For one thing, (online LJ media fanfiction) fandom is a community in which a community of readers is also a community of writers (and vice versa), a fact I have yet to have seen mentioned but which I think is deeply significant. Our defining feature is that we are not passive consumers of texts. We are not going to be affected by a fictional text in the same way as Joe Average. We recognize the possibiliy of ambiguity of meaning and unreliable narrators...
If you're talking "we" in the sense of "people who regularly participate on Metafandom," then I would agree with you. But even without going as far as fanfiction.net, the LJ-based fannish community is much, much larger than the small circle of self-aware metafen. Even in *my* circle of fannish friends I've encountered a lot of people who are uneasy about unreliable narrators and the idea of having a protagonist putting forward beliefs that they themselves don't share. There's been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing about the need to dissociate yourself from the character you're portraying and whether it's possible to fannishly enjoy a bigoted character.
So metafen are discussing these issues but it seems to me that there is still a presupposition, at the very least, that the author likes their protagonist. Outside of metafannish circles? I really don't see much interest in unreliable narrators and I don't see much evidence that people are actually engaging with these questions. They're writing stuff because it's hot and/or fun and leaving the theory to other people.
In short: you have more faith in fandom as a whole than I do.
[NB: I'm not talking about incest fic here specifically. I don't generally read it and so I can't talk about it with any degree of knowledge.]
ETA: And actually I'm not that convinced that LJ fandom as a whole is particularly clueful even when it comes to sexual politics. Heavens knows I've seen enough comments along the lines of "I only read fic where X bottoms and is a sub [these are usually conflated] because he's smaller/cuter/more effeminate and this is what bottoming and being a sub is all about." I mean, this is all sorts of wrong in terms of gender roles, homosexuality and BDSM but it is the trope that won't die. It's not like people are saying that this is a fantasy trope that they like reading even though they know it's inaccurate; they believe it.
no subject
If you're talking "we" in the sense of "people who regularly participate on Metafandom," then I would agree with you. But even without going as far as fanfiction.net, the LJ-based fannish community is much, much larger than the small circle of self-aware metafen. Even in *my* circle of fannish friends I've encountered a lot of people who are uneasy about unreliable narrators and the idea of having a protagonist putting forward beliefs that they themselves don't share. There's been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing about the need to dissociate yourself from the character you're portraying and whether it's possible to fannishly enjoy a bigoted character.
So metafen are discussing these issues but it seems to me that there is still a presupposition, at the very least, that the author likes their protagonist. Outside of metafannish circles? I really don't see much interest in unreliable narrators and I don't see much evidence that people are actually engaging with these questions. They're writing stuff because it's hot and/or fun and leaving the theory to other people.
In short: you have more faith in fandom as a whole than I do.
[NB: I'm not talking about incest fic here specifically. I don't generally read it and so I can't talk about it with any degree of knowledge.]
ETA: And actually I'm not that convinced that LJ fandom as a whole is particularly clueful even when it comes to sexual politics. Heavens knows I've seen enough comments along the lines of "I only read fic where X bottoms and is a sub [these are usually conflated] because he's smaller/cuter/more effeminate and this is what bottoming and being a sub is all about." I mean, this is all sorts of wrong in terms of gender roles, homosexuality and BDSM but it is the trope that won't die. It's not like people are saying that this is a fantasy trope that they like reading even though they know it's inaccurate; they believe it.