Take Clothes Off As Directed

Take Clothes Off As Directed is a controversial 2006 Stargate Atlantis AU by Helen which features Sheppard/McKay.
Helenish identified her own story as "an unauthorized homage," written without input or permission from the original author, and a responsefic to Xanthe's AU premise as presented in Coming Home and General & Dr Sheppard. 
In Xanthe's fiction, sexuality was classified according to BDSM power dynamics, rather than gender, and couples could achieve a mystical soulbonds in their relationships. 
In contrast, Helen used the top/sub power dynamic as the basis for an allegory on gender roles and sexism in modern society.
Both Helen and Xanthe's stories are an early example of Dominance Hierarchy fanworks.
==Xanthe's Reaction==
For a long time Xanthe herself did not mention Helen's story publicly, though she has referred to Coming Home as "the story the SGA Big Name Fans all got their knickers in a twist about" and stated that events surrounding it resulted in "a kind of bonkers and yet deeply nasty hysteria that made me reassess my involvement in fandom".Xanthe, Site Updates, February 9th, 2008, (Accessed 12 October, 2008) However, in 2011 she commented,
She has authorized other stories in her universe, including The Spaces Inside by lavvyan, an earthside AU where Rodney is a prostitute, and the series High School Confidential by Elayna, an AU where John and Rodney meet in high school. Xanthe herself has expanded her Coming Home universe in 2008 with a sequel to General & Doctor Sheppard that features a crossover between SGA and NCIS with a focus on Gibbs/DiNozzo. The title is Hiding in Plain Sight. For more information about Xanthe's BDSM Universe see her website, Xanthe.org.
==Fandom Reactions: To the Story Itself==
===2006 Comments at "The Cutting Board"===
In mid-November 2006, this story was a major topic of discussion at The Cutting Board, a Stargate Atlantis fanfiction discussion journal. milleflore posted her opinion regarding the story and the resulting discussion generated 153 responses.
The Cutting Board: Take Clothes Off As Directed by Helenish (original discussion at Livejournal, now deleted); archive link for LiveJournal discussion; mirrored archive link for the at Dreamwidth.
Some topics of discussion were:
* authorial intent
* was it okay to discuss another fan's work without their permission?
* was Helen's work an allegory/parody/metaphor?
* should Helen have written the story in the first place, should she have mentioned the story she was responding to at all?
* was Helen's story a commentary on feminism
* comparison of the style of the two stories
* was the character Elizabeth cruel/the enemy?
* did Helen's story reflect badly on Xanthe's story?
* was either story an accurate representation of BDSM?
* was "John a woman" in Helen's story?
* so, so much more
==Other Fan Reaction==
===2006===
===2007===
===2008===
==Fandom Reactions: Regarding the Practice of Remixing==
Fandom reactions varied widely, and some fights broke out. One hotly contested issue was the question of fans seeking permission before remixing another author's fic. Fans of Xanthe's story also felt that Helen's story (as well as its fans) unfairly disparaged the original, and people debated whether Helen's story represented a critique of Xanthe's BDSM society. According to Doro:
Still others felt that the issue inherent in the controversy was less about receiving permission or critiquing another author's story and more about the impossibility (and undesirability) of controlling reader response:
SGA fandom had also recently had some contentious discussions about riffing on another author's work in the SGA Flashfic community; see The Mission Report Challenge. The Mission Report Challenge, public livejournal post at SGA Flashfic, (last accessed Oct. 2008). Some people referenced that incident as a precursor to the discussion around Coming Home and Take Clothes Off As Directed, as well as drawing a parallel to unauthorized fannish remixing of the show's canon.
Three other incidents were subjects of fan discussion regarding plagiarism that were on many fans' minds were the July 2006 posts at reel_sga Admin: Plagiarism, apologies and discussion to come "The challenge had had a few posts, but it was a person completely separate from that that sparked the discussion. Then the 'MsScribe' story broke, escalating the plagiarism discussion to intense levels. trinityofone came out and essentially said 'I took a lot of my early stuff from books that I read', and other people followed suit. The two things lead to a lot more citation of sources overall, and suspicion of the standard movie re-write tropes for about half a year. Comparing the reel_sga stories to the movie stories posted to the undermistletoe community, you can see that the newer movie stories vary from the original source quite a bit more." And "Sidebar to this: It is my feeling that this discussion is what led to helenish citing xanthe's stories when posting her 'directed' universe, as the post-Scribe, post-reel_sga environment really emphasizes the citing of sources. It was something that may or may not have been done in years past, but in the current version of the world, it is now very important to do." And "*nods* Hmm, yeah, that's an interesting connection. I think you're right about this, with a slight modification: I think some of the upset over Helen's story is due to MSScribe. Helen's story however, had to reference Xanthe's because Xanthe created a new canon." archive link post and controversy, as well as very influential incidents unveiled in June 2006 in The Ms.Scribe Story: An Unauthorized Fandom Biography and August 2006's reveal of The Cassandra Claire Plagiarism Debacle.
In addition to making comparisons with Xanthe's original story, people discussed Helen's fic on its own merits. The story was talked about as an allegory for the treatment of women in the U.S. military.
Much later, Helen commented (perhaps somewhat facetiously),
==Meta Discussions/Further Reading==
Selected meta discussions on livejournal:
* fiercelydreamed discusses "Take Clothes Off As Directed" as a "queer love story." (19 November 2006)John's Dilemma in Helen's "Take Clothes Off As Directed", livejournal post. archived, archive link
* Millefiori's post at thecuttingboard compares the tone and style of Xanthe's and Helen's fics. (15 November 2006)archived 
* Resonant's Comments on LJ events you're already bored with discuss fan debates over Helen's story. (18 November 2006)archived
* So, is there a term...; archive link by Sandy Herrold (October 2008)
==Influence==
"Take Clothes Off As Directed" in turn inspired other fanfics, to the point where this BDSM universe has been transformed into a multifandom shared universe or AU genre. It is sometimes called directedverse or BDSM AU.
Examples:
* works tagged "Directedverse" on the AO3
* Misdirected - Helens78 and Telesilla (Bill Fichtner/Sean Bean RPS). December 2006.
* Eminence Front - Helens78 and Kyuuketsukirui (Jude Law/Ewan McGregor RPS). December 2006 - February 2007.
* directedverse - aris_writing (House, M.D. and PotC). April 2007 - September 2008.
* you need someone (but it won't be me) and sequels - etothepii (Sherlock (BBC)). November 2010.
==References==
Category:Stargate Atlantis John/Rodney Fanfiction
Category:2006 Fanfiction‎
Category:Slash Fanfiction
Category:Shared Universes