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[silviakundera]

The thing is, I just posted this as a comment --

See, I've tried and tried and I so cannot do that (the whole writing about your own sexuality thing). It's rare that I write and read femslash, because it's just... it's obviously great fun when you DO IT but somehow the written word cannot really capture it right. It's all off, and makes me self-

Comments

[wrenlet]

Honestly, I have that problem with hetfic *laughs* I can't write it AT ALL, and usually only read it when it's recommended to me. (And even then, sometimes I find I skim the sex parts in favor of everything else.) I can't seem to shut off the part of my brain going "but I wouldn't like that" and "god, her nipples have to be aching by now" etc.

[silviakundera]

Yes, exactly! I'm always distracted about whether it would be hot to me, and also the relationship stuff too - the way the women relate to each other.

Similar to how it's hard to watch movies where the characters/universe are set in your profession, your culture, your city. I live in Orange Country, so watching The OC was, like, NO. And I can't read fic where character 'play goth', because I spent years in the goth scene and I'm just hyper critical about everything.

[phineasjones]

this is v weird. on my drive home just now, i was thinking about making a post that said pretty much exactly what you've said here. spooky.

[silviakundera]

yay! fandom hive mind strikes again!

[dine]

I tend to read slash (cause it's still queer) and gen for particular writers/plotlines, but sadly, I have no recs for you, because I have the exact same problem in reading femslash.

[desdema]

I don't have any recs for you, but I want to throw in a "me too." Femslash almost always feels like I'm reading about myself and my past relationships. I can't help but very explicitly self-insert with femslash in a way that I don't with m/m. I certainly project my own issues onto the m/m characters as well but it's so much less personal when I'm reading about men. And the problem with personalizing femslash for me is twofold. On one hand, as you mention, when femslash doesn't reflect my own experiences I tend to dismiss it. On the other hand, when it does fit with my experiences it just feels too personal and brings up too much of my own baggage to be entertaining

[silviakundera]

I think I may judge a lot of femslash more harshly because the fic writers are extrapolating a relationship from limited contact and that makes the situation more open to my judgements of what I believe from my own experience would or would not happen.

I think you're right, about how it makes it easier to personalize it, open it to my judgements, when the relationship isn't really there on the show. Maybe canon pairings would be easier. Canonical femslash I've most enjoyed was Sugar Rush Season 1. If anyone could ever point me to well written Kim/Sugar 'happily ever after' fic then I'd totally read it. If it was well done with good characterization, I think I'd probably like it.

I've enjoyed the canon femslash romance in Skins Season 3, but I actually don't know if I want fic there because they kind of wrapped that up pretty well for me.

I know there's kind of a tiny fandom for Ivy/Rachel from The Hollows book series (a fantastic series with femslash UST-- canon lesbian vampire in love with straight(?) witch best friend, who's

[silviakundera]

The only pieces of femslash I can think of to rec are these ones -- Fell In Love With A Girl (22,000 words, Teyla/Kate, Stargate Atlantis)
The writing is so good, and Teyla comes off so endearing, that it sold the pairing for me even though it was rather unconventional.

The Trouble You're In (9,000 words, Teyla/Sora, Stargate Atlantis)
Again, good writing. I read femslash subtext into their relationship, so it was easy to sell this pairing to me. This isn't a happily-ever-after fic, though.

[desdema]

Thanks for the recs! I'll take a look at those.

Your mentions of canon femslash have me reevaluating what I said before about canonicity maybe being the key for me, because even then I'm still so particular. I really enjoyed Sugar Rush but never found any fic that resonated with me. Skins is next on my list of shows to check out, though, so maybe I'll find something there. I also understand how satisfaction with a show can make the fic search feel unnecessary, as that was my experience with Bad Girls. I suspect if I'd been part of the fandom as the show was airing I'd have been into fic for that one, though.

This is a topic that's swirled in my brain a lot, so thanks for prompting me to reconsider some of my assumptions.

[throughadoor]

Man, I don't have any suggestions but I feel the EXACT SAME WAY. I always worried I was the only one and it made me a bad lesbian.

[silviakundera]

This thread is totally making me feel like less of a bad lesbian! This is great. WE ARE NOT ALONE.