itsallovernow (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
itsallovernow) wrote2006-05-17 11:14 am
itsallovernow) wrote2006-05-17 11:14 am
Must Sleep!!
So that whole writing about people having sex with themselves thing is sort of addicting... it's intimate, voyeuristic, and personal in a way that's very different than writing about people having sex with each other.
What it also got me to thinking of was how much I like the Five Things theme - kissing, masturbating, dying, things that didn't happen. It's just such a nice way to explore character and possibility. So what other five things would people like to see, like to write about?
There is discussion going on, both at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cofax7 and at coffeeandink about the Tiptree Awards which are given to SF or Fantasy that best explores concepts of gender. Cofax is looking for fic that does that, but it's gotten me to thinking about character, about my own fandoms, and gender in that context.
Because my two great fannish loves (and by that I mostly mean fandoms in which I read more than the occasional fic) - X-Files and Farscape - both challenge ideas of gender by "swapping" the gendered identities of the two leads, then redefining what those genders mean and how they interact. This doesn't mean that either Mulder or Crichton are girly, but they embody the emotional center of the story, the one focused on emotional reactions not logic. Aeryn and Scully, in different ways, are coded as masculine - logical, practical, reacting based on thought and not emotion. Aeryn's the soldier,the protector, sees sex as an activity not an intimacy, has little use for love. Scully's a scientist, a better shot, a clearer head. And while these qualities shift and change and are redefined and expanded, we initially start with characters who are flipping our typical/traditional gender roles on their heads.
So what does this have to do with fic? Well, it's no secret that we all have our own versions of the characters, and for me, there's no faster turn off in fic than to take these fabulous "masculinized" women, and make them weepy little girls, to put them back in those boxes of traditional female roles without celebrates what makes them interesting and fun and exciting.
This doesn't mean I don't think that "girly" female characters are interesting and exciting. One of the best things about Buffy, about Veronica Mars, about these women is how easy it would be to underestimate them and what a mistake it is. I love that Buffy kicked all sorts of ass and still liked nice shoes.
However, the tendency in fic to try and make the not-girly women into traditional girls is something I find frustrating and off-putting and it's put me off stories by competent writers. I've grown so oversensitive to it that I'll stop reading almost immediately. And the same is true for taking the masculine coding, and suddenly making them weepy little girls. So maybe what bothers me is the assumption of weakness, of over-emotionality, of irriational reactions that warp otherwise reasonable characters behaviors into something that turns them into 13 year old girls.
But, getting back to flipping gender expectations, I can think of several body-swap fics in FS fandom that do a lovely job of this, but I also think there have to be other gen or het fics that do a good job of showing how gender isn't the easy assumption that we tend to make it. And how are we defining gender roles anyway? How are we coding male and female these days? One of the reasons I rarely read slash is because I have little interest in seeing a masculine character feminized, in more than the subtle construct way (i.e., I don't want to see John Crichton act like a girl except for in the, "Shit, the whole way I look at the world is suddenly reversed and I'm getting my ass kicked by a girl" kind of way.) I'm not interested in that sort of coding between men, but again, that's my personal preference. However, again, that whole reversal of gendered expectation is interesting and I wonder (not reading a lot of femslash), if a similar thing happens there. Does one of the women become "the man" in the story?
ETA: I do realize that good slash is like any good fic. That characters remain true to what we see, to who they are which doesn't by default make them less masculine or more feminine, but I think I just prefer the male/female dynamic, particularly when reading about sex. Doesn't mean there aren't several slash stories that I've thoroughly enjoyed, but mostly, I'm fairly traditional in my eroticism. You know, even that's not quite true. I think I just need to have a female presence in a story to really engage me, and most slash just doesn't offer that. However, I do love stories about men interacting, and women interacting seperately from their respective partners or from the opposite sex.
Hmmm. Lots to think about.
What it also got me to thinking of was how much I like the Five Things theme - kissing, masturbating, dying, things that didn't happen. It's just such a nice way to explore character and possibility. So what other five things would people like to see, like to write about?
There is discussion going on, both at
cofax7 and at coffeeandink about the Tiptree Awards which are given to SF or Fantasy that best explores concepts of gender. Cofax is looking for fic that does that, but it's gotten me to thinking about character, about my own fandoms, and gender in that context.Because my two great fannish loves (and by that I mostly mean fandoms in which I read more than the occasional fic) - X-Files and Farscape - both challenge ideas of gender by "swapping" the gendered identities of the two leads, then redefining what those genders mean and how they interact. This doesn't mean that either Mulder or Crichton are girly, but they embody the emotional center of the story, the one focused on emotional reactions not logic. Aeryn and Scully, in different ways, are coded as masculine - logical, practical, reacting based on thought and not emotion. Aeryn's the soldier,the protector, sees sex as an activity not an intimacy, has little use for love. Scully's a scientist, a better shot, a clearer head. And while these qualities shift and change and are redefined and expanded, we initially start with characters who are flipping our typical/traditional gender roles on their heads.
So what does this have to do with fic? Well, it's no secret that we all have our own versions of the characters, and for me, there's no faster turn off in fic than to take these fabulous "masculinized" women, and make them weepy little girls, to put them back in those boxes of traditional female roles without celebrates what makes them interesting and fun and exciting.
This doesn't mean I don't think that "girly" female characters are interesting and exciting. One of the best things about Buffy, about Veronica Mars, about these women is how easy it would be to underestimate them and what a mistake it is. I love that Buffy kicked all sorts of ass and still liked nice shoes.
However, the tendency in fic to try and make the not-girly women into traditional girls is something I find frustrating and off-putting and it's put me off stories by competent writers. I've grown so oversensitive to it that I'll stop reading almost immediately. And the same is true for taking the masculine coding, and suddenly making them weepy little girls. So maybe what bothers me is the assumption of weakness, of over-emotionality, of irriational reactions that warp otherwise reasonable characters behaviors into something that turns them into 13 year old girls.
But, getting back to flipping gender expectations, I can think of several body-swap fics in FS fandom that do a lovely job of this, but I also think there have to be other gen or het fics that do a good job of showing how gender isn't the easy assumption that we tend to make it. And how are we defining gender roles anyway? How are we coding male and female these days? One of the reasons I rarely read slash is because I have little interest in seeing a masculine character feminized, in more than the subtle construct way (i.e., I don't want to see John Crichton act like a girl except for in the, "Shit, the whole way I look at the world is suddenly reversed and I'm getting my ass kicked by a girl" kind of way.) I'm not interested in that sort of coding between men, but again, that's my personal preference. However, again, that whole reversal of gendered expectation is interesting and I wonder (not reading a lot of femslash), if a similar thing happens there. Does one of the women become "the man" in the story?
ETA: I do realize that good slash is like any good fic. That characters remain true to what we see, to who they are which doesn't by default make them less masculine or more feminine, but I think I just prefer the male/female dynamic, particularly when reading about sex. Doesn't mean there aren't several slash stories that I've thoroughly enjoyed, but mostly, I'm fairly traditional in my eroticism. You know, even that's not quite true. I think I just need to have a female presence in a story to really engage me, and most slash just doesn't offer that. However, I do love stories about men interacting, and women interacting seperately from their respective partners or from the opposite sex.
Hmmm. Lots to think about.
no subject
a deep, meaningful attraction between two people who can barely talk to each other.
. . .describes a dynamic that I actually love; they're both capable of being very articulate, just not saying the right things to each other. However, I'm not gonna argue about Simon/Mal, as, when watching Serenity in the theater, I had to be physically restrained from yelling "KISS HIM!" at these two on several occasions. (What, I didn't say I never slash :).