"i know you care for him as much as i do."

Jan 08, 2010 21:39

This rant has been developing for about a year. Specifically, I said I would talk after the holidays about why I stopped watching House and why I don't really feel like watching Merlin. This rant is why.

I just saw Sherlock Holmes for the third time, and holy cow, it was even more intentionally deliberately shamelessly homoerotic the third ( Read more... )

it's not in your face it's in my hand, house, fandom, rants, slash, je suis loser

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Comments 464

lelola January 9 2010, 03:02:53 UTC
I AM SICK OF IT. I WANT THE REAL DEAL.
Me too, Aja. Me too!

Thank you for this! ♥♥♥

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bookshop January 9 2010, 03:15:21 UTC

there's nothing to thank me for!!! i just - argh, i have been needing to vent about this for a WHILE. thank you for letting me. ♥

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zoro January 9 2010, 03:03:35 UTC
This is amazingly accurate. I can't...BLEGH, I'M SPEECHLESS.

I agree with everything that is said. As I told a friend on Twitter, there's never a gay main character (Captain Jack from Torchwood does not count), and if there IS (Queer as Folk), their entire world revolves around being gay, and that's not quite what being gay is about. It doesn't rule your world, or define the person you are; it's like being straight or bi-sexual, you go on with life as any straight or bi-sexual person would (yes, some things are different, but still).

The subtext does get old, after a while. It gets old scouring the Internet for slash fanfiction, and it gets old getting your hopes up while reading a book thinking, "this is it - this is the author that will break boundaries", and you're disappointed because they've either been a bitch with subtext, or just simply copped out in the end. It's getting old having to accept just subtext, no matter how much you initially love it ( ... )

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bookshop January 9 2010, 03:15:47 UTC

I am sure you aren't the only one. And thank you. I hope you do it. I hope we all will.

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penguinparity January 9 2010, 07:48:14 UTC
Out of curiosity, why do you think that Captain Jack doesn't count as a Queer main character?

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bookshop January 9 2010, 07:53:13 UTC

I'm not a torchwood fan but ladyeternal has some comments down-post about how the Jack/Ianto relationship is marginalized in favor of Jack's more socially acceptable heterosexual flirtation. YMMV, obviously!

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starongie January 9 2010, 03:14:45 UTC
Oh.

You are such a lovely writer, beyond all. God, I wish I could be as eloquent and demanding and just, fuck. I agree with you, and I fear I don't know how else to say anything, without trying to grasp for a solution. I just wish, I don't know. More people should hear you, just more. People that you can urge to see differently, and not just the collective crowd you have here. We're safe, we'll agree in the end term, we're filled with fandoms and wishes. Not everyone thinks or sees this way, and there's not enough to make discreet changes. (but then again, I am know for being famously impatient when I want things to have, and even more helpless.)

I want that so, so, so badly. And sometimes, the ache of not being able to have GLBTQ heroes, the ache of knowing how far we still have to go, gets overwhelming, and I don't know what to do about it except write more gay kisses, and encourage everyone else to write them too, and tell everyone I know that Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy are in love. Because that story needs to be told. It ( ... )

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bookshop January 9 2010, 03:33:10 UTC

Thank you for listening. I wish I didn't have to feel this way. But the best thing we can do, I think, is to just try and promote visibility and acceptance every chance we get, whether it's via slash or via the way we live our lives.

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copinggoggles January 9 2010, 03:22:04 UTC
But somewhere, out there, are audience members who think that relationship is perfectly heteronormative, and i don't want them to have that comfort.

That's pretty much the point, though. As far as I'm concerned, most of the media relationships like House&Wilson, Arthur&Merlin, etc. aren't written that way to be particularly subversive or groundbreaking, or out of any sort of artistic integrity or faithfulness to the writers' ~vision~. It's simply the shows' writers having their cake and eating it, too - deliberately tapping into the slash fanbase and gay audience they know is there for the prospecting, without having to risk alienating anyone else. They're not out to do their bit for lgbtq rights, or anything. It's fanservice, pure and simple.

That's why my heart is always going to belong to canons like the Aubreyad, tbh. Patrick O'Brian knew exactly how married Jack and Stephen were, and the narrative is completely upfront about the fact that they are hetero lifemates, and that if they weren't heterosexual (or rather, the ( ... )

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bookshop January 9 2010, 03:27:54 UTC

Yeah, exactly. That's why it's so frustrating for me, why I just have had this pent-up discomfort ever since I first started thinking, a few years ago, about how words like "metrosexuality" allows mainstream U.S. culture to become comfortable with alternative sexual behavior without having to actually deal with real gay peopleAnd!!! Sophie. Reading Nero Wolfe, oh my god, that is exactly how I feel about the character interactions. And there appears to be so much latent homosexual interest in Rex Stout himself (which I know from the way he writes the books and also from other facts from his real life) that it seems almost intrusive to read them, to look in and see how much love these characters are revealing for each other, and how much Stout reveals about himself. It's so beautiful, though. Sherlock Holmes, which i've just started reading in earnest (after giving it a few half-hearted gos over the years) seems to be much the same way. Which is why the current portrayal of them in the film is simultaneously so wonderful to behold ( ... )

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copinggoggles January 9 2010, 03:45:21 UTC
Ugh, yes, exactly - these types of shows are basically the narrative equivalent of 'metrosexuality', aka 'just gay enough to be fashionable'.

And I mean, it's not like I won't watch an episode of House and go 'lol they are so married, how precious', but... I think just by virtue of the differing nature of mediums, the way they're consumed and who they're produced for, etc etc, most of the greatest slash ships for the ages are going to be found in the pages of a book.

(Oh, Aja, you don't even. The amount of love Jack and Stephen have for each other is just - breathtaking. aksdfj;l I can't be coherent about it, and YOU KNOW THIS BECAUSE YOU'VE SEEN ME TRY.)

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bookshop January 9 2010, 03:55:04 UTC

OH, SOPHIE, HEARTS ALL OVER THE PLACE <3333

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patchfire January 9 2010, 03:23:12 UTC
you know i love you, right? :*

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bookshop January 9 2010, 03:30:22 UTC

You know you're one of the people who has helped me become a more open-hearted and critical thinker, right? :-*

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