The spammage continues

[veronica_rich]

(I feel like this should become "Vacation: Day Five-01" or something)

Surely everybody and their pet iguana has likely seen the link to the blog entry by now from the woman who claims that writing and reading m/m slash is perpetuating male heirarchy and expectations, rather than being the subversive, non-mainstream thing we all thought it was when many of us got into it several years ago - before the mainstream actually had ever heard of "slash" or "fanfiction."

My take on slash is that I enjoy it as a form of romance in a way that I don't any longer enjoy the vast majority of "typical" m/f romance novels, by and large. When I buy a book, I buy something about science or history, or suspense and sci-fi, but rarely do I buy a categorical romance, though I did when I was much younger. I understand this sounds like a rather shallow reason for enjoying something that takes up several hours of my life each week, but it would be disingenuous for me to pretend otherwise.

And as much as I love reading and occasionally contributing my own meta on my preferred slash pairings, the fact is that I rarely give it the kind of internal examination we were required in college to give Chaucer, or the reasons behind the 19th century labor movement. I am capable of that level of dissertation - I just don't want to, with slash, or even fanfic, all that much. Perhaps this is why I grew so impatient with all the POTC meta-chatter following DMC - are we not allowed to have something we just enjoy, without having to defend why, so long as we're nice to our fellow fen and don't try to step on their toes? I mean, I asked someone at another post earlier to define radical feminism and explain its appeal over what he called "liberal/status quo feminism." And while he gave me a pretty good explanation, and it's something I would gladly see parts of applied to real-world changes ... the fact is, when you try to apply it to something you do alone in your off-hours to unwind, it just comes across as so much overblown horseshit. Am I alone? Or just exceedingly shallow, that I don't see "something" political in EVERYTHING that comes across my field of vision on a daily basis?

EDIT: Unless lesbian fanfic is being written with an eye toward reality (e.g., women who don't have Barbie-figures and long, flowing hair, who don't want a man in their bed or between them and their girlfriend, or WATCHING), how is it any different from what I have to put up with out of many men on a regular basis? The only difference between their lesbian fantasies and my m/m ones is that they can discuss theirs out in public and it's accepted as being part and parcel of being a hetero man ... but if I try to discuss the fact that I like to watch two hot men get it on for my benefit, I'm perverted and weird. So ... I'd love for this FEMINIST to tell me why I should spend MY time and effort perpetuating a MAN'S fantasy in written form.

Comments

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I think what I dislike about radical feminism is the idea that we need to rebuild all of society either in some elusively-described (or most of the time, not at all) female-dominant system, or have a separate system for men and women. I mean, really ... these people talk like men and women are dogs and cats. They're not; they're members of the same exact species. Men and women don't think as differently as many of these radical feminists (and some male chauvinists - because that's exactly what a radical feminist IS to me, in reverse) like to put on.

[caniad.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I have no wish to separate myself. I just want to be able to walk into a job and be given the chance to do it as well as a man. That doesn't sound too radical to me. I don't think gender should be mentioned at all, unless absolutely necessary. Radical feminist ideology is the result of taking a good idea (rights for women) and pushing it to an illogical conclusion. I don't even think radical feminists can exist anywhere but in academia, because the theories simply aren't realistic. Too bad. They started with something legitimate and made it pretty much useless in practice.

[ainsoph15.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. Radical feminism seems to insist upon the ghettoisation of genders, dividing them into separate camps, and never the twain shall meet. Funny, I always thought feminism was about breaking down barriers, not building great big walls between women and the rest of the world.

[captsparrow4evr.livejournal.com]

See, I don't even know that I would call her a radical feminist so much as a "reactionary" feminist. In my day (I know, I know, "Do go on, Grandma!"), the radical feminist did want to set up "Herland" (see Charlotte Perkins Gilman) and have absolutely nothing to do with men but this woman wants to make women superior to men, to take control from them. I can't see how that would be any better societally than the old "you can only beat your wife if the stick isn't any bigger than your thumb" chauvinists. Then again, I'm an old school feminist who thinks that people should be free to live up to their potential, no matter who they are or who they love. Silly me.