hsavinien | Random train of thought: Diversity, sexuality, and race. Impolite words.

So, Other People (Aggybird and Tygati) have been posting about sexuality and race in their writing. I won't really try to summarize that here, but while they had very salient points, (i.e. Um, we like cock so more boys = more cock. and Race should not inform what you write). I wished to include some thoughts of my own. I am queer. I like guys and I like girls, and I like people who identify as something in between. I like people. Some people. I'm kind of picky. For example, while I love looking at pretty boys, I generally don't trust them In Real Life unless they prove themselves not to be jackasses. I shy away from the culturally-mandated image of female beauty because I dislike it.

In my fiction, fan and original, my broad tastes tend to play out in a very gay way. I rarely write heterosexual pairings (Firefly excepted) and when I do, they are not the focus of the story. My original plotbunnies usually insist on adding to the queer lit of the world and in few of my fandoms do I 'ship het pairings. This is not to say that I don't support them ([Trickster Duet, Tamora Pierce] Alianne/Nawat=adorable!), but my main interest is usually caught by a queer pairing, if any. [Rowling-verse] Remus/Sirius, [Good Omens] Aziraphale/Crowley have long been two of my primary pairings because I adore their interaction and the possibilities of their relationships when romance is thrown into the mix. More recently, [Doctor Who] Jake/Mickey and [Due South] Fraser/RayK have joined these, along with several others. I often ship more minor or secondary characters like Jake and Mickey because they haven't got as much development as the focal characters so what we are given is an awesome starting place that can go many ways.

Like the other LJers mentioned above, I like sexy guys. I like it better when there are several of them, often in intimate relationships, and when it is written about skillfully and sensually. On the other hand, I also like sexy women in conjunction with each other. (I keep getting frustrated with Patricia McKillip, even though I love her writing, because THERE NEEDS TO BE LESBIANS. The characters and situations and stories would totally work! But they haven't been, so far. They don't always end up paired with guys, though, so that's some comfort.) I like female relationships written well as much as I like male ones. They are harder to find, though, and well-written lesbians are much harder to track down than gayboys (who lurk behind every desk and suit of armor). My only major fem 'ship at the moment is [Discworld] Polly/Maladicta, which is awesome and cross-dressing and snark. I write lesbian and bisexual female characters myself reasonably often, but haven't actually written much in the way of smut (which I have managed for some of my gay characters). Largely, because I'm actually...foggier on girlsex than on boysex. Yes, I'm dating a female person. Regardless. Shaddup.

As far as racial diversity goes, it's not something I go into a lot in my fic. I have a long time work in progress that's about an ancient Hebrew boy and his distress at his feelings for an angel, but it hasn't gotten very far. While characters of various skin color, nationality, and species do appear in my stories, I haven't yet gone too in depth about personal difficulties, identity issues, or things like that resulting therefrom. That is not my area of expertise. Though I enjoy reading about it, I have not developed the skills and done the research needed to write it properly.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The really interesting thing about Aziraphale/Crowley that I wish fanfic writers (myself most of all) played with more is the fact that their gender is might arguably kind of arbitrary, depending on what your view of angels is. You could say the same for their race - has every body they've ever had been white? (Aziraphale has always been English, but what does that really mean?) Surely their complexions were different in ancient Israel and Egypt and wherever else they wound up, weren't they? They've all but defaulted to human over the millennia, but deep down inside, do they really have a concept of maleness that's the same as a real human who was born that way? Or a concept of whiteness that's the same as someone who really is a part of human society, as they so amusingly aren't?

I wonder to what extent this is true of the Doctor too. I know there was talk of casting a black actor for his next incarnation, and I was disappointed they didn't - there's absolutely no logical reason I know of for him to be white every time. I'm no expert on Who canon, though, if there is one, I hope someone tells me. Maybe gender is more fixed, but...does it have to be?

I've never really had a fixed picture of Past!Aziraphale and Crowley... I always figured it rather varied depending on where they were living at the time. And English Aziraphale isn't really fixed, either, I would think; more whatever kind of stereotype Englishness implies. And Maleness...well, it's more fun if that's messed with a bit too. Somebody on Lower Tadfield posted a fic last year wherein they just went with the same gender as each other each time they had an intimate encounter, to avoid "accidents." I just haven't worked out how to stick that in my own fic yet.

It would be neat to see some variation from the Very British Doctor, yeah. They've had so many variations of Very British, you'd think they'd run out soon... I know that gender-switched Doctor fic exists, but it mostly seems to be done very poorly. There's a community dedicated to Who-continuum questions (dwcanon_fodder) and discussion, if you want to check it out. I did read an interesting author who wrote Rose/Doctor/Jack fic and decided that Time Lords in general had both male and female genitalia...but the Doctor was an exception. Don't recall precisely why.

I approve of your favourite pairings very muchly. And Aziraphale/Crowley is practically canon except for them not having genitals. Mickey/Jake is even better, because the canon relationship there was Jake and Mickey's doppelganger, which has to be a bit freakish for Jake. Never come across much fic about it though. Anyway, my main point in answering is to say have you checked out the cheesemongers community?

hyel maintains it and she writes some awesome Polly/Mal, and does illustrations too. It's what got me into that 'ship. You should totally check it out.

Aziraphale/Crowley: "Angels are sexless, unless they really make the effort." is the exact phrasing. It doesn't say they haven't. ^_^ 'tisn't "Dogma"-verse, after all.
Mickey/Jake: Yes! So much cool emotional crap to deal with there! I've got several good fics saved in my memories under "Doctor Who."

I have actually wandered around the Cheesemongers comm a bit, though not recently. Hyel's stuff is brilliant and I have standing permission to do an icon of one of her pictures (once I get my laptop back working, with my photoshop on it, I will.) Thanks for the pointer, though.

Ugh, the lack of easily findable femslash is why I don't bother with fandom so much anymore. It's too hard to find it, and most of the time is kind of crappy when I do find it. Granted, I'm in the animu fandom which tends to be a pile of stupid anyway so.... ShizNat is the biggest girl/girl fandom I have found .... ever. But oh boy is it stupid sometimes. I'm hoping there will be Claymore slash when I get farther on in that series... I want Gokujou slash but it does not exist. Like, deviant art gokujou seitokai/best student council, and NOTHING shows up. There's more freakin' fat art than slash. Same goes for Haibane Renmei and Black Lagoon. T____T ... well, less weird fat art, thank gods. I even have a hard time finding Strangers in Paradise stuff, tho I haven't looked that close. I tend to be more of a fanart person than written stuff, but I think that's because I can much more easily scroll past crappy images than crappy writing, and it takes less to find it. The only other series I can think of that I've found substantial stuff for that wasn't just straight up doujin porn was Noir... Buh. Unless you like Kannuzuki no Miko, Maria-sama ga Miteru, or Sailor Moon, (all of which, no thx, other than maybe Sailor Moon and that's ONLY because of Uranus..) you're not getting diddly in the anime fandom.

Maybe if I got off my ass and contributed, it'd be awesome. I still stand by I've written some of the better bits of ShizNat fanfic (... not counting that girlsmut monstrosity of awkward. The OTHER ones. Taht are angsty. And therefor in character.) I should write an Eda/Revy fic just so something for Black Lagoon exists, cause damn it should |:

.... and I tend not to touch race in my writings, because I'm super!white like whoa and don't feel I can do it real well. Tho, a lot of the time I do not say what their race is and since I'm usually very skimpy on physical details, especially of narrators, I guess there's nothing saying they're white all the time either. I guess I don't think about it, I especially don't write it critically. Hell, I have a hard time writing from non-female positions...

Anyway...

XD <3 ITS OKAY ME TOO. OMGGG GIRLS ARE HARD...

I mean, it's the difference between a Wiimote an a god damn Gamecube controller. Wiimote move it around it all works out, maybe a button or two needs to be pressed. Gamecube controller, what the HELL, ten bajillion buttons and they're in awkward places that is not coherent or easy to use ....

............................................... I should have to remain a virgin FOREVER for that analogy. Oh. My. God.

Also, I'd like you to know I behaved myself on the above comment. A lot. So much. I will demand cookies as reward.

You make me giggle a lot, precious. ^_^

And we're geeks. <3 Of course that kind of analogy will come up. And you are so right...

I will make you cookies when we see each other next, provided that the components are available.

xD I'm glad...

UHM, CONSIDERING I'M GOING TO TRY AND BRIBE YOU WHEN YOU GET ON MSN AND TALK TO ME, I HOPE THE COMPONENTS WON'T BE THERE.... ;p Tho, uhm yaaaay cookies <3 ^__^

"I mean, it's the difference between a Wiimote an a god damn Gamecube controller. Wiimote move it around it all works out, maybe a button or two needs to be pressed. Gamecube controller, what the HELL, ten bajillion buttons and they're in awkward places that is not coherent or easy to use ...."

LOL...WIN!

Yeahhh, I was looking for Gokujou Seitokai stuff, because there are SO many plausible pairings and Zip! Nada! Blah. And most of the doujin and yuri smut I've seen kinda sucks too... >_> They do not know how to write a plausible female relationship once there is sex.

I tend to be pretty descriptive, but a lot of my characters have the dark-hair/dark-eyes/etc that are fairly universal.

Random train of thought: Diversity, sexuality, and race. Impolite words.

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