I could say sex pollen is a date rape drug, but I won't

[seriousfic]

The cycle continues and now an old issue is (re)gaining prominence, which is one of whether slash is appropriation. I don't expect it will be resolved this time, any more than it has before, since the issue is just so hard to reconcile. Since I'm neither a gay man or a slasher, I don't really have a dog in this fight, but I do have a question.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but the key issue here is that gay men are upset at being treated like lipstick lesbians in a Skinemax movie. They see fangirls writing homosexuality in a way that caters to straight women and think they're being exploited by people who don't really know or care what their lives are really like.

So, if that's the case with gay men and slash, what about non-con? What about chan?

Let's say a kink meme shows up and someone writes a fic about, I don't know, John Winchester and 11-year-old Dean seducing him (it could happen, it's Supernatural fandom). Obviously, this doesn't bear much relation to real child molestation. So, does the author bear a responsibility to reflect the reality of child abuse or is it just kinky fun?

Same question with non-con, or to put it bluntly, rape. It goes without saying that no one is going to respond to a rape by saying "Well, that was a bloody good time!" or by admitting that they were actually in love with their rapist and it just took a healthy dose of surprise sex to make them see it. So do non-con fics marginalize the feelings of real-life rape victims, or even play into misogynistic attitudes like "she was asking for it"?

Comments

[dancinguniverse.livejournal.com]

So do non-con fics marginalize the feelings of real-life rape victims, or even play into misogynistic attitudes like "she was asking for it"?

I would argue absolutely, but then, I've never wanted to go into that debate because I don't even have any interest in arguing about it.

And I've definitely seen slash as appropriation mentioned before, but since there aren't many men in slash to complain about it, the arguments never seem to last very long. Which doesn't mean the slashers are right, just that there's not usually anyone around to defend the other side.

I will say that most of the fandoms I read seem to have grown out of the whole, "being gay is gross, and I'm not gay or anything, I just love you!" phase, and gone right into, "Rodney was always bi, no big deal," which... yes, it's still played for porn, but at least it's realistic porn. Does that matter? It would to me.

[rann.livejournal.com]

Generally, the response I've seen to raising such issues has been "Stop trying to destroy our sexuality and shackle us to your ideas of what turn women on, male oppressor!"

'Course that may have just been what I've encountered.

The thing is, I believe slightly more in limits of characterization than I do in limits of content. Write what you want. If you wanna write non-con, fine, warn about it and if that's someone's "trigger" then they should know better than to read it, because that's the point of the warning. Same for underage, humiliation, domination, watersports, scat, impregnation, whatEVER. Fanfic is not an awesome responsibility, it is just for fun.

The problem comes, and it generally comes from the females-writing-slash corner, where it is treated not only as an awesome responsibility, but also one that can be flouted at will. That fanfic is somehow empowering, truth-telling, as much a compulsion as sexuality (to write AND to read)... but that this aspect can be taken on and off as easily as Horatio switches sunglasses to become "It's just fanfic, lighten up" orrrrr "Figures, another man trying to tell women what they're allowed to be turned on by!"

[mcity.livejournal.com]

This sort of thing is kinda the reason I stay away from fannish meta. It's a can of worms with no bottom.

Take, for example, Bayonetta. It's basicallythe same sort of fanservicey sexuality and over the top action that Devil May Cry was based on, by the same creator, except the lead is a woman. Therefore, the same fangirls who were squeeing over white-haired shirtless prettyboy Dante feel vaguely uncomfortable complaining about the sexuality of a witch who looks like a tall Sarah Palin in a dominatrix outfit. It's provoking some...interesting debate.

[rann.livejournal.com]

Wow, they're actually feeling uncomfortable about bringing that up due to the double standard? And they're admitting it? That's... actually a big step forward, I'm impressed.

I read Tycho's comments on the game, and while he's usually so pretentious that he could give any big name in the comic industry a run for their money, I thought it was fairly on when he points out that it's clear a lot of work went into Bayonetta. That every bit of that fanservice, that dominatrix outfit, it's all been gone over with the same loving detail that might have gone into any graphical feast game of the year contender.

He didn't phrase it this way (because I don't think he allows himself to actually post a sentence unless half the words have over a dozen letters in them), but it kind of boiled down to "A lot of love went into this T&A." In that, I'd say it's a far more sincere effort and much more artistic than the majority of assembly line, recycled plot, ridiculously out of character slashfics out there (including all the ones starring Dante banging his brother, his father, or the guy who killed his father, but for god's sake not Trish because that would be gross).

[mcity.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Tycho's pretension is an affect; he just plain likes using big words. I, too, tend toward polysyllabic utterances on occasion, because sometimes it's fun.

Digression aside: Here's an article from GamePro.