I'm in ur fandom, queerin ur narrative

[sabinelagrande]

So, I decided I needed a break from doing linguistic theory.

And I used it to write meta about gender norms. ::headdesk::

But anyway, mercurtin started this discussion about the verse I've been working on (see Fever High and Get Down and Crawl) and ladycat777's Marriedverse, so blame her. She makes some really excellent points about why these stories simply don't

Comments

[mecurtin]

Nancy, even from what little we see of her, is in no way the stereotypical military wife; I can't even conceive of her participating in phone trees or baking cookies for the boys

But I think she could very much be the modern officer's wife -- what ces calls General and Mrs. Big Washington Player. She's in Homeland Security, remember, which might mean "Bush administration appointee", a kind of Jenny Sanford or once and future lobbyist type, half of a Power Couple. That would also fit with Patrick liking her and maybe hoping she would direct John to make something "successful" out of his military career, moving up the military-industrial complex.

[ladycat777]

I agree with this. Nancy isn't a serviceman's stereotypical wife, but she's absolutely an officer's stereotypical wife. I wouldn't necessarily call it 'modern' since you can find instances of an ambitious wife managing the political aspects of her husband's career going back multiple centuries. The easiest is to look at English history, especially during the time of the Empire, which is chock full of them, but I bet it wouldn't be hard to find a great deal more in many countries.

[emrinalexander]

I'm kind of confuzzled, and I suck at meta, so take this for what's worth *G*, BUT

[mecurtin]

people get together who make the ODDEST appearing couples - it does happen.

Absolutely -- this is part of why I feel conflicted, torn between what RL leads me to expect and the Rules of TeeVeeLand lead me to explect.

But I guess part of what I'm saying is that John in John/Mer breaks gender conventions almost as much as John/Rodney does -- more, in some ways, because military masculinity is supposed to be so homosocial.

[ladycat777]

I should also point out that while [info]ladycat777 is lovely and moist and sticky and what not, we're not affiliated in any way; I actually haven't finished reading her het McShep stories, though what I've seen is excellent.

Moist and sticky, huh? Who've you been talking to?!

I do want to ditto that our styles, stories, and persons are very much unaffiliated. I haven't actually read your story (yet; god; I want to, but I'm not sure I can handle some of the darkness in it yet, because right now I am in all cupcake all the time ficland) but my glance at it and reading your comments here make me certain that they are nothing at all alike, beyond Meredith being a girl.

And, to add, excellent. Not that that's a similarity, just that I am so looking forward to reading it once I am out of cupcake land!

[sabinelagrande]

Possibly it is not as dark as I think, because I keep saying, "This story is dark! It is creepy! Meredith and John are not very nice people! They probably, like, make fun of old ladies and don't pay their electric bill on time! Do as I say, not as I write!" and people keep tagging it as humor and acting like it's sweet and such. YMMV. But, yes! I often live in cupcake land myself, so I know how it is.

So, yay for us!

[elkebaby]

I love this storyline in part because it's not some "happily ever-after"--the characters aren't perfect. (Part of what I like about Lally's too--but they DO seem to be getting happily ever after, abelt a bit f***ed up at times.)

I keep coming back to Meredith's tubal ligation, and wondering how very freaked out they'd be if they got pregnant. I can't imagine they'd really feel up to raising a child, and I can't imagine Meredith or John choosing to let Teyla's people raise the child...but I can see them both struggling in a decision about abortion. They're both so messed up that I think they'd decide they couldn't raise a child, but I keep wondering how it would go down.

(And can you imagine if they ended up meeting with Patrick before he dies, or if Meredith went with John and met Dave?)