Quistis frowned. "Would this be a bad time to announce that I'm bi?"

[draegonhawke]

"Okay, so, um, I promised Quistis I'd find her a date to the ball, so I'm going with her because I couldn't find anyone else X_X. Also, Quistis is bi, and she's going to be coming out at the SeeD meeting tonight, but it really doesn't have anything with us going to the ball, okay?" Selphie fidgeted nervously, waiting for Irvine's reaction. Quistis

Comments

[thebaconfat]

People projecting their own sexual expectations onto characters, regardless of whether or not anything was there.

Don't people pretty much project their own everything expectations onto characters?

I definitely agree that the notion that any interpersonal intensity is sexual in nature is ridiculous, but what I think it comes down to is that sex is important to a lot of people, so by extension, the sexuality of characters becomes important to them, too. It's annoying that many people in fandom think there's only one possible interpretation of a character's sexuality or personality and won't acknowledge that the creators' intentions might be totally unrelated to fandom's preferences. But, when it comes down to it, I think they're just that: preferences. I like to imagine that various characters have INTENSE UNREQUITED GAY CRUSHES on each other because I like reading about intense unrequited gay crushes. I also tend to read a lot of characters (Zell, for instance) as less competent than others might, because incompetence is something

[draegonhawke]

[Don't people pretty much project their own everything expectations onto characters?]

Yeah, they do, but with the exception of characterbash ("X character is a harpy slut and everyone hates her LOOK IT'S CANON!!"), it's been my experience that it's rarely as virulent as character sex speculation. My problem is not so much that it happens as that it happens to such a degree that it feels as though choices not to view characters through the sex-or-ship lens are steamrolled. I mean, in reading Zellfic, I'd be surprised if people kept coming to it and going "Wait, I can't read that because Zell is OBVIOUSLY MORE/LESS COMPETENT than displayed!" or interrupting the narrative to go "And clearly, this is all fueled by Zell's competence/incompetence." or even looking at everything with "But what does Zell's competence or lack of competence say about this?"

In Beneath a Beating Sun, which is an epicly gen fic about interpersonal relationships, I have a chapter with Col. O'Neill reflecting on the fact that one of his team just sacrificed

[thebaconfat]

regardless of character weight or narrative importance, it's still feeding a set of cultural expectations I don't want to do commerce with.

Ahh, I gotcha. Makes sense!