Coming out...or not

[sistermagpie]

Recommending a nice post by bluefall here on characters leaving the closet. There's nothing I can really add to it, but the basic idea is just that slash so often deals with ostensibly straight characters, and so writers often deal with the characters themselves coming to the realization of being gay, but sometimes the process of coming out to other people

Comments

[night_axe]

I suspect the problem sometimes for a lot of fanfic authors, especially beginners, is they don't really want to get into the head of anybody really homophobic. They'll use them as a villain, maybe, but don't want to make them all that sympathetic or reasonable.

This. Fanfic writers often refuse to ascribe any kind of prejudice to the good guys, even if it is or might be canon. In addition to the motives you mentioned there's a tendency to whitewash, and sometimes concern that they'll be accused of sharing the prejudice because the character isn't portrayed negatively enough.

Fanfic could really use more complexity here. In Stargate: Atlantis John/Rodney fic, their friends are always understanding and supportive. The designated homophobe is nearly always Kavanagh, fandom's #1 hated character. I'd kill for a fic where Kavanagh's gay and Rodney's intolerant of him for a change, especially as Canon Rodney strikes me as not only the straightest straight guy who ever straighted, but a rather black and white thinker

[sistermagpie]

Not complicated at all--I agree! It's very common for people to just assume good=not prejudiced, so of course the people who like you will always like you etc. And yet that's one of the things that makes the situation for a gay person so complicated, I would imagine. Because you're with people you think like you, but suddenly you're revealed to be not what they thought you were. You're still the same person you always were, but suddenly they see something wrong with you--and that reveals something that's always been wrong with them.

I like those thoughts on Ron, especially. I totally do believe them. He could go either way. Plus he's also always got the peer pressure of his family on him so if they felt one way there'd be pressure for him to agree or be punished.