Quietly tragic femslash
It's hard to make generalisations about what sorts of fic are common(*). But would people agree that there is a disproportionate amount of femslash (compared to het and boyslash) about characters who have a passionate secret affair before or during their canon relationships, angst about it, and then go on living their canon lives with a sense of bittersweet sorrow, pining but trapped by conventionality? (I'm not sure if that quite captures the pattern)
The most recent example I've come across: Grounded (This Is Not My Beautiful Life Mix) by kyuuketsukirui. Harry Potter :: Ginny/Luna, Ginny/Harry. (EDIT: apparently kyuuketsukirui meant it as a happy ending! So don't let my interpretation put you off the story :))
Bu I've encountered this plot a bunch of other places, especially in Anne of Green Gables fic.
I'm not saying it's a bad thing, though I'll admit I prefer happy endings myself. I just find it interesting, since I can't think of much(**) non-femslash fic I've read with that plot. Instead there's bittersweet unrequited love, or one of the character will die, or they are kept apart by personality clashes etc.
Maybe people are less comfortable writing men quietly cheating on their wives (if only in their hearts) without it turning into a Major Tragedy, and quietly sad passivity is more believable and sympathetic from women?
And I don't know, I have this feeling that in general femslash is rather prone to bittersweet and understated endings where the pairing aren't together at the end. And maybe less prone to big dramatic Shakespearean tragedy type endings where lots of people die or become evil or whatever.
Am I imagining things? Have I just had bad luck in choosing what fic to read, or find it easier to avoid het/boyslash with sad endings because there's more to choose from? If I'm right what do you think is behind it?
(*)unless you're willing to read a really large random sample, and I'm only willing to go so far for science :)
(**)Off the top of my head I can't think of any, but I'm sure there is some
The most recent example I've come across: Grounded (This Is Not My Beautiful Life Mix) by kyuuketsukirui. Harry Potter :: Ginny/Luna, Ginny/Harry. (EDIT: apparently kyuuketsukirui meant it as a happy ending! So don't let my interpretation put you off the story :))
Bu I've encountered this plot a bunch of other places, especially in Anne of Green Gables fic.
I'm not saying it's a bad thing, though I'll admit I prefer happy endings myself. I just find it interesting, since I can't think of much(**) non-femslash fic I've read with that plot. Instead there's bittersweet unrequited love, or one of the character will die, or they are kept apart by personality clashes etc.
Maybe people are less comfortable writing men quietly cheating on their wives (if only in their hearts) without it turning into a Major Tragedy, and quietly sad passivity is more believable and sympathetic from women?
And I don't know, I have this feeling that in general femslash is rather prone to bittersweet and understated endings where the pairing aren't together at the end. And maybe less prone to big dramatic Shakespearean tragedy type endings where lots of people die or become evil or whatever.
Am I imagining things? Have I just had bad luck in choosing what fic to read, or find it easier to avoid het/boyslash with sad endings because there's more to choose from? If I'm right what do you think is behind it?
(*)unless you're willing to read a really large random sample, and I'm only willing to go so far for science :)
(**)Off the top of my head I can't think of any, but I'm sure there is some