I'm Sorry, You Are Not Today's Lucky Winner

[lebateleur]

In which, directed by bloody_american, I enter the fray created by another pseudo-academic essay outlining why fanfiction and slash are OMG, leik so retrogressive!

Below are some of the outtakes nutty enough to awaken me from my lj slumber, and my responses to each:

...in their writing [fanficcers] rarely, if ever, do anything that questions or contradicts the ideologies underwriting the original texts.

Congratulations. Three hundred words into the essay and you've already proven that you know fuckall about what you're claiming to intelligently discuss. This woman mentions Harry Potter as a big name fandom. I'm hard pressed to think of another fandom (especially slash fandom) that does more to question the "ideologies underwriting" its original texts.



I'm also especially fond of this little gem:

So what slash writers are actually doing is merely recognising the homosocialism that exists in film and literature, as well as everywhere else in our society. To say they are drawing out a ‘gay subtext,’ and to attempt to attach revolutionary potential to this act is highly inaccurate, since homosocialism is one of the foundation stones of male supremacy, and fanfic authors who endorse and strengthen the homosocial relationships of male fictional characters by portraying them as homosexual are committing an act in support of patriarchy, not against it.

Wow. I hope everyone out there self-identifying as "queer," "dyke," or similar is sitting up and taking note that their co-optation of these labels is not only not attaching any "revolutionary potential" to them, "since drawing boundaries between normative heterosexuality and all other sexualities is one of the foundation stones of male supremacy/heteronormality, and individuals who endorse and strengthen binary gender and sexual orientation norms by portraying themselves as queer are committing an act in support of heteronormality/patriarchy, not against it."

Sex is generally portrayed pornographically, with an emphasis on penetration, force and pain, and the overwhelming/uncontrollable need the masculine character has for the feminine character, and the feminine character’s need to be needed by the masculine character in order to have a legitimate identity.

Ah, there's the problem. She needs to stop reading shit written by eighth graders.

sooner or later most of the characters ‘turn’ heterosexual and get married, it apparently being beyond the ability of most slash writers to imagine anyone actually choosing a non-heterosexual identity permanently. It is evidence of in-built lesbophobia and homophobia, since this use-by date mentality means that same sex relationships in slash are generally portrayed as being illegitimate, transient, unstable, and not able to last.

I'll let this statement stand on its own as a testament to her "expertise" in the genre.

Slash comes about because women under patriarchy cannot recognise their own sexual desires, or the possibility of a female-centric sexuality, and they therefore take to writing erotic stories about homosexual men as a way to deal with and relieve all of those sexual desires they supposedly don’t have, though of course, the very existence and popularity of slash proves the existence of female sexual desire, albeit a female sexual desire that is still trapped within patriarchal (non)understanding.

Or, it comes about because women--even under patriarchy--like to get their ::cough:: rocks off. (Context makes clear that she's only considering PWP slashfic here, not anything that...gasp!...is plot- and development-driven.) And what on earth is unradical about women knowing what turns them on, especially when the trigger fails to conform to the expectations of anyone, including upholders of patriarchy and radical feminists both?

The second great irony of slash is that most women who read and write slash are not only heterosexual, but defensively so.

This argument declared dead at at 1,560 words. Cause of death: blunt force trauma to its logical underpinnings resulting in critical inability to persuade.

For a good laugh, I also recommend the section on "radical feminist rewriting" where fanfiction/slash=bad, m'kay? and feminist rewriting=any story of which I approve, as well as her admission that she's deleted everything save the only two postive comments she's received. I mean, isn't silencing dissenting voices exactly what radical feminists are supposed to stand against?

これで以上です。

Comments

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Oh man. I may have to buckle up and read the essay itself. Those on the flist who've linked it keep providing such excerpts that make me fear my head might explode should I actually attempt the main course.

When I went to it before, it had about 16 comments, most of which going 'bwaah?' at the whole 'all slash-goes-het' statement, since none of us have ever read this mythical fic. Her defense to this was, a) "I don't believe you when you say you've never read a slash story like that' (no really, I clearly recall the 'I don't believe'), and b) since the canons all go het, the slash must, too, since we all slavishly follow canon by showing the homosexual relationships of straight men.

There was a thoughtful argument someone posted, now deleted, pointing out that fen tend to inhabit certain types of shows - action-oriented scifi, fantasy, or cop things with big plotholes spaces in the canon for derivative works, and that this genre usually features male heroes, so those who fan on such shows have to write male chars if they're going to write them - and the one show that did feature female leads (Xena) in fact had an enormous following of femmeslash. But apparently that argument was too radical - or too mundane - or whatever measure she was using.

I also love that even her positive comments still sharply question her 'research' methods. She couldn't find one person online who could see it her way? Tragic.

I'm apparently a terrible feminist. I'm not sure if that's because I don't hate men (shame on me for being mostly heterosexual!), or because I dare read and watch and write for and even *gasp* enjoy series set in worlds that support the patriarchy, that is, every single story in existence, pretty much.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

...I just read the essay. My favorite part was this:

the slash they write is written in homage to their male idols, whether that be Joss Whedon, Gene Roddenberry, Peter Jackson, J.R.R. Tolkien or any other number of men whose primary goal is to bolster patriarchy and male supremacy in all its ugly forms.

So every single man writing fiction, is writing fiction primarily to crush women under the heel of oppression.

No wonder she hand-waved the existence of yaoi. I thought that was sort of idiotic, considering the far more overt patriarchism of Japanese society and the prevalence of BL was an argument in favor of her basic thesis, but if her argument rests on the need to prove we are all worshiping only male creators (and JK Rowling, that traitor to the cause), the existence of Minekura-sensei and her ilk must be brushed under the carpet.

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

So every single man writing fiction, is writing fiction primarily to crush women under the heel of oppression.

And more importantly: Straight women write fanfic. Fanfic=PWP=Slash PWP=your paraphrase above=the only way anyone who has ever written a single slashfic will ever be capable of thinking about sex. Which is so egregiously wrong I don't even need to point out why.

Did she even mention yaoi/BL once in her essay, 'cause I sure didn't catch it. She's either so ignorant of her subject she doesn't even know about it, or you're spot on in assuming that she is aware of it, but doesn't know what to do with it.

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

IME, canon is most often used to point out such observations as "Hermione is not a whiney, blubbering, castrating bitch in canon, and writing her that way is kinda misogynist, so pls stop kthx," more than anything else. She doesn't believe that? Okay, I don't believe she's ever set eyes on a fic in her life. Either that, or she really likes hanging out online with the under fourteen crowd, which is pretty creepy in my book.

I totally agree with the observation you paraphrased above. And what's more, I don't think it's an accident that, regardless of show, guys write more "lesbian" fic, women more slash fic, and the majority of both genres (even the well written stuff) is not realistic. That is the point of porn. It's supposed to be idealised and fantastic and not all that related to the reality of sex here in RL. In other words, fun, not carefully engineered to express one's views on the dreaded patriarchy.

I dare read and watch and write for and even *gasp* enjoy series set in worlds that support the patriarchy, that is, every single story in existence, pretty much.
But here's the thing--if fanficcers aren't out there reimagining these stories, who will? Not the studio execs; they get by just fine producing the same patriarchical fluff.