My issues with het...
There are a lot of folks out there who refuse to read het. I am not one of them. However, based on the last few het stories I've read (or tried to read) over the last day or to, I'm starting to see why 'het' is gradually becoming a dirty word.
Some of my main recurring issues with het fic:
-Inevitably, no matter how non-maternal or actively anti-children a female character is, she ends up wanting/having kids.
-Nearly always, no matter how equal a het relationship is before sex/romance comes into play, once the characters get together the man is in charge.
-Behavior that would not be considered acceptable in slash fic (stalking, manipulation, rape fantasies) are portrayed as romantic in het.
-Career-driven women are considered frigid; said career nearly always suffers (or magically takes care of itself) when the woman finally accepts that she's supposed to be with a man.
-So on and so forth...
The reason why I read slash is because I enjoy reading two equal (albeit different) characters in an equal relationship. In the real world, there are such equal relationships between a man and a woman (and in some unequal relationships, the woman is actually the more powerful person). However, judging from fanfic, 99.5% of all het relationships are borderline D/s, because all women secretly want to have a man take over their lives and give them babies.
I am a woman. I do not want a man to take over my life. I do not want babies. And, honestly, I'd like to see a fic where a couple chooses *not* to have children. Where the man is *not* dominating/manipulating/controlling his wife. Where the relationship is based on mutual respect and love and power is shared equally (or, even better, not an issue at all). Is that too much to ask for? *sigh*
Some of my main recurring issues with het fic:
-Inevitably, no matter how non-maternal or actively anti-children a female character is, she ends up wanting/having kids.
-Nearly always, no matter how equal a het relationship is before sex/romance comes into play, once the characters get together the man is in charge.
-Behavior that would not be considered acceptable in slash fic (stalking, manipulation, rape fantasies) are portrayed as romantic in het.
-Career-driven women are considered frigid; said career nearly always suffers (or magically takes care of itself) when the woman finally accepts that she's supposed to be with a man.
-So on and so forth...
The reason why I read slash is because I enjoy reading two equal (albeit different) characters in an equal relationship. In the real world, there are such equal relationships between a man and a woman (and in some unequal relationships, the woman is actually the more powerful person). However, judging from fanfic, 99.5% of all het relationships are borderline D/s, because all women secretly want to have a man take over their lives and give them babies.
I am a woman. I do not want a man to take over my life. I do not want babies. And, honestly, I'd like to see a fic where a couple chooses *not* to have children. Where the man is *not* dominating/manipulating/controlling his wife. Where the relationship is based on mutual respect and love and power is shared equally (or, even better, not an issue at all). Is that too much to ask for? *sigh*