femslash in The Fast and the Furious
femslash06 is taking sign-ups for this year's ficathon and I'm really impressed with some of the wild card fandoms people have requested and say they can write. Lovely fandoms I really enjoy, most of them.
There's been talk about how House and Sports Night are making a really good showing in the wild card requests, when both of the fandoms have a major bent toward male slash (which even I know, at least in regard to House--I don't watch either show, nor have much experience with the fandoms), and it reminded me of my own pet fandom which is dominantly male slash oriented but where I want to see femslash. This is The Fast and the Furious, and I have requested it in my sign-up for femslash06, but if any of you would like to write me some, maybe for my upcoming birthday, I would adore you for all time.
I'm not very involved in FatF fandom (or in any fandom, at this point, I just kind of hover along the edges of many fandoms), but from what I've seen, the majority of the fic (and icons and vids, but I'm a ficcer, so I talk about fic) is male slash, and most of it is either Dominic/Brian from the first movie or Brian/Rome from the second (or variations of those three characters, usually Brian using Rome as a substitute for Dominic). I can see why, both movies are male slash friendly, and there are so many more guys than girls anyway.
(From here on out, I'm going to mostly ignore the second movie, because I've only seen it once, and don't own it, so I can't refer to the source material.)
However, the first movie does have two interesting female characters, Letty and Mia, and they are often ignored and/or abused. Even in the few het stories I've seen, both women are often cast aside in favor of an original female character (usually a Mary Sue).
I just don't understand it, especially with all the stories pairing Dom/Brian. I understand why they're put together (on different levels, from the "oooh, hot guys making out" [even though I don't actually find Brian hot] to the way they interact, which is very slash friendly, etc. etc.). What I don't understand is why there aren't more stories about Letty and Mia, either with other women or together.
Especially together.
Letty is a dominant, angry woman who, in my opinion, wants to be the center of Dominic's universe (or the center of anyone's universe, and Dom is the one she has) but she knows she will never be that to him, because he is the head of the family, he brings everyone together. As Mia says, he's like gravity, and he is the center of all their worlds, so no one person can be the center of his. Letty can drive away outside competition (see the catty comments and the verbal attacks on any woman who dares to speak to him when they are all in public, away from the garage and the house), but she can't do that with the family, and doesn't often try. The most she can do is distract him for awhile (see Letty immediately whisk Dom away from the after-race party to have time alone with him, despite their guests), but he always returns to his duties to everyone else.
This is only exacerbated by Brian's presence. He's the new guy, the bone of contention in the balance of the old group dynamics, the upgraded part which doesn't quite fit into the rest of the car. Brian takes Dom away from Letty; this does not have to be in a male slashy way, either, canonically he's taking up Dom's time in the garage and preparing for Race Wars, and there isn't a thing Letty can do about it.
Within the source material there are suggestions that Brian ties Mia and Dom together in his mind, not sexually, but that he's afraid to go after Dom as the criminal because Mia is related to him, and Brian cares for Mia. It's not difficult to extrapolate that perhaps Mia is a replacement for Dom in Brian's head, the Toretto he can lust after without dealing with the fallout of a homosexual desire. (Many male slash stories do extrapolate just that, in fact.)
I can see Letty doing the same thing to Mia; Dom is distracted by the others, Dom is busy, and Mia is there, always in the background. She is the safer of the Toretto siblings; while Dom is very dominant and argues his position (though he does often give in to Letty), Mia reveals her strong personality only in bursts. She is more subtle in the way she manages the others, and is the least entrenched in the racing mentality. She studies, and, it can be assumed, wants more than just the garage and the street racing life.
Mia also wants to be the center of someone's world, to come first before her brother, who brings everyone together.
So here are two women, both looking for validation and wanting to be wanted. One defies stereotypical female roles (Letty races, works in the garage, embraces her sexuality, is treated as "one of the guys" to the point she plays games and watches movies with them after dinner instead of doing dishes, which is Mia's job because she is female); one feels trapped within both female roles and familial roles (Mia wants to live somewhere where she doesn't have to cook and clean because she's the female, she wants to escape her brother's influence, she has greater dreams than street racing and theft). These two women watch their male sexual interests spend more time interacting with each other (sexual or not) than with them.
Why are they not paired? Mia wants out of her "place" as a woman and as a sister, which Letty has done; Letty wants to be important to someone, and Mia is looking for someone to love. Letty wants Dom, but if she can't have him constantly, why wouldn't she turn to Mia? Mia is an extension of Dominic, which she hates, but is used to people treating her as such.
Plus, if you're just looking for the hot, have you seen them? Yes. Yum.
I want to see stories where Dom's off with Brian (sexually or not), so Letty goes to Mia. Stories where Mia crushes on Letty for being so different from the female definition Mia is thrust into by her family (especially stories set before Dom notices Letty, and even stories where Mia is the experiment for Letty, thrust aside for Dom when he comes calling, and this makes Mia's need to be the important one, over and above Dom, even stronger). Stories where Mia and Letty are together after the movie, healing physically and mentally, which leads to sex. Stories where Letty overwhelms Mia, seduces her because she can. Stories where they sneak together at night, steal minutes wherever they can.
There is so much potential for them, why is it never touched?
So I hope someone writes me Mia/Letty. I'm working on at least one Mia/Letty story, and now I have more ideas. And if anyone has any links, I'd appreciate them.
There's been talk about how House and Sports Night are making a really good showing in the wild card requests, when both of the fandoms have a major bent toward male slash (which even I know, at least in regard to House--I don't watch either show, nor have much experience with the fandoms), and it reminded me of my own pet fandom which is dominantly male slash oriented but where I want to see femslash. This is The Fast and the Furious, and I have requested it in my sign-up for femslash06, but if any of you would like to write me some, maybe for my upcoming birthday, I would adore you for all time.
I'm not very involved in FatF fandom (or in any fandom, at this point, I just kind of hover along the edges of many fandoms), but from what I've seen, the majority of the fic (and icons and vids, but I'm a ficcer, so I talk about fic) is male slash, and most of it is either Dominic/Brian from the first movie or Brian/Rome from the second (or variations of those three characters, usually Brian using Rome as a substitute for Dominic). I can see why, both movies are male slash friendly, and there are so many more guys than girls anyway.
(From here on out, I'm going to mostly ignore the second movie, because I've only seen it once, and don't own it, so I can't refer to the source material.)
However, the first movie does have two interesting female characters, Letty and Mia, and they are often ignored and/or abused. Even in the few het stories I've seen, both women are often cast aside in favor of an original female character (usually a Mary Sue).
I just don't understand it, especially with all the stories pairing Dom/Brian. I understand why they're put together (on different levels, from the "oooh, hot guys making out" [even though I don't actually find Brian hot] to the way they interact, which is very slash friendly, etc. etc.). What I don't understand is why there aren't more stories about Letty and Mia, either with other women or together.
Especially together.
Letty is a dominant, angry woman who, in my opinion, wants to be the center of Dominic's universe (or the center of anyone's universe, and Dom is the one she has) but she knows she will never be that to him, because he is the head of the family, he brings everyone together. As Mia says, he's like gravity, and he is the center of all their worlds, so no one person can be the center of his. Letty can drive away outside competition (see the catty comments and the verbal attacks on any woman who dares to speak to him when they are all in public, away from the garage and the house), but she can't do that with the family, and doesn't often try. The most she can do is distract him for awhile (see Letty immediately whisk Dom away from the after-race party to have time alone with him, despite their guests), but he always returns to his duties to everyone else.
This is only exacerbated by Brian's presence. He's the new guy, the bone of contention in the balance of the old group dynamics, the upgraded part which doesn't quite fit into the rest of the car. Brian takes Dom away from Letty; this does not have to be in a male slashy way, either, canonically he's taking up Dom's time in the garage and preparing for Race Wars, and there isn't a thing Letty can do about it.
Within the source material there are suggestions that Brian ties Mia and Dom together in his mind, not sexually, but that he's afraid to go after Dom as the criminal because Mia is related to him, and Brian cares for Mia. It's not difficult to extrapolate that perhaps Mia is a replacement for Dom in Brian's head, the Toretto he can lust after without dealing with the fallout of a homosexual desire. (Many male slash stories do extrapolate just that, in fact.)
I can see Letty doing the same thing to Mia; Dom is distracted by the others, Dom is busy, and Mia is there, always in the background. She is the safer of the Toretto siblings; while Dom is very dominant and argues his position (though he does often give in to Letty), Mia reveals her strong personality only in bursts. She is more subtle in the way she manages the others, and is the least entrenched in the racing mentality. She studies, and, it can be assumed, wants more than just the garage and the street racing life.
Mia also wants to be the center of someone's world, to come first before her brother, who brings everyone together.
So here are two women, both looking for validation and wanting to be wanted. One defies stereotypical female roles (Letty races, works in the garage, embraces her sexuality, is treated as "one of the guys" to the point she plays games and watches movies with them after dinner instead of doing dishes, which is Mia's job because she is female); one feels trapped within both female roles and familial roles (Mia wants to live somewhere where she doesn't have to cook and clean because she's the female, she wants to escape her brother's influence, she has greater dreams than street racing and theft). These two women watch their male sexual interests spend more time interacting with each other (sexual or not) than with them.
Why are they not paired? Mia wants out of her "place" as a woman and as a sister, which Letty has done; Letty wants to be important to someone, and Mia is looking for someone to love. Letty wants Dom, but if she can't have him constantly, why wouldn't she turn to Mia? Mia is an extension of Dominic, which she hates, but is used to people treating her as such.
Plus, if you're just looking for the hot, have you seen them? Yes. Yum.
I want to see stories where Dom's off with Brian (sexually or not), so Letty goes to Mia. Stories where Mia crushes on Letty for being so different from the female definition Mia is thrust into by her family (especially stories set before Dom notices Letty, and even stories where Mia is the experiment for Letty, thrust aside for Dom when he comes calling, and this makes Mia's need to be the important one, over and above Dom, even stronger). Stories where Mia and Letty are together after the movie, healing physically and mentally, which leads to sex. Stories where Letty overwhelms Mia, seduces her because she can. Stories where they sneak together at night, steal minutes wherever they can.
There is so much potential for them, why is it never touched?
So I hope someone writes me Mia/Letty. I'm working on at least one Mia/Letty story, and now I have more ideas. And if anyone has any links, I'd appreciate them.