Nora Charles

Glee 109 Wheels

2009-11-12T19:49:43Z

In this very special episode, Glee focuses on offending people with disabilities.

Othering. Accusing PWD of being problems and a burden. Accusing PWD of getting unearned special treatment and advantages. Accusing PWD of faking it for attention. Currently able-bodied people have to experience what it's like to use a wheelchair, before the challenges faced by wheelchair users become "real". Painting romantic and/or sexual advances from a PWD to a CAP as awkward, and a sign that the PWD does not see or want to see the CAP as "normal".

Bonus lantern-hanging on the fact that the solos always go to white people, and a reminder that gay men are femme and love fashion. Quinn's pregnancy, still all about Finn and Puck. Tina's feeling for Artie, all about Artie. Sue once again is the one shining light of female characters who have lives of their own.

Female bechdel pass, thanks to Sue and Becky, but theirs was a minor storyline. Another race bechdel fail on the second premise. Mercedes got to share a song with Artie, and Tina got to highlight Artie's issues with love and feeling different, so characters of color weren't completely invisible, not that that's saying much.

This show isn't worse than so many others, but its blatant fail is so much more disappointing when it's set itself up to be better and more diverse. I still like the bright colors, large cast, and snappy humor, so I can't say I'm not entertained. But why can't they entertain their viewers without furthering oppression all the damn time?

Episode	Speaking characters	Female characters	F-Bechdel	Characters of color	R-Bechdel
101	19	8 (42%)	Pass, 2 out of 3 conversations	6 (32%)	Fail, 0 conversations
102	21	11 (52%)	Pass, 6 out of 8 conversations	6 (29%)	Fail, 0 conversations
103	26	12 (46%)	Pass, 4 out of 8 conversations	9 (35%)	Fail, 0 out of 1 conversation
104	21	10 (48%)	Pass, 1 out of 2 conversations	5 (24%)	Fail, 0 conversations
105	18	9 (50%)	Pass, 4 out of 4 conversations	4 (22%)	Fail, 0 conversations
106	16	9 (56%)	Pass, 6 out of 9 conversations	6 (38%)	Fail, 0 conversations
107	18	10 (56%)	Pass, 5 out of ? conversations	6 (33%)	Fail, 0 conversations
108	16	7 (44%)	Pass?, 1 out of 1 one-sided conversation	4 (25%)	Fail, 0 conversations
109	19	10 (53%)	Pass, 4 out of 4 conversations	5 (26%)	Fail, 0 conversations

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Fic: In which Grant is not a rocket scientist

2009-11-12T14:23:32Z

Title: Crash and Burn missing scene, in which Grant is not a rocket scientist.
Pairing: Grant/Karie Q.
Rating: Adult
Word count: 1500
Spoilers for the Mythbusters episode "Crash and Burn", inspired by the personas projected on TV by real people, but pure, fictional fantasy. Smut. Cracky, porny smut.
Written for myth_confirmed, especially lunate8.

Grant was not a rocket scientist.

---
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Sam and Dan, gay brothers.

2009-11-06T11:56:58Z

Every time I read "Sam and Dan", I think of Sam and Dean. And it really doesn't help that they're "gay brothers". Of course, Sam and Dan are brothers who are both gay, Sam and Dean are brothers who are both straight/bi/bi-curious and have an obsessive and co-dependent love for each other, so please don't misunderstand me when I call Sam and Dan gay brothers. I don't think it's like that.

Just, if Dean didn't have a phobia of flying, and if they didn't have to avert the apocalypse and all that, and if it weren't important that they maintain their secret identities, I think Sam and Dean would be really, really good at The Amazing Race. I like to imagine how they would have handled the challenges. I think Dean would have liked the pie throwing challenge!

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Yay women! Yay White Collar!

2009-11-02T20:21:27Z

I don't know why some commenters would say my first entry was "overwhelmingly negative", or that it seemed like I didn't enjoy episode 101 - chicks are hot, and WC totally delivers the eye candy. In 102, it was wall to wall foxes, we only had to look at that one old hag for like 2 seconds :-D
Am I not allowed to feel good about that?

I was kind of worried the lesbian was going to be all intrusive in this episode. I realize that the pilot has to set up the premise and all that, but episode two should really be dedicated to getting to know the characters better, and it would have sucked if the lesbian and the wife had to be shoehorned in so we got less dialog from Neal, Peter and Mozzie. In the end, I liked the way they used them. Sports bra and bare midriff, hello! She can wrestle me to the ground anytime ;-)

And it was good character development for Neal. It really showed his confidence, and the way he's fitting into the team when he put her in her place by winding her around his finger, when she gave him attitude for not remembering her from the airport. Girls just can't resist compliments on their looks from a real man. It was really funny the way he didn't remember her again at the party, and she was all smirking at him. Ha, the joke's on you, lesbian! Like you matter enough to pay attention to and remember.

And they used the wife okay too. Peter was so nice to pretend to like that stupid watch she gave him. Like he doesn't know for himself which watch he wants to wear! And she was just so in his face about the party planning, being all "I'm a professional and you're not!" Neal rocks for standing up for Peter, so he didn't lose face to his wife because it wasn't him who came up with the venue. And in the end, she admitted she was wrong to impose her taste in watches on him, so that was nice. And it just goes to show, Peter is a good husband, and he's a good agent because he knows how to use the contacts he has, even if one of them is his wife.

Anyway, another great episode! I really liked it, and I look forward to next week's. Hopefully we'll see some more of Mozzie and Jones, because I don't like the way they're so back-grounded to Neal and Peter. It's like they're just there to show Neal-the-con who has a friend who is a con, and Peter-the-fed who has an underling who is a fed. But I bet they have some interesting stories of their own, and I'd like to see Mozzie and Jones do their jobs, or during their free time in a storyline of their own.

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White Collar 101

2009-10-24T09:41:10Z

What I learned about women from watching WC 101:

Women are there for you to enjoy! One of the good things about getting released from prison is that you get to use women. You can stare at them all you want, and if you put in the effort and flirt a bit with them, they'll try to please you and do stuff for you. Because that's what women are for.

Women's emotions don't matter, except for when they become a problem to you. A good wife will keep her emotions from bothering you, that's what makes her good. Sometimes women are just too emotional though, and that's when you have to solve the problem. If you just apply yourself to the problem, you can make it go away. You don't need to waste time during your marriage on getting to know your wife, because if she's a good wife, most of the time she won't trouble you with her emotions. On the rare occasions when you have to deal with the problem, you can just search through her possessions, and buy her a luxury item she wants.

Women are yours. If you're considering dating a woman, you should stalk her to see if she's good enough. She'll thank you later. If your wife is being problematical and having emotions, you should stalk her to try to solve the problem. She'll thank you for it. If a woman leaves you, you should stalk her and try to take her back. If a woman suspects you wouldn't stalk her if she left you, she'll think you don't value her as a possession, and then she might get emotional.

Women are at your disposition at all times. The only reason a woman has to turn you down is if she's a lesbian. Lesbianism is a waste of a sexy woman. Lesbians are lesbians just to thwart you. Lesbians want to be like you and wear hats and suits, because they know that you are better than women, but they also want to look sexy for you, as is only right. Even though you don't get to have sex with lesbians, they are there for you to stare at as much as you want.

Women come in two types: One type of woman is young, slim, has long, shiny, straight hair, wears a lot of make-up, wears figure-hugging clothing, wears high heels, flirts with you, and is there for you to stare at. The other type of woman is invisible, except when doing you a favor.

Women care about dumb stuff. You wouldn't care about your wedding anniversary, of course. The thought of a wife giving her husband a present on their anniversary, or a couple making plans together is just ludicrous, because why would you want to celebrate your relationship? But women sometimes have emotions for dumb reasons, and you need to solve that before it becomes a bigger problem.

Women, I tell you. They're a nuisance to deal with, but we still want to fuck them. Ammirite?

I also learned a politically correct tip from watching WC:

Don't say the d-word, it's offensive to little people! But it's okay to say "enano", because Hispanics don't watch TV, and if they do, who cares what they think anyway.

Oh yeah, you better believe I'm going to be watching this show for the ho-yay.

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Glee 108 Mash-Up

2009-10-22T12:05:20Z

Mike and Matt are chopped liver. Finn can't sing a solo because he has something in his eye, Artie has to play the bass, and Puck doesn't like the song. So obviously Will has to sing it himself - Kurt, Mike and Matt aren't asked, but at least Kurt gets lines.

I liked Puck having a storyline this episode, even if there wasn't much to it. And I liked Sue's dancing with Will; I don't know much about dancing, but the choreography was more the same sex style than the traditional style, wasn't it? The zoot suit didn't look as good on her as her many designer track suits do, but I love the fact that she wore it. And the way she took Rod cheating on her was bad ass.

Other than that, there wasn't much to like in the episode. I was entertained, but I found myself enjoying costumes, make-up and extras in the background more than the main action. I'm getting tired of the Emma/Ken storyline, and the Finn/Quinn and popularity/slushie throwing storylines were boring and kind of dumb. I didn't think Kurt was cool for throwing the slushie in his own face; though I can respect him for wanting to save Finn from a beating, I hate that martyr crap. I didn't even like the glee club throwing their slushies on Will, though he did ask for it by telling Quinn it was all right if she had slushies thrown on her every day. Dumb ass.

Female characters:
Emma is still using Ken, but she didn't try to kiss Will or overtly flirt with him, so that's nice. But her feelings were just a mcguffin for the Ken vs. Will storyline. (Also, Emma doesn't know the train is just for church, you take if off before dancing. I find that very unrealistic.)

Sue had a date and fell in love. Yay Sue! It was an excuse to get her rivalry with Will out of the way for the Ken vs. Will storyline, but it did have some substance to it.

Rachel made out with Puck, but it was mostly about Puck's dilemma.

Quinn wanted to be popular again, part of the Finn and Puck want to stay popular storyline.

I'm not even sure if this episode passes the Bechdel test. There were no conversations between female characters, but there was Sue snarling at Quinn that she was off the cheerios. I gave it a "pass?"

Characters of color:
Ken is jealous of Will, and tries to sabotage glee club. And maybe he's also trying to give Emma an ultimatum, by asking her to give in on the song choice. I hope he realizes that he can't live with the way she's treating him and breaks it off before she hurts him too badly. Mostly this was set-up for the Puck and Finn have to choose storyline, and for Emma and Will have to dance and flirt storyline.

Another big second premise race-Bechdel fail. I found Will taking the solo from Mike and Matt particularly offensive and stupid. It doesn't even make sense: on the story level, he's their teacher, they're the ones who're supposed to practice singing; on the meta level, we see plenty of Matthew Morrison shaking his booty in the Will/Emma scenes, while Dijon Talton and Harry Shum are both smoking hot and we barely get to see them standing there out of focus in the background. I don't even think Matt has been officially referred to by name yet, has he?

Characters with disabilities:
Emma had the usual love triangle storyline.

Artie had no storyline.

Bechdel tests:

Episode	Speaking characters	Female characters	F-Bechdel	Characters of color	R-Bechdel
101	19	8 (42%)	Pass, 2 out of 3 conversations	6 (32%)	Fail, 0 conversations
102	21	11 (52%)	Pass, 6 out of 8 conversations	6 (29%)	Fail, 0 conversations
103	26	12 (46%)	Pass, 4 out of 8 conversations	9 (35%)	Fail, 0 out of 1 conversation
104	21	10 (48%)	Pass, 1 out of 2 conversations	5 (24%)	Fail, 0 conversations
105	18	9 (50%)	Pass, 4 out of 4 conversations	4 (22%)	Fail, 0 conversations
106	16	9 (56%)	Pass, 6 out of 9 conversations	6 (38%)	Fail, 0 conversations
107	18	10 (56%)	Pass, 5 out of ? conversations	6 (33%)	Fail, 0 conversations
108	16	7 (44%)	Pass?, 1 out of 1 one-sided conversation	4 (25%)	Fail, 0 conversations

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Meme: Fannish influences on my fic

2009-10-21T21:01:28Z

schmevil was saying how remixing and plagiarizing are not at all the same thing, and that "in a fannish context, there can only good flows from being remixed. It's possible to compare unfavourably with the new, transformative work, but it's still going to drive new readers your way."

We got to talking about what a shame it is that people feel this social pressure to keep their fannish influences secret, and how there ought to be a meme. I feel strongly that cross-pollination between writers will produce fic of a higher quality. We're all inspired by what we read, sometimes we lift something but use it in a new context, sometimes we like something enough to expand on it, sometimes we realize we actually have an opinion about something when we come across something we disagree with. And when we get a fanwork out of that inspiration, we're probably grateful to the other fans who inspired us. This meme is your chance to let others know they've been an inspiration to you!

I hope that we can create an atmosphere of shared fun and pleasure in creating, and realize that remixing fanworks is an homage just as remixing canon is.

Meme: Fannish influences on my fic
Pick a fic you've written, and explain how other fanworks inspired you.

I recently wrote a fic for remixredux called Heartbreak Hotel.

It is a Supernatural slash fic featuring animal transformation, incest and dubcon. My primary inspiration for it was obviously the fic it is a remix of, Leopard porn by naotalba, and the first part of my fic has the exact same plot as naotalba's.

But there were also other inspirations. I'm really terrible with names and titles, and it's been a while since I read them, but in Stargate: Atlantis fandom there have been several excellent Mckay/Sheppard genderfuck fics which made the point that if you change a male into a female, you're not changing a man into a woman. You're changing a cis man into a trans man, or a trans woman into a cis woman. One of them is Sheppard's Choice by cupidsbow, another is Always should be someone you really love by thingswithwings. I'm sorry I can't remember all the specific titles, but if you're interested in some really thoughtful, sensitive and entertaining genderfuck fic, I know you can find more in this comm: sga_genderfuck. These fics inspired me to having Dean identify as a leopard, not as a human, when he was transformed. I have a kink for romance or friendship between sapients of different species, and it amused me that I did not get the same out of the sex scene as Sam, the character with a kink for fur, did.

Then there was the Stargate: Atlantis Mckay/Sheppard fic where Rodney has a kink for verbally humiliating his partner, and John is a submissive masochist, and they find a way of making love that more or less satisfies them both, Sufficient by telesilla. I thought it was a very romantic and sweet fic, and it inspired me to write the scene where Dean decides to try furry sex, and likes it for different reasons than Sam does, and they're both happy.

I was inspired to characterize Dean the way I did by the way I've seen him characterized in the Supernatural fandom. I've read a lot of different fics by a lot of different writers, and probably taken something from each of them. I chose to write him in an exaggerated way, with martyr complex, reluctance to speak directly of his feelings, trying to take charge and take care of Sam, but also very needy and subby, and with Sam's reactions coloring his own strongly, probably mostly based on the humorously exaggerated Dean in fleshflutter's fic, and the extremely sexy needy sub Dean in poisontaster's fic, especially the Sex Pollen verse (D/s, dubcon, incest).

The newspaper clippings were real (though slightly edited), except for the first one, which was a parody of a typical human interest article in a local newspaper. In canon the guys often research supernatural cases using newspapers, though it's not always clear how they hear about a case. In fic I've noticed that they sometimes research cases that no one seems to have heard about, let alone written about in the newspaper, and I wonder how that could be. I'm not thinking of any particular fic, and it's not a widespread trend; it's just a little plot hole I sometimes come across, and it amused me to mention it. In hindsight, I don't think opening with a parody of a poorly written article served the fic well, but at least it made me laugh ^_~

And I think that's it! Those were the fannish inspirations for my fic.

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Glee 107 Throwdown

2009-10-15T15:58:26Z

This was a really fun episode, but while I enjoyed it for its humor, it disappointed me deeply. Sue (yay Sue!) in her on-going campaign against Will and the glee club points out how the characters of color are always background decoration, backup singers and dancers, don't have any storylines, have very little dialogue, just a few humorous interjections here and there, and half of them don't even have names.

Thank you Sue, you are absolutely right. It's time we did something about that, by focusing the episode on... the white people practicing their solos without the colored people there to back them up. Hey, at least we know now that Mike is named Mike.

It's another spectacular second premise race-Bechdel test fail for Glee.

On the female Bechdel test, it's another win, and this time Quinn told Finn off for thinking her pregnancy was all about him, so that was nice.

Terri and Kendra weathered the baby girl shock like pros. Kendra is very good at manipulating people!

No Emma and Ken this episode, phew. Nice to get a break from that depressing storyline.

No news about Howard - is he in jail? No Sandy. Figgins is slipping out of Sue's grasp. Quinn, Santana and Britney are still reporting to Sue and helping her, but they walked out with the others when she and Will had their screaming match.

And there was a horrible, unfunny meta joke. Don't do that. Don't break the fourth wall unless it's for a good reason, like a funny joke or a put-down of Jay Leno.

Episode	Speaking characters	Female characters	F-Bechdel	Characters of color	R-Bechdel
101	19	8 (42%)	Pass, 2 out of 3 conversations	6 (32%)	Fail, 0 conversations
102	21	11 (52%)	Pass, 6 out of 8 conversations	6 (29%)	Fail, 0 conversations
103	26	12 (46%)	Pass, 4 out of 8 conversations	9 (35%)	Fail, 0 out of 1 conversation
104	21	10 (48%)	Pass, 1 out of 2 conversations	5 (24%)	Fail, 0 conversations
105	18	9 (50%)	Pass, 4 out of 4 conversations	4 (22%)	Fail, 0 conversations
106	16	9 (56%)	Pass, 6 out of 9 conversations	6 (38%)	Fail, 0 conversations
107	18	10 (56%)	Pass, 5 out of ? conversations	6 (33%)	Fail, 0 conversations

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Mainstream queer representation =|= slash pairings made canon.

2009-10-11T23:08:04Z

Dear slash fans who consider yourselves allies:

Queer people are distinguished from straight and cis people by our sexuality and/or gender vs. sex. Queer people are not defined by our sexuality and/or gender vs. sex.

As a shipper, I would not enjoy having a pairing I ship, be it het or slash, made canon, because I feel it takes the fun out of looking for subtext, and makes writing canon-compliant fic more difficult, since fic is written in the holes canon doesn't cover. That doesn't mean I don't very much enjoy canon pairings as well, both heterosexual and gay. I was happy when Willow/Tara and Veronica/Logan became canon, and was very entertained by their love stories as a viewer. I don't begrudge you your Jack/Ianto ship, just because I personally am not interested in reading or writing fic about canon pairings.

As a queer, I am hurt and upset that fellow fans who call themselves allies do not understand that it's not about our sex lives or genitals, and representation of us does not equal storylines about love or sex! I am not saying I prefer de-sexed characters like Will from "Will & Grace", I'm saying I prefer queer characters to be written like actual people with actual people motivations and interests, just like straight and cis characters ideally are!

I am cis gendered myself, and don't tend to look very hard for representation of gender queers. My interest in differently gendered or sexed characters is mostly from the exploitative, porn reading side of the fence, so I don't have any recs for you of shows doing it right.

But I can recommend a show which does butch woman right: Glee. I am butch myself (I am exactly as masculine as the completely average man according to the BBC sex id), and I love how Sue is written and acted. I don't know if she's a cis woman who's had a hysterectomy, a mtf trans woman or if she's intersexed, but I do know that she is an awesome, butch woman who is not vilified or mocked for being butch, and whose butchness is not a plot device.

A movie which does gay/bi man right is Blades of Glory. Coach's sexual orientation is completely irrelevant to the plot, and not exploited in any way. He's just an awesome skating coach. And a minor character >_<

I'm trying to think of a TV show I have a fannish interest in which does gay/bi man or woman right, and I can't think of any which didn't either sexually exploit, mock/vilify or problematize homo/bisexuality (we all get VD, we're all exposed to constant gay bashing, we're all sluts who'll die alone because we don't understand true love/partnership, we'll die young, we struggle with shame and self-loathing, etc.) in a crypto-homophobic way. I'm left looking for coded gay/bi characters, who pass for straight in the eyes of the straight viewers. I'm glad the coded gay/bi characters are there (and I'm fucking tired of straight people telling me they aren't), but I'd really, really like for my people to be openly represented on the fiction shows I watch.

In the future, please continue trying to be our allies. I like having you on our side. Try to separate your interest in slash from your demand for equal civil rights and an end to queerphobia. Don't ever, ever say that you don't want a character to be canonically gay/bi/trans if they aren't sexually appealing to you. Don't pretend like gay/bi women don't exist if you're a straight female fan of M/M slash, or like gay/bi men don't exist if you're a straight male fan of F/F slash. Consider carefully if you're writing/reccing a fic with a bi character, or a fic with a straight character whose true and pure love transcends gender in one very special case, but certainly isn't one of those sinful, dirty, icky homosexuals (we're-not-gay-we-just-love-each-other fic). Don't pretend like gender queer people don't exist, or are evil/wrong if they're not gay/bi, or aren't "real" women or men.

In conclusion: real queer people are not like your fictional fap fantasies. Please stop trying to squeeze us into that mold, or punishing us for not fitting in that mold. Please stop thinking that you are in any way helping queers when you campaign for more fan-service. Stop pretending that slash fic is the same as queer fic; some slash fic is also queer fic (all of my fic is), but most isn't. Scolding a slash fic for having male characters who don't act like real life gay/bi men is a misunderstanding. You wouldn't ask for more realistic racial stereotypes, would you? A better response would be to point out when a fic is only a slashy fantasy for straight people, when it is a queer interest fic, and when it's both: a queer slash fic.

I haven't had the time/energy to read any of the fic posted in queerlygen yet, but I recommend the comm to any slash fans reading this who're confused by my saying that slash isn't about queers, and queer representation isn't about sex and genitals.

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Glee 106 Vitamin D

2009-10-09T19:16:46Z

I enjoyed this guest star free episode very much!

It was very funny, all the storylines were good, and most of the non-main cast members had plenty of lines. I had hoped that we would have been introduced to the new glee club members, but I guess the writers don't want to confuse the viewers or lose momentum with the storylines unfolding already.

Sue is co-director of the glee club!

Quinn tries to blackmail or maybe just beg money from Terri, but Terri is too greedy and self-centered to understand what Quinn was doing - or maybe she just knows Quinn doesn't want to risk pissing her off.

Finn explicitly admits he wants to be with Rachel, and he may start looking for an excuse to break up with Quinn?

Quinn is not doing anything to antagonize Sue, but I think Sue no longer trusts her as a cheerio or as a minion.

Britney hung out with Kurt and Tina last episode, and again this one she, Santana and Quinn were hanging out with Tina, Mercedes and Rachel when they weren't even practicing!

Bechdel test:

Episode	Speaking characters	Female characters	F-Bechdel	Characters of color	R-Bechdel
101	19	8 (42%)	Pass, 2 out of 3 conversations	6 (32%)	Fail, 0 conversations
102	21	11 (52%)	Pass, 6 out of 8 conversations	6 (29%)	Fail, 0 conversations
103	26	12 (46%)	Pass, 4 out of 8 conversations	9 (35%)	Fail, 0 out of 1 conversation
104	21	10 (48%)	Pass, 1 out of 2 conversations	5 (24%)	Fail, 0 conversations
105	18	9 (50%)	Pass, 4 out of 4 conversations	4 (22%)	Fail, 0 conversations
106	16	9 (56%)	Pass, 6 out of 9 conversations	6 (38%)	Fail, 0 conversations

Female characters:
This was a great episode for the ladies. Lots of use of all the glee club members who've had lines previously, and the competition between the girls and the boys, as well as Quinn and Terri's pregnancies gave the women lots of opportunities to talk about stuff that matters to them, other than men.

Sue provokes a power struggle between Terri and Emma. I do feel a bit sorry for Emma, it must not be easy to have a love life when she's afraid of being touched, but what she's doing to Ken is just not right.

Terri gives pseudoephedrine to the students. I actually liked the moralizing by Rachel. She was tempted, but her honor won! Rachel, I love you.

Characters of color:
Another second premise Bechdel test fail this episode. I had hoped that we would get some dialogue, or at least names, from the new glee club members from the football team, if not actual storylines for any of them. Maybe next week. But we did see them performing, with some focus on the dancing of one of the new guys.

Ken is manipulated by Terri into proposing to Emma. Poor Ken. And Howard is ordered to buy pseudoephedrine by Terri and gets arrested! Poor, poor Howard. I was really glad to see him again, and it couldn't have been under funnier circumstances. They were both only in the episode as pawns in Terri and Emma's power struggle, unfortunately.

Characters with disabilities:
Emma had a major storyline, and it was again partly about how she lives with her mental illness. She is a bad ass, and usually never lets anyone or anything get her down or keep her from doing what she wants to do; however, she may have settled for a man she doesn't love, because he can accept a non-physical relationship and is a good person. Two very important qualities, and maybe enough for happiness, if/when she gets over her crush?

Will did not cure anyone's mental illness, substance abuse problem or stuttering this episode, yay!

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Glee 105 The Rhodes Not Taken

2009-10-06T13:36:46Z

A less enjoyable episode, though not as boring as Acafellas.

Will was not only able to magically heal Emma of her mental illness when it was inconveniencing him, he's also able to cure April of substance addiction when it inconveniences him, just by flirting! Truly, he is a great man. Or maybe he's a loathsome, egocentric, condescending, manipulative asshole? Whichever it is, sadly, as with Emma, the effect only lasts for as long as the woman is willing to tolerate his attitude for the sake of flirting.

I'm feeling a lot better about how much Will sucks, now that the show is consistently showing him to be flawed in this way, and I've decided it's deliberate and the writers are poking fun of people like him.

Thanks to horrible loser April (mother to mixed raced children, oh the shame!?!), female characters figured strongly in the two main storylines, and the episode passes the Bechdel test.

April comes back to high school as a ringer in glee club, since she still needs three credits to get her diploma, but rather than making a better life for herself, she starts spreading her bad influence and infecting the kids with her losertude. Substance abuse storylines are hard for me to watch, but I did enjoy the realism and humor. April was so gross she lessened my enjoyment a bit every time she was on screen, though.

Rachel (I love you, Rachel!) clashes horns with a bigger prima donna than her: Sandy. Oh Sandy, Sue is not going to be happy with you for alienating your star when you were supposed to keep her out of glee.

Finn shows that he can be almost as self-centered and manipulative as his role model Will, when he uses his sexual wiles to lure Rachel back to glee club. Too bad he's kind of dumb, and nearly makes her decide to stay away forever.

New storylines:
Puck decides to not sabotage Quinn and Finn outright by revealing his betrayal of his best friend - instead, he'll harass Quinn by spreading rumors. He's a lot better at manipulation than Finn.

Will gossips about his students' private business not only to his wife, but also to Emma.

Sandy bites the hand that feeds him. Sue gives Rachel control over the musical, but what will she do when she learns Sandy failed in the only thing she gave him his job back to do?

Old storylines:
Tina stands up to Rachel, willing to take the solo when April quits.

No news about Quinn and Santana vs. Sue, no news about Quinn's pregnancy, no news about Terri's "pregnancy".

Episode	Speaking characters	Female characters	F-Bechdel	Characters of color	R-Bechdel
101	19	8 (42%)	Pass, 2 out of 3 conversations	6 (32%)	Fail, 0 conversations
102	21	11 (52%)	Pass, 6 out of 8 conversations	6 (29%)	Fail, 0 conversations
103	26	12 (46%)	Pass, 4 out of 8 conversations	9 (35%)	Fail, 0 out of 1 conversation
104	21	10 (48%)	Pass, 1 out of 2 conversations	5 (24%)	Fail, 0 conversations
105	18	9 (50%)	Pass, 4 out of 4 conversations	4 (22%)	Fail, 0 conversations

Episode	Speaking characters	Female characters	F-Bechdel	Characters of color	R-Bechdel
101	19	8 (42%)	Pass, 2 out of 3 conversations	6 (32%)	Fail, 0 conversations
102	21	11 (52%)	Pass, 6 out of 8 conversations	6 (29%)	Fail, 0 conversations
103	26	12 (46%)	Pass, 4 out of 8 conversations	9 (35%)	Fail, 0 out of 1 conversation
104	21	10 (48%)	Pass, 1 out of 2 conversations	5 (24%)	Fail, 0 conversations
105	18	9 (50%)	Pass, 4 out of 4 conversations	4 (22%)	Fail, 0 conversations

Female characters:
Good percentage of characters, as always. And a good pass on conversations! April and Rachel had good storylines, and Emma picked up Will's manipulation slack when Will decided to bet on April rather than on getting Rachel back.

Characters of color:
Again, a fail on the second premise - no conversations between characters of color, though there was an okay percentage of speaking characters of color.

Tina stood up for herself, and Santana is making more of a presence of herself in glee club, not just as Quinn's yes-woman.

But there were no storylines for characters of color.

Characters with disabilities:
Poor Emma had to go to the emergency room, when Kurt was sick on her. But because she rocks, she was back at work later, even though she was visibly affected. She continues trying to win Will, with some masterful manipulation. I suspect she's starting to see his flaws, though.

Artie did not have a storyline, but was in the glee club's performance. In the first act he sang and danced, and in the second where the others were dancing on stairs, he sang and played with the band, which was highlighted more than what the other glee club members who did not have solos were doing. I take that as evidence that the writers are trying not to fall into the same traps they ridicule the characters for doing, and I like that! As with the Will is a jerk thing, I'm starting to trust the writers more.

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Glee 104 Preggers

2009-10-06T11:44:43Z

Another enjoyable and very funny episode. So much was going on I could barely keep up. Rachel, I still love you most of all, but Sue is too awesome for words.

This episode, Kurt had a storyline! Kurt, you haven't won me over yet, you're still a bit too impassive and affected for my taste, but I did cheer for you, and cry a bit when you once again showed your enormous courage, and came out to your dad. Yay Kurt!

New storylines:
Kurt kicks ass!

Quinn is pregnant, but this storyline is all about Finn and Puck? Oh, Puck, you're a jerk, but your vulnerability and neediness when you fear Finn might love Quinn or Kurt more than you does humanize you. You have a cute smile, and I look forward to seeing you in the show choir. But show, you suck for making Quinn's problem all about the guys.

Sue continues being awesome, now on local TV! And now she has even more motivation for destroying the show choir.

Sandy is back in school! There can never be too much Sandy. I loved his sexy kimono, showing off his sexy toned legs. And of course, the pristine pastel sweater casually and elegantly slung around his shoulders.

Old storylines:
Ken and Emma are still dating, still awkward around each other.

Terri is still faking her pregnancy, now with Kendra's "help", and a different plot to get a baby.

Finn suspects that Kurt has feelings for him. I can't think he figured that out for himself, it must have been Puck's comments that put the thought in his head.

Puck liking the MILFs gets a mention.

No news on Quinn and Santana vs. Sue. No Howard.

Bechdel tests:

Episode	Speaking characters	Female characters	F-Bechdel	Characters of color	R-Bechdel
101	19	8 (42%)	Pass, 2 out of 3 conversations	6 (32%)	Fail, 0 conversations
102	21	11 (52%)	Pass, 6 out of 8 conversations	6 (29%)	Fail, 0 conversations
103	26	12 (46%)	Pass, 4 out of 8 conversations	9 (35%)	Fail, 0 out of 1 conversation
104	21	10 (48%)	Pass, 1 out of 2 conversations	5 (24%)	Fail, 0 conversations

Not a very good episode for female characters and characters of color. The percentages of female characters and characters of color with dialogue continue to be good, but there were only two conversations between women, only one of them not about a male. Once again, no conversations between characters of color.

Female characters:
Sue had a major storyline, the same as always: winning, but this time her TV job is in jeopardy if she doesn't sabotage glee club!

Rachel and Tina had a minor storyline, as they both wanted the same solo, but they were really just pawns in the game between Sue and Will.

Quinn nearly disappeared out of her own unwanted pregnancy story, when it was all about Finn and Puck's relationship, but she did have the only female to female conversation not about a male when her story intersected with Terri's.

Characters of color:
Mercedes was barely in the episode, and Santana not at all. Howard was also not there.

Tina had a solo! Not much of a story, though.

Figgins has beautiful legs and surprisingly powerful stomach muscles, but he was just a pawn in the Sue vs. Will game.

No storylines for characters with disabilities.

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Supernatural 502 Good God Y'all

2009-09-18T08:24:02Z

Great episode. And they got to use mountains in the background!

Dean doesn't have freckles, or only very faint ones. Jensen does have freckles. But in the scene where they meet Ellen, Dean had a face full of pretty freckles! I just had time to go oooh, pretty! before she threw the holy water in his face. Then I went ah, that was why.

Dean loves his Sammy! I'm a sucker for episodes and fic about that. Even if I hadn't thought the episode was great, I probably would have loved it just for that. Dean doesn't want to part with the amulet! Dean is afraid of letting Sam out on his own with all the demons around! Dean offers Sam the impala!

Ellen and Jo love each other! It was so, so good to see Ellen and Jo again. In the past, I've had mixed feelings about them. I felt they changed the feel of the show too much, and were a bit too familiar with the Winchesters too quickly. But on reflection, I think that what I really hated was the roadhouse, and hanging around there for three episodes. I did like the crawling through the walls with Jo episode. Anyway, this episode I was able to love Ellen and Jo and appreciate their awesome.

Bobby is making Dean/Castiel jokes. Eh. Bobby is very upset about being lame, and wants to be healed. I really, really can't blame him or the writers for that. If they had somehow implied that he was not a whole person because he's lame, and therefore needed to be fixed, that would have been different.

Rufus kicked ass and was hot and brave and smart and authoritative. Yes please! More of him! You can quit it with the Lethal Weapon jokes right now, though. Being a black man and getting shot at while trying to protect people does not make him just like Murtaugh.

It was nice of Jo and Rufus to try to exorcise Sam instead of just killing him, the way Sam did with those guys in the convenience store.

Sam's an addict. I really appreciate the realism and commitment to continuity of it. Just because god healed him of the physical dependency doesn't mean he doesn't still have the psychological craving, especially in a situation where he believed he was surrounded by demons, and using his demon powers would be the only way to do a mass exorcism. On the other hand, I really hate addict storylines, and I won't be upset if they drop it or background it.

The amulet: hahaha! It's like fanfic.

Castiel calling on the phone to ask where they are: I love it. Also makes being out of coverage more suspenseful.

Ellen smacking Dean: poor Dean, the women who want to mother him tend to take a violent and scolding approach to it. Why does Dean have such bad luck with mothers?

Dean meeting Jo again: hahaha. Well acted Jensen and Alona, you both rock!

War: I liked the idea, and I liked the writing. I was bored by the actor. Why did they cast and style War to be such a walking cliche? I don't think the actor was very good at changing from innocent, scared human to sinister and gleeful embodiment of war. I sort of wish they had taken War in a more Pratchett direction, and am sort of glad they didn't cast a woman. I wonder why War introduced itself with Germany, Germany, Middle East, Darfur. Did it assume Sam would only be familiar with the wars extensively covered by American popular history documentaries and slick infotainment news? And as for the cliche: I know a lot of Latin people, and none of them act or look like the stereotypical oily, sinister Latin man on American tv. Why is this stereotype still alive and well? Isn't it so tired that it's not even funny in any ironic way anymore?

Ellen and Jo's hair styles: being barricaded in a house with 20 people sharing one or two bathrooms for days is no excuse to let yourself go. And that's why these ladies are superheroes and you and I aren't. I blow dry my hair straight and set it with hairspray maybe once every two months. I've never in my life given it cute little twisty curls, or made it curve beautifully in at the ends. And that's why I'm not cut out for hunting!

And now, the Bechdel tests:

Episode	Speaking characters	Female characters	F-Bechdel	Characters of color	R-Bechdel
501	12	4 (33%)	Fail, 0 conversations	1 (8%), Fail	Fail, 0 conversations
502	12	4 (33%)	Pass, 3 out of 3 conversations	2 (17%)	Fail, 0 conversations

Female Bechdel win! Three conversation between ladies, and none of them about men! No evil women! Important storyline about women: Ellen and Jo rescuing each other from possession. No sexualized violence against women! One understandably scared pregnant woman, whose symbolic victimhood was underlined again and again by her being young, blonde and her huge stomach being focused on all the time. One brave parishioner risking her life to run to the aid of her priest!

Race Bechdel fail, but not terrible fail. Two characters of color, both heroic. Rufus, who was a main character and totally awesome (except for having Murtaugh as a personal role model, that was weird), and the brave parishioner. No evil characters of color! Possibly some dead characters of color, it was hard to tell with all the caps and flannel and poofy vests, and shooting and stuff, but I think the town was almost all white north-western European type people, with the notable exception of oily and evil Latin man and determinedly heroic see-we-can-learn Rufus and brave parishioner.

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Glee 103 Acafellas

2009-09-17T10:18:32Z

Glee manages to keep my attention for another episode. The first half of the episode dragged for a bit, but it was still good entertainment.

The Acafellas plot was stupid and boring. I only liked the scenes Sandy was in, because he's just awesome. I love his pastel sweater casually and elegantly draped over his shoulders - so eighties.

Will did nothing to win back my respect. He broke a promise to Terri not to tell anyone about the pregnancy, and he flounced from the glee club because he was hurt they didn't like his lame choreography. Also, he was very boring this episode, and I don't like seeing him dance "sexily", though I can forgive it if it means Puck and Finn also get to dance sexily.

Sue and Emma continue to be a lot of fun. I still love Rachel most of all.

Mercedes had a plot! She was both sweet and vulnerable, fierce and strong :-D She was a bit naive for falling for Quinn and Santana's machinations, but she was right not to just assume Kurt was gay because he's femme and into fashion, and he did go out with her. It's difficult, especially for teenagers, to come right out and say if you're going out as friends or dating, and it was brave of Mercedes to ask him if they were official or what. While she definitely should not have broken his windshield, it did mean getting to sing the best song of the episode, so yay for that! Anyway, in the end she did the right thing. She apologized sincerely, she offered to pay for the damage, and she proved to Kurt she could still be his friend and wish the best for him. Mercedes rocks!
I have just one quibble with her story: Mercedes is charismatic and beautiful, and a good dancer. Why did we have to keep looking at the back-up dancers instead of at her in her big song?

New developments:
Sandy intends to keep hanging out in the teacher's lounge! Yay, I sure hope he comes back. (Don't spoil me!)
Howard hangs out with Will and Terri outside of work, yay! I want to see more of him.
Puck likes the cougars! Yay!
Rachel, Quinn and Santana cooperated, and maybe developed some mutual respect! Quinn and Santana lost a bit of respect for machiavellian Sue! This is very promising.
Kurt has a crush on Finn! That explains why he keeps getting caught by the jocks every morning.

Old story lines being kept up:
Terri tries to get pregnant, to turn her lie into truth. Meh. I like Terri well enough.
Ken desperately tries to hang on to Emma. Eww. At first I thought Emma did the right thing by trying to get over Will by dating, but it's been weeks. She tries to treat him with respect, but her real disinterest is rather obvious, and his desperation is unappealing. She owes it to him to let him go, he owes it to himself to let her go.
Sue is still trying to sabotage glee club. Her new strategy of sowing discord promises a lot of fun to come.

Bechdel tests:

Episode	Speaking characters	Female characters	F-Bechdel	Characters of color	R-Bechdel
101	19	8 (42%)	Pass, 2 out of 3 conversations	6 (32%)	Fail, 0 conversations
102	21	11 (52%)	Pass, 6 out of 8 conversations	6 (29%)	Fail, 0 conversations
103	26	12 (46%)	Pass, 4 out of 8 conversations	9 (35%)	Fail, 0 out of 1 conversation

Female characters: Once again, a good percentage of female speaking roles. The main story line was the cringe-worthy and boring boyband, but the two other stories were Mercedes pursuing Kurt, and Sue and the cheerios trying to sabotage glee club, so well done show! Safe pass on the female Bechdel test. This week the dialog seemed a lot more evenly distributed. I counted 8 conversation only between female characters, and of course there were a lot of mixed gender conversations as well.

Characters of color: Mercedes had her own story line! Ken and Howard were part of the awful boyband thing, but were very much in the background compared to the white leads. There was a brief conversation between two characters of color, for the first time: Andrea and Andrea's hair-holding friend from the competing glee club talking about their coach, the sadistic, mean and uninteresting Dakota.

So it's a race Bechdel fail, but a fail on the third condition not on the second like usual. Santana talked to Mercedes, but Quinn was also part of the conversation, and it was about Kurt. Tina talked to Mercedes, but Rachel was also part of the conversation. (I'm counting Rachel as a white character, though really, she's just as likely to be black.)

Disabled characters: Artie was unfairly dismissed from glee club for being in a wheelchair, but his friends stood up for him and mentioned two disabled athletes I've never heard about, but then I don't follow sports. The moral was that being disabled is a lot like being ugly, but you can still succeed, or something.

Henri cut off his thumbs, and the accident was totally his own fault, and he should totally be mocked for it at every opportunity. (I'm talking about the moral of the show, not my opinion.)

Emma used her mental illness to aid the glee club, as Sue so poisonously pointed out, but Emma is awesome and takes no shit from anyone but Will, and only some of the time from him.

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Wanting =|= having the right to receive, and my thoughts on prostitution.

2009-09-12T09:38:52Z

I was catching up on the spnkink_meme just now. This time there was a lot of noncon and dubcon, as there often is. And noncon and dubcon can be really hot and enjoyable to read. I like it a lot both when it's treated strictly as a sadomasochistic and/or D/s fantasy and when it's emoporn teasing out all the nuances of the experience. I don't like it when it's presented as not being noncon/dubcon, and the wonderful thing about kinkmemes is that the prompters and writers own their kinks and don't try to sell them as the natural or ideal way of interacting sexually and romantically.

Then there was this fic: J2 AU, happy ending massage, and much as I like noncon/dubcon sometimes, I just want to hug and squeeze this fic and tell it that I love it.

Anyone adult can read this fic, it does not depend on or refer to any canon, and it'll take you two minutes, since it's quite short. Go on.

Did you notice how Jared and Jensen have a business transaction? And how Jared, though he initially did not expect Jensen to do him any sexual favors (because of his gender), once he had his happy ending and liked it wanted Jensen sexually? And how Jensen firmly and politely let him know that he was open to further business transactions, but was not about to give Jared anything more? Did you notice how awesome that was? Just because Jared wants Jensen does not mean Jensen is obligated to give Jared any part of himself, or apologize for his refusal! :-D

Anonymous author, you rock!

Add to that, that the themes in this fic are relevant to my interests. I love massages, real and fictional, and I love empowered prostitution. I believe that an important part of ownership and authority over our own bodies and selves is the right to provide physical services for money. A session with a domme or an adult-baby nanny can be very sexual. A session with a masseur or a medical professional can be very physically intimate. But combine sexuality and physical intimacy, and suddenly we do not have the right to decide for ourselves whether we engage in it, and if we do, charge for it?

Prostitution is horrible, physically and psychologically dangerous and damaging, and demeaning because most prostitutes are not allowed the authority over their own bodies and selves. Prostitution is forced underground by laws restricting or criminalizing it, and as a result is in the control of organized crime. Prostitutes are often slaves, people abducted from their homes, lured with false promises, and held in captivity using threats of murder and violence against themselves or their families in their home countries. Or they are addicts, forced into addiction, or scouted from addicts by pimps who use their addiction to control them.

Prostitutes need the support of the law and public authorities. They need to own and operate their own facilities. They need the protection of the police, and the right to hire their own security without having to resort to thugs from the gang milieus. They need practical legal and financial help and advice from authorities, like any new business owner gets. They need access to medical help. They need public awareness campaigns about slavery, and the difference between rape and a person with authority over their own body willingly providing a service for pay.

There are far more men who engage in prostitution than women! But men get into and out of prostitution when they want to. They provide a service for pay on their terms. They are not "accused" or "suspected" of being "whores" if they dress sexily or act flirtatiously, and if they tell people that they've had sex for money they are not branded a hooker for life. When a woman gets into prostitution, it is for years, decades, even life. She often, probably usually, does not consent to prostituting herself. Even if there is not physical force compelling her, there is often an emergency or emotional pressure forcing her. Once she is in the business, she does not have a say on when to leave, because even if she could get away from the organization controlling her, how would she be able to integrate into normal society again? She is forever branded.

I am for the legalization of prostitution, because our bodies are ours. And because when something is forced into hiding from authorities and the public's awareness, it easily falls prey to organized crime.

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Supernatural 501 Sympathy for the Devil

2009-09-11T07:47:16Z

Supernatural is back! I've tried hard to remain unspoiled, but I have picked up a few things which may be spoilers or just speculation. Luckily most of them were for this episode, so I don't have to worry about that anymore.

I thought the scenes with Lucifer torturing the potential vessel were boring, but other than that I enjoy this episode very, very much.

Bobby is awesome! He loves his boys. He can overpower a demon with the force of his love! He's never going to cut Sam out of his life! When the demon called Bobby Dean's father figure, I thought for sure he was going to die. I wasn't even scared, just sad and resigned. I hope he's going to be able to continue working in his salvage yard with his mobility issues (assuming he doesn't get to walk like before).

Sam! Kudos to Jared Padalecki. Young, puppyish Sam is back. I liked the huge difference between how Sam looks being pawed by a fangirl, and how Jared looks. I've had a hard time with Sam during season 4. I've always been more of a Dean girl, but I like Sam a lot, and hated seeing him so desperate, still caught in his grief and obsessed with vengeance, as if that could heal Dean's trauma. Bringing about the apocalypse isn't a good thing, but maybe now he and Dean can start working on reestablishing their closeness. He took the first necessary step by getting Dean to open up to him about his feelings, so that's promising.

Becky is so cute, and really funny. I'd like to read her fic. I'd like to see more of her, and read fic about her.

New Meg, who is even cooler than old Meg! Sorry old Meg fans, I found the new actress very appealing. It would have been nice if she'd tried to talk more like old Meg, but whatever.

Now for a Bechdel test. I looked at the characterscount wiki and the super-wiki and didn't see any, so I thought I might as well.

I've done both a traditional female character Bechdel test and a race Bechdel test:

Episode	Speaking characters	Female characters	F-Bechdel	Characters of color	R-Bechdel
501	12	4 (33%)	Fail, 0 conversations	1 (8%), Fail	Fail, 0 conversations

Women are underrepresented as always with Supernatural. And as is typical, two of them aren't even real women, they're a demon and the devil. But the other two are heroes.

Characters of color aren't so much underrepresented as invisible or evil and dead in Supernatural. Bechdel test fail on the first premise, shameful. But at least the black ER doctor/nurse? was a heroic character. She helped save Bobby!

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Protecting anglophone privilege

2009-09-10T23:33:18Z

FYI: Demanding that a non-native speaker of English either stop posting or accept an anglophone gatekeeper is the moral equivalent of calling out an author for peppering their fic with babelfished non-English phrases as exotic decoration with no respect or regard for the speakers of that language.

I posted about this phenomenon in international fandom represent, but the situation in this discussion on fanficrants is slightly different. Here the commenters are very sensibly complaining only about hard-to-read-because-of-poor-grammar fics in general, you understand. The undercurrent of seething xenophobia and the racist jokes are completely incidental.

Pros of reading the discussion: see Nora flip her shit.
Cons of reading the discussion: may cause elevated blood-pressure.

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Glee 102 Showmance

2009-09-10T19:39:56Z

After watching the second episode of Glee, I now love Rachel even more!

Rachel, I ♥ you

What's more, I also really like Sue and Emma, and I could sure go for some delicious Sue/Emma. I don't like Will anymore. Telling a woman she has "problems", sticking your nose in her trauma, and trying to fix her by deliberately doing something you know causes her anxiety is not charming, you condescending prick.

And now for the Bechdel tests:

Episode	Speaking characters	Female characters	F-Bechdel	Characters of color	R-Bechdel
101	19	8 (42%)	pass, 2 out of 3 conversations	6 (32%)	Fail, 0 conversations
102	21	11 (52%)	pass, 6 out of 8 conversations	6 (29%)	Fail, 0 conversations

I have counted the following as characters of color:
Mercedes Jones
Santana Lopez
Tina Cohen-Chang
Principal Figgins
Coach Ken Tanaka
Terri's doctor/ultrasound machine operator

I have not counted Rachel, though who knows what color she is?

This episode had a lot more conversations between women, yay! A few of them were about other subjects than men, but men were mentioned in passing. I did count those, but the episode would have passed even if I hadn't. Once again, good representation of speaking characters of color, but also once again, no characters of color speaking to each other. The focus of the plot was even more on the white people this week, though there was progress with Ken's wooing of Emma! And poor Principal Figgins has staff trouble.

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Glee 101

2009-09-10T18:23:02Z

I've just watched the first episode of Glee, and I love it! Rachel is a fantastic character. The episode was really funny, and I liked the way the song and dance was integrated in the plot.

I decided to do a Bechdel test, both female and race.

Episode	Speaking characters	Female characters	F-Bechdel	Characters of color	R-Bechdel
101	19	8 (42%)	pass, 2 out of 3 conversations	6 (32%)	Fail, 0 conversations

I counted the following as characters of color:
Coach Ken Tanaka
Principal Figgins
Mercedes Jones
Tina Cohen-Chang
clerk at bed & bath store
teacher wearing an argyle sweater (I'm not sure about her)

I did not count Rachel, though she may very well be black, no one can tell.

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Another fandom survey, because I was curious, dammit!

2009-09-02T08:36:50Z

I am just heart-broken that that skeevy survey turned out to be a skeevy survey, because I actually am fascinated by slash fandom, and by the breadth of human sexuality, and how slash fandom is a comparatively safe space to explore and express our desires.

So, I'm making my own completely unscientific survey. It's not about the breadth of human sexuality, it's just about fans, fandom and fanworks, with an emphasis on shipping.

Please feel free answer without logging in or signing your name.
I log IP-addresses to deter harassment only. I'm not going to reveal any IP-addresses to anyone, or use them in any way to keep tabs on people unless I feel I am being harassed and stalked. I don't consider flames, insults, critique, opinions I disagree with, and so on harassment; if I feel harassed, I will tell you. No one is getting their IP-address reported to abuse without fair warning to stop their behavior. Feel free to answer while logged in. If you answer the poll without logging in, you can't go back and change or delete your answers.

Please answer all the questions
even if all you have to say is that the question is stupid, irrelevant, intrusive, or badly worded. Feel free to ask the question I should have been asking instead, and answer that.

The poll limits answers to 255 characters, feel free to elaborate in comments.

Answers are viewable to all!
I will attempt to write and post a summary, which will also be viewable to all.

>

View poll: Another fandom survey

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Pre-slash, slash-friendly gen, and other non-marginalizing gen fic is awesome!

2009-08-24T16:02:02Z

"Gen fic" can mean many different things. Some people use it to mean G-rated fic, that is, fic suitable for general audiences, but most people use it to mean fic which is not about a romantic or sexual relationship.

A gen fic can be very relationship focused, and some friendshippy or smarmy fic is easily confused with het or slash. A gen fic can be about plots other than relationships, and it can be plot free. Often gen fics mention relationships and sex, and the possibility of them, sexual and emotional attraction, and there can even be explicit sexual and romantic content. What makes it gen is that the sex and romance is not the point or focus of the fic. Sometimes gen fics even erase any trace of sexuality.

Very often gen fics take heterosexuality for granted, sometimes to such a degree that I would call it het rather than gen. Even if the flirtation between Mulder and Scully is very much canon, if that flirtation and how it influences their behavior while they investigate the monster of the week is an important plot point, then your story is no longer gen in my opinion. I understand that people use the term in different ways, of course.

And sometimes gen fics acknowledge homosexuality, and the possibility of same sex attraction and flirting. These gen fics are like rare and precious jewels. Relentless heteronormativity can get very wearing in the long run, and it's just so relaxing to read an interesting fic with interesting characters which doesn't constantly subtly imply that I don't exist or am invisible.

I usually prefer shippy fic, and when I'm in the mood for gen I turn to pro novels. I love well-written and plotty gen fic, I've just learned that it's a gamble, and usually I'm not in the mood to take the risk of being squicked or feeling alienated by the rampant hettery.

That's where pre-slash comes in. Pre-slash is gen fic with character interaction on an emotional level and/or UST which admits of the possibility of queers existing. Sometimes it's well-written (yay!) and/or plotty (yay!) and it portrays queers doing activities other than having sex/thinking about having sex, hurray!

It's kind of amazing; every day, I do things which would be extremely boring for other people to watch: I water my plants, while being queer! I go for long walks in the woods and look for squirrels, while being queer! I sit by the computer and read, while being queer! I grocery shop, while being queer! It's almost like being queer isn't something I do exclusively while having sex and for the purpose of entertaining straight people not of my gender.

It would be nice if the very hetty gen fic were labeled pre-het, but I can certainly live with it just being called gen. I am grateful to everyone who labels their pre-slash as "pre-slash" or "slash-friendly gen" or otherwise indicates that it is not marginalizing queers. Thank you!

And to my acquaintance who complained about pre-slash because it was a tease, unfulfilling and misleading labeling; who repeatedly "forgot" that I am queer to the point of replying to "I can write a femslash sex scene" with "gah, I couldn't either, I'd be scared to! O_o"; who had fun discussing my sex life with men in graphic detail but always quickly found another subject when I so much as mentioned women; who expressed disgust and disinterest in reading about gay men who were not sexually appealing to her; who expressed disgust and horror at the idea of reading a fic with an f/f pairing when the fic was not even about the relationship - this rant's for you. I am completely weirded out that I never realized what a homophobe you are, just kept making mental excuses for when you "accidentally worded something poorly"; I'm even more weirded out that you probably don't even know you're homophobic yourself.

Here's a link for you, which explains how you can be a phobe and not know it: Color Blind or Just Plain Blind?

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Fetishization of queers and *phobia in fandom

2009-08-20T13:59:44Z

I am a queer, cisgendered woman. I've reacted defensively to recent discussion about fetishization and homophobia in slash fandom, but as I've learned from racefail09 I most probably am blind to my own privilege when it comes to being cisgendered, and as I've learned from the warnings debate, maybe I've internalized some homophobia and have been making excuses for my friends to justify their treatment of me.

I want to take a hard look at my own behavior and attitudes regarding queers and genderqueers(1) in fiction.

My first experiences with fetishization of queers in fandom
I know fetishization of queers and homophobia exist in slash fandom. The first fic I ever finished and posted was a femslash BtVS fic. I enjoyed being shippy about a canon pairing (Willow/Tara), and tried to involve myself in the BtVS femslash community. But a lot of the fic I read was written by straight men, as far as I could tell. There were two kinds: the physical fetishization of lesbians: two women (or girls) that were sexually attractive to the writer, but did not necessarily have any canon UST, had sex with graphic physical descriptions but almost no emotional description; and the emotional fetishization of lesbians: two women, who were the kindest, sweetest, gentlest, most empathetic, spiritual persons imaginable, and much too refined for crude, base men or dirty sex make sweet, intimate love described in flowery metaphor, and hold hands and gently comb each other's long, flowing hair. Both kinds of fic struck me a fetishizing lesbians and having very little to do with my own queer experience, and were repulsive to me.

In response to my own fic I got some lovely feedback, but also some that really grossed me out, focusing very much on the physical descriptions of sex, making assumptions about me personally and my sex life, and scolding me for writing one character as bi.

I'm used to this sort of treatment in real life(2), but I don't have to put up with it in fandom. There was acceptable and enjoyable femslash in BtVS fandom, but the proportions were such that I left for the M/M side of the fence and rarely look back.

What about male characters?
Now, in the (M/M) slash fandoms I've been in my experience has been different. I've seen the accusations of fetishization and homophobia, but have tended to defensively dismiss a lot of them if they came from gen or het fans. I have come across unambiguously fetishizing slash fic, but I mostly think of that kind of fic as poorly written or outright badfic, and don't read authors whose writing I don't enjoy. Another way I dismiss the accusations is that rather than look at the kind of fic I enjoy reading, and thinking about whether it fetishizes gay men, I make it all about me, and look at how I write men.

What I write
Let me get that out of the way first: I don't write about "men" in the sense that I write about male issues or the male gender role(s). When I write male characters, I write them as people first and last. When I write female characters, I write them as women. I'm not particularly interested in male issues, though I have voluntarily enjoyed information and discussion about them, and I'm completely fed up with fiction about male issues. I don't think men lack representation, or that it's my job to represent them.

I use my male characters to look at issues affecting people regardless of gender, and perhaps issues more typically affecting women. I try to write them in character; I don't think butch equals male, so I don't think it's necessary to write male characters as femme to use them to treat issues affecting women. I also think it's perfectly possible to write male characters as femme, or focusing on femme aspects of their personality, and still have them be very much in character.

I don't know whether my M/M fic is repulsive to gay men, but straight men who have read it were definitely made uncomfortable by my feminine writing style and focus on feelings, and felt that my male characters were not acting like real men. I imagine that gay men might feel about my fic the way I feel about the touchy-feely idealized lesbians fic, that I'm writing some fantasy that has nothing to do with real people.

So I write male characters with no attempt at gender realism, but a serious attempt at psychological realism. It's always about the person, not his gender. It's not about his sex. Not counting drabbles, I've written five fics: one F/F, one F+F, one M/F, one M+M and one M/M. My co-written fics have all been M/M, because I hang out in slash fandom. I use male characters as "people" in my fics not because I don't think women are people, but because I think female characters are often not well-rounded or have enough screen time/lines of dialogue to qualify. When they are awesomely written enough to satisfy me, I often feel like I have nothing to add. (I wish there were more well-rounded and flawed female characters.)

As for queer versus straight, queer is the default for me, it is not exotic or transgressive. When I write about a world with no (apparent) homophobia, that is not a sexy funtimes fantasy, that is a fantasy of freedom and dignity.

So no, while my queer male characters are perhaps not written with respect and sensitivity to real queer men, I don't think I fetishize queer men in my writing.

What I read
As for what I read, it gets a lot more murky. If I read and enjoy a fic fetishizing queers, perhaps with homophobic undertones, and am blind to it, am I guilty of fetishizing queers? Am I enjoying my privilege as a woman who can be sexually attracted to men, indulging in fic which portrays men as sexually and emotionally/romantically available in a voyeuristic and/or vicarious way, with no female character I have difficulty identifying with acting as competition? Especially when it comes to RPS, there is an element of me sexually objectifying men, and enjoying them being put in situations for my titillation, even preying on real people's emotions by sexualizing expressions of platonic friendship, or erasing real people's personalities to perv on their bodies.

I can't deny that I find Jensen Ackles very physically attractive, and his persona/facade when in the public eye charming. I also find many of the characters I read fic about physically attractive. But I can honestly say, I am not physically attracted to all the characters (including Real Person characters) I like to read fic about, and personality and relationship dynamics are far more important to me than whether I'd like to fuck each character individually.

I think that I do read and benefit from a lot of fetishizing fic, though. I've been blind to it, thinking that if fetishizing fic by definition is badfic, and I only read good fic, then I don't have to worry about it, but that's not true. I don't think there's anything wrong with me getting off on a detailed description of a character I find attractive. I can even accept a certain degree of objectifying in myself, because sometimes sex is all about the physical, and objectifying can be a kink in itself because of the dramatic tension between "person" and "object". I don't think I ever forget that a character does represent a person. When I think about the characters I objectify the most, Dean Winchester, John Sheppard and Spike, they're also some of the characters I'm most interested in psychologically, and my objectification of them is much more due to my sadism than any lack of empathy or respect. I don't know whether my inability/unwillingness to objectify female characters in the same way is due to my issues and triggers about the treatment of women, or if I'm lying to myself about respecting men as persons, but I'm guessing the former, given my mixed reaction to certain porn.

What I will do about it
Still, I do think that some writers go too far for me to enjoy their fic on whatever level. If I feel that the fetishization of queers goes too far into homophobic territory, showing a fundamental lack of respect for queers, and an attitude of "if you're not here to entertain me and cater to my needs you should be invisible", then I will no longer read it, rec it unqualified, or tolerate it in people I associate with online.

---

Genderqueer characters
As for the fic I consume about genderqueer characters, my conscience is a lot less clear, and I feel very conflicted.

I am cisgendered, and I don't understand what it's like to be transgendered. I have a few transgendered acquaintances, but I don't discuss their personal lives or intimate feelings with them. If I have any transgendered friends or family members, they have not chosen to share that fact with me.

How I feel about real genderqueer people
ETA 21 august 09: I'm telling you how I feel, so that we can have a discussion about it. I don't think I'm right to feel this way, I think I have very little insight and understanding.
When I was in the first to third grade, there was this guy who used to come and play with us on the playground. He was paraplegic, and very athletic. He could do some really cool tricks with his wheelchair, balancing and spinning and going up stairs, and the boys all worshiped him, and a lot of girls did too. I thought he was really cool, but also resented him a bit for getting and keeping everyone's attention just because he was a jock.

He was my primary role model as a child for a person who had to "overcome" his own body, both his own negative perception of it, and society's. It kind of blew our minds when we learned that that was why he was there, to serve as that kind of role model, because he was not sick or broken. Like many people, I'm made uneasy by illness and injury, and I worry that my horror makes me unpleasant to interact with for people who are ill or injured. But this guy wasn't - he just couldn't walk. It was scary and sad when he explained to us that when he first broke his back, he did feel sick and injured, and he still sometimes felt like that.

I don't know if lumping transgendered people in with differently abled people is wrong and offensive, but that is my closest reference and how I tend to think of them. I imagine that having a body which is not the sex that traditionally corresponds with your gender can lead to dissatisfaction or even disgust with your own body, and that the way people treat you because you look different must be extremely wearing and tiresome.

I think reading about issues like that is interesting, but not thrilling. I don't have a fetish for people learning to live with their bodies and the way other people perceive them because of their bodies, nor do I find the subject uncomfortable beyond what general feelings of empathy accounts for.

How I feel about genderqueer characters
I do have a very strong interest in and fascination with sexualized and romanticized treatments of characters who are transsexual, intersexed, have a gender identity that doesn't fit traditionally with their sexual identity, don't fit in any gender role, cross-dressers, etc. Anyone who is unwilling or unable to conform to traditional gender roles because their body and/or personality doesn't fit in them. I want the characters to accept themselves as they are before or during the fic. They can angst or not about other people's perception and demands of them, either is fine.

Sometimes realistic fic about realistic genderqueer people can satisfy my craving for that kind of fic, and sometimes it can't. I don't go looking for biographies or articles about trans issues to get off on, and I think my craving for that certain kind of fic has very little to do with real people and my feelings and attitudes to them.

I've thought long and hard about why I want to read fic like that, and whether I'm disgusting and exploitative. I think the way I feel about non-gender-conforming characters is connected to the way I feel about interspecies romance. I really, really love interspecies romance, like love stories with robots or giant telepathic cats or Vulcans or ghosts or... I've tried reading bestiality fic, but it doesn't work for me, unless there's a real emphasis on a sentient, alien experience. I just really love fic about people who are different, not normal, outsiders looking in. About people who are able to communicate, and feel enough respect and empathy for each other to fall in love. About people who feel comfortable about being different.

Identification and attraction
One of the things guaranteed to piss me off is when people have certain expectations of me because of my gender. Biologically I am female, and I consider myself a woman, but I do not conform to my traditional gender role. For years, I dressed very butch, and wore a lot of men's clothes. I don't do that anymore, because I'm too curvy for them to comfortably fit me, and because I've grown a lot more comfortable with being myself in the face of people expecting me to act stereotypically female, so I don't need to preemptively defuse their expectations by dressing butch.

I think my fascination with genderqueer characters is a product of this, is me looking for someone to identify with. But then there's the sexual/romantic aspect. I'm "bi"sexual, and am attracted all sexes and genders. I prefer a good balance between butch and femme qualities, and find femme men and butch women much more attractive than butch men and femme women, because in my experience they have been forced to learn to understand and tolerate the different perspective. Physically, I am attracted to both masculine and feminine characteristics, and I think a nice mixture would be ideal.

So I seek out and read fic about character who are deliberately othered because of their sexual and gender characteristics, and get off on that otherness, both voyeuristically and vicariously. I don't know what to with that. I wish there were a lot more fic about differently gendered and sexed characters for me to enjoy, and at the same time, I worry that I'm making real genderqueer people feel excluded and objectified by encouraging this kind of fic.

I don't know if certain tropes are more offensive than others. I love mpreg, I love genderfuck, I love secret hermaphrodite/intersex, I love transsexuals, I love cross-dressing both as kink and as lifestyle, I love comfortably not fitting in gender roles. I love canon genderqueer characters like Dax, Jack Harkness and Maxwell Klinger, male characters who have taken on traditionally female roles like the nurturing Dean Winchester and female characters who have taken on traditional male roles like aggressive warrior Buffy Summers, and characters who are only genderqueer in fic.

What I'm going to do
I don't consider myself genderqueer as such, but I do think that genderroles are idiotic and that almost no one can really fit in them, and I speak up when I hear or read people enforcing gender roles. I don't think my reading fic which challenges gender roles is a bad thing at all. I do worry about the fic which focuses on transsexual or intersexed people. There is very little of it, and a lot of it seems very sensitive and respectful, and I know or guess it to be written by people who know about trans or intersexuality from real life. But I don't want to do without my fetishy, obviously fantasy based fic either. I don't know if I'm contributing to a hostile environment by reading and reccing fic like that; I don't want real people to be exposed to the kind of slimy comments I am exposed to so often, because pervs can't distinguish porn from real life, and think transsexual and intersexed people are there to satisfy them.

I don't know if my strong identification with characters like that is making up or even ought to be thought to make up for my attraction to genderqueer characters. I do respect and sympathize with the characters, but there's a definite fetishistic element to my enjoyment. I don't think my fetishizing necessarily leads to objectification, anymore than my fetishizing of men and women's characteristics, but the very fact that they are fantasy characters and I don't particularly care about real people or want them to "intrude" on my fantasy seems deeply problematical to me. When I think about girl-on-girl porn aimed at straight men and how that makes me feel, I think the kind of fic I read about genderqueer characters might be really gross and offensive to someone not privileged like I am.

This is not a definitive edition
What I've written here is not at all well thought out, and it has not been edited. I feel deeply conflicted about a lot of what I've written, and ashamed at some of it. I am open to comments and enlightenment, and will probably edit in response.

If I don't post this now, I will probably chicken out, so that's why I'm inflicting this mess on you. Feel free to link and comment, but please be prepared for me to edit or even remove this post. I will not tolerate flames on this subject, and may screen comments if I find them offensive.

---
(1) I'm not sure genderqueer is an acceptable term for all people who are not strictly a man in a biologically male body or strictly a woman in a biologically female body, because obviously transsexual and intersexed people can be very certain about their gender and comfortable in their gender role, and I think it would be more fair to say that they are sexqueer, if they identify as queer at all. The whole idea of an umbrella term lumping people together based on what they are not can be very skeevy, but I do feel comfortable using the term queer to mean "not heterosexual" or even "not conforming to society's expected sexual orientation", so I'm taking a chance, and hoping some kind soul will correct me if/when I fail.

(2) If I go to a gay bar to meet women, most people who hit on me are straight men and their ambivalent girlfriends looking to use a bisexual woman as a sex toy. Why is it that when a woman is presumed to be straight, men will flirt with her with more or less skill, but when she comes out as bisexual, many men take this as license to describe their sexual fantasies and experiences in graphic detail, and straight up ask her to join in specific sex acts commonly considered kinky, without even pausing to chat and get to know her? (Because queers are not real people, and having a sexual orientation other than the expected norm means you are all about the fucking 24/7 and have no preferences or limits, apparently.)

Privileged vs. unprivileged language

2009-07-27T15:43:37Z

"I agree." Originally Old French, which means centuries of history in educated English. Privileged. Unmarked.

"Word." Originally African-American, possibly from the 1980s. Unprivileged. Adopted/co-opted by internet web 2.0 subculture.

"This." I don't know when this came into use, but I think it is probably a Hispanicism, given that it is the literal and functional equivalent of "eso". Unprivileged. Adopted/co-opted by internet web 2.0 subculture.

Here is an interesting discussion about the use of I agree/word/this.

Maybe using "this" or "word" as affirmations is annoying because it's not much of a contribution to a discussion, but then how is "I agree" better?

Maybe using "this" or "word" as affirmations is annoying because it's co-opting other people's culture and/or demonstrating an allegiance to a different male-dominated web 2.0 subculture than the female-dominated fandom subculture.

Mostly using "this" or "word" as affirmations is annoying because it's unprivileged dialect usage similar to "y'all".

I'm seeing some unconscious privileging of traditional anglo word usage over African-American and Hispanic, and it's making me uncomfortable. I don't think adopting a word and using it in its original sense is the same as co-opting other people's cultures, though I admit poaching vocabulary can certainly be part of cultural appropriation. I do think reacting with disgust and wishing to minimize the usage of words adopted from unprivileged (sub)cultures reeks of FAIL.

Fic rec: Keeping Up Appearances Elizabeth/Hyacinth

2009-07-18T09:05:42Z

Hand-Painted Blue Periwinkles by curia_regis, written for thelittlebang.

Elizabeth is worried about Hyacinth when Richard leaves her after 35 years of marriage. She starts making an effort to see Hyacinth more and be there for her. She remembers how they first became friends, how fascinating Hyacinth is, what she likes about her, and the fun comes back into their friendship.

The whole cast of characters from the show is here, everyone totally in character with his or her charming quirks. Elizabeth's gradual awakening from apathy is wonderful and engagingly written, and it's suspenseful and heartening to see her taking baby-steps in standing up for herself.

I particularly liked the description of female friendship in the lives of two women whose lives revolve around men, and how the presence or absence of those men affect the friendship. The backstory of how Elizabeth first became friends with Hyacinth, and Elizabeth's relationship with her husband John is subtle and thought provoking.

The sex is tastefully non-graphic and alluded only in the degree necessary to understand what is going on, since it is Elizabeth narrating after all.

Forced, arranged marriage fic written from the moral pov of the betrayers/abusers.

2009-07-01T17:12:23Z

The fic is Little Bit of Inertia, Little Bit of Momentum by juice817, written for the Supernatural and J-Squared Big Bang. It's an RPS AU, which means it's an m/m fic about original characters, and the characters have been "cast" with the names and likenesses of real people.

[Edited to add, June 3rd. When I first read this fic, I came across some triggering content. I was upset, and went on a long ride to clear my head. I realized why some elements of the fic had disturbed me, and I tagged my bookmark of it on delicious with betrayal.of.trust involuntarily.being.tied.up involuntarily.being.shut.in.an.enclosed.space abduction involuntarily.being.held.down noncon/dubcon emotional.manipulation because those elements can be triggering to other people than me, and I thought someone might find the tags useful. I also commented on the fic annoucements with a greyed-out warning that the fic contained betrayal.of.trust involuntarily.being.tied.up involuntarily.being.shut.in.an.enclosed.space abduction involuntarily.being.held.down, I think. I no longer have the original comment. Now that might or might not be useful to other readers with similar triggers, but the fic was still bothering me. In an attempt to get it out of my subconscious, I wrote this entry which looks only at the triggering content, and which casts everything in the fic in a different light. It is a purely emotional reaction to triggering content, and not an attempt at a critical reading as some have assumed. It is a true and genuine reaction, but not the typical reaction or the reaction the author intended their readers to have. I welcome comments and discussion, but I will not put up with anyone harassing anyone else in my journal.]

The Ackles and the Padalecki family are good friends, and they introduce their two young sons, Jensen and Jared, to each other. Jensen does not want to go, and resists passively all the way to the remote cabin where the meeting takes place. Once there, he goes along with it so as not to hurt Jared's feelings.

The boys are brought together every summer. Jared seems oblivious to the arranged relationship, but Jensen is initially willing. One day they go walking in the forest surrounding the remote cabin, and get lost. This makes it clear that the cabin is indeed, very remote.

Jensen changes his mind about the arranged relationship when he learns that Jared has a girl friend. He's in college and living alone, and he cuts off all contact with the Padaleckis, and most of the contact with his own family. He refuses to spend his vacations with them, and screens his mail and calls.

Then Jensen's trusted friend and assistant goes behind his back and conspires with his family, to let his family know what his schedule is, and to make sure no one will miss him over the summer by clearing his schedule and telling his colleagues he's going on vacation.

Jensen's mom tells him he must come to the remote cabin, and he gets one chance to go voluntarily. Jensen refuses to go.

Jensen and Jared's brothers abduct Jensen, tie him up and shut him in the covered back of a pick-up truck and transport him to the remote cabin. Jensen's mom had arranged the whole thing, and is only angry that they didn't tie him up in the cab and put a seat-belt on him.

Everyone starts emotionally manipulating Jensen, and guilt-tripping him about cutting off contact. He can't avoid spending time alone with Jared. Jared is no longer oblivious to the arranged relationship, he very much wants it. Jared very much likes seeing Jensen hold a cute baby, Jared's nephew who looks as if he were Jared's son, and Jensen's sister tells Jensen that she will surrogate for him and Jared once they are together.

Jensen gets drunk, alone in a tee-pee with Jared (I don't know how he gets drunk, I was kind of reading between my fingers at this point), and when he wakes up, woozy and confused, Jared is forcibly holding him down, using a blanket and his body weight. Jensen very clearly says "Get off me", but Jared does not. Instead he symbolically consummates the arranged relationship with a kiss.

Scary, scary stuff. I especially found the idea of Jensen's support network outside of the family betraying and manipulating him viscerally horrifying. In the fic, Jensen is living alone and has a good career as a chiropractor, so there's no reason that he couldn't escape if he really wanted to, though it would mean saying goodbye to his family forever, except of course for the obvious reason that the relationship was arranged by the author and Jensen's family and his friend have only the vaguest of reasons within the text to act the way they do.

In real life, this sort of thing happens all the time, and the young people trying to escape arranged marriages, quite apart from the constant guilt-tripping and emotional manipulation, and the knowledge that people they trust may turn against them for their own good or for the honor of their family, don't have the resources to live independently in hiding. In western countries with laws that value individual rights over society's rights they can go to the authorities, if they can get away long enough. Then they just have to hope and pray no one discovers their plans before the can arrange their escape, and live in fear for the rest of their lives.

I find it very interesting and unexpected to read a fic written from the moral stand point of the betrayers/abusers, rather than the victim. The author presents it as a morally unambiguous romance:

"Warnings/Spoilers: Schmoop. Childishness and obliviousness too.
Summary: Jensen has been avoiding his former best friend Jared for nearly ten years, but with their moms being best friends too, it couldn't last forever. When Jensen is roped into a summer in the woods, he learns that things were maybe not what he'd thought way back when. And that maybe you really can go home again."

The ending is happy, because once the relationship has been consummated and there is no escape, Jensen is "home again". The romance is "schmoopy". Someone is exhibiting "childishness" - is it Jensen for refusing to go to the cabin, both as a kid and as an adult, or is it the abduction which the brothers overdid in a childish way? I don't know, but "childishness and obliviousness too", by the way the two nouns are paired seems to indicate to me that the one who is childish is Jensen, since Jared is the one who is oblivious to his destiny for much of the fic.

I was scared and upset by the fic, though less so than I would have been had the author used canon characters or spent more time building up a relationship between Jensen and me, the reader. I firmly believe that an author should be absolutely free to write their metadata any way they please, with or without warnings, with or without details. And juice817 did attach warnings to their fic, just representing a different, equally valid reading.

Normally, I would not have done or said anything, but after the warning debate I've been following and taking part in, I have carefully considered my reasons for considering warnings voluntary, and for not asking for warnings, and I have also carefully considered how warnings can be useful to others. Perhaps in a case such as this, where the author has no reason to consider their fic horrifying noncon but I do, it would be a service to others for me to warn them.

At first I bookmarked the fic on delicious.com, but then I also thought it might be a good idea to put a warning in a comment to the master post. Then I decided it would be more helpful in the link from the comm. I don't know. I went for a long ride to clear my mind, but the fic just kept eating at me. I hope writing this entry about it will have moved it out of my subconscious, so I don't have to deal with it emotionally or in my sleep over the next several days.

ETA June 2nd: my comment with warnings has been deleted. I don't understand why, since I had greyed them out, but perhaps they hurt the feelings of the author?