Deconstructing Gender in X/1999, or at least S/S.

[mithrigil]

.

Title: Stated
Author: Mithrigil
Fandom: Tokyo Babylon, X/1999
Wordcount: 3000
Rating: R. Still with the Yuri.

This is the continuation of Silent.

-

Comments

[byzantienne]

Speech and silence. It really is a very effective narrative conceit you've latched onto, not having anyone female but Seishibana speak. Especially because it is so powerful to finally hear Subaru's voice at the end, when it's far too late for it to do her or anyone else any good.

You're playing with Subaru's effacement from the world in such an interesting way, too -- the negation of self, the hollowing-out that seems characteristic of post-TB Subaru, but here even more of an abrogation of identity, as she destroys her own femininity even as she's hyper-aware of everyone else's negotiations with womanhood.

I told you in AIM how utterly nasty that 'anatomically correct' moment is, but I reiterate.

I also love how much Subaru wants Seishibana, in that broken and terrible way she desires. The longing in this. Wishing for those hair-plaiting visits (oh, wow, creepy, that) and the way that you've softened and intensified the scene where Subaru asks Sei about herself by making it maybe-unreal. The emptiness in Subaru's desire is amazing

[mithrigil]

I've said--bemoaned even--that writing this has stripped Tokyo Babylon of its subtlety. For some reason, couching these desires and themes in male bodies dampens them, diverts them. Or that might just be me,

But make them women, and wham, it's like being hit with a boulder. Subaru's repression is all of a sudden articulate--Seishirou's advances, not just untoward but brazen. All the connotations just snap right out.

[byzantienne]

No, I think you're right. Making them women makes them -- heh -- visible. In a way that they simply aren't, as men.

I think there are very significant reasons that CLAMP chose to make Sei and Subaru male. You've talked about the themes of communication, or the lack of it, as being central to TB/X. There is a sort of clarity to Seishibana/Subaru-chan which is somewhat antithetical to that theme, in my opinion. Of course the theme is still there, but you've replaced miscommunication with silence.

I do still think these are effective fics-as-fics. But they're effective on a primarily analytic level. (This is, of course, entirely outside the question of the aesthetic pleasure I get from reading your work, which remains immense. *laughs*)

[mithrigil]

And there is also that safety/subversion ideal. Subaru as an innocent boy in the arms of an established and accepted predator takes on connotations more conducive to CLAMP's themes than Subaru-chan does with the more deviant Seishibana.

[puella_nerdii]

I have changed, Subaru doesn’t say, and then corrects, to herself: I have been changed. By you.

And may I just say how the gender change in this highlights that all the more? The active versus the passive, and how much significance that gains when the question of gender comes into it, because the question of imposed roles is, well. Especially in Japan. And especially since Subaru still doesn't speak, is still Seishibana's (willing) doll, is still acted on and defined by reflection and projection and, well, dressing up. So yes, this brings out the themes of the source so much, which is why That Line happened in this. (There is a distance to close between them, but neither can perceive it, which -- if you have to do S/S in a sentence, that's the sentence to use

[mithrigil]

I had better be able to use that goddamned line again, in something closer to the actual canon.

Passivity was another theme that I loved exploring in this--how it's not excessive here, with Subaru-chan, the way it sometimes is with Subaru, but how it's more...regrettable? Somehow?

Love you so much~

[zombie_fetus]

I'm not even coherent right now. Just.

[mithrigil]

Apparently this is how you get me to write femmeslash?

[zombie_fetus]

I went into these fics so very, very skeptical. I'm not even in this fandom.

HOW DO YOU DO THIS.

[byzantienne]

It has to be her superpower. Making people read things and LIKE THEM when they have no canon background.

[katanath]

So that bit about dressing up or dressing against expectations really hit home, because I did the latter for ages and I'm not sure if I've completely gotten over it yet. It's really obvious, when they're female, how much clothes are tangled up with identity (although I have the impression Japanese guys that age are pretty image/style-conscious as well, no? Much more on average than Americans, at least.)

Genderswitched Karen and Aoki sounds like the most subversively adorable pair ever, but that's probably just my inner squish addict talking.

[mithrigil]

Oh lord, boywhore!Ren and MakingendsMeet!Aoki. That would indeed be boss.

I think that American boys are just as conscious of it in other ways and that masculinity is also a construction...but yeah, less overt, less involved.

[yoru_yume]

That was quick! Just as interesting as the first too. One thing that struck me while reading was that having Subaru and Kamui cast as girls made the way they behave towards each other more...believable I think the word I am looking for.

The thought of schoolgirl!Kamui and Fuuma in the scene where Yatori killed was entertaining, albeit in a rather creepy(but good) way.

It all seems so much harsher will the male characters as girls.Part of me wants to see genderswitched Hokuto and Kakyou X3

and this peice very much reminded me of several Tori Amos songs

[mithrigil]

Oooh, flipped Hokuto and Kakyou...I think that could really work, literally falling for the boy of her dreams...

Thank you~ I definitely agree that both care and abuse seem stronger with them as women...writing sisterly Subaru and Kamui-chan was easy, envisioning Fuuka's painted nails doing the stabbing squicked me a little.