Fanfic musing
I was reading a fanfic about a week ago, and right from the start, things felt off. I couldn't tell if it's was the author's style, or a case of "your kink is not my kink, and that's OK, but I'm closing this fic". I kept reading to see if things improved, and got to a reference of one of the characters as an Irishman. Um. He's American. Or at least there's never been any type of reference to him being Irish. I guess an author could take liberties with a character's origin if there was a reason plot wise, but this was smut, so why make that reference?
I kind of blew it off at the time, and decided it was time to close the fic and delete it off my Kindle, but the more I think about it, the more I wonder if this was a fic written in another fandom (perhaps by another author), and this author did a search and replace on the names, but didn't catch the Irish reference? It would have been an easy change out, as it was about the characters having a bit of role play fun. Have any of you run across this sort of thing before? I know there are sites that allow you to report suspected plagiarism, but I have no proof of it, just a gut feeling. I'm not making any accusation based on my gut, but that fic left me feeling kind of weird.
I just finished a book in a very popular series that essentially had mpreg in it. Not a birth in the "traditional" style of a quirk of biology or technology creating a womb to carry a child, but still, it was a male character who gave birth... after a fashion. I was kind of surprised to see it, as mpreg is a tough sell even in fanfic, though there are some very good ones out there. As long as there's some sort of reason, whether it's a not-exactly human trait or an oopsie with alien tech, I won't run screaming. Just setting up a world just like ours where men can also get pregnant as a matter of course is a whole different kettle of fish, mainly because it would literally change how things function in society on a level I can't even imagine. I'm curious to see how many things we think of as tropes in fanfic start to filter over into mainstream media.
Oh, and I also read about the billionth variation of "Slashers hate women and are racists!" What they wrote was much longer than that, but I summed it up. :) Now let me break this down by the bits I see most frequently.
1. Slashers hate women!
Just because I like to read about two or more guys fucking (or buying curtains) does not mean I hate women. It's a kink. My kink is not your kink, and that's OK.
2. Slashers hate the female character who get in the way of their OTP!
Eh, sometimes. I've read slash where the supposedly hated female character acted as Cupid. Or just generally better written than canon. I've also read some where the female character was demonized (sometimes literally), but I think it was more of a cathartic thing. Some just get so frustrated over female characters being The Love Interest to the detriment of being a character, that it comes across as hating the character in total. Even if they do, so what? I've hated my share of male characters too, often simply based on not liking the actor portraying them. Besides, as long as there's a warning about it in fic, or as they say on Tumblr, "Don't tag your hate" so someone looking for stuff about that character won't see your rant about them, I think we can all play nicely.
For my het reading friends, do you get this sort of backlash if your OTP is not canon? Are you automatically assumed to hate Jane, because the Lead Male Character is shown on screen in love with Jane and you're pairing him with Susan? I suppose femslashers could get this too, if there are enough women in the cast (that's another rant), or get yelled at for not liking a male character who gets in the way of their OTP.
3. Slashers are racist!
I'll admit this one threw me for a loop, and is relatively new to the rants I've been seeing for decades (damn, I'm old). The claim is we ignore men of color in favor of taking "straight white fantasy men" and making them gay. Now this is just me, but out of the 15 pairings I follow via RSS on AO3, one's het (gasp!), one character is Hispanic, two are black, and three are canon gay pairings. Should I mention that one of the guys in his natural form is green, but he disguises himself as a white guy? Or that one of the black characters is an android, so does that count? I mostly follow fic for sci-fi shows, so our definitions of race and even gender can get tossed out the window by an omnisexual apparently male (though he's stated he's given birth) character from centuries in the future, who would sex up anything that enjoyed sex. Anything. There are some shows that just never really "click" for me to read fic of any kind, but I do enjoy the slashy moments, no matter what the color of those involved.
All things considered, I'm pretty sure any of Idris Elba's characters could be slashed with just about anyone and I'd be happy. The reaction some had about him being cast as Heimdall in the Thor movies was definitely angry making. It's an alien culture, yet people are going to scream that it's the Nordic pantheon, so they'd have to be white? Did you miss the whole bit about this being a fantasy movie with an alien culture? The default of "alien" is not "white".
Unfortunately, the vast majority of characters we get are white, so fic is reflecting that as a mirror. I think it's definitely something to consider when writing fic though, because we don't have Hollywood studios or publishing houses telling us we have to have a straight white male lead character with a (preferably straight) black male sidekick. If a character can be genderbent, why not racebent? It's happening some in reality with the comics to movies genre, but it seems like two steps forward and five back with another film being whitewashed. Genderbent fic is not really my thing, but YKINMKATOK (your kink is not my kink and that's OK). I think a racebent story could be interesting, especially if you provide info on who your "fantasy cast" is. I have seen some wonderful racebent and genderbent casting images over on Tumblr. One reason I like fic is I know the characters, even if the setting is changed. It's a shortcut to get into the story because you know their personalities and how they look, so for racebending away from all white characters, visuals are helpful. Especially if it's Idris Elba in a suit. Or Gina Torres in just about anything, because the woman is a goddess.
Again, I have to wonder if my het and femslash reading friends get this complaint of racism if their pairings are white?
I certainly hang out in slash-friendly locales a lot, so I just don't know how it is elsewhere, but it always seems like when these bombs are lobbed, it's always at slash, never at het. Maybe I'm projecting from days in which gen and het of any rating were on one email list, while slash that was totally G-Rated had to go on a separate list, and slash zines were sold from under the table at cons. I've just been reading about some cons not allowing people to bring fan art to be signed by actors. It's mostly a money thing, because they want you to buy an official picture or whatever, but at least one made a comment about pictures of one heterosexual couple from a show was OK because it was canon, when the reality is they've had one non-romantic kiss. They're not actually a canon couple anymore than the popular slash pairing.
I admit, when I first read a slashfic twenty-mumble years ago, I never, ever, thought it would happen on screen in my lifetime. It has, multiple times over, just not enough for it to be considered common to general audiences. Just like we don't have enough female characters who exist outside of being a love interest, or POC in general. I'm going to quote Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Gingburg, when asked "How many women would be enough?" on the Court. She replied, "Nine. There've been nine men there for a long time, right?" She's pretty sassy for a lady in her 80s. I feel that's the kind of attitude to take to minority issues in fanfic. We may not be able to get to nine, but wouldn't it be awesome if we could at least get to six, and do it without shaming our fellow fans?
I kind of blew it off at the time, and decided it was time to close the fic and delete it off my Kindle, but the more I think about it, the more I wonder if this was a fic written in another fandom (perhaps by another author), and this author did a search and replace on the names, but didn't catch the Irish reference? It would have been an easy change out, as it was about the characters having a bit of role play fun. Have any of you run across this sort of thing before? I know there are sites that allow you to report suspected plagiarism, but I have no proof of it, just a gut feeling. I'm not making any accusation based on my gut, but that fic left me feeling kind of weird.
I just finished a book in a very popular series that essentially had mpreg in it. Not a birth in the "traditional" style of a quirk of biology or technology creating a womb to carry a child, but still, it was a male character who gave birth... after a fashion. I was kind of surprised to see it, as mpreg is a tough sell even in fanfic, though there are some very good ones out there. As long as there's some sort of reason, whether it's a not-exactly human trait or an oopsie with alien tech, I won't run screaming. Just setting up a world just like ours where men can also get pregnant as a matter of course is a whole different kettle of fish, mainly because it would literally change how things function in society on a level I can't even imagine. I'm curious to see how many things we think of as tropes in fanfic start to filter over into mainstream media.
Oh, and I also read about the billionth variation of "Slashers hate women and are racists!" What they wrote was much longer than that, but I summed it up. :) Now let me break this down by the bits I see most frequently.
1. Slashers hate women!
Just because I like to read about two or more guys fucking (or buying curtains) does not mean I hate women. It's a kink. My kink is not your kink, and that's OK.
2. Slashers hate the female character who get in the way of their OTP!
Eh, sometimes. I've read slash where the supposedly hated female character acted as Cupid. Or just generally better written than canon. I've also read some where the female character was demonized (sometimes literally), but I think it was more of a cathartic thing. Some just get so frustrated over female characters being The Love Interest to the detriment of being a character, that it comes across as hating the character in total. Even if they do, so what? I've hated my share of male characters too, often simply based on not liking the actor portraying them. Besides, as long as there's a warning about it in fic, or as they say on Tumblr, "Don't tag your hate" so someone looking for stuff about that character won't see your rant about them, I think we can all play nicely.
For my het reading friends, do you get this sort of backlash if your OTP is not canon? Are you automatically assumed to hate Jane, because the Lead Male Character is shown on screen in love with Jane and you're pairing him with Susan? I suppose femslashers could get this too, if there are enough women in the cast (that's another rant), or get yelled at for not liking a male character who gets in the way of their OTP.
3. Slashers are racist!
I'll admit this one threw me for a loop, and is relatively new to the rants I've been seeing for decades (damn, I'm old). The claim is we ignore men of color in favor of taking "straight white fantasy men" and making them gay. Now this is just me, but out of the 15 pairings I follow via RSS on AO3, one's het (gasp!), one character is Hispanic, two are black, and three are canon gay pairings. Should I mention that one of the guys in his natural form is green, but he disguises himself as a white guy? Or that one of the black characters is an android, so does that count? I mostly follow fic for sci-fi shows, so our definitions of race and even gender can get tossed out the window by an omnisexual apparently male (though he's stated he's given birth) character from centuries in the future, who would sex up anything that enjoyed sex. Anything. There are some shows that just never really "click" for me to read fic of any kind, but I do enjoy the slashy moments, no matter what the color of those involved.
All things considered, I'm pretty sure any of Idris Elba's characters could be slashed with just about anyone and I'd be happy. The reaction some had about him being cast as Heimdall in the Thor movies was definitely angry making. It's an alien culture, yet people are going to scream that it's the Nordic pantheon, so they'd have to be white? Did you miss the whole bit about this being a fantasy movie with an alien culture? The default of "alien" is not "white".
Unfortunately, the vast majority of characters we get are white, so fic is reflecting that as a mirror. I think it's definitely something to consider when writing fic though, because we don't have Hollywood studios or publishing houses telling us we have to have a straight white male lead character with a (preferably straight) black male sidekick. If a character can be genderbent, why not racebent? It's happening some in reality with the comics to movies genre, but it seems like two steps forward and five back with another film being whitewashed. Genderbent fic is not really my thing, but YKINMKATOK (your kink is not my kink and that's OK). I think a racebent story could be interesting, especially if you provide info on who your "fantasy cast" is. I have seen some wonderful racebent and genderbent casting images over on Tumblr. One reason I like fic is I know the characters, even if the setting is changed. It's a shortcut to get into the story because you know their personalities and how they look, so for racebending away from all white characters, visuals are helpful. Especially if it's Idris Elba in a suit. Or Gina Torres in just about anything, because the woman is a goddess.
Again, I have to wonder if my het and femslash reading friends get this complaint of racism if their pairings are white?
I certainly hang out in slash-friendly locales a lot, so I just don't know how it is elsewhere, but it always seems like when these bombs are lobbed, it's always at slash, never at het. Maybe I'm projecting from days in which gen and het of any rating were on one email list, while slash that was totally G-Rated had to go on a separate list, and slash zines were sold from under the table at cons. I've just been reading about some cons not allowing people to bring fan art to be signed by actors. It's mostly a money thing, because they want you to buy an official picture or whatever, but at least one made a comment about pictures of one heterosexual couple from a show was OK because it was canon, when the reality is they've had one non-romantic kiss. They're not actually a canon couple anymore than the popular slash pairing.
I admit, when I first read a slashfic twenty-mumble years ago, I never, ever, thought it would happen on screen in my lifetime. It has, multiple times over, just not enough for it to be considered common to general audiences. Just like we don't have enough female characters who exist outside of being a love interest, or POC in general. I'm going to quote Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Gingburg, when asked "How many women would be enough?" on the Court. She replied, "Nine. There've been nine men there for a long time, right?" She's pretty sassy for a lady in her 80s. I feel that's the kind of attitude to take to minority issues in fanfic. We may not be able to get to nine, but wouldn't it be awesome if we could at least get to six, and do it without shaming our fellow fans?