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WHO ARE THEY?
A look at Biggles and Wedge and the link between these two aviators
THE MAGNIFICENT MEN
More about the two leaders - and their equally brilliant and charming colleagues
THE FLYING MACHINES
Where would we be without them?
THE PILOTS IN POP CULTURE
How the world sees these legends and has made use of them
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ABOUT ME
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An Appeal To Everyone Who Loves Wedge
Please keep your fanfiction within the bounds of decency

I wrote the following one day after visiting one of the many fangirl sites that have sprung up on the Net about the X-Wing pilots. I had actually made a resolution some time before never again to search for anything other than strictly factual X-Wing related material on the Internet, because it seemed that most of the fans had become rabid lovers of ungodly fanfiction that revolved around subjects like fornication, lust, and homosexuality. I went to this one in the hope that there would be a clean site for once, that perhaps this time it would be different - but it wasn't.

I have noticed that the same thing has happened in the online communities built around many of the interests which I too care passionately about. There is a general trend towards writing stories that revolve around ungodly premises (pre-marital sex, etc) that often border on the pornographic. In this way, I have been forced to stop Internet searches for not only X-Wing, but Les Miserables, X-Men, Hornblower, Aubrey-Maturin, etc. The proliferation and praise of such stories dominates the scene so much that it is practically useless to search for new stories which are actually free from a lust-oriented viewpoint, and in any case it is not worth the anguish caused by seeing so much evidence of the other kind in the process.

As someone who cares deeply enough about my interest to make a website in its honour, it is very frustrating that despite our shared interest I am on such a different wavelength from many of the other people who run X-Wing sites because so many of the sites are so centred around lust and homosexual love nowadays. But what cuts deepest is the fact that any of this exists, that the characters are treated in this way in the first place! Please take this appeal in the same spirit in which it was written: with a deep love and concern for the pilots and the fans who love them. If the tone is blunt and informal, it is because this was originally a diary entry: I was grieved, not aggrieved - and if this grieves you too, please give some serious thought to the reasons.
***

I LOVE the X-Wing pilots. I'm no longer obsessed about them, nor do I now view my interest in X-Wing as indispensable - but for the characters, especially Wedge and Tycho (but WHAT am I saying...Hobbie and Wes too, with all their imperfections!), I shall always have love. I love them as persons (i.e. not as members of the opposite sex, but as persons) - as characters. And it really saddens me to see them being used on the Internet as sex objects - degraded, put through the motions of intercourse a thousand times over by fangirls who glory in emotions of which they ought to be ashamed. Shame on them.

Yes, it is very possible that such things could have occured (especially where Wes is concerned) but when you love a character you don't dwell on his moral failings! Yes, these writings may be of high calibre technically, but so what? If it's wrong, then just because it's well-written doesn't make it right. To defend the writing-up of sexual relations between characters outside the legitimacy of marriage by calling it a touching star-crossed romance, realistic, plausible etc is just to use emotionally manipulative language. To put things in perspective - why would a fan write a fan fiction about how Wedge is a liar and a cheat, or Tycho a glutton or a thief, or Wes unforgiving, ungenerous and full of envy at the others' success, or Hobbie a murderer, and use the fact that they had written something like this as evidence of how much they liked them? For example, I'm sure Wedge has done his share of lying and cheating like the rest of us, but the idea of writing a story admiring the way he lies and cheats is just so unnatural - why would someone claiming to love him write such a story?

In the same way, I find it very unnatural that the pilots are placed in hypothetical situations of lust, lack of self-control, etc etc. all the time in countless stories by people who claim to love them! The Bible puts lust, premarital sex, theft, discourtesy to parents, homosexuality, anger, envy, murder etc all into the same category - they are all sin. Yes, all of us have been guilty of many of the above, and in His great mercy God loves us still, but that does not mean any of us ought to glorify sin - we ought to repent of it in the face of such a just and loving God. Condemning the practice of writing slash fanfiction, say, is not homophobic any more than condemning alcoholism displays prejudice against alcoholics! It is - or SHOULD be - a love for homosexuals which causes us to speak out against homosexuality, just as it is love for alcoholics which causes people to speak out against alcoholism. Following God's example, we ought to love everyone regardless of who they are or what they have done - but in loving the sinners we must reject the sin, and writing fiction which dwells on it and revels in the description is definitely sinful.

The most disturbing thing about all this, however, is that many people really do not see for the life of them what is WRONG about writing people into sexual situations, letting the mind dwell on sexual attraction, not to say the sexual act etc. Or maybe they just don't sit back and think about it - they would be disgusted at what they saw! I'm not much better myself - just a few years ago I didn't see anything wrong with it either. Which is terrible!! But for the mercy of God I might never have broken out of that particular cycle of sin. I think often people just need someone to remind them that it's wrong.
***

This is why I appeal to all X-Wing fans (and fans of all other fandoms too) to recognise the fact that lust is wrong, and ought not to be glorified. Fan-fiction should never be written to induce feelings of lust in the writer or reader, and although lust is a very real problem that the pilots certainly faced and so do we, it ought not to be a passion invoked in the relationship between a reader and a fictional character nor used as an ingredient in stories seeking to honour rather than dishonour the characters that we love. If you think that what I ask makes some sense, please do the right thing and stop reading and writing the wrong sort of fanfiction, and spread the word to your friends as well.

- Joanna
17th July 2005

I welcome comments and opinions. Please do be civil, and do be clear about the points I have made above before accusing me of holding opinions I do not hold; no name-calling, please. My email address is jainafel @ hotmail.com.

If you only want to write to tell me that I'm a fuddy-duddy, though, or perhaps an idiot to take God seriously, please don't bother, because I am aware, and reminded every day, that this is how I am often seen. I do not consider myself a very good person, I am a sinner like everyone else, but my authority on moral judgements is the word of God. God is alive, God is real, God is not a push-over, and we will all have to account to Him for the way we live our lives. I also direct you to an account of how I came to know Him, and let you judge for yourself.

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