from several other people.
Similar comments were simultaneously appearing on FFA in a thread responding to the comment "Preachiest Yuletide Story":
Several things are noteworthy here. Up to this point, no one actually responding to the story (as opposed to those doing so on anonmemes) appears to have referenced Xylaria's original prompt and compared it with the gift she received. Also, up to this point, no one had responded anonymously to the story on AO3. Indeed, the use of the abbreviations "DA" and "DDA" (commonly used on anonmemes to disentangle threads by distinguishing between different writers) suggests that it is at this point that people from FFA and/or Yuletide_Coal first began to follow links that had been posted in those communities. It is also notable how several anonymous commenters post in succession, dogpiling the person to whose response they object.
From this point on, some comments posted to "Queen" on AO3 focus on the story, while other comments focus on the circumstances of the story (i.e., the deviation from the prompt, the author's intentions, the tone of Xylaria's response, and the comments of the readers).
===Further General Comments on the Story Itself===
The next few comments focus more on the story, including those by kitsunealyc and kouredios that were excerpted above, with similar remarks by Sheila_Snow, greerwatson, Morbane, Ann, and pentapus. From the time stamps, some of these appear to have been made before the anonymous comments foregrounded the author's disregard of Xylaria's character request; but others clearly date after that time. Only one, however, references the issue:
Of particular note is Sheila_Snow's comment, which suggests that a significant number of people accessing the Pern stories at Yuletide are familiar with McCaffrey's books rather than Pern fandom:
Also noteworthy is Morbane's comment, which critiques one particular scene in the story:
===Feminist Criticism===
Among the early comments to "Queen" was a strongly worded feminist critique of the author's failure to fulfil Xylaria's prompt:
In addition, one particular comment on AO3—that of kitsunealyc (previously excerpted)—also received negative criticism. The phrase, "bad feminist", was dissected in an exchange on FFA:
A very similar reply was made directly to kitsunealyc's comment on "Queen":
Given that most of the wank surrounding "Queen" relates in one way or another to the circumstances in which the story was written, it should be noted that there were nevertheless a handful of people who made a point of criticizing these comments, not for their content but for the tone in which they were made.
Feminist criticisms represent a minority of comments on "Queen". It is therefore important to note that they largely predate the bulk of the wank, and therefore represent a higher proportion of the early comments on the story. At any rate, they seem to have weighed heavily with Unwinded. Given the nature of anonmemes, one cannot say how many of the comments s/he actually saw, but presumably at least those posted to AO3 on the story itself.
Piqued, therefore, Unwinded belatedly decided to post an Author's Note which, among other things, addressed the issue of gender in "Queen".
===Author's Note===
Sometime late on the 26th or early 27th of December, the author decided to append a note to the story explaining how it came to be offered as a pinch hit for Xylaria.The Author's Note had not been posted prior to 10 p.m. EST on the 26th, but was up by 11:47 a.m. EST on the 27th, at which time fawatson mentioned it in her first comment on the story. This note is given here in its entirety, not only because it sparked considerable controversy, but also because it was later replaced by one that is almost completely different:
===First FFA Comments on the Author's Note===
The newly added author's note was first remarked on FFA in a thread to the comment, "Re: Yuletide". Clearly unhappy with the author's behaviour, people responding in this thread nevertheless accepted what they were told about the story's history, and concluded that the author was simply unfamiliar with the customs and expectations of gift exchanges in general and Yuletide in particular. 
However, such moderate reaction was far from universal. Almost simultaneously, fans on the "Preachiest Yuletide Ever" thread responded with round condemnation.
Subsequent comments similarly expressed little sympathy for the author.
===AO3 Comments on the Author's Note===
Within short order, three comments relating to the Author's Note were also posted directly to the story on AO3. The first to be posted drew considerable criticism, especially on anonmemes; and will therefore be discussed after the others, which are noncontroversial.
 
The second of these comments is markedly courteous; and the other, though sharper in tone, can still be considered moderate. As such, they compare with the early comments on FFA both in style and substance. On the anonmeme, discussion had focused on the prominence of OCs in the story (and the concomitant small role of the requested character, Mirrim). It is not surprising, therefore, that there should be criticism addressed to the author on AO3 when the Note focused more heavily—and thus seemingly anomalously—on gender issues instead. 
The prominence of this topic does, however, indicate that Unwinded may have been stung into adding the Note more by the criticism on that head than any other. The most "vitriolic" comments on AO3 had, up to this point, been those criticizing "Queen" from a feminist perspective.
This is not, however, to suggest that the Author's Note ignored the other objections. Recounting "Queen"'s origin was, after all, intended to explain the use of OC protagonists. Taking this tale at face value, fawatson mounted a defence on the grounds that pinch hitters—especially those writing at the last minute—should be granted greater leeway. In addition, she focused on a point largely passed over by others: the generosity of the person for whom, according to the Note, the story had originally been intended.
On AO3, this immediately generated direct response from other readers, all of whom addressed fawatson's comment. 
This reaction is perhaps best compared with the earlier series of comments when Paper Weight had reproved the recipient's restraint of gratitude. In both instances, a comment was made that ran counter to the opinion of multiple other fans; and, in each case, these voiced their disapproval. However, Paper Weight remained silent in the face of criticism. As fawatson decided to respond, the result was a sequence of negative comments that escalated in severity.
They are presented here in entirety, since all were shortly deleted: 
===Reaction on the Yuletide Admin Site===
===Revised Author's Note===
At some point on the 27th, Unwinded revised the Author's Note.The text of the second version of the Author's Note was recorded in an anonymous comment to FFA in the thread "Re: Gay Bashing Dragon: The Mods Side with the Writer", posted on 27 December 2011 at 03:22 pm (local). The new version read:
As the last paragraph of the revised Note indicates, the comments on AO3 were censored. Deleted were Paper Weight's comment about Xylaria's thank-you and the replies to it; Elisabeth Rose's critique on feminist grounds; and the discussion about fawatson's comment (which was not itself initially taken down).That fawatson's initial comment remained up for a short while after the others were deleted is mentioned in a comment on FFA, "Gay Bashing Dragon: Delete Fucking Everything", posted on 27 December 2011 at 3:22 pm (local).
==References==
Category:Slash Fanfiction
Category:Dragonriders of Pern
Category:2011 Fanfiction‎