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Check Your Work Day 2: Bromance is a bitch
Jan. 2nd, 2012 10:45 pmLet me share with you a theory. First, a brief history of slash as told by someone who really only cares about the lesbians. Slash was invented by Star Trek fandom in the 60s; let that be a factor in all your Wars vs. Trek debates. At the time, it was very underground. With the advent of the internet, slash had an environment to flourish, and inevitably, it came to the attention of TPTB. Although a rare few cases embraced this new fanbase (Xena), there was also a lot of backlash. Viewers of Stargate SG-1 shipped Daniel/Jack, so the writers stopped giving Daniel scenes with Jack and introduced a hot alien to love triangle with them. I think similar things happened with DS9 and Smallville, but what the hell do I know, I’m a blogger.
Then came social media, right on the heels of the idea of creating internet buzz. In this environment, a small but fervent fanbase, such as slashers, could have a disproportionate effect on a property's buzz. Now, much like how political parties will quietly welcome extremists like Nazis and Communists into their fold, the writers wanted to court this money, get those tweets and Likes coming, while not offending the mainstream with canonically gay characters.
And I think that’s how bromance has sprung forth. By definition, it’s not about gay representation, so what is the authorial intent behind this? Who is it meant for? Put simply, what is the point of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson being portrayed as gay by messners Downey and Law? Do the movies go into any detail about homosexuality in the Victorian era? Does it shed new light on their characters? Does it replicate, in a modern way, the original intent of the Arthur Conan Doyle stories?
I think, in the end, it’s meant more for people who want gay jokes than gay characters. More than that, it’s a way to cut out female characters. Before, emotionally intense relationships had to involve men and women, because m/m emotions were gay and no one gave a shit about f/f relationships. It wasn’t pretty, but at least there was a seat at the table. Now you have movies like Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, where a female character can’t even get fridged right. In the 90s, if the villain killed the girlfriend, at least he’s say something like “You know, she begged for her life before I killed her” and then the hero would get super-pissed and kill him and say something like “That drop onto a crane hook set on fire was for Mary!” Now, the villain kills the girl, everyone forgets about her, and he threatens to kill the boyfriend to get a reaction (of course, the boyfriend never gets killed off. It's a bromance!).
But let’s put aside the bitching a moment, since I’m sure I’ve offended you enough.(Wait… ‘’Batman/Robin fics are of a moral equivalence with m/f rapefics, given the vast discrepancy between the two characters in any possible hierarchy.’ There, now I’ve offended you enough). There is a lesbian variant on a bromance, naturally enough, which I will dub the homance. As you might’ve guessed, this is where two women are in an emotionally intense relationship, often placing each other above family (“I would’ve gone to my father’s birthday party, but you needed me more.”) or romantic interests (“I like your brother, but I love you. So if the two of us being in a relationship bothers you, we’ll call it off. I can find someone else. I can’t find another you.”). But They’re Not Gay.
Now whether this arises by design (Lost Girl, at least season one) or accident (Rizzoli & Isles), it’s like a bromance in that it’s about the tease, not the please. So what does it say about me that I’ve written two?
Now, there are a couple stories I’ve written with canon lesbian couples. I try not to overdo it, and in fact so far I’ve written more queer male characters than females. My philosophy is that there have been so many bait-and-switch lesbians that if I’m going to tell a lesbian story, it should be canon and it should have a happy ending. Hence, when I was writing this one female friendship where the plot dictated they wouldn’t end up anywhere close to together, I made it clear they weren’t romantically involved. If certain interested parties want to take more away from that than I’ve written, I can’t be held accountable.
Lil burst into Kore’s room, brandishing a half-lit candelabra and a sheathed sword, still attached to its belt. In the dark, with all the extraneous furniture shadowed, Kore seemed in her element. Moonbeams dripped down to reveal portions of her coiled form. A clenched fist, a tensed leg, an eye focused on Lil. Kore was lying on top of the sheets, awake but unmoving like a drifting crocodile.
Lil pirouetted in the light from the hallway. “I could’ve danced all night…” she sang, stopping to laugh. “You should’ve stayed, Kore. Everyone was so nice and understanding, not like those fascists at Disneyland.”
“Shut the door,” Kore said, dragging a pillow over her face.
Sobering with suspicious quickness, Lil bumped the door shut. The candelabra formed an aura of light around Lil. As she got closer to Kore, the flame revealed the ugly tangle of sheets, the drying sweat with its stony gleam.
“Special K? What’s wrong?” Lil set the candelabra down on the bedstand and crawled across the gargantuan mattress to reach her friend. Kore was staring up at the moon, watching it drift into darkness. Lil put her arms around her, and was reassured by the even beat of Kore’s heart and the slowness of her breath. As best she could, Lil wiggled a hand under Kore until it met the one she had over Kore.
“You wanna talk about it?” Lil asked through the pain of Kore crushing her right arm.
Kore shook her head and Lil held her tighter.
“Would you like to have sex?”
Kore rolled over, away from Lil, releasing her arm. “I just want to lie here with my best friend a minute.”
Lil scooted over as close as she could, like she was a piece of armor Kore could put on. “I can do that.” She gave Kore’s back a fond rub. “You know, I think that’s the first time you’ve ever called me your best friend…”
“Sorry about the wait,” Kore replied. Her voice broken.
“It’s okay. That’s not how you say it.”
Kore reached back and, when her hand hit the moonlight, Lil took it and squeezed with all her might. Then she was quiet for a while, but Lil recognized it wasn’t because she was soothed, but that she had something new to slot into her calculations.
“He doesn’t have anyone, does he?” Kore asked.
“Joe? He doesn’t need anyone.”
Kore sprung out of bed to grab a trenchcoat from the closet the Sidhe had furnished for her. She clasped it over her sleepwear. “That’s not the point.”
“He’s just a boy.” Lil wasn’t too concerned to steal Kore’s pillow. “Don’t get hurt.”
Kore looked back at Lil as she tied her coat’s belt. “I think I’d rather have a broken heart than no heart.”
Lil smiled sleepily. “He’s a lucky man. Hey, as long as you’re up, could you see about grabbing me some of those chocolate-covered raisins? They’re good eating.”
Kore stopped to kiss Lil’s forehead on her way out. “It’s a date.”
What? Men snuggle and offer to have sex with each other all the time.
But now I’m thinking of deliberately writing a homance as a stylistic choice. I found a good plot for the Punch Drunk cast and I thought it’d be fun to do the central relationship as a “friendship” rather than a romance. It lets you go a bit more broad—if you’re doing a “they’re possibly not gay,” then you can have a scene where they have to sleep in the same motel bed and wake up cuddling with each other. You do that with them officially USTing, it’s too much. You do it with a figleaf of deniability, it’s like there’s an in-joke between you and fandom.
I think the difference is whether the homance is telling a heterosexual story or a homosexual one, in the end. While I think Sherlock Holmes is sorta a conventional het story in drag (with female love interests for both Holmes and Watson), if you leave out the heterosexual love interests and just have two women who seem really close, that’s just depiction. Not every romance story is going to have an NC-17 love scene. So this, you can take it as two women becoming friends, or as the precursor to a romantic relationship (which would make a sequel really easy to write. You can quote me on that when these books make it big and you’re all looking for canon to back up your OTP).
As for bromance, I wrote one or two. Between a straight guy and a gay man who is in a relationship with the third male hero of the ensemble. Oh. Oh. NOW WHAT?
Then came social media, right on the heels of the idea of creating internet buzz. In this environment, a small but fervent fanbase, such as slashers, could have a disproportionate effect on a property's buzz. Now, much like how political parties will quietly welcome extremists like Nazis and Communists into their fold, the writers wanted to court this money, get those tweets and Likes coming, while not offending the mainstream with canonically gay characters.
And I think that’s how bromance has sprung forth. By definition, it’s not about gay representation, so what is the authorial intent behind this? Who is it meant for? Put simply, what is the point of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson being portrayed as gay by messners Downey and Law? Do the movies go into any detail about homosexuality in the Victorian era? Does it shed new light on their characters? Does it replicate, in a modern way, the original intent of the Arthur Conan Doyle stories?
I think, in the end, it’s meant more for people who want gay jokes than gay characters. More than that, it’s a way to cut out female characters. Before, emotionally intense relationships had to involve men and women, because m/m emotions were gay and no one gave a shit about f/f relationships. It wasn’t pretty, but at least there was a seat at the table. Now you have movies like Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, where a female character can’t even get fridged right. In the 90s, if the villain killed the girlfriend, at least he’s say something like “You know, she begged for her life before I killed her” and then the hero would get super-pissed and kill him and say something like “That drop onto a crane hook set on fire was for Mary!” Now, the villain kills the girl, everyone forgets about her, and he threatens to kill the boyfriend to get a reaction (of course, the boyfriend never gets killed off. It's a bromance!).
But let’s put aside the bitching a moment, since I’m sure I’ve offended you enough.(Wait… ‘’Batman/Robin fics are of a moral equivalence with m/f rapefics, given the vast discrepancy between the two characters in any possible hierarchy.’ There, now I’ve offended you enough). There is a lesbian variant on a bromance, naturally enough, which I will dub the homance. As you might’ve guessed, this is where two women are in an emotionally intense relationship, often placing each other above family (“I would’ve gone to my father’s birthday party, but you needed me more.”) or romantic interests (“I like your brother, but I love you. So if the two of us being in a relationship bothers you, we’ll call it off. I can find someone else. I can’t find another you.”). But They’re Not Gay.
Now whether this arises by design (Lost Girl, at least season one) or accident (Rizzoli & Isles), it’s like a bromance in that it’s about the tease, not the please. So what does it say about me that I’ve written two?
Now, there are a couple stories I’ve written with canon lesbian couples. I try not to overdo it, and in fact so far I’ve written more queer male characters than females. My philosophy is that there have been so many bait-and-switch lesbians that if I’m going to tell a lesbian story, it should be canon and it should have a happy ending. Hence, when I was writing this one female friendship where the plot dictated they wouldn’t end up anywhere close to together, I made it clear they weren’t romantically involved. If certain interested parties want to take more away from that than I’ve written, I can’t be held accountable.
Lil burst into Kore’s room, brandishing a half-lit candelabra and a sheathed sword, still attached to its belt. In the dark, with all the extraneous furniture shadowed, Kore seemed in her element. Moonbeams dripped down to reveal portions of her coiled form. A clenched fist, a tensed leg, an eye focused on Lil. Kore was lying on top of the sheets, awake but unmoving like a drifting crocodile.
Lil pirouetted in the light from the hallway. “I could’ve danced all night…” she sang, stopping to laugh. “You should’ve stayed, Kore. Everyone was so nice and understanding, not like those fascists at Disneyland.”
“Shut the door,” Kore said, dragging a pillow over her face.
Sobering with suspicious quickness, Lil bumped the door shut. The candelabra formed an aura of light around Lil. As she got closer to Kore, the flame revealed the ugly tangle of sheets, the drying sweat with its stony gleam.
“Special K? What’s wrong?” Lil set the candelabra down on the bedstand and crawled across the gargantuan mattress to reach her friend. Kore was staring up at the moon, watching it drift into darkness. Lil put her arms around her, and was reassured by the even beat of Kore’s heart and the slowness of her breath. As best she could, Lil wiggled a hand under Kore until it met the one she had over Kore.
“You wanna talk about it?” Lil asked through the pain of Kore crushing her right arm.
Kore shook her head and Lil held her tighter.
“Would you like to have sex?”
Kore rolled over, away from Lil, releasing her arm. “I just want to lie here with my best friend a minute.”
Lil scooted over as close as she could, like she was a piece of armor Kore could put on. “I can do that.” She gave Kore’s back a fond rub. “You know, I think that’s the first time you’ve ever called me your best friend…”
“Sorry about the wait,” Kore replied. Her voice broken.
“It’s okay. That’s not how you say it.”
Kore reached back and, when her hand hit the moonlight, Lil took it and squeezed with all her might. Then she was quiet for a while, but Lil recognized it wasn’t because she was soothed, but that she had something new to slot into her calculations.
“He doesn’t have anyone, does he?” Kore asked.
“Joe? He doesn’t need anyone.”
Kore sprung out of bed to grab a trenchcoat from the closet the Sidhe had furnished for her. She clasped it over her sleepwear. “That’s not the point.”
“He’s just a boy.” Lil wasn’t too concerned to steal Kore’s pillow. “Don’t get hurt.”
Kore looked back at Lil as she tied her coat’s belt. “I think I’d rather have a broken heart than no heart.”
Lil smiled sleepily. “He’s a lucky man. Hey, as long as you’re up, could you see about grabbing me some of those chocolate-covered raisins? They’re good eating.”
Kore stopped to kiss Lil’s forehead on her way out. “It’s a date.”
What? Men snuggle and offer to have sex with each other all the time.
But now I’m thinking of deliberately writing a homance as a stylistic choice. I found a good plot for the Punch Drunk cast and I thought it’d be fun to do the central relationship as a “friendship” rather than a romance. It lets you go a bit more broad—if you’re doing a “they’re possibly not gay,” then you can have a scene where they have to sleep in the same motel bed and wake up cuddling with each other. You do that with them officially USTing, it’s too much. You do it with a figleaf of deniability, it’s like there’s an in-joke between you and fandom.
I think the difference is whether the homance is telling a heterosexual story or a homosexual one, in the end. While I think Sherlock Holmes is sorta a conventional het story in drag (with female love interests for both Holmes and Watson), if you leave out the heterosexual love interests and just have two women who seem really close, that’s just depiction. Not every romance story is going to have an NC-17 love scene. So this, you can take it as two women becoming friends, or as the precursor to a romantic relationship (which would make a sequel really easy to write. You can quote me on that when these books make it big and you’re all looking for canon to back up your OTP).
As for bromance, I wrote one or two. Between a straight guy and a gay man who is in a relationship with the third male hero of the ensemble. Oh. Oh. NOW WHAT?
