====== Gen vs Slash Wank ====== In an "Unpopular Fandom Opinions" thread in Feb. 2012, one Gentlefailer [[http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/28884.html?thread=128444628#t128444628|wished]] that fans of plotty gen fics would either //"stay in the their corner of fandom, or would keep quiet about how much they look down on stories with a sexual or romantic focus. Yes, yes, we know you don't like FEELINGS or YEARNING. No one is forcing you to read it, you know."// A gen writer [[http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/28884.html?thread=128490708#t128490708|mentioned]] getting comments from slash fans along the lines of, //"I usually don't read anti-white cock pairing, which I think yours is, but I really liked this because x and y. nice job!"// A few subsequent nonnies posited that perhaps an antipathy to slash comes through in this writer's genfic. In came [[http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/28884.html?thread=128600020#t128600020|another gen writer]], who insisted, //"Canonically, Dean is not fucking Sam. My depiction of that is NOT an endorsement of platonic friendship/fraternity over same-sex relationships. It's a depiction of canon."// A [[http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/28884.html?thread=128604884#t128604884|new anon]] replied, //"Gen writers' delusion that they are depicting canonical things, while slashers aren't, is part of the reason many people don't like gen writers."// The gen writer [[http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/28884.html?thread=128605652#t128605652|replied]], > //"Right. My depiction of Sam and Dean, brothers, fighting an Aztec Priest Zombie is totally the same as someone else's depiction of Sam and Dean, brothers who have sex with each other.// > > //// > > //SEX CHANGES SHIT.// > > //// > > //Characters having sex with people who they canonically do not have sex with (a relative, co-worker, enemy, etc)...// > > //// > > //Different from fic where characters have the same relationship as in canon.// > > //// > > //You sound virginal."// Commence a wankstorm that began with slash nonnies demanding why sex or even a hug is more of a "change" than, say, an AU; and gen nonnies asking why sex //has// to be the motor of change in a fic. [[http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/28884.html?thread=128616148#t128616148|Slash nonny:]] //"[W]hat I'm hearing is that if the characters do have sex at the end, they're participating in abnormal, OOC behaviour."// [[http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/28884.html?thread=128617684#t128617684|Gen nonny:]] //"They are if the characters don't do each other on the show. Stop being so butthurt."//" From that spun out [[http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/28884.html?thread=128612564#t128612564|a thread about the limitations of how much fic can change within the confines of canon.]] This included a discussion about [[http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/28884.html?thread=128626900#t128626900|about gen homophobia, slash misogyny, and]] //"a breed of slashers who were so SJ before SJ was an internet thing, asspatting themselves about writing characters as queers was so transgressive and anti-heteronormative and so superior to icky icky het."// The conversation rapidly devolved from there. A gen nonny argued that it would be [[http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/28884.html?thread=128612308#t128612308|"abnormal"]] for non-queer canon characters to have non-het sex. //"It's also abnormal for these straight characters to have intercourse with their brothers, business partners, and/or mortal enemies."// The same nonny, or perhaps a different gen nonny, added, //"[[http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/28884.html?thread=128617172#t128617172|This is not how the world works.]] Most people are straight and most gays don't have elaborate hetero disguises. Just because you think slash is hot doesn't make every damn character in the world bisexual."// It wasn't long before one of the gen nonnies [[http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/28884.html?thread=128621524#t128621524|asserted]], //"Being gay, like being heterosexual, is usually pretty obvious in grown adults."// When informed otherwise, they [[http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/28884.html?thread=128632788#t128632788|argued]] that //"Sexuality has meaning beyond what people choose to identify as,"// and a slash nonny [[http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/28884.html?thread=128634580#t128634580|opined]] that Gen Nonny couldn't possibly know what Random Person X does or does not do sexually without being a //"creepy bedroom lurker."// There was also a [[http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/28884.html?thread=128635860#t128635860|discussion]] of the validity of non-verbal cues to sexuality, and [[http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/28884.html?thread=128625364#t128625364|several]] [[http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/28884.html?thread=128627668#t128627668|other]] [[http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/28884.html?thread=128629460#t128629460|nonnies]] told Gen Nonny, "Uh, yeah, I guess closets don't exist, and neither does discovering one's orientation late in life." And then, blessedly, came the freezing. {{tag>todo wank wank:fandom-wank}}