So, het fans, potentially odd question for you.

[havocthecat]

This is especially for the exclusively het fans, I think, but not just for them.

Are you more likely to read a story with a beloved pairing front and center if the story contains background femslash? Or are you less likely to read a story like that?

I'm just really, really curious here.

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Comments

[angelqueen04]

Femslash has never bothered me, as you know. ;) If I'm reading a story because the main pairing is my OTP, then other pairings aren't going to stop me. It's rare that I skip a story just because of the other pairings. It would have to be something that would really really squick me out, but it rarely happens.

[havocthecat]

I seem to remember you writing several femslash stories, also! And after writing Elizabeth/Wraith Queen, how much squicks you out? ;)

[angelqueen04]

Hee, very little, I guess. ;)

[roeskva]

I mostly read het or gen (though I will sometimes read slash or femslash).

Other pairings in a story, aside from my favourite pairing, have no influence on my willingness to read a story - it doesn't matter if those other pairings are het, slash, femslash, or not present. If the story is about my favourite pairing I will happily read about any other pairings - het, slash, femslash is all fine with me.

[sabaceanbabe]

That would make me neither more or less likely to read it. Fandom, characters, premise, and sometimes writer will make me more or less likely to read something. The only time a pairing would stop me would be if it was a pairing I don't like (or have come to dislike). *cough* Kara/Lee *cough*

[havocthecat]

I have to admit, if I have something vehemently against a background pairing, it has to be a pretty fucking awesome writer to get me to read that story. Partly because I spend 90% of the story waiting for the author to pull a "surprise" break-up of the main pairing listed in order to get some other pairing together, or something relentlessly annoying like that.

[bana05]

The only way I would be less likely to read it is if I didn't like the background pairing; and even then I'd probably just skip over those parts.

[havocthecat]

I've done my fair share of skimming over pairings I can't abide, I have to admit. (Though I was wondering if, for some people, it was same-gender pairings that prompted the skimming.)

[bana05]

Not for me, I treat them the same way I treat het--I skip over the het pairings that aren't of any interest to me if I'm reading a story with a het pairing I like as the main focus.

[havocthecat]

That makes sense. Thanks!

[fleurlb]

I'll pretty much at least try to read anything, and that goes double when it involves a beloved pairing. The fandoms I love most are fairly small, so I've always felt that I have to be kind of flexible about my reading habits in order to get the character-y goodness that I crave in fanfic.

A lot also depends on an author. There are some authors whose het/gen work I love so much, I will read their slash, even though it's not my thing. (And in these cases, it always seems to be m/m slash.) I suppose I'd be even happier to read their femslash, even if it was just a minor part of a larger story.

[havocthecat]

I know what you mean. There are some authors whom I'd trust to write anything, even if it's a pairing I'm normally not into. And I've had the same situation as you, in that I have to be flexible on my pairings to get enough fic of the characters I like. It's part of why I ended up as a serious multishipper.

For example, to get enough Sophie fic, I would read Sophie/almost anyone, though I think I would eye Sophie/Sterling askance and demand that the author be really amazing to make it work for me. (For SGA, I refuse to read Elizabeth/Kolya. I just have this thing about not shipping people with men that threatened to enslave them.)