![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
my thoughts on your thoughts on yaoi
Okay, so you know what I don't like? I don't like when people in fandom act like ragging on slash is somehow rebellious and superior.
YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN. or maybe you don't. EITHER WAY I AM GOING TO EXPLAIN.
So there's this tendency in like every fandom ever for there to be a big segment of fans who are keen on shipping dude characters together in a squicky fetishising way where the fact that these guys are getting it on is the main thing here and people are more concerned with that than whether they're writing them IC, to the extent that they willingly and enthusiastically bulldoze the character's actual traits – you know, the ones that make them interesting imaginary people – in order to slot them into boring, vaguely creepy clichés that frequently also manage to be offensive as fuck on a number of levels that I was just as angry about two years ago as I am now.
You knew that. Of course you knew that EVERYONE KNOWS THAT. it is, depending on how often you have to deal with it and how easily annoyed you are, somewhere between PRETTY FUCKING IRRITATING and THE CANCER THAT IS KILLING FANDOM, EVERY FANDOM, ALL OF THEM.
Okay, so faced with that, and with the assumption in mind that you know better than to be into that sort of thing, YOU HAVE A CHOICE:
Either you can be like "God damn that is fucked up! Good thing not every single instance of male homosexuality ever portrayed in any fanwork falls into this category, especially since there's such a disproportionate dearth of gay relationships portrayed in mainstream media!"
or you can be like "WELP this proves that all slash is awful and gives me more than enough reason to behave as though the only reason anyone would ever be keen on the idea of any specific pair of male characters being romantically involved is that they are a shallow yaoi fangirl with no regard for what is IC!"
can you see where I'm going with this yet?
YOU PROBABLY CAN, BUT LET ME CLARIFY FURTHER, JUST IN CASE
basically a lot of people seem to pick OPTION B for some reason, which leads to a whole bunch of people going around behaving as if it makes them somehow a better person because they dismiss the idea that bringing your own queer subtext is ever justified or valid – but at the same time are totally cool with reading romantic subtext into heterosexual couples.
And let's be honest here, guys, there's plenty of shitawful het. Not just in fandom. Everywhere. But WEIRDLY ENOUGH you don't find nearly as many people saying, "oh man, I've just seen too many shitty unrealistic romantic comedies where the guy gets the girl by stalking her even though she hates him because women don't know what's good for them, and now I just can't take straight pairings seriously at all! BUT DON'T GET ME WRONG HERE I AM TOTALLY IN FAVOUR OF STRAIGHT PEOPLE IRL AND I KNOW LOADS OF THEM!"
I mean, idk about you, but I've never seen anyone say that and NEITHER HAS ANYBODY I KNOW
why could that possibly be
See, I have this sneaking suspicion that it is because mainstream media tends to be really really in favour of the idea that romance is the only plausible outcome of a man and a woman being friends. Or hating each other. Or putting grudgingly up with one another while on some kind of quest. Or knowing each other. This is SO UNIVERSAL that to avoid learning to expect that, at least on some level, is basically impossible.
What the much-maligned "slash goggles" are, essentially, is taking that attitude and applying it to pairs of characters who aren't a man and a woman – and, since it's what everyone is doing with straight couples all the time ANYWAY, it isn't really all that unreasonable. (Obviously this happens with dude characters much more than lady characters because the average work of fiction has like a million times more dude characters than ladies; I'm not going to deny the part that heterosexual women being into the idea of two dudes making out plays in this, and that this can be problematic, but considering the fact that most mainstream movies don't even pass the Bechdel Test it is really kind of unsurprising that fewer opportunities to point your goggles at ladies ever even come up.)
So, yes. Basically. All of society is wearing het goggles. Your het goggles do not make you special.
So the choice is:
You can try to get rid of the goggles altogether.
You can wear them all of the time, instead of only putting them on when a dude and a lady enter the room.
Or you can leave your goggles exactly where they are, but for crying out loud stop acting like that makes you a better human with more refined and sophisticated tastes.
(this is not even getting into the whole thing where LIKING DUDESLASH IS A GIRL THING and GIRL THINGS ARE PERCEIVED AS INFERIOR AND SILLY AND NOT WORTHWHILE but I have totally ranted myself out just now. MAYBE ANOTHER TIME.)
YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN. or maybe you don't. EITHER WAY I AM GOING TO EXPLAIN.
So there's this tendency in like every fandom ever for there to be a big segment of fans who are keen on shipping dude characters together in a squicky fetishising way where the fact that these guys are getting it on is the main thing here and people are more concerned with that than whether they're writing them IC, to the extent that they willingly and enthusiastically bulldoze the character's actual traits – you know, the ones that make them interesting imaginary people – in order to slot them into boring, vaguely creepy clichés that frequently also manage to be offensive as fuck on a number of levels that I was just as angry about two years ago as I am now.
You knew that. Of course you knew that EVERYONE KNOWS THAT. it is, depending on how often you have to deal with it and how easily annoyed you are, somewhere between PRETTY FUCKING IRRITATING and THE CANCER THAT IS KILLING FANDOM, EVERY FANDOM, ALL OF THEM.
Okay, so faced with that, and with the assumption in mind that you know better than to be into that sort of thing, YOU HAVE A CHOICE:
Either you can be like "God damn that is fucked up! Good thing not every single instance of male homosexuality ever portrayed in any fanwork falls into this category, especially since there's such a disproportionate dearth of gay relationships portrayed in mainstream media!"
or you can be like "WELP this proves that all slash is awful and gives me more than enough reason to behave as though the only reason anyone would ever be keen on the idea of any specific pair of male characters being romantically involved is that they are a shallow yaoi fangirl with no regard for what is IC!"
can you see where I'm going with this yet?
YOU PROBABLY CAN, BUT LET ME CLARIFY FURTHER, JUST IN CASE
basically a lot of people seem to pick OPTION B for some reason, which leads to a whole bunch of people going around behaving as if it makes them somehow a better person because they dismiss the idea that bringing your own queer subtext is ever justified or valid – but at the same time are totally cool with reading romantic subtext into heterosexual couples.
And let's be honest here, guys, there's plenty of shitawful het. Not just in fandom. Everywhere. But WEIRDLY ENOUGH you don't find nearly as many people saying, "oh man, I've just seen too many shitty unrealistic romantic comedies where the guy gets the girl by stalking her even though she hates him because women don't know what's good for them, and now I just can't take straight pairings seriously at all! BUT DON'T GET ME WRONG HERE I AM TOTALLY IN FAVOUR OF STRAIGHT PEOPLE IRL AND I KNOW LOADS OF THEM!"
I mean, idk about you, but I've never seen anyone say that and NEITHER HAS ANYBODY I KNOW
why could that possibly be
See, I have this sneaking suspicion that it is because mainstream media tends to be really really in favour of the idea that romance is the only plausible outcome of a man and a woman being friends. Or hating each other. Or putting grudgingly up with one another while on some kind of quest. Or knowing each other. This is SO UNIVERSAL that to avoid learning to expect that, at least on some level, is basically impossible.
What the much-maligned "slash goggles" are, essentially, is taking that attitude and applying it to pairs of characters who aren't a man and a woman – and, since it's what everyone is doing with straight couples all the time ANYWAY, it isn't really all that unreasonable. (Obviously this happens with dude characters much more than lady characters because the average work of fiction has like a million times more dude characters than ladies; I'm not going to deny the part that heterosexual women being into the idea of two dudes making out plays in this, and that this can be problematic, but considering the fact that most mainstream movies don't even pass the Bechdel Test it is really kind of unsurprising that fewer opportunities to point your goggles at ladies ever even come up.)
So, yes. Basically. All of society is wearing het goggles. Your het goggles do not make you special.
So the choice is:
You can try to get rid of the goggles altogether.
You can wear them all of the time, instead of only putting them on when a dude and a lady enter the room.
Or you can leave your goggles exactly where they are, but for crying out loud stop acting like that makes you a better human with more refined and sophisticated tastes.
(this is not even getting into the whole thing where LIKING DUDESLASH IS A GIRL THING and GIRL THINGS ARE PERCEIVED AS INFERIOR AND SILLY AND NOT WORTHWHILE but I have totally ranted myself out just now. MAYBE ANOTHER TIME.)
no subject
because YES THIS EXACTLY.
I used to feel vaguely guilty for liking slash so much since I heard all these things about how it "didn't do characters justice" and was "out of character". It wasn't until it occurred to me that this was internalised homophobia rearing its ugly head that I confronted it and stopped letting myself consider it shameful, in any regard.
Personally, I am in favour of the goggles, but they do not work as well for me with het pairings. And that? Is totally okay.
no subject
THE GUILT IS THE WORST PART!! I STILL can't quite stop myself feeling guilty about this stuff, it is fuckin ridiculous. But, yes, I AM TRYING TO HEADBUTT THAT IN THE FACE
no subject
I KNOW RIGHT. Every time I catch myself feeling guilty I get self-righteously pissed off at the people who encourage that sort of feeling instead, it really helps. HEADBUTT IT IN THE FACE. DRAGON DAMIEN WILL ASSIST YOU WITH HIS FIERY BREATH AND SHARP LITTLE PRISS CLAWS.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
Gay characters practically have to make out on screen to NOT be considered fanon(even then I once got into an argument with a girl who was convinced that Shuichi and Yuki from Gravitation weren't actually together).
I see so many people complain about fanpairings that have a lot of fodder, yet if you switch one of the genders with the same amount of interaction, it's considered canon by them. Hetgoggles indeed.
no subject
Het Goggles: I was busy being awesome the day they handed them out.
PS~Feeling guilty sucks. I'm a big ol' queer and I get paid to write queer romance and I still struggle with that 'UR DOIN IT RONG' feeling.
no subject
Regardless, to quote that statistic in support of this feeble argument that female characters somehow don't DESERVE attention and that's why they don't get it is to ignore the fact that mainstream movies don't comprise all or even the majority of source material for fannish endeavors. It's not "obviously" happening because there are more dudes any more than it's "obviously" happening because it's mostly being written by straight women who are into guys.
There are other faulty premises here, too - Of course you're correct in asserting there's a cultural double-standard with regard to the way we perceive m/f and m/m, but if you can agree that "romance is the only plausible outcome for m/f" as being rather stupid, why would you then carry that logic through as valid in the next breath when talking about m/m? Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't the idea that men and women cannot be anything but lovers be an idea we should dispense with? You argue - accurately - throughout this post that our culture predispenses us towards hetgoggles, then conclude that this apparently insurmountable problem is the basis of all complaint against slash everywhere, which itself is made solely from a self-righteous more-enlightened-than-thou perspective. Meanwhile, you are arguing basically that you as a slasher have the moral high ground.
It would be foolish to suggest that criticisms of slash are never bound up in cultural attitudes about queerness, but it's just as foolish to suggest that this is the sole reason and that it has nothing to do with arguably one of the most far-reaching and emotionally powerful elements of fandom subculture itself: ship wars.
no subject
Where did he say they don't DESERVE attention?