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schmericaYesterday, while I was working on Let Me Go On, I was talking to several people on yahoo messenger while I was working on the revisions. I mentioned to both Nifra and Dira the weird sense of discomfort I felt about labeling the story het.
Now, granted, the story contains noncanonical sex between two characters of different sex and thus every requirement of the het label -- but somehow my brain still insists on thinking about it as gen, I said.
Dira and Nifra both gave that the doubtful lack of response it deserved.
The interesting thing, though, is that it's not as though I'm opposed to het. Um, duh, I love het; the fact that all of my OTPs are slash does not change the fact that I find male/female relationships appealing and interesting and try to make people write them for me whenever possible.
So my antipathy toward the label is a matter of this specific instance, and not anythign more general. And during the discussions with Nif and Dira, it occurred to me what the sense of discomfort probably is mostly derived from, which is this:
I feel really weird about making a canonically gay male character have sex with a girl.
Now, obviously, in the case of this story, the het sex is all backstory, done as a teenager (not to mention that it's not, you know, good). It's not like Duck is falling madly in love with a woman and dedicating his life to her.
Besides, I think one of the main things that makes slash interesting to me is that I think sexuality is a fairly fluid and flexible and unpredictable thing. If I think a character who's only been attracted to girls in the past may fall in love with a guy -- hell, if I think it's possible I might fall in love with a girl someday -- then the other side of the coin is there, too, isn't it?
None of that really does anything to offset the profound discomfort, though. Because the flexibility of sexuality aside, the idea of writing het about gay characters comes across as just straightening them up and denying their queerness. It's automatically something political, rather than "just a story," and the politics involved are disturbing.
Honestly, I'm not sure I would click on a Wilby Wonderful story marked as Duck het. In Buffy, I totally judge those people who ship Tara with male characters. I'm pretty sure the situation would be the same if I read in more fandoms with canon queer characters. The exception, of course, is that it depends on who's writing it. I don't trust fandom in general enough to read this specific kind of het blind, but if I trust you as an author? I'm going to take the chance. Hell, I might even anticipate it, if I think you're going to do it well, go through all the implications, and not be generally stupid about it.
But, really, that's another one of those fandom truths: there's nothing I won't go along with, if I trust you as an author; too many bizarre or stupid things get pulled off in amazing ways.
Now, granted, the story contains noncanonical sex between two characters of different sex and thus every requirement of the het label -- but somehow my brain still insists on thinking about it as gen, I said.
Dira and Nifra both gave that the doubtful lack of response it deserved.
The interesting thing, though, is that it's not as though I'm opposed to het. Um, duh, I love het; the fact that all of my OTPs are slash does not change the fact that I find male/female relationships appealing and interesting and try to make people write them for me whenever possible.
So my antipathy toward the label is a matter of this specific instance, and not anythign more general. And during the discussions with Nif and Dira, it occurred to me what the sense of discomfort probably is mostly derived from, which is this:
I feel really weird about making a canonically gay male character have sex with a girl.
Now, obviously, in the case of this story, the het sex is all backstory, done as a teenager (not to mention that it's not, you know, good). It's not like Duck is falling madly in love with a woman and dedicating his life to her.
Besides, I think one of the main things that makes slash interesting to me is that I think sexuality is a fairly fluid and flexible and unpredictable thing. If I think a character who's only been attracted to girls in the past may fall in love with a guy -- hell, if I think it's possible I might fall in love with a girl someday -- then the other side of the coin is there, too, isn't it?
None of that really does anything to offset the profound discomfort, though. Because the flexibility of sexuality aside, the idea of writing het about gay characters comes across as just straightening them up and denying their queerness. It's automatically something political, rather than "just a story," and the politics involved are disturbing.
Honestly, I'm not sure I would click on a Wilby Wonderful story marked as Duck het. In Buffy, I totally judge those people who ship Tara with male characters. I'm pretty sure the situation would be the same if I read in more fandoms with canon queer characters. The exception, of course, is that it depends on who's writing it. I don't trust fandom in general enough to read this specific kind of het blind, but if I trust you as an author? I'm going to take the chance. Hell, I might even anticipate it, if I think you're going to do it well, go through all the implications, and not be generally stupid about it.
But, really, that's another one of those fandom truths: there's nothing I won't go along with, if I trust you as an author; too many bizarre or stupid things get pulled off in amazing ways.
