![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I’ve written fan fic for over ten years, read it for far longer than that, and realize the power of words for authors, especially feedback. Not all writers want or welcome concrit, others do. Some don’t appreciate anything other than the continual squee from their readers, telling them how they are writing fandom classics. I believe that if you find an author you trust, especially to read something new on your horizon, you should hold them close and never let them go. I say this because I feel the need to rant and vent.
An author I liked and trusted very much and whose work I liked a lot, came out with a new fic. Great, I thought, so I started to read. The premise is that Character A and Character B are in love but not acting on it because they don’t communicate. Time tested trope and a favorite. I can appreciate that. I love stories where miscommunication drives action.
Here, Character A then gets asked out in front of Character B by Character C. B pushes A to go on a date and one thing leads to another as B begins having sex with A as a way to help A have sex with C. B justifies this by saying he hasn’t been a very good friend to A and this will help make up for that. Full stop. I teach high school, I work with an anti-human trafficking coalition, I have a child in law enforcement and one who is a psychiatrist. I can pretty confidently say that 24/7 there is a survivor of domestic violence or trafficking or sexual abuse saying “I should have sex with him because he’s my friend” or “I should have sex with him so he doesn’t leave me” or “I should have sex with him so he doesn’t hurt me” or some variation of this.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see a dark fic studying the deep pathology and consequences that would produce a statement like this. I’d read the fuck out of that fic. But no, no such fic was forthcoming. It was just good friend B having sex with A so that A could have sex with C because that’s what being a good friend is and they don’t communicate.
Of course C is god like in the gifted good looks department, insanely wealthy and desirable. And A is gorgeous; long, lean, beautify cheekbones and eyes and wealthy in his own right. And B? He’s short, poor, and apparently such a loser he feels like servicing A so that A can service B is all right in the behavior department. How convenient for everyone involved and for the story line.
But it’s all right, you say. A and B are not in a relationship so it’s not like it’s infidelity or anything. OK. Unless of course you have A give a big speech at the end of the fic telling B that he’s always been in love with him and that all the time he was with A, you know, fucking and sucking away in their throwaway relationship, that he could feel the pull back to B and wanted to be back with B because A knew he was pulling their life together apart. Because they have a life that is theirs. A knows he’s in a relationship. So do we thanks to the writer. All kinds of ways to engage in infidelity.
C for his part is aware that he’s not getting the best of B and can’t figure out why. Until A has his come to Jesus moment and tells him he’s in love with B. Then A tells B and they live happily ever after. Best part though is that it’s not enough to ignore all the great dark mess hulking out there, one little convo of maybe a couple of hundred words fixes everything. No, the best part is that after this C calls B and asks to meet. They sit down, this gorgeous, wealthy sex god and the short dumpy loser and C tells B that he knew A was not showing him anything but a very polite veneer of himself and that he realized he didn’t know A at all.
Except then he says what he did know was that he could love A if only A would let him. Really? WTF? Because of course C would love A when he's so gorgeous and everything. Except, C can’t love him, C doesn’t even know him. Well maybe C knows his dick and his mouth, but C doesn’t know him. Anyone older and wiser than twelve knows this. And who even talks like this outside of a Harlequin Romance? I think C then tells B about how good in bed A was, just to put the icing on the shit cake. And then Fantasy Ken Character C gives B a present as a parting gift on non-bitterness that he and A can sell for more than a million dollars so they can take vacations and go to fancy restaurants. Really? Wish fulfillment and fantasy much?
This is about ownership. You don’t like B and want to punish him for bad behavior by having A be the Whore of Babylon, go for it. Own it and write it and I’ll probably read it and love it. You want to beat B over the head with hurt and pining? Go for that, too. You want to explore the depths of the pathology that leads to trading sex for friendship? Do it well and I’m all in. You want to explore the instant changes in life where it all goes south and pear shaped because you were busy playing games? Have B leave A to sort things out and so that he’ll be happy without him and I’m all there for that as well.But to use this deep, dark, damaged set up for a very unhappy character to further bludgeon a character you have said you thought should be bludgeoned is offensive to anyone who knows, loves, or even just interacts with any survivor. It is damaging to survivors period.
I know that this is all my fault. I should have backed out of the fic and never thought about it again. I do that all the time, and if I hadn’t trusted the writer I would have done it this time. Again, my fault, my misjudgment. But seriously, is it too much to ask you to own your shit? Don’t parade your wish fulfillment and a plot that has as much as a squick factor as the one in Twilight as an instant fandom classic. And if that makes me a fandom bitch, so be it. I just don't believe anyone should ever use the deeply damaged psychological belief that you should have sex to be a good friend plot point lightly. I honestly believe that is what offends me most.I could probably have lived with the rest.
Oh, good Christ, just for kicks there’s also a sequel coming where A and B, gloriously in love go thousands of miles to visit C. I will definitely be missing that.
An author I liked and trusted very much and whose work I liked a lot, came out with a new fic. Great, I thought, so I started to read. The premise is that Character A and Character B are in love but not acting on it because they don’t communicate. Time tested trope and a favorite. I can appreciate that. I love stories where miscommunication drives action.
Here, Character A then gets asked out in front of Character B by Character C. B pushes A to go on a date and one thing leads to another as B begins having sex with A as a way to help A have sex with C. B justifies this by saying he hasn’t been a very good friend to A and this will help make up for that. Full stop. I teach high school, I work with an anti-human trafficking coalition, I have a child in law enforcement and one who is a psychiatrist. I can pretty confidently say that 24/7 there is a survivor of domestic violence or trafficking or sexual abuse saying “I should have sex with him because he’s my friend” or “I should have sex with him so he doesn’t leave me” or “I should have sex with him so he doesn’t hurt me” or some variation of this.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see a dark fic studying the deep pathology and consequences that would produce a statement like this. I’d read the fuck out of that fic. But no, no such fic was forthcoming. It was just good friend B having sex with A so that A could have sex with C because that’s what being a good friend is and they don’t communicate.
Of course C is god like in the gifted good looks department, insanely wealthy and desirable. And A is gorgeous; long, lean, beautify cheekbones and eyes and wealthy in his own right. And B? He’s short, poor, and apparently such a loser he feels like servicing A so that A can service B is all right in the behavior department. How convenient for everyone involved and for the story line.
But it’s all right, you say. A and B are not in a relationship so it’s not like it’s infidelity or anything. OK. Unless of course you have A give a big speech at the end of the fic telling B that he’s always been in love with him and that all the time he was with A, you know, fucking and sucking away in their throwaway relationship, that he could feel the pull back to B and wanted to be back with B because A knew he was pulling their life together apart. Because they have a life that is theirs. A knows he’s in a relationship. So do we thanks to the writer. All kinds of ways to engage in infidelity.
C for his part is aware that he’s not getting the best of B and can’t figure out why. Until A has his come to Jesus moment and tells him he’s in love with B. Then A tells B and they live happily ever after. Best part though is that it’s not enough to ignore all the great dark mess hulking out there, one little convo of maybe a couple of hundred words fixes everything. No, the best part is that after this C calls B and asks to meet. They sit down, this gorgeous, wealthy sex god and the short dumpy loser and C tells B that he knew A was not showing him anything but a very polite veneer of himself and that he realized he didn’t know A at all.
Except then he says what he did know was that he could love A if only A would let him. Really? WTF? Because of course C would love A when he's so gorgeous and everything. Except, C can’t love him, C doesn’t even know him. Well maybe C knows his dick and his mouth, but C doesn’t know him. Anyone older and wiser than twelve knows this. And who even talks like this outside of a Harlequin Romance? I think C then tells B about how good in bed A was, just to put the icing on the shit cake. And then Fantasy Ken Character C gives B a present as a parting gift on non-bitterness that he and A can sell for more than a million dollars so they can take vacations and go to fancy restaurants. Really? Wish fulfillment and fantasy much?
This is about ownership. You don’t like B and want to punish him for bad behavior by having A be the Whore of Babylon, go for it. Own it and write it and I’ll probably read it and love it. You want to beat B over the head with hurt and pining? Go for that, too. You want to explore the depths of the pathology that leads to trading sex for friendship? Do it well and I’m all in. You want to explore the instant changes in life where it all goes south and pear shaped because you were busy playing games? Have B leave A to sort things out and so that he’ll be happy without him and I’m all there for that as well.But to use this deep, dark, damaged set up for a very unhappy character to further bludgeon a character you have said you thought should be bludgeoned is offensive to anyone who knows, loves, or even just interacts with any survivor. It is damaging to survivors period.
I know that this is all my fault. I should have backed out of the fic and never thought about it again. I do that all the time, and if I hadn’t trusted the writer I would have done it this time. Again, my fault, my misjudgment. But seriously, is it too much to ask you to own your shit? Don’t parade your wish fulfillment and a plot that has as much as a squick factor as the one in Twilight as an instant fandom classic. And if that makes me a fandom bitch, so be it. I just don't believe anyone should ever use the deeply damaged psychological belief that you should have sex to be a good friend plot point lightly. I honestly believe that is what offends me most.I could probably have lived with the rest.
Oh, good Christ, just for kicks there’s also a sequel coming where A and B, gloriously in love go thousands of miles to visit C. I will definitely be missing that.
