oh god this is so stupid.
52 Weeks to a Weirder Reili (The Untitled Ramen Project)
Week 4, Word Count: 598
Project: Five paragraph essay on why your ship should be canon.
This post is part of the Untitled Ramen Project. If you'd like to learn more about this project click here to read more about it. :D
Things!
a) The Porn Battle is collecting prompts from Sunday (1/29) to Thursday (2/2) and actually running from Sunday (2/5) to Monday (2/13)!
b) I'm doing another charity auction thing!
fund_jcollins is benefiting The Jim Collins Foundation, which provides financial assistance for trans* folk who might not otherwise be able to get gender-confirming surgeries. That being said, 1k+ fic for 5$, guys. As in 5$ is the "buy-it-now" price.
c) This is a five paragraph essay following the general guidelines of such a thing and is therefore not very good. Like, I am so bad at writing five paragraph essays.
This past summer, USA Network launched what has to be the most weirdly unheterosexual show the world has ever seen. That show was called Suits, and it's not unheterosexual because the viewers have shipper goggles on, it's just really that gay. If you've had any sort of contact with Suits fandom, or you watched about half of the pilot, it would become increasingly clear to you that Harvey/Mike is the bread and butter of Suits fandom. There are three main components to this particular ship from my point of view: it's easy to infer that Mike was probably fucking both his ex-best friend and his best friend's girlfriend, thereby making him bisexual at least; Harvey basically owns Mike; and there's a sort of running "puppy" metaphor that Harvey constantly uses to refer to Mike.
Generally, the first step in shipping something is to somehow explain any respective change in the presumed heterosexuality of a character. In the case of Suits, it's almost too easy to explain Mike's sexuality. The initial scenes where we're introduced to Mike also give us a glimpse into his relationship with his ex-best friend, Trevor, and his girlfriend, Jenny. That glimpse sets up the catalyst for the plot, and the basic tenet of the show is that Mike will do anything if Trevor asks, regardless of his own misgivings about a situation. It's the same kind of unhealthy and misplaced trust that so often occurs in male/female relationships in media here placed onto a male/male one. In addition, we see that Mike is very close to both Trevor and Jenny, even prompting Jenny to ask why Mike never comes around anymore in a later episode. These things, of course, can be construed as mere friendship, but the overtone of these events is largely romantic, if not sexual.
It's also a perfect set-up for Mike's relationship with Harvey, which has some pretty blatant power dynamics. The situation is such Harvey exerts a considerable amount of control over Mike, and while Mike puts up some minimal complaints, he mostly seems to be fine with letting Harvey fill the role that Trevor had previously. He's eager to please Harvey, and while he show interest in Rachael, he generally pays more attention to Harvey. Even when Louis or Jessica are ordering him around, Mike seems to go to Harvey for permission to complete whatever they're asking of him or feels bad when he doesn't.
That's not even taking into account the weird puppy metaphor that the show seems to be running with. Harvey seems to consider Mike to be a kind of pet that needs to be trained, and their relationship really shows it. There's a odd sense of sexuality to these statements, very similar to the horse comments in Star Trek.
It is for these reasons that Harvey and Mike is totally canon and you should ship it. Yeah whatever fuck this essay.
This entry originally posted here. Original entry currently has
comments. :D
Week 4, Word Count: 598
Project: Five paragraph essay on why your ship should be canon.
This post is part of the Untitled Ramen Project. If you'd like to learn more about this project click here to read more about it. :D
Things!
a) The Porn Battle is collecting prompts from Sunday (1/29) to Thursday (2/2) and actually running from Sunday (2/5) to Monday (2/13)!
b) I'm doing another charity auction thing!
fund_jcollins is benefiting The Jim Collins Foundation, which provides financial assistance for trans* folk who might not otherwise be able to get gender-confirming surgeries. That being said, 1k+ fic for 5$, guys. As in 5$ is the "buy-it-now" price.
c) This is a five paragraph essay following the general guidelines of such a thing and is therefore not very good. Like, I am so bad at writing five paragraph essays.
This past summer, USA Network launched what has to be the most weirdly unheterosexual show the world has ever seen. That show was called Suits, and it's not unheterosexual because the viewers have shipper goggles on, it's just really that gay. If you've had any sort of contact with Suits fandom, or you watched about half of the pilot, it would become increasingly clear to you that Harvey/Mike is the bread and butter of Suits fandom. There are three main components to this particular ship from my point of view: it's easy to infer that Mike was probably fucking both his ex-best friend and his best friend's girlfriend, thereby making him bisexual at least; Harvey basically owns Mike; and there's a sort of running "puppy" metaphor that Harvey constantly uses to refer to Mike.
Generally, the first step in shipping something is to somehow explain any respective change in the presumed heterosexuality of a character. In the case of Suits, it's almost too easy to explain Mike's sexuality. The initial scenes where we're introduced to Mike also give us a glimpse into his relationship with his ex-best friend, Trevor, and his girlfriend, Jenny. That glimpse sets up the catalyst for the plot, and the basic tenet of the show is that Mike will do anything if Trevor asks, regardless of his own misgivings about a situation. It's the same kind of unhealthy and misplaced trust that so often occurs in male/female relationships in media here placed onto a male/male one. In addition, we see that Mike is very close to both Trevor and Jenny, even prompting Jenny to ask why Mike never comes around anymore in a later episode. These things, of course, can be construed as mere friendship, but the overtone of these events is largely romantic, if not sexual.
It's also a perfect set-up for Mike's relationship with Harvey, which has some pretty blatant power dynamics. The situation is such Harvey exerts a considerable amount of control over Mike, and while Mike puts up some minimal complaints, he mostly seems to be fine with letting Harvey fill the role that Trevor had previously. He's eager to please Harvey, and while he show interest in Rachael, he generally pays more attention to Harvey. Even when Louis or Jessica are ordering him around, Mike seems to go to Harvey for permission to complete whatever they're asking of him or feels bad when he doesn't.
That's not even taking into account the weird puppy metaphor that the show seems to be running with. Harvey seems to consider Mike to be a kind of pet that needs to be trained, and their relationship really shows it. There's a odd sense of sexuality to these statements, very similar to the horse comments in Star Trek.
It is for these reasons that Harvey and Mike is totally canon and you should ship it. Yeah whatever fuck this essay.
This entry originally posted here. Original entry currently has
comments. :D