you are somebody's kink

Jun 20, 2010 23:02

Ramblings )

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pekover June 22 2010, 10:30:18 UTC
here via metafandom...

I agree with the main post here, and I mostly agree with your comment, but I think that the reason why some kinks are more potentially harmful than others comes back to the damn privilege. For a group with power, being somebody's kink is fun, and kinda kinky in itself. I'm a librarian and I often wear my hair in a bun, at least partly because it's fun to shake it free in front of certain people. But librarians aren't traditionally discriminated against, and we aren't disempowered (after all, we control the books!).

For a group that has been traditionally marginalized, I think fetishization can be one more way in which they are othered. (Damn, is anyone playing bingo with all the jargon I'm throwing in to this comment?) So, I agree with your first paragraph where you say that different people have different reactions to h/c fics involving their own particular 'hurt'. But librarians, priests, and police officers are all occupations that are on one end of the power spectrum, while a lot of the situations covered in a h/c meme are from the other end.

(And, believe me, LOTS of people are going around telling librarians that we're their kink)

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execharmonious June 22 2010, 10:35:27 UTC
I agree with the main post here, and I mostly agree with your comment, but I think that the reason why some kinks are more potentially harmful than others comes back to the damn privilege.

Yeah. And it sucks when that's true, for everyone involved. Especially for the people who are kinked over, I don't doubt, because... well, one more thing to add to the othering/objectification/dismissal of your real issues pile, huh? :/ And so I can understand there's a lot of friction. I think that the part of it that purely involves the kink (i.e. not going into the issue of whether prompts are worded thoughtfully or whether fics are written conscientiously, just the bare kink) is a very much unavoidable and blameless hurt; but I can see where it still hurts.

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blackjackrocket June 22 2010, 19:25:50 UTC
I've been a librarian. Frankly I've never felt MORE powerless. YMMV maybe? But then it was in a high school. Maybe it's different elsewhere.

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