Why is FFX fandom so STUPID?

[cygna_hime]

Not that this particular stupidity is in any way unique to Final Fantasy X, or Final Fantasy at all, but two FFX fans have advanced this argument to me in the course of a week or two, so it feels like it is.

"[Character Name] cannot be gay because he is too masculine!" is not, and never will be, a valid argument against writing slash about [

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[auronlu]

Do these people even know what real gay men LOOK like?

~ Ian McKellan, masculine, scraggly, and weathered like an old shoe.

~ George Takei (wooo, I just learned about this one, I am DUMB and never noticed)! who has offspring with an ex-wife.

~ Elton John: NOT pretty or attractive, save for the fact that he's so sweet it hurts.

The argument about what gays are supposed to look like always reminds me of a "let's freak the mundanes" moment in an IKEA parking lot when my four foot ten large-bosomed girlfriend in crinkle cotton skirt and wavy honey-brown hair down to her kneees was arguing with me (slightly taller and more blond) about which one of us got to be butch and heave the furniture in the back of the Toyota.

Think mini Lulus, only much more frumpy, with hippy clothes.

"You got to take out the trash this morning! It's MY turn to be butch!"

The attendants beat a hasty retreat.

Back on topic, though, I have been somewhat... leery... of fanfiction slash since I saw a forum post on adultfanfiction.net wherein a large proportion of slash authors argued that REAL gays and lesbians shouldn't marry and have children, because that's, y'know, gross.

O.o

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that straight writers enjoy writing porn about two members of the opposite sex -- they get twice as many preferred body parts that way -- but ... fooey.

It's not just FFX fandom. It's everywhere. People are dumb.

[cygna_hime]

I'm not entirely sure these people have ever seen any other people at all, forget the gay. If they had, they might have noticed that not all straight men are hypermasculine and not all straight women are fainting flowers.

...If I were faced with arguing mini-Lulus, I think I'd retreat, too. (Okay, I wouldn't, but I have no sense of self-preservation.)

The homophobic!slashers are really a very small minority, and all the rest of us think they're hypocrites and objectifying gay people (if they're in smut for my personal enjoyment, it's okay, but gods forbid they actually be people in their own right). They're not typical of us! We swear! *drags you around flist, introducing you to slashficcer friends*

I need an 'I see stupid people' icon. Hmm.

[little_baldwin]

...and not all straight women are fainting flowers.

*glowers* Here, here!

Or...hear, hear?

Whatever. The point is, though I'm both a tomboy and completely disinterested in relationships, I'm straight. Men are sexy. And I'm bigger (possibly stronger) than a great deal of them.

XD

[stormflare]

Heh. In middle school there were tons of rumors about me being a lesbian.

These rumors were based on these facts:

I was a bit of a bully (though I only actually bullied the real bullies) and could beat people up.

I was nearly 6 feet tall, slightly muscular, didn't dress like the rest of them and OMG!! I was a C cup!! Which meant that I was bigger than almost all of them!! (I was physically mature in 3rd grade, so I had to be a little different in appearance)

Most of my friends were guys, and I could probably beat them all up at once.

These rumors COMPLETELY ignored the fact that I had a totally obvious, very serious crush on this BOY. Or that, when boys asked me out, I generally said yes.

Now people still think I'm a lesbian, but that's because I have a crush on a girl, and make that just as obvious as my middle school crush on a boy.

So, yeah... I enjoy the whole destroy people's images of what's normal.

[stormflare]

And I don't think real gays and lesbians should marry. Unless, you know, they actually care for the person they're looking to marry.

As for children, part of me doesn't think ANYONE should have children. But if they really want a child and are emotionally responsible enough to have one, what's to stop them?

[stormflare]

That's the point. There's so much pressure on gays and lesbians to marry- just not the person they're in love with. There're so many cases where a homosexual person entered a heterosexual marriage, just so that they could avoid the hatred and bigotry. That makes me sad. When two people are in love, so deeply and absolutely that they have lived together and know that they want nothing more than to be together forever, that's when they should marry. I believe many couples are like this, but... there are also a ton of exceptions.

Keep in mind, I hold that comment just as true for heterosexual people. So many people marry for foolish reasons- they're pregnant, or they have family pressures, or they need money... It's no wonder there're so many divorces. It makes me sad, really.

[auronlu]

I'm still puzzling over this comment the next day. I apologize for beating a dead horse, but I'm still missing the point you were trying to make here:

"I don't think real gays and lesbians should marry. Unless they actually care for the person..."

Er... usually people marry because they care for one another? For what other reason would real gays and lesbians get married, when there's overwhelming legal, family, and societal pressure on them not to? (Like, er... no, I won't list the examples I've experienced or witnessed personally, it would take too long.)

Despite said pressures (like putting herself through a college with $25K tuition after coming out and being disowned), my old gf wound up marrying the lady she's been with for 10 years after me. Because, y'know, they've been deeply in love for that long, own a house together with 3 cats, pick each other up after work, worry about each other when sick, go on romantic getaway weekends to little Victorian B&Bs, and generally care about each other enough to put up with each other for better or for worse, through laughter and tears and house repairs and cat boxes. They just happen to live in one of two states where the law actually notices this is exactly like any working marriage.

Real relationships like that are boring to write about, though. I mean. Cleaning the dishes. Who's sitting on the toilet when the plumbing decides to expire. Bitching about the day at the office. Passing the Playstation controller back and forth after each battle (now THAT is love) so each person gets equal time driving.

I wish the screaming unhappy couple upstairs from me who swear at each other most nights could find that sort of marriage instead of what they've got. But I assume they, too, must have married because they cared about each other, even if it's not working out so well.

[stormflare]

The thing I will say, though, is that there's generally so much working AGAINST homosexual couples that when they do settle down, it seems to be because both people really want it, not because it's convenient.

Heterosexual couples have no such luck. I see so many people being dumb everyday that it makes me sad.