Res ipsa loquitur

skuf pointed out to me that Transfigurations is ten years old this month. (I don't think I've ever stuck with any other hobby for ten years, despite all those piano lessons.)

At this distance, the main thing I see in the story is a triumph of collaboration. The kind of shared creation that goes on in fandom is something I've never seen anywhere else, and it's unspeakably precious.

I was thinking about the omega male thing in slash stories -- have you seen this? Where a male character will be written as having an estrus cycle, having a self-lubricating orifice, and being able to get pregnant? I've never seen it anywhere but Inception fandom, but for all I know, it's all over the place.

And the first time I saw it, I thought, "Hey, why not just make Arthur a woman? Or write a story about Ariadne?"

And then I thought, "There are stories about always-female Arthur, and stories about Ariadne. I don't read either of them. On the other hand, I'm not completely nuts about the omega-male thing, but I am reading this."

So there's something in particular about writing a story that is basically about the female sexual response, but writing it using the body of a male character. And I have a theory.

See, bonding with female characters is hard.

Seriously, when I watch something with a woman in it, I watch it with a bit of dread. (Even a movie, where there isn't a lot of time for dread.) I still spend the whole time with an underlying dread about what's going to be done to the woman. Not what the other characters are going to do to her -- what the creators are going to do to her.

Maybe they'll fridge her. Or someone will rape her. Or maybe it will be less violent -- they'll give her a new boyfriend or a new baby and she'll completely lose her agency, if not her entire sense of self. Or they'll decide she needs to be absorbed in her looks to the exclusion of everything else (this is often done via a makeover scene).

If she's not a major enough character to merit this sort of reduction -- if she's mostly in the background -- then maybe all that will happen is that the show will cruelly mock her for being attractive, or for being unattractive, or for having sex, or for not having sex.

Now, I like women. And I find them sexy. And so you'd think I could overcome all this to enjoy reading stories about women having sex, right? At least if they're written in fandom, where I can trust the writers?

But you know that thing where women do worse on standardized tests when they're reminded that they're women? To be honest, after all these years of consuming mass-produced entertainment, I feel this sense of narrative dread even when I'm reading original characters written by writers I trust. It's Pavlovian. I feel fear for her as soon as I'm reminded that she's a woman.

So if I have the vague erotic desire to read about the female sexual response, but I don't want it contaminated by that dread? Maybe it's not surprising to find myself reading about men who have sex like women.






[edited to add: maybe I ought to tell y'all what I was reading that got me thinking about this? It was this not-very-dom-subby Inception story by Recrudescence, and it's not my kink but I enjoyed it just the same.]

So I came home from vacation and started to catch up on dw, and at first I was thinking, wow, everybody's getting really chummy with Holmes and all, calling him by his first name. Then I realized: No, what happened was I went away for a week and when I came back there was an entirely new fandom that I've never heard of. How does this happen? And how do I get in on it??

These are not my beautiful fandoms, but last night I dreamed a crossover romance between Ianto Jones and Adam Lambert.

The romantic complication was that they met in Discworld during some great religious celebration, and due to the large amounts of religious adoration that were in the air during this time, people were subject to something called "prayover," in which their emotions were artificially heightened by getting caught in the crossfire of other people's prayers.

Now, Ianto knew he was immune to this effect because of the years he spent studying with the History Monks in the Ramtops. But he was fairly sure that anything Adam might feel was the artificial result of the prayover, so he was resisting, though the story held promise of eventual defeat and consequent angst.

Most people name their LJ filters in a pretty straightforward way: by fandom, say, or one for communities and another for individuals. But some people get creative.

I myself have one filter called "art_only" and another called "commsrecs," but the rest of the journals I read are broken up in a way that makes sense only to me, and named accordingly.

If someone comes to my site from an LJ filter, I can see the name of the filter in my stat counter. So I've made a collection of the ones that amuse me:

( Read more... )

Now this is cool: dorrie6 is doing a love meme, except that instead of asking for love for yourself, you can ask for it for your friends. Go here.

thefourthvine has this poll on which fannish archetype we are, and she's asking us all to ask our flist how they see us.

I have no idea what she's up to, but I'm doing her bidding in the interest of knowledge and all.

So: Never mind what I think. Which archetype do you think I am?

[Poll #831741]

I'm really enjoying everyone's comments on my pseudonym poll, and will answer as soon as I can manage it. Several people pointed out that I neglected to tell the story of my own pseudonym.

( me llama )

Tonight I've been poking around all y'all's info pages looking at your journal titles and subtitles. These were some of my favorites.

cedarlibrarian -- Saving the world daily through information/I tell some lies, and of the truth all I think you need to know. She calls her friends list Patrons.

cluegirl -- The SoulGarden/No scrumpting ot whinging. (Yes, "ot." I feel sure there's a story behind that.)

dementordelta -- The Serpent Beguiled Me

destina -- Concordia Discors: in contrary motion.

duckpuppy -- like an amnesiac squirrel/burying the same nut over and over again. She calls her friends list "It's all about you, babe."

galilei -- (Mistakes Made By Scientists)

helvirago -- For this is Hel's livejournal/Nor am I out of it

sabine101 -- overlook my supposed crimes

shrift -- her hands don't go to the moon

sloanesomething -- had to rate it R cus it gets more u know/Gimping Towards the Biblical City of Your Choice. Her friends list is called About a new Transfer student that came from dumstung, She has a very evil PAST

somniesperus -- There there. /softly open our mouths in the cold

soulcake -- ... said a person not in the story.

thete1 -- Rage/Confusion/The Original Sin is to limit the Is.

I'd really like to hear the story behind people's titles. I'll start.

My friends page is called The Mermaids Singing. The line from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" that goes "I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each" tends to come to mind any time a group of People Who Understand Something are talking out of the hearing of People Who Don't Get It. So here we are all talking each to each.

My journal is called Res ipsa loquitur. It means "The thing speaks for itself." darthfox suggested it as a good companion to my website title, which is "In medias res."

I changed my subtitle today. I might change it again tomorrow. At the moment it says, Let's extend the exciting planning phase indefinitely!

Now you. Go post it in your journal:

My journal is called _____ because _____.
My subtitle is _____ because _____.
My friends page is called _____ because _____.

And, just for the hell of it: My username is ____ because _____.

Wow. I really figured introverts would be 99%. What are all you extroverts doing on the computer all alone? Or do you, like, have computer parties where you and all your friends work at the computer together?

Obviously I screwed up all my chances of scientific accuracy by the wording of that "small tattoo" question. There goes the Nobel.

Also, I can see that it's going to be necessary to come up with a single standard measurement for pets, for slasher stereotype purposes. So I've taken the liberty of developing one.

The standard unit of slasher stereotype petness is the Cat, or C. Obviously a domestic feline is equal to one C.

An exchange rate allows us to translate all other pets into units of C.

One rat = 2 C
One mouse = 0.5 C
One reptile of any kind = 4 C
One ferret = 2 C
One rabbit = 1 C
One dog = 0.2 C
One fish (exceptions below) = 0.05 C
One fish (piranha or miniature shark) = 3 C
One carnivorous houseplant = 2 C
One hedgehog = 2 C
One hamster, gerbil, or other preschooler-type pet = 0.25 C
One budgie, parakeet, or other small domestic bird = 0.5 C
One parrot or other talking bird = 2 C
Any non-domesticated animal (e.g. squirrel, toucan, leopard) = 5 C

So those of you who have five dogs, four budgies, or two mice can answer "yes" to the question, "Do you have a cat?" And those of you who have a gecko or a skunk can answer "I have several."

Equivalency ratings for tattoos, piercings, and other forms of body modification I leave to the discretion of the reader.