More on fic....

[partly]

Here I am, reading a fic that is well written and has characterizations that I can actually like, even if I don't agree with them. There are lines in it that I really like. Very clever transitions. A nice subtle approach to showing emotions and motivations.

I like it a lot.

The only irritating point is... it's slash. Now its "non-graphic" (by which I'm hopefully thinking they mean the body parts aren't going to be mentioned) and the emotional elements of the piece ring true. I would like it except for one thing: The way it is written, the only friendship between the two characters comes in the form of sex.

I HATE that. I really do. Friendship should stand for something, but it never does. When two characters care about each other -- dare I say love each other -- they got to be "doin' it". There no friends... no "family"... there is only SEX. I've seen it written: "It has to be more than friendship."

Why? Why is friendship finite? Why can't friendship be enough? Does our society hold "friendship" to be such a limited and shallow relationship?

I've always had a problem with the thought that a woman and a man who have a friendship or a close working relationship *must* have sex. It's the old third world view that if a man and a woman were alone together then the must have had sex.

Fanfic pushes it one step further. Not only are a man and a woman forbidden to have a platonic friendship, but two men or two woman aren't allowed to do that either.

All right. Before people start becoming apoplectic on me here I'm not saying that slash is evil or anything. I just find it limiting when that is the only acceptable view. You want to write about a relationship, fine. But don't go insisting that it is the only possible relationship. That the only deep and meaningful relationship is one that is based on sex.

And worse yet, that view is justified by using the slightest physical contact as some sort of proof. As if any type of touch is sexually motivated.

"Look," fans cry, "they touched, they must be having sex." I wonder occasionally if thats how they see real life. When they see me greeting a friend with a hug, do they immediately assume that we are having sex? Do they have sex with everyone they are friends with or do they not form close friendships unless they want to have sex? How will they ever have a close relationship with a child (their own or any other) if they can't hug or touch them or express caring for them without it carrying sexual overtones?

Slashers decry homophobia, but in my opinion they are the leading pushers of it. When they so adamantly insist that a hand on the shoulder or a expression of caring is proof of sexual involvement aren't they doing the very thing that they claim to hate in homophobics? I mean, they both see to men (or women) together and say: They touched they're having sex! The only difference is one group goes "ICK" and the other goes "Cool, let's watch."

I happen to find both reactions insulting.

I will read this piece because (so far) it is overcoming that voyeuristic tendancy of slash and is actually focusing on the characters. The writing is good (tight and interesting) and it comes close to avoiding the implication that the only close relationship is a sexual one.

How many slash fics can that actually be said of?

Comments

[amilyn.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Close, meaningful relationships don't have to have sex to be meaningful. It is sad that sex is presumed to be necessary for close, I agree.

view is justified by using the slightest physical contact as some sort of proof. As if any type of touch is sexually motivated.

And there is touching that I think is clearly indicative that more is going on than just the touching we saw. People can hug, can hold hands, can touch arms, shoulders, hair, backs, cheeks...all kinds of things without it meaning they're having sex. One of the rare bits of touching that I thought was definitely indicative of sex at other times was in an Voyager ep (the Katie-and-Chakotay-stranded-on-the-planet ep "Resolutions") involved them on the ground looking at something, leaning arms together, heads tilted together, sitting so that their faces were inches apart as they touched, giggling, standing up to walk back inside and bumping deliberately and fondly into each others' arms again, all while still giggling. It was practically nuzzling. THAT kind of stuff I'll take as "and later we'll take off our clothes and do more of this." But it takes a bit for me to find that even partially definitive.

[partly.livejournal.com]

I know the episode you are talking about and part of what makes me agree with that assessment is the fact that they were stranded on the planet, that they were looking at a life together and they were free of all the problems that command brought them.

There was a whole otherness about the situation that accented the scene. And it was a whole SCENE where it was just them and their interaction. It wasn't incidental touching and it wasn't touching that was going on in the background when there was a whole other issue in the foreground.

I suppose another thing that bothers me about a lot of "relationship" fostering (be it slash or het) is that it makes the characters look so shallow and base. No matter what is going on, no matter how dangerous or serious the situation, they always have time to toss off an induendo or two and to engage in some "touchy-feely". Give me a break.

[amilyn.livejournal.com]

Exactly. :-)