Thoughts: Sexuality in Slash

[ada_farrow]

Okay, I just got to thinking about a little tick I have about slash fics. I always get a little put-off when an author writes certain characters as gay or, more conveniently, bisexual as if they needed it to serve their slashy ends. The thing is, you don't. The Big Steal by halfdutch and yahtzee63's Making Do are two of my favorite slash stories that don't do this

Comments

[halfdutch]

Excellent food for thought. (And thanks for the kind words!) I agree "Making Do" is one of the best explorations of why a straight man would sleep with another guy. Lost as a floating Oz makes sense. There are way more men than women. And most of the men are so damn pretty! I think a lot of guys in less extreme circumstances (just bored? just horny?) will experiment with other guys but still never self-identify as gay. I liked how in "Making Do," Jack still thinks of himself as (mostly) straight, despite bedding down nightly with Boone and even being in love with him!

For myself, the only Lost character I've written as gay is Boone, because yeah, he so is! ;-D Everyone else I'm always manipulating with booze, injury, angst or anger into le sex. With varying degrees of contrivance.

I have liked some fics that assume Sawyer is bi and even prefers men, like "Reparation." That works for me. Maybe it depends on how it's written. In that case, it's made part of his character very seamlessly.

It's mostly bad writing when we're not convinced two guys are going to get it on. Either no set-up or a poor one puts me off. Also, I still can't go with Sawyer as a bottom, so if I read that I always think, "Never gonna happen!" So that's me and my slash quirks. I also can't buy any guy wanting to sleep with Charlie, so for me that's another stumbling block.

I just read a great POTC fic, "Vicarious," in which Jack Sparrow and Will are forced to get on (talk about contrivance, but wow, was it hot and gorgeously written), and Jack is far less averse to it than Will is. So does that make him bi? Or just a little more open-minded? Again, it just worked for me. But Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom aren't exactly the butchest men on the planet either. :-D

[ada_farrow]

I dunno, for some reason I can't see Sawyer as gay/bi. Well, I guess if you think of him as a pleasure-chaser then it works out. Part of the reason I like Sawyer/Jack and Sawyer/Sayid is that I feel like Sawyer is such a ladies' man, but his strong emotional connection to either one of these guys turns into an attraction, which may or may not be exclusively physical. That's another little thing I like about your fic: the physical attraction with an absence of emotional attraction (or is there?!?!!!?x1000)

I actually read a Jack/Charlie that was...um...okay. (But I can't remember if it was one of those fics that I was afraid to read the content of so I just skipped to the slashy parts...ugh.)

Well, Jack Sparrow, puh-leez. Not only is he rayher flamboyant, but he's a frickin' sailor. He's as flaming as they get. ~_^