Meta for kinkbingo with questions for flist
Meta on gun!kink for the kinkbingo square.
For kinkbingo, I have a "guns" square, and honestly, I am not that into gun kink, and I was not sure what to write. So I decided to think about characters that are hotter, cooler, or more interesting because of their relaionship with guns. Guns are everywhere in shows, but usually they aren't part of what makes me think a character or a scene is hot/appealing/badass/etc. So it's actually only a few characters that I feel overall really are made more exciting by their guns, and so I decided that this will be a gun kink meta.
Now honestly, when I am reading fic, I honestly don't care if it has a kink I don't usually like unless it is on the very short list of things that squick me a lot, since a good writer can make almost anything hot lol. So I have read hot gun porn. But as a writer, I only do sexy guns at someone's request, and rarely even then. And in canon, I am even pickier, since there are hardly any characters I like better with a gun than without.
Here's the list of the few characters I do love with guns; after, I'll talk about my thoughts on the things they might have in common, basically trying to figure out why someone who is not usually into gunkink at all makes an exception for these few characters.
Characters who look better with a gun in their hands:
5.. Ellen Harvelle, Supernatural. This could have also been Dean or Sam, (but especially Dean given his relationship with the Colt), but the show has portrayed her from her introduction to the end as the woman with the big gun. (Many of her other appearances involve her chewing people out for being macho while she hold a shotgun).
Go to 1:25, right before Ellen walks in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W40-6wHaGo
4. Tie: Shawn Spencer and Carlton Lassiiter, Psych. Shawn is goofy and not someone that anyone trusts with a gun usually. The real cops spent the first few seasons telling him to stay out of cases. In case you don't watch the show, Shawn is a man is his thirties who literally leads the life of a child, devoting most of his time to ice cream and 80s cartoons and making clever quips to people who tell him to act maturely. But his cop father raised him more like he was in cop training camp so he is highly skilled at police investigations. Shawn's gun skills are only mentioned in the pilot, where he practices and is great at the shooting range, and in an ep where a life depends on him shooting a car's engine block out from a very tricky position. So it's Shawn's skill that makes it sexy, but also that it's a rare moment where he can't pretend to be a gifted buffoon and has to reveal that he is actually a skilled and focused adult who takes care of business when he needs to focus; Shawn's gun moments are moments where he is un-Shawn-like. And while I find Shawn in his usual state to be sexy in a funny smart dorky loveable way, the skillful shooter side of him is pretty good too. (Notice that he never actually shoots at a person.)
Lassiter's gun love, on the other hand, is addressed on the show constantly. His required therapy session is a bust until the therapist gets him to open up by asking about his guns. He sometimes gets in trouble for shooting off warning shots for comically unadequate reasons. He keeps at least 8 guns in his house, hidden in silly but well-strategized places. He feels TORMENTED when he has to proceed without a weapon when he is on a case in Canada (the best moment of that ep is when Gus mocks him for it). Lassiter loves guns. He is very, very good at his job, but he does not shoot people often - since he is quick enough on the draw to make the villain of the week know he has no choice but to give up - and regardless, he does not shoot to kill and he is always by the book. Okay not ALWAYS, but when it comes to shooting people, he is always by the book. For him, it's not just his skills with a gun (which are impressive) that make it cool, it's also the way the show really pushes the way that even if people find Lassiter ridiculous or difficult, when he shows up at the end it's usually to save the day. More than that, though, honestly, it's sexy that Lassiter loves his guns so much because he is SO ridiculous about it. It's like I find it super sexy when Gus totally geeks out on something, or when Neal on White Collar fanboys another thief. I like it when characters geek out. Lassiter is total gun!nerd. Like a kid in a candy store when it comes to guns.
This fanvid is about his gun love. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu2jsBitoTs
This clip is has one of those moments, with Shawn being kidnapped and Lassie showing up.
Start at 4:30 to see the kidnapper slash Shawn/Lassiter, or at 5:10 to see Lassiter grab a gun from a bowl of something (potpourri?) in his kitchen. (warnings for non-fatal shooting) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs4kBtWH-rM
3. Fiona Glenanne. Because the best thing about her is that on a show with Michael Westen, Sam Axe, and giant baddie networks, Fiona is the one that yout really, really shouldn't make angry.
This vid has some good Fiona moments, and I also like the song for her: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKIZkmapL1M&NR=1
2. John Casey. Because he loves guns (not as much as Jayne loves Vera, but still). But more than that, he is comically good with them. As in, unrealistically for any person to be that good with them. But again, that is portrayed on the show as part of his hero-come-to-save-the-day character. First few vids on Casey I found had plenty of guns.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPypU37la10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU6goxDd-rU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSKyzIiDdAg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDzFf-2AEg8
1. Stephen Colbert/Sweetness. He totally loves her!
Go to 2:25: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/175029/june-26-2008/stephen-and-sweetness
Sweetness is actually a recurring character on the show.
I seriously ship them. Honestly, they're the only person-gun relationship I actually find sexy, as in "Oh that's kind of hot, wow" way - it's actually very erotic even as it's silly.
Why is the only gun fetish stuff (on canon tv shows) that I find really sexy actually a parody of how ridiculous it is to eroticize guns?
I'm not sure. But I've tried to look at my fave characters with guns and see if I can see any patterns for why I like what I like. Basically,I am curious as to why certain situations with guns are sexy and others aren't. I'm not saying I'm right about what's sexy or not - just the opposite! I want to know in the comments what you think is sexy or not in terms of characters and their guns. I want to think about how whether something is sexy or eroticized depends on the context, situation, character, genre, and also my own preconceptions and hang-ups even, such as they are.
So here is what I noticed about the characters on the list:
Most of these characters that I do like with guns are REALLY talented at shooting. Clearly I enjoy competence porn. I love characters being smart and skilled and strong - I love Sarah Walker catching a thrown knife, I love Peter or Neal figuring something impossible out, I love Neal sculpting, I love Hardison hacking and Eliot hitting and pretty much everyone on Leverage doing what they do. I like special skills, like a lot of people do, in my tv characters. So within the sunny or harmless context mentioned above, there's something sexy or badass about being amazingly good at keeping one's head clear and hands steady and having good aim, etc.
One thing I found is that I tend to like gun kink for characters that obviously eroticize their relationship with guns, often on shows that portray it to humorous effect. In fact, most of these shows are very sunny and light hearted overall, often with more cartoonish violence rather than realistic. Chuck usually shows the bad guys getting killed, and it's usually someone who's just the villain of the week that gets shot, and one of the central plot points of the show is about how the lovable main character doesn't like guns. So there's not realistic danger associated with guns in Chuck. And I would never want to see Casey/Bryce gun fetish sex, since Casey actually did shoot Bryce. On a show like Justified, for example, I think the writers kind of want to think Raylan and his mad shooting skills are sexy and badass, but I actually think that the gun violence on that show is not sexy at all (there are other things about that show of course that ARE sexy to me). On Burn Notice, however, it's not quite as sunny as Chuck, but when our main characters kill someone, it's very very rare and always a mass murderer who is about rain hell down on them, so the gun stuff doesn't FEEL dangerous usually, so in an average episode, the guns are used just to scare 'bad guys' and therefore can be fun and sexy (just like irl having an explosives fetish like Fiona does - or like Parker on Leverage does for that matter - is not cool of course, but in fictional characters in a fun action-oriented show it can be charming and delightful). So mostly I only like gun porn on shows that are light-hearted and never make me think about who's getting shot. The exception is Supernatural, which is not all that light and fluffy (understatement?). But on that show, guns are almost never used by people to hurt other people. Guns are a big part of that show, but they're only used by human beings to help even the score against the far-more-powerful monsters. So none of these faves are in cases where gun use is morally gray. Now, usually I like morally gray. But for some reason, I only want to think about sexy guns when there isn't realism with regard to the violence of the show.
So what I have found in thinking about when I do and don't like guns is that I am actually uncomfortable with any realistic thoughts of consequences of gun use. (There are many people who like fic/shows that have guns fetishized FOR how realistic they are, and I'm not judging that, just trying to think about my own preferences).
Note that my preference for comic or low-stakes portrayals of gunkink does NOT mean that I think I am being ethically responsible by what I find appealing. In fact, honestly, it's kind of the opposite. If I were analyzing the shows instead of talking about gun kink, I would be criticizing the fact that half these shows suggest you don't need to feel bad when you shoot the 'bad guy.' And it is APPALLING that Supernatural portrays the gun-toting vigilantes that fit every stereotype of overly-macho violence as only using guns to fight the big bad, ESPECIALLY since the show creator has repeatedly said that the show is largely about the kind of traditional American masculinity that is now out of fashion (basically a cowboy masculinity that thinks there is a clear line between good and evil and the way to deal with evil is to shoot it). Honestly, a lot about Supernatural's "exploration" of this old-school masculinity seems to be about taking the show's consistent rejection of "the Other" (female and minority characters on the show, for instance, constantly meet their demise) and turning it into some grand thematic arc that seems a lot more profound than it actually is. So the idea that these shoot-em-up attitudes of the hunters ARE supposed to represent a tradition that we are supposed to feel nostalgiac for is kind of problematic. (Sorry if I have offended you, SPN viewers. I am one of those people who manage to love the show and hate the politics of it. If I can do it for 19th century literature, I can do it for TV).
So anyway, if I were really basing my gun kink on what I actually think is a responsible portrayal of gun use, none of these people would be on my list. So the situations that make me comfortable enjoying guns are NOT the situations that I actually think do a realistic or responsible job of portraying gun violence.
I think this may have something to do with my thoughts on gun use overall:
1) I don't like guns. I'm not scared to hold one since I did at camp as a child, so I am not FREAKED by guns the way some people are, but I don't particularly like them.
2) I have an ambivalent relationship to "gun culture." I'm from the Midwest originally and I don't think that gun-lovers are ignorant or trigger-happy or anything like that. (Many are educated and also wealthy enough to spend huge amounts at expensive hunting lodges, etc. But whatever the case, some gun lovers are just geeks for guns.) And I think a lot of people who think "ugh, people with guns are stupid and violent" are stereotyping pretty viciously and inaccurately based on region and class. But I do have very ambivalent feelings about guns themselves. So I don't think people who like them are awful. But honestly, I do tend to associate guns with danger, hurting people, etc., since most guns are made to be able to harm and kill living things, especially handguns which are basically designed for use on people. So I definitely am influenced by the not-sexiness of guns irl and it has to be a relatively sweet and nice place in canon/fanon for me to not think about that aspect of the guns at all.
3) I honestly do think it's bad to eroticize guns in broader society. I do NOT mean it's bad to have a gun kink or to like gun kink fic or whatever. I mean that I really don't think it's good that guns and especially shooting people are thought of as sexy in a repressed under-the-surface way, even just in pop culture representations.
Basically I don't like kink that is not kink.
Let me try to make that sound less silly: I think desire is complicated and people find things sexual or appealing for all sorts of reasons, and that's beautiful. But when someone finds something sexy but completely is unaware that there's a erotic element to why they like it so much, that might possibly be slightly different. And when a society eroticizes something and completely obscures the fact that this thing is appealing and highly valued in part because it is eroticized, then that is not at all the same. That is NOT a case of "your kink is not my kink."
It's the same reason that I think it's fine to like erotic fic about humiliation - or to enjoy consensual humiliation play irl - but it's not actually cool to enjoy watching someone be humiliated and act like there is no repressed-psychosexual element to why you like it (maybe some would say it's actually because you like to see people get what they deserve, for example). And it's definitely not cool to humiliate people to feel powerful irl if it's NOT something that both humiliator and humiliated are getting off on in an OPEN and consensual way.
Another example: if a person has a sexual fetish for expensive cars, good for them for turning a conspicuous display of wealth into something positive that they can get off on. But if a society says that it's good to value expensive cars as symbols of how important you are, and obscures the psychosexual-economic elisions that support this value system by saying that society's love of expensive cars is about encouraging people to work hard so they can buy a Lamborghini some day, then that is not cool.
Or: let's say a married man and woman get off on doing roleplay about how a wife must always obey her husband because she belongs to him - good for them. But it's not cool for a guy to argue that 'women should obey men for real, that's a totally good point with solid reasoning behind it, and there is absolutely zero part of that statement that is about the fact that I think it would be hot for a woman to obey me, it's totally because I am a defender of the natural order."
So basically, I think it is is fucked up when people take their kinks (shallow measures of status, traditional gender roles, guns being hot) and totally deny that they are kinks, even to themselves. I have a problem with things that seem to be motivated by erotic or psychosexual-cultural baggage but are thought to be non-sexual. (Yes, I am one of those condescending assholes who thinks that sexual repression is a big motivating factor for people who have metaphorical sticks up their asses. Also I think it's bad if you get off on something but don't realize the erotic element, and therefore don't realize you're supposed to keep that part of yourself in check in certain situations).
So for this reason, if I were to put pop culture as a whole into fandom terms, I think the average action movie is a kinkfic (with gun!kink, explosion!kink, and other kinks) pretending to be a genfic. That's TERRIFIC for us subtext slash lovers - what's better than enemies who eyefuck before penetrating each other with phallic symbols? But in terms of society as a whole, and gun violence, I think it's bad to eroticize guns as much as we do. Again, this might be hypocritical of me - it could very well be that I'm part of the problem (I probably am). But I'm not trying to condemn people who like action movies - I like them too - I am just kind of asking questions about the different ways - obvious or subtle - that people get off on guns, and how an invidual's (my) experience with gun kink may or may not be influenced by this context.
So, basically, I suspect my personal stuff is shaping what kind of eroticizations of guns that I find cool or sexy in shows. Especially, I think the shows that actively deconstruct, analyze, or even make light of the eroticization of guns make me feel comfortable eroticizing guns. Again, I am not claiming that this is a good thing, or that it's responsible - if anything it's not, lol. But honestly, this is the most I can figure out about why I find these characters are cooler with guns, while more obvious choices (Jayne, Peter, Neal, Diana, etc) are not on my list.
So the point of all this is NOT to say "I feel guilty for liking action movies" or anything silly like that. The point is to use this a basis to ask a few questions of my wonderful interesting flist:
1) Do you find that your attitudes toward guns irl influence what gun use you find sexy on your shows? Do you find that realism or lack thereof affects whether you find a character drawing a gun or making a difficult shot to be sexy or appealing or badass or cool?
2) In general, do you have kinks that you can only enjoy with characters where it is clear that you don't have to worry? Like, for example, maybe you like consent play fics, but only for characters who DON'T have power inequalities in canon? (My example obviously is that I only like gunkink when realistic gun violence is unlikely).
3) Do you think your social or political thoughts on something affects how you view sexytimes that include that thing? I'm not sure my thoughts on guns in society is a big part of my preferences but it might be a small part. Definitely, though, in general, my thoughts on gender equality affect what I find sexy in shows or even in fic sometimes. How about you?
Answer any part of any question you like, or just flail about the kinks you like and why you like them - I want to know anything you feel like sharing!!! :)
For kinkbingo, I have a "guns" square, and honestly, I am not that into gun kink, and I was not sure what to write. So I decided to think about characters that are hotter, cooler, or more interesting because of their relaionship with guns. Guns are everywhere in shows, but usually they aren't part of what makes me think a character or a scene is hot/appealing/badass/etc. So it's actually only a few characters that I feel overall really are made more exciting by their guns, and so I decided that this will be a gun kink meta.
Now honestly, when I am reading fic, I honestly don't care if it has a kink I don't usually like unless it is on the very short list of things that squick me a lot, since a good writer can make almost anything hot lol. So I have read hot gun porn. But as a writer, I only do sexy guns at someone's request, and rarely even then. And in canon, I am even pickier, since there are hardly any characters I like better with a gun than without.
Here's the list of the few characters I do love with guns; after, I'll talk about my thoughts on the things they might have in common, basically trying to figure out why someone who is not usually into gunkink at all makes an exception for these few characters.
Characters who look better with a gun in their hands:
5.. Ellen Harvelle, Supernatural. This could have also been Dean or Sam, (but especially Dean given his relationship with the Colt), but the show has portrayed her from her introduction to the end as the woman with the big gun. (Many of her other appearances involve her chewing people out for being macho while she hold a shotgun).
Go to 1:25, right before Ellen walks in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W40-6wHaGo
4. Tie: Shawn Spencer and Carlton Lassiiter, Psych. Shawn is goofy and not someone that anyone trusts with a gun usually. The real cops spent the first few seasons telling him to stay out of cases. In case you don't watch the show, Shawn is a man is his thirties who literally leads the life of a child, devoting most of his time to ice cream and 80s cartoons and making clever quips to people who tell him to act maturely. But his cop father raised him more like he was in cop training camp so he is highly skilled at police investigations. Shawn's gun skills are only mentioned in the pilot, where he practices and is great at the shooting range, and in an ep where a life depends on him shooting a car's engine block out from a very tricky position. So it's Shawn's skill that makes it sexy, but also that it's a rare moment where he can't pretend to be a gifted buffoon and has to reveal that he is actually a skilled and focused adult who takes care of business when he needs to focus; Shawn's gun moments are moments where he is un-Shawn-like. And while I find Shawn in his usual state to be sexy in a funny smart dorky loveable way, the skillful shooter side of him is pretty good too. (Notice that he never actually shoots at a person.)
Lassiter's gun love, on the other hand, is addressed on the show constantly. His required therapy session is a bust until the therapist gets him to open up by asking about his guns. He sometimes gets in trouble for shooting off warning shots for comically unadequate reasons. He keeps at least 8 guns in his house, hidden in silly but well-strategized places. He feels TORMENTED when he has to proceed without a weapon when he is on a case in Canada (the best moment of that ep is when Gus mocks him for it). Lassiter loves guns. He is very, very good at his job, but he does not shoot people often - since he is quick enough on the draw to make the villain of the week know he has no choice but to give up - and regardless, he does not shoot to kill and he is always by the book. Okay not ALWAYS, but when it comes to shooting people, he is always by the book. For him, it's not just his skills with a gun (which are impressive) that make it cool, it's also the way the show really pushes the way that even if people find Lassiter ridiculous or difficult, when he shows up at the end it's usually to save the day. More than that, though, honestly, it's sexy that Lassiter loves his guns so much because he is SO ridiculous about it. It's like I find it super sexy when Gus totally geeks out on something, or when Neal on White Collar fanboys another thief. I like it when characters geek out. Lassiter is total gun!nerd. Like a kid in a candy store when it comes to guns.
This fanvid is about his gun love. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu2jsBitoTs
This clip is has one of those moments, with Shawn being kidnapped and Lassie showing up.
Start at 4:30 to see the kidnapper slash Shawn/Lassiter, or at 5:10 to see Lassiter grab a gun from a bowl of something (potpourri?) in his kitchen. (warnings for non-fatal shooting) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs4kBtWH-rM
3. Fiona Glenanne. Because the best thing about her is that on a show with Michael Westen, Sam Axe, and giant baddie networks, Fiona is the one that yout really, really shouldn't make angry.
This vid has some good Fiona moments, and I also like the song for her: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKIZkmapL1M&NR=1
2. John Casey. Because he loves guns (not as much as Jayne loves Vera, but still). But more than that, he is comically good with them. As in, unrealistically for any person to be that good with them. But again, that is portrayed on the show as part of his hero-come-to-save-the-day character. First few vids on Casey I found had plenty of guns.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPypU37la10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU6goxDd-rU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSKyzIiDdAg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDzFf-2AEg8
1. Stephen Colbert/Sweetness. He totally loves her!
Go to 2:25: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/175029/june-26-2008/stephen-and-sweetness
Sweetness is actually a recurring character on the show.
I seriously ship them. Honestly, they're the only person-gun relationship I actually find sexy, as in "Oh that's kind of hot, wow" way - it's actually very erotic even as it's silly.
Why is the only gun fetish stuff (on canon tv shows) that I find really sexy actually a parody of how ridiculous it is to eroticize guns?
I'm not sure. But I've tried to look at my fave characters with guns and see if I can see any patterns for why I like what I like. Basically,I am curious as to why certain situations with guns are sexy and others aren't. I'm not saying I'm right about what's sexy or not - just the opposite! I want to know in the comments what you think is sexy or not in terms of characters and their guns. I want to think about how whether something is sexy or eroticized depends on the context, situation, character, genre, and also my own preconceptions and hang-ups even, such as they are.
So here is what I noticed about the characters on the list:
Most of these characters that I do like with guns are REALLY talented at shooting. Clearly I enjoy competence porn. I love characters being smart and skilled and strong - I love Sarah Walker catching a thrown knife, I love Peter or Neal figuring something impossible out, I love Neal sculpting, I love Hardison hacking and Eliot hitting and pretty much everyone on Leverage doing what they do. I like special skills, like a lot of people do, in my tv characters. So within the sunny or harmless context mentioned above, there's something sexy or badass about being amazingly good at keeping one's head clear and hands steady and having good aim, etc.
One thing I found is that I tend to like gun kink for characters that obviously eroticize their relationship with guns, often on shows that portray it to humorous effect. In fact, most of these shows are very sunny and light hearted overall, often with more cartoonish violence rather than realistic. Chuck usually shows the bad guys getting killed, and it's usually someone who's just the villain of the week that gets shot, and one of the central plot points of the show is about how the lovable main character doesn't like guns. So there's not realistic danger associated with guns in Chuck. And I would never want to see Casey/Bryce gun fetish sex, since Casey actually did shoot Bryce. On a show like Justified, for example, I think the writers kind of want to think Raylan and his mad shooting skills are sexy and badass, but I actually think that the gun violence on that show is not sexy at all (there are other things about that show of course that ARE sexy to me). On Burn Notice, however, it's not quite as sunny as Chuck, but when our main characters kill someone, it's very very rare and always a mass murderer who is about rain hell down on them, so the gun stuff doesn't FEEL dangerous usually, so in an average episode, the guns are used just to scare 'bad guys' and therefore can be fun and sexy (just like irl having an explosives fetish like Fiona does - or like Parker on Leverage does for that matter - is not cool of course, but in fictional characters in a fun action-oriented show it can be charming and delightful). So mostly I only like gun porn on shows that are light-hearted and never make me think about who's getting shot. The exception is Supernatural, which is not all that light and fluffy (understatement?). But on that show, guns are almost never used by people to hurt other people. Guns are a big part of that show, but they're only used by human beings to help even the score against the far-more-powerful monsters. So none of these faves are in cases where gun use is morally gray. Now, usually I like morally gray. But for some reason, I only want to think about sexy guns when there isn't realism with regard to the violence of the show.
So what I have found in thinking about when I do and don't like guns is that I am actually uncomfortable with any realistic thoughts of consequences of gun use. (There are many people who like fic/shows that have guns fetishized FOR how realistic they are, and I'm not judging that, just trying to think about my own preferences).
Note that my preference for comic or low-stakes portrayals of gunkink does NOT mean that I think I am being ethically responsible by what I find appealing. In fact, honestly, it's kind of the opposite. If I were analyzing the shows instead of talking about gun kink, I would be criticizing the fact that half these shows suggest you don't need to feel bad when you shoot the 'bad guy.' And it is APPALLING that Supernatural portrays the gun-toting vigilantes that fit every stereotype of overly-macho violence as only using guns to fight the big bad, ESPECIALLY since the show creator has repeatedly said that the show is largely about the kind of traditional American masculinity that is now out of fashion (basically a cowboy masculinity that thinks there is a clear line between good and evil and the way to deal with evil is to shoot it). Honestly, a lot about Supernatural's "exploration" of this old-school masculinity seems to be about taking the show's consistent rejection of "the Other" (female and minority characters on the show, for instance, constantly meet their demise) and turning it into some grand thematic arc that seems a lot more profound than it actually is. So the idea that these shoot-em-up attitudes of the hunters ARE supposed to represent a tradition that we are supposed to feel nostalgiac for is kind of problematic. (Sorry if I have offended you, SPN viewers. I am one of those people who manage to love the show and hate the politics of it. If I can do it for 19th century literature, I can do it for TV).
So anyway, if I were really basing my gun kink on what I actually think is a responsible portrayal of gun use, none of these people would be on my list. So the situations that make me comfortable enjoying guns are NOT the situations that I actually think do a realistic or responsible job of portraying gun violence.
I think this may have something to do with my thoughts on gun use overall:
1) I don't like guns. I'm not scared to hold one since I did at camp as a child, so I am not FREAKED by guns the way some people are, but I don't particularly like them.
2) I have an ambivalent relationship to "gun culture." I'm from the Midwest originally and I don't think that gun-lovers are ignorant or trigger-happy or anything like that. (Many are educated and also wealthy enough to spend huge amounts at expensive hunting lodges, etc. But whatever the case, some gun lovers are just geeks for guns.) And I think a lot of people who think "ugh, people with guns are stupid and violent" are stereotyping pretty viciously and inaccurately based on region and class. But I do have very ambivalent feelings about guns themselves. So I don't think people who like them are awful. But honestly, I do tend to associate guns with danger, hurting people, etc., since most guns are made to be able to harm and kill living things, especially handguns which are basically designed for use on people. So I definitely am influenced by the not-sexiness of guns irl and it has to be a relatively sweet and nice place in canon/fanon for me to not think about that aspect of the guns at all.
3) I honestly do think it's bad to eroticize guns in broader society. I do NOT mean it's bad to have a gun kink or to like gun kink fic or whatever. I mean that I really don't think it's good that guns and especially shooting people are thought of as sexy in a repressed under-the-surface way, even just in pop culture representations.
Basically I don't like kink that is not kink.
Let me try to make that sound less silly: I think desire is complicated and people find things sexual or appealing for all sorts of reasons, and that's beautiful. But when someone finds something sexy but completely is unaware that there's a erotic element to why they like it so much, that might possibly be slightly different. And when a society eroticizes something and completely obscures the fact that this thing is appealing and highly valued in part because it is eroticized, then that is not at all the same. That is NOT a case of "your kink is not my kink."
It's the same reason that I think it's fine to like erotic fic about humiliation - or to enjoy consensual humiliation play irl - but it's not actually cool to enjoy watching someone be humiliated and act like there is no repressed-psychosexual element to why you like it (maybe some would say it's actually because you like to see people get what they deserve, for example). And it's definitely not cool to humiliate people to feel powerful irl if it's NOT something that both humiliator and humiliated are getting off on in an OPEN and consensual way.
Another example: if a person has a sexual fetish for expensive cars, good for them for turning a conspicuous display of wealth into something positive that they can get off on. But if a society says that it's good to value expensive cars as symbols of how important you are, and obscures the psychosexual-economic elisions that support this value system by saying that society's love of expensive cars is about encouraging people to work hard so they can buy a Lamborghini some day, then that is not cool.
Or: let's say a married man and woman get off on doing roleplay about how a wife must always obey her husband because she belongs to him - good for them. But it's not cool for a guy to argue that 'women should obey men for real, that's a totally good point with solid reasoning behind it, and there is absolutely zero part of that statement that is about the fact that I think it would be hot for a woman to obey me, it's totally because I am a defender of the natural order."
So basically, I think it is is fucked up when people take their kinks (shallow measures of status, traditional gender roles, guns being hot) and totally deny that they are kinks, even to themselves. I have a problem with things that seem to be motivated by erotic or psychosexual-cultural baggage but are thought to be non-sexual. (Yes, I am one of those condescending assholes who thinks that sexual repression is a big motivating factor for people who have metaphorical sticks up their asses. Also I think it's bad if you get off on something but don't realize the erotic element, and therefore don't realize you're supposed to keep that part of yourself in check in certain situations).
So for this reason, if I were to put pop culture as a whole into fandom terms, I think the average action movie is a kinkfic (with gun!kink, explosion!kink, and other kinks) pretending to be a genfic. That's TERRIFIC for us subtext slash lovers - what's better than enemies who eyefuck before penetrating each other with phallic symbols? But in terms of society as a whole, and gun violence, I think it's bad to eroticize guns as much as we do. Again, this might be hypocritical of me - it could very well be that I'm part of the problem (I probably am). But I'm not trying to condemn people who like action movies - I like them too - I am just kind of asking questions about the different ways - obvious or subtle - that people get off on guns, and how an invidual's (my) experience with gun kink may or may not be influenced by this context.
So, basically, I suspect my personal stuff is shaping what kind of eroticizations of guns that I find cool or sexy in shows. Especially, I think the shows that actively deconstruct, analyze, or even make light of the eroticization of guns make me feel comfortable eroticizing guns. Again, I am not claiming that this is a good thing, or that it's responsible - if anything it's not, lol. But honestly, this is the most I can figure out about why I find these characters are cooler with guns, while more obvious choices (Jayne, Peter, Neal, Diana, etc) are not on my list.
So the point of all this is NOT to say "I feel guilty for liking action movies" or anything silly like that. The point is to use this a basis to ask a few questions of my wonderful interesting flist:
1) Do you find that your attitudes toward guns irl influence what gun use you find sexy on your shows? Do you find that realism or lack thereof affects whether you find a character drawing a gun or making a difficult shot to be sexy or appealing or badass or cool?
2) In general, do you have kinks that you can only enjoy with characters where it is clear that you don't have to worry? Like, for example, maybe you like consent play fics, but only for characters who DON'T have power inequalities in canon? (My example obviously is that I only like gunkink when realistic gun violence is unlikely).
3) Do you think your social or political thoughts on something affects how you view sexytimes that include that thing? I'm not sure my thoughts on guns in society is a big part of my preferences but it might be a small part. Definitely, though, in general, my thoughts on gender equality affect what I find sexy in shows or even in fic sometimes. How about you?
Answer any part of any question you like, or just flail about the kinks you like and why you like them - I want to know anything you feel like sharing!!! :)