Brief meta-ish thoughts

[mab_browne]

You lot know me and my impressions about fandom. One impression I have of TS fandom, versus other fandoms that I’ve read reasonably widely in, is that TS contains an awful lot of rape and childhood sexual abuse stories. I’m going to stick with that as an impression because ::sing-song voice:: I have a theory

Comments

[snycock]

I do agree with you that isolation being a major theme in TS may contribute to the preponderance of rape and sexual abuse fics. Also, for both characters, the experience of being raised (essentially) by single parents. Not that people from homes with both parents can't be raped and/or abused, but I think the lack of one parent, for both Jim and Blair, gives them a kind of vulnerability that may often manifest in rape/abuse fics. The same could be said, I guess, of Supernatural (I've only started watching with Season Two, and I'm a little behind right now

[mab_browne]

The vulnerability of children with single parents is also underlined because however you call it, even with the best intentions, Jim's father failed him. And a whole heap of people like to assume that Naomi failed Blair, although frankly she can't have been that bad because Blair generally strikes me as pretty together.

I'm not sure that I'm entirely getting my head around what you mean by rape scenario identifying sexuality. Or at least maybe I do, if you mean a story where, for example, a gaybashing or similar is part of the convenient revelation to get those apparently hetero boys together. Elucidation? Because in many ways, I find a rape/abuse story can be a barrier because an unfortunate number of writers descend into the 'fuck it better' situation, which just doesn't work for me.

[snycock]

if you mean a story where, for example, a gaybashing or similar is part of the convenient revelation to get those apparently hetero boys together.

Yeah, that's exactly what I meant, and I guess, in my head, I was including attempted rape as well as physical assault. I'm with you on the "fuck it better" scenario, though...don't like those at all.

lesser of two

[mazal_]

"The vulnerability of children with single parents is also underlined because however you call it, even with the best intentions, Jim's father failed him. And a whole heap of people like to assume that Naomi failed Blair, although frankly she can't have been that bad because Blair generally strikes me as pretty together."

You're making two excellent points here.

One is the idea of vulnerability of the single-parent-raised child; even in RL, this, sadly, is something that far too few people recognize.

The other is that Naomi is (at least IMHO) too often villified in fic, with people assuming the worst about her. Obviously, she has her faults -- especially being alternately self-absorbed and over-controlling (which actually I think is good characterization for a person of her demographic of being a Jewish hippie single mom). I apparently and admittedly have a more charitable view of her than most. But I think the proof is, as you say, that Blair, ultimately, is far less psychologically damaged than Jim.

[tesserae_]

So, more widely, does this mean that certain facets of fandom canon will direct the type of story that gets created because of the type of fan that gets attractedShort answer yes; slightly longer answer is that I think certain characters and stories resonate with different people. In BtVS/ ATS, which has a large cast (and a cast, moreover, drawn from mythic archetypes), people used to talk about "entry characters" - the character that drew you into the fandom or whose voice or story drew you into writing. Obviously, in TS, it's a more limited cast; but if you take it apart that way, both Jim and Blair play a lot of different (mythic) roles, and my guess would be that it's a *particular* one of their roles that functions as the entry point for most people

[mab_browne]

I've checked your link but at 18,500 words I thought I'll answer your comment first. :-)

The damage point is a useful one, because it's true that most non-con stories in TS are indeed a variation on the h/c theme. It was Anna S/Eliade I think who made a comment to the effect that 'extreme damage' was an attraction to her, and certainly abuse/rape covers that sort of area. (And she wrote one of the 'ultimate' TS rape stories too).

I agree that being affected by the theme of that ultimate h/c doesn't necessarily mean a direct working out of past traumas, (icon to the contrary *g*) although I can think of at least one TS writer, whom I won't name for obvious reasons, that I'd lay good money was working out some nasty past event.

[mab_browne]

Have read the story. As we expressed it on some earlier occasion - OMG the fic is good in this fandom! Thanks for the heads-up. I might have missed it otherwise.

[briarwood]

Does the wincest come out of slashy determination to slash pretty men regardless, or is it a reflection of the likelihood that your readers and writers might already be dark-ficly inclined?Why assume incest is automatically "dark"? It's not, y'know

[mab_browne]

Why assume incest is automatically "dark"?

That's a fair enough point. I think that part of what makes it possible to at least accept the incest idea in Supernatural is the basic premise of the big fight against evil and what was clearly a screwed up childhood, and that does lead into darkfic areas. Given that premise, the idea that the incest is a source of comfort, while maybe a little strange outside of 'fandom' thinking, isn't so unlikely. And I can cope with the incest idea, even if I don't usually seek it out, but really cannot deal with RPF.

I was at a mini-con earlier this year, and we had a bit of a symposium on the incest question - why is Wincest sexy and Luthorcest creepy, etc etc, and the issues of power balance were part of the discussion. There was a woman there who had knowledge of a real-life incest situation, and she questioned whether even sibling incest could be completely free of unfair power issues when there has been a lifelong relationship between the siblings involved, especially when there's a

[wneleh]

I'm afraid that most everything I could say on this topic others have said better.

One additional point - in TS, there are no soul-sucking aliens running around, and Jim and Blair are never called on to save the world. So angst has to come from elsewhere.

- Helen

[mab_browne]

there are no soul-sucking aliens running around

Indeed. *g* But my favourite SGA angst is probably Trinity, where the conflict (and solar system destruction) comes out of Rodney's personal flaws.