Fanfic and Emotional Labour
A month ago, Jess Zimmerman posted an article on The Toast titled 'Where's My Cut?": On Unpaid Emotional Labour'.
In response to that article, there was a huuuuuuuuuuuge conversation on metafilter - I have literally been reading it in bits and pieces all week.
There is a lot to think about there, though a lot of it is personal stories. Also fair warning, some people I know have found some of the discussions traumatic as they hit a little close to home or are triggery in other ways.
One of the things that this had made me think about is somethig that first occurred to me in the midst of a
ficthropology episode recording, about the appeal of writing slash relationships: the authors are creating a context in which not only are men required to perform emotional labour, they do so in a context in which they *do not rely on female partners to provide it.*
A lot of really common and popular tropes revolve around emotional labour - hurt/comfort being the most glaring example, but others are also relevant, including mpreg, a/b/o, found families, accidental baby acquisition, curtain fic... Probably I could come up with more if I were thinking about it! I am not sure what this makes of genderswap, but that is worth thinking about as well. Is it a matter of coming full circle to genderswap a male character? Or is it some other unrelated thing going on there?
I don't mean to suggest that this is a conscious choice, but I do wonder if there is some kind of subconscious catharsis in just opting out of women doing emotional labour for men in fiction, and making them do it for themselves. I also don't mean to suggest that everyone does things for the same reason - that is definitely not the case. But to me, it is a much more satisfying answer to me in terms of why slash is so prevalent than just that we, as (mostly) women, don't find relationships with women in them that interesting. Women doing carrying the bulk of emotional labour is not extraordinary - it's just life.
I feel like there is a lot more to say here, but I am not feeling super well still/again, so this is what you are gonna be stuck with, for now!
In response to that article, there was a huuuuuuuuuuuge conversation on metafilter - I have literally been reading it in bits and pieces all week.
There is a lot to think about there, though a lot of it is personal stories. Also fair warning, some people I know have found some of the discussions traumatic as they hit a little close to home or are triggery in other ways.
One of the things that this had made me think about is somethig that first occurred to me in the midst of a
ficthropology episode recording, about the appeal of writing slash relationships: the authors are creating a context in which not only are men required to perform emotional labour, they do so in a context in which they *do not rely on female partners to provide it.*
A lot of really common and popular tropes revolve around emotional labour - hurt/comfort being the most glaring example, but others are also relevant, including mpreg, a/b/o, found families, accidental baby acquisition, curtain fic... Probably I could come up with more if I were thinking about it! I am not sure what this makes of genderswap, but that is worth thinking about as well. Is it a matter of coming full circle to genderswap a male character? Or is it some other unrelated thing going on there?
I don't mean to suggest that this is a conscious choice, but I do wonder if there is some kind of subconscious catharsis in just opting out of women doing emotional labour for men in fiction, and making them do it for themselves. I also don't mean to suggest that everyone does things for the same reason - that is definitely not the case. But to me, it is a much more satisfying answer to me in terms of why slash is so prevalent than just that we, as (mostly) women, don't find relationships with women in them that interesting. Women doing carrying the bulk of emotional labour is not extraordinary - it's just life.
I feel like there is a lot more to say here, but I am not feeling super well still/again, so this is what you are gonna be stuck with, for now!