The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
SLATE: "Why Do Gays Write Fan Fiction? To See Themselves in Mainstream Culture."
milomorris:
Its an entitlement thing. Its all about identity politics. The black population went through it and continues to whine about it...see Jada Pinket Smith.
What I have never been able to understand is why minorities talk about watching straight/white people doing things and not being able to relate to those things just because a straight/white person is doing it. And its stupid shit too. Like since when is wearing a Polo shirt a "white thing?" Since when is reading a book, or getting good grades a "white thing." Honestly, black folks have identified themselves right out of successful lifestyles.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: milomorris on June 01, 2016, 09:40:31 am ---Its an entitlement thing. Its all about identity politics.
--- End quote ---
"Identity politics" went through my mind, too.
What makes somebody think he or she is "entitled" to anything in TV or movies?
FWIW. in the type of TV show that I enjoy, the characters are generally straight, and that doesn't bother me one bit, because in these shows--predominantly "procedurals"--the sexual orientation of the characters is irrelevant.
CellarDweller:
I will admit up front that I didn't read the whole article, so I may have missed this.
The author's title talks about gay writing fan fiction. Does the author address the high numbers of straight women who write slash/fan fiction? The majority of slash authors I met from my travels as a Brokie have been straight women. I can probably count on one hand the number of male authors I met.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: CellarDweller on June 01, 2016, 11:53:10 am ---I will admit up front that I didn't read the whole article, so I may have missed this.
The author's title talks about gay writing fan fiction. Does the author address the high numbers of straight women who write slash/fan fiction? The majority of slash authors I met from my travels as a Brokie have been straight women. I can probably count on one hand the number of male authors I met.
--- End quote ---
If I remember correctly from reading it last night, she mainly writes about queer women who write fan fiction.
Maybe it's been done already, or maybe there isn't really any way to do it, but I would really be interested to know what percentages of slash fiction are written by straight women, what by gay women, and what by gay men.
Do straight men write any fan fiction? I'm assuming straight men aren't interested in a love affair between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers.
Aloysius J. Gleek:
--- Quote from: milomorris on May 31, 2016, 07:16:27 am ---WOW!!! You and I actually have a common feeling about this!!
--- End quote ---
Hmmm. Re some types of fanfic, I guess I can be very stick-in-the-mud. A stickler. After my stroke ten years ago (lots of problems re language, concepts, comprehension) I became extremely literal. Monomanically monotrack, comically so.
In Peter's Jackson's Fellowship, Gandalf says something to Strider that was the completely opposite to Gandalf's meaning and tone in Tolkein's Fellowship, and I hated it, thought the movie was garbage. (Ok, it's true, I'm outed! I do hate Peter Jackson and all those movies! Shoot me! But I was told about Tolkein's Middle Earth (it was revealed to me!) when I was ELEVEN YEARS OLD and I read the Hobbit and 'The Trilogy' many scores of times before I even hit puberty, so, I AM SET IN MY WAYS, ok? :laugh:)
In the 'real' world (historical), I only read about HBO's miniseries lauded “John Adams” (2008) (which I never actually watched), and I hated it! because in the series, JA's cousin, Samuel Adams, is supposedly portrayed as a dangerous extremist, and JA is supposedly shown as clearly disliking SA. (People can roll eyes now, and say, "Whatever!")
But.
As in the Peter Jackson movies (and bad movies in general), this kind of 'creative' juggling is supposedly necessary to create 'conflict' to move the story along, but to me, it is actually lying, and the reputations of real historical people (and even the reputations of fictional characters!) are besmirched. I hate it.
As a result, I have personal, emotional issues with certain types of fanfic, AU (Alternate Universe) and otherwise. If a character (or real person) is straight, well, in a fanfic narrative, he or she is straight, goddamit!
Oh well, stick-in-the-mud! ::)
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on May 31, 2016, 09:23:05 pm ---Is this a generational thing? ??? A gender thing? ??? A generational-gender thing? ??? I do not feel "left out" or "hurt" because virtually all the characters in the TV shows I watch are straight and cisgender (Lordy, I hate that word!). But then again I'm a white cisgender male, even if I am gay, so what do I know? ::)
Anybody else want to bet that Binstock's sources skew female, cis- or otherwise? I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with that, but I do think it might be a good idea to tell her readers, if that's the case.
--- End quote ---
A few centuries ago, I took a couple of semesters of Chemistry, and learned about cis- and trans-. It never bothered me at all that, (decades later??) the prefixes became vogue, then common usage as is today--they seemed to 'mirror' (like chemistry! like isomers!) types of selfhood, and seemed like good metaphors. As gay as I was and am, I never doubted I was male (however unconventionally so, to the uptight world of the 50s-80s) and, like you, I'm a cisgender male. Who knew!
--- Quote from: CellarDweller on June 01, 2016, 11:53:10 am ---The author's title talks about gay writing fan fiction. Does the author address the high numbers of straight women who write slash/fan fiction? The majority of slash authors I met from my travels as a Brokie have been straight women. I can probably count on one hand the number of male authors I met.
--- End quote ---
BINGO! I was going to comment about it (re the title in particular) and you beat me to the punch, Chuck!
;)
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on June 01, 2016, 12:30:10 pm ---Maybe it's been done already, or maybe there isn't really any way to do it, but I would really be interested to know what percentages of slash fiction are written by straight women, what by gay women, and what by gay men.
--- End quote ---
Yes!
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