Planting Seeds in Vanquished Soil (9/11) (Haymitch/Beetee - R)

[millarific]

Title: Planting Seeds in Vanquished Soil
Author: millari
Characters: Haymitch Abernathy, Mags, Beetee, Chaff, President Snow, Haymitch's Dad, Haymitch's Girl, OCs
Pairing: Haymitch/Beetee
Rating: R
Beta: The incomparable trovia
Warnings: Implied references to forced prostitution, canonical character deaths
Summary: On his victory tour, Haymitch soon finds out

Comments

[millarific]

Hey!

I have to tell you first that I was so confused by the placement of this comment. It showed up in my email notifications, but then wasn't at the bottom of the list of comments to this chapter, so I assumed that it wasn't there at first. I don't know how that happened, but I'm glad I found it so I could respond to it!

Haymitch is incredibly lonely. I'm glad I found an interesting way for him to have someone, and to discover something he didn't know about himself.

Thanks for this lovely comment, and for hitting all the implicit things I put in here, hoping it would be clear enough. I do think Haymitch has been suppressing this large part of himself and hasn't known that is what he's doing. He doesn't even understand the idea of sexual identity, I think, to be honest. I think District 12 tends to think that there is Capitol behavior and non-Capitol behavior, and homosexuality is Capitol behavior, which is why Mal and Declan can get away with living together and nobody seems to get what's going on. I think Haymitch's understanding of what would happen in D12 if he acted attracted to another man reflects the D12 attitude that homosexuality isn't an identity but a behavior, a chosen affect that therefore is deliberate, bewildering, and an ugly, cruel joke towards your D12 mates, because they see it as kind of the equivalent to copying serial killers or something. Why would you DO that???

I mean, Haymitch has heard of people in other districts being homosexuals, thanks to the Hunger Games coverage (I figure 1 in 10 means they had to have some amount of gay tributes at some point), but only in the districts where it's more accepted, which I think would tend to be Districts 1 & 2, which are more aligned with the Capitol.

But much like with gayness and gay marriage being accepted in many countries IRL, I think Haymitch geting comfortable with his attraction to Beetee is a question of positive exposure.

Meeting such a smart guy like Beetee, combined with seeing other positive couples Melio and Flax, and especially ones from a poor district and Mal and Declan really helps Haymitch to see that homosexuality isn't this boogey monster he's been raised to see it as. I think it was really important for my Haymitch to meet Beetee now and find out about his attraction to men now, because after being put into the victor prostitution game, he would have never probably found a positive way to look at homosexuality. It would have been too tainted, and he would have withdrew from ever thinking about himself in that way ever.

Thanks so much for your comment.