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sylph_ficsOkay, so a couple of new friends wound up, in kind of a roundabout way, asking for why I slash, and how I see it actually working. So, *laughs* have a thoughts-on-yaoi post! We'll see if I need to warn for teal deer herds once I'm done. ((why yes, I do read fandom-wank while bored)).
Let's get my own bias laid out on the table first, shall we?
I'm bi. I have been, I guess, all my life. Though I didn't really figure it out until college--perils of growing up in the middle of the Bible Belt, I guess. I was very much the All-American good girl in HS, had too much riding on not embarrassing too many generations of my family not to be. Once I was away from home, though, and in what was in some ways a deeply unhappy relationship, I figured out pretty quickly that I liked the intimate company of my own sex a hell of a lot.
For me? That wasn't a particularly dramatic revelation, somehow. I guess Bradley and Lackey (and, I'm sure, others) had managed to get through the Biblical hellfire and damnation I'd had poured in my ears. I dunno. It was more a 'oh. Okay. So that works for me too' than anything else.
Of course, I also know my family would disown me. So I'm closeted as hell. But that's their issues and not mine. I love who makes me happy, and I just don't put it in my family's face because I know they wouldn't take it well. Not that difficult. (*snort* unless I get spooked that my mother might show up in the middle of something, but that would spook me either way.)
That perspective, up there, (that I really don't, at all, understand gender making a difference in who you love or are in love with or who you desire), is why I slash. Because in a lot of ways it really doesn't occur to me that when you have blatant text of affection and respect and need and mutual love between any two characters it might not become sexual just based on what plumbing they happen to have.
That's just nuts, and it makes no sense to me. To be real blunt.
If I can look at the pages of text and see things between two same-sex characters that between two characters of opposite sex would typically be considered UST, I'm probably going to consider it UST unless I have a really, really good reason not to.
There aren't very many really good reasons, as far as I'm concerned. However, spouses are a big one.
This is why I can't normally make myself slash the senior members of the JSA. They love their wives too much. This is why I don't, often, write S/B, especially with current canon. I can't deal with making canonically monogamous, faithful characters adulterers. It's a personal issue and no reflection on anyone else's tastes or preferences. Now, on the other hand, an open marriage, on the other hand, where all parties know and are okay with it?
I can so Completely go there. I'm actually rather fond of the idea. Just show it to me.
Oh, yeah. Did I mention that I'm poly, and that our cultural obsession with monogamy makes about as much sense to me on an emotional level as our cultural obsession with straightness? If not, consider it mentioned.
On a logical level, okay, yeah, I get all of the reasons for the monogamy-focus. Property rights and so on and so forth ad nauseum. On an emotional level? Nope, still confused, as far as I go. Other people? Dude. Do what makes you happy. If it's swearing "I do" and meaning it, because of your own emotions and your partner's, I have all the respect in the world for you.
And, as mentioned above, there are plenty of couples who I think did that, and meant it, and I try to make sure I respect those already-made choices in who I chose to pair off. Of course, there are canonically philandering wandering-eyed idiots, too. Those make my slashing a bit easier, in some cases (why yes, Oliver Queen, I am looking at you).
Wow, I'm wandering all over the place, huh?
I know you can't throw pre-existing canon out the window about someone's sexuality. But hell, I didn't realize I was actually attracted to women until I was very late teens (or at least, I didn't get up the gumption to do something about said attraction until that point). It isn't out of the realm of possibility for me that it might have taken longer for any of my favorite characters. Admittedly, that's not my preferred read. I tend to prefer to believe it just wasn't shown, for whatever reasons.
The objection I saw from both individuals I was having this discussion with originally was the "Everyone's been whacked with the gay stick" thing.
Yeah, there are moments it looks that way. But I try really hard not to do that, because it disregards so much of the characters' in questions history. I like their histories, or I wouldn't want to write them. Why would I want to ignore the relationships that helped shape them? *shakes head* That makes no sense to me.
I have all of one fandom where I will cheerfully, intently, and with prejudice aforethought, fall into the bash-the-female character trope, and that's because she's an idiotic little bitch who needs stepped on with a Gundam, please god save me.
Other than that? Mostly the female characters are just as awesome, please not to be with the bashing. Relationships in comics are complicated and fraught enough that it's pretty easy to find a point when whatever male character is single and work from there. At least, that's what I do most often.
Speaking of which, I don't normally write explicit femslash because despite that I have plenty of it, describing female/female sex without going 'omg purple prose' or 'omg medical textbook alert' is really, really difficult for me. I love my sex life. Trying to write girls having sex, on the other hand, needs a better vocabulary. Or I do. But that's hardly the point at the moment.
On the "everyone's gay" topic again, I willl freely admit that while I avoid going that far, I do tend to whack Plenty of people with the "everyone's bisexual" stick--though still not everyone. (I'm sorry, but my comics!Wally is straight as one of Roy's arrows.) Call me biased, I'll agree, but my sexuality's worked out real well for me so far, it could work for other people pretty easy.
Without getting into tons of specific examples, that's a lot of my two cents on this topic (1,145 words, good god, that's not two cents).
Comments, questions, discussion, anything?
Let's get my own bias laid out on the table first, shall we?
I'm bi. I have been, I guess, all my life. Though I didn't really figure it out until college--perils of growing up in the middle of the Bible Belt, I guess. I was very much the All-American good girl in HS, had too much riding on not embarrassing too many generations of my family not to be. Once I was away from home, though, and in what was in some ways a deeply unhappy relationship, I figured out pretty quickly that I liked the intimate company of my own sex a hell of a lot.
For me? That wasn't a particularly dramatic revelation, somehow. I guess Bradley and Lackey (and, I'm sure, others) had managed to get through the Biblical hellfire and damnation I'd had poured in my ears. I dunno. It was more a 'oh. Okay. So that works for me too' than anything else.
Of course, I also know my family would disown me. So I'm closeted as hell. But that's their issues and not mine. I love who makes me happy, and I just don't put it in my family's face because I know they wouldn't take it well. Not that difficult. (*snort* unless I get spooked that my mother might show up in the middle of something, but that would spook me either way.)
That perspective, up there, (that I really don't, at all, understand gender making a difference in who you love or are in love with or who you desire), is why I slash. Because in a lot of ways it really doesn't occur to me that when you have blatant text of affection and respect and need and mutual love between any two characters it might not become sexual just based on what plumbing they happen to have.
That's just nuts, and it makes no sense to me. To be real blunt.
If I can look at the pages of text and see things between two same-sex characters that between two characters of opposite sex would typically be considered UST, I'm probably going to consider it UST unless I have a really, really good reason not to.
There aren't very many really good reasons, as far as I'm concerned. However, spouses are a big one.
This is why I can't normally make myself slash the senior members of the JSA. They love their wives too much. This is why I don't, often, write S/B, especially with current canon. I can't deal with making canonically monogamous, faithful characters adulterers. It's a personal issue and no reflection on anyone else's tastes or preferences. Now, on the other hand, an open marriage, on the other hand, where all parties know and are okay with it?
I can so Completely go there. I'm actually rather fond of the idea. Just show it to me.
Oh, yeah. Did I mention that I'm poly, and that our cultural obsession with monogamy makes about as much sense to me on an emotional level as our cultural obsession with straightness? If not, consider it mentioned.
On a logical level, okay, yeah, I get all of the reasons for the monogamy-focus. Property rights and so on and so forth ad nauseum. On an emotional level? Nope, still confused, as far as I go. Other people? Dude. Do what makes you happy. If it's swearing "I do" and meaning it, because of your own emotions and your partner's, I have all the respect in the world for you.
And, as mentioned above, there are plenty of couples who I think did that, and meant it, and I try to make sure I respect those already-made choices in who I chose to pair off. Of course, there are canonically philandering wandering-eyed idiots, too. Those make my slashing a bit easier, in some cases (why yes, Oliver Queen, I am looking at you).
Wow, I'm wandering all over the place, huh?
I know you can't throw pre-existing canon out the window about someone's sexuality. But hell, I didn't realize I was actually attracted to women until I was very late teens (or at least, I didn't get up the gumption to do something about said attraction until that point). It isn't out of the realm of possibility for me that it might have taken longer for any of my favorite characters. Admittedly, that's not my preferred read. I tend to prefer to believe it just wasn't shown, for whatever reasons.
The objection I saw from both individuals I was having this discussion with originally was the "Everyone's been whacked with the gay stick" thing.
Yeah, there are moments it looks that way. But I try really hard not to do that, because it disregards so much of the characters' in questions history. I like their histories, or I wouldn't want to write them. Why would I want to ignore the relationships that helped shape them? *shakes head* That makes no sense to me.
I have all of one fandom where I will cheerfully, intently, and with prejudice aforethought, fall into the bash-the-female character trope, and that's because she's an idiotic little bitch who needs stepped on with a Gundam, please god save me.
Other than that? Mostly the female characters are just as awesome, please not to be with the bashing. Relationships in comics are complicated and fraught enough that it's pretty easy to find a point when whatever male character is single and work from there. At least, that's what I do most often.
Speaking of which, I don't normally write explicit femslash because despite that I have plenty of it, describing female/female sex without going 'omg purple prose' or 'omg medical textbook alert' is really, really difficult for me. I love my sex life. Trying to write girls having sex, on the other hand, needs a better vocabulary. Or I do. But that's hardly the point at the moment.
On the "everyone's gay" topic again, I willl freely admit that while I avoid going that far, I do tend to whack Plenty of people with the "everyone's bisexual" stick--though still not everyone. (I'm sorry, but my comics!Wally is straight as one of Roy's arrows.) Call me biased, I'll agree, but my sexuality's worked out real well for me so far, it could work for other people pretty easy.
Without getting into tons of specific examples, that's a lot of my two cents on this topic (1,145 words, good god, that's not two cents).
Comments, questions, discussion, anything?
