An open forum for discussion on homosexuality and fandom

[briar_pipe]

Lots of people left interesting comments while I was doing laundry, so what do you say we just talk about this? I will make this post public on DW and LJ both, and will keep it that way for as long as I feel personally safe.

I'm not going to start with my thoughts, because they're jumbled. Instead, I'll link to the original post of neo_prodigy's, How To

Comments

[briar_pipe]

I've been mulling your comment over, and I think a lot of the discomfort I felt reading his post stems from this - the sense that so much nuance is completely lost in that rant, especially the very nuance he demands: that gay men be real people. You can't have real people if there is only one way to be gay, only one way to be male. We can't expect realism in all fiction, but we also can't expect that replacing one stereotype with another will solve all our problems.

I have no idea where femdom fits into his narrow worldview, but I'm pretty sure it would weird him out.

Those sorts of stories aren't accurate representations of most heterosexual couples any more than they're accurate representations of most male homosexual couples.

Agreed. You're right, that these stories are broadly based and exist in almost every genre of romance. I've read poly stories like that too. And laughed my ass off before going to find things I liked better. The issue really is whether the stereotypes themselves remain unexamined or not, and in fandom we have the potential to look at them across lines of gender and sexuality, rather than narrowly defined variations.

But most fanfic - whether that's slash or het or femmeslash or eight-year-olds writing gen about the Power Rangers - is first and foremost about fantasy and wish-fulfillment.

I think the question in all this is: What fantasies do we want filled? Should our kinks remain unexamined? Is it possible to consciously examine our kinks and still accept them? What kinds (plural) of narratives are we interested in presenting? (Because I think narrowing our focus to fiction is missing the point.)

As a side note, I noticed one person in the comments screaming about mpreg, and I started chuckling. I mean, seriously? One of the most incredible, porny, intense, and deeply psychological stories I ever read was het mpreg. His issues with women and their bodies really show in the attack on altering men's bodies to be more like women's. That's not automatically denigrating. Sometimes it's euphoric, sometimes disturbing, sometimes adorable, sometimes pointed, and sometimes it's even empowering. (And this is before we even touch on trans issues or body dysphoria.) Some characters see the ability to have a child as just that - an ability. And some of them want that ability. It all depends on what the author is trying to do with the story.

I think I had other thoughts, but it's the middle of the night here, so I'll sign off and say thank you for sharing your thoughts. *hugs*