I dont know what I am asking, just make sure in the future to be careful about such posts...
you would never get away with a racist/sexist/other prejudiced joke online.... why should it be different for the mentally ill, because they suffer tremendously with their handicaps, and don't need any more sufering through the promotion of negative stereotypes and jokes etc.
I don't quite get what you are trying to tell us, Beethoven.
I was born in Germany and I still live there, happily almost every day. It's the country with about the worst history that I know of. I don't think anything can be compared to Holocaust.
It has happened more than 60 years ago and still my language is full of pitfalls. Some words can't be used, because they got a bad connotation for now and forever. We have to be more careful with what we say than other people. So I guess you can say that I'm familiar with sensitive topics.
I agree with you that sensitive topics should be handled very carefully. And Mary did so. Her story certainly wasn't a joke.
What do you want to do? Not write about racism, handicapped people and mental ilnesses? I think it is allowed, *must be* allowed to write about such things, if we do it respectfully.
As you pointed out, mental illnesses are a part of people's lives. Racism unfortunately is a part of our lives as well. As such I think they have a place in fandom, in stories in general.
Of course it would be fatal to write a story about Clark becoming a racist and imply that this can be considered a good thing. But I don't think that anyone here would do such a thing. From what I read over the past month, I have the impression that all the writers and readers are rather considerate people. And I don't think that anyone would write about a topic that he or she can't handle with the due respect.
