Jackie, let me put it like this. Suppose that in most deathfics, the person who was killed was black. Or, say, Jewish. I think that if people noticed that they were preferentially killing the black or Jewish people, they'd probably feel uncomfortable about it and ask themselves why their "pattern of killing" was racially skewed. I believe that the next time they were about to kill a black or Jewish person, they'd pause and maybe ask themselves why it was always the same kind of people who died in their stories. What did that say about their own way of looking at blacks and non-blacks, Jews and non-Jews? Could it possibly mean that they didn't value black and Jewish people as much as they valued, say, non-Jewish white people?

I can't tell any of you people what to write. But if you LnC fanfic writers, most of whom are females anyway, staunchly defend your right to kill Lois, I really want you to ask yourself why you find it so satisfying to kill her. Why do you think it is more satisfying and rewarding to kill Lois than to kill Clark? Please understand that I'm not asking you to kill Clark. Don't ever get me wrong about that. But I do think it is a problem, even in the "fluffy" world of fanfic, if Lois and Clark deathfic becomes synonymous with death-of-Lois fic. Please, people. Why don't we see selective killing of women as a problem? Even in the fanfic world?

Let me ask you women out there to imagine the following situation. You have a boyfriend/fiancé/husband named Joe, and the two of you love one another very much. Now, you yourself are on your way home on a dark night, all alone. Suddenly, you can hear footsteps behind you. They are coming closer. You become convinced that you are being stalked by a killer. How would you react? Would you become extremely worried about your own safety? Would you feel very strongly that you want to survive? Or would you think that it will be all right for you to die, but it is going to be horrible for Joe to live on without you?

Would you, in other words, think that your own life is valuable in itself? Or is Joe's grief the only thing that really matters?

If you think that your own life is valuable, then please try to imagine, for a moment, that you yourself are the woman that you are about to kill off in your own fanfic story. It's really you dying there. Would you feel all right about dying, about being killed, if only you knew that Joe would grieve for you? Would his grief be a fair exchange for the loss of your own existence?

If you don't think so, then please think twice before you kill an important female character. Please think twice before you kill Lois.

Ann