I'm in ur fandom, queerin ur narrative

[sabinelagrande]

So, I decided I needed a break from doing linguistic theory.

And I used it to write meta about gender norms. ::headdesk::

But anyway, mercurtin started this discussion about the verse I've been working on (see Fever High and Get Down and Crawl) and ladycat777's Marriedverse, so blame her. She makes some really excellent points about why these stories simply don't

Comments

[emrinalexander]

I'm kind of confuzzled, and I suck at meta, so take this for what's worth *G*, BUT . .

In life, people get together who make the ODDEST appearing couples - it does happen. I've seen men happily married to partners who made me, personally to observe: WHAT? THE HELL? with much head shaking. And they were and are quite happy.

Also, again, my opinion only, beneath John's "Hi want to play golf at the club before going to the opera?" sleek exterior, there is, to me, a big dork, who is a closet geek/nerd/smart, just like Rodney or Meredith or Rodney AND Meredith. (I always think that pretty is finite, an unpleasant personality is forever). Anyway, I cannot see John, for example, being attracted to/involved with for long/whatever a person of either sex who was only pretty. I also think the character is of an age - 40-something, where it's finally starting to penetrate his reptile male brain, that you can fuck a lot of pretty, but it's what's in their brains that stays interesting longer (and that goes back to my all cats are gray in the dark theory of men and sex).

Mer may not initially ping him on his "HOTHOTHOT 'o Meter. . . well, except that she kind of does here. One of my favorite things about sabinelagrande's two fics is that he actually LIKES McKay in the story, although, granted, that seems to sneak up on him before he sees it coming (as always).

My final observation on John (it's too small to be a point) is that John has already demonstrated the fact that while he apparently likes being in the Air Force, when it comes down to the bone, he's not ever made the typical "I'm climbing the ladder to General" career choices. He essentially torpedoed his career in Afghanistan and if he ever left the confines of the SGC appointment, I'm sure he'd be retiring as a Lt. Col. before long with the rest of chain of command going "How'd he get past Captain?" To have him fall for Meredith McKay seems, to me, entirely in character. I also think that John Sheppard is just queer/quirky enough to actually appreciate women in general and Mer in particular AS IS.

Oh, and lastly, I think these two characters, McKay & Sheppard, just seem to gravitate to each other, no matter what the story framework, gender seems secondary to the gravitational pull they have on each other.

That aside, Mer isn't stupid and she gets bored easily. Probably John is a lot of things, including infuriating to the point of her wanting to smother him with her own death star, but boring? I doubt it *G*.

[mecurtin]

people get together who make the ODDEST appearing couples - it does happen.

Absolutely -- this is part of why I feel conflicted, torn between what RL leads me to expect and the Rules of TeeVeeLand lead me to explect.

But I guess part of what I'm saying is that John in John/Mer breaks gender conventions almost as much as John/Rodney does -- more, in some ways, because military masculinity is supposed to be so homosocial.