. . .sigh.

[reenka]

Man... (slender) people with (long) hair in cloaks are.... REALLY HOT.

Just sayin'.

Well, especially if they're demons and -especially- especially if they're Blood, but, you know-- that girl in the dining hall also -.-;;;

Btw, you may be asking yourself the question: will Reena EVER TALK ABOUT HP META AGAIN??!

...At least, I'm asking myself that question.

I actually thought about that, and then it was like, "...." and I sort of wrinkled my nose and then, "...but what would I talk about...???" -.-
~~

Also, reading through this group of semi-academic essays on shoujo manga, I find this fascinating quote on the uses of gender & sexual ambiguity and the attraction of yaoi to Japanese girls which seems to relate to the recurring rant about why aren't slash readers very into femslash:
    Perhaps, then, shôjo manga provide a safe, female-dominated world in which to explore a broad range of possible human sexuality. Same-sex love between male characters is in a sense ideal for three reasons. First, it allows readers to project unvoiced feelings onto the male Other. Interestingly enough, when Toma no shinzo was made into a live-action movie, all the parts of the boys were played by girls. This made explicit what I had felt all along: that Thomas and Yuri and Eric and all their friends are actually girls in drag, exploring same-sex feelings without striking too close to home. Homosexuality in shôjo manga also exposes girls to a non-threatening male sexuality.

I actually find the part about 'exploring same-sex feelings' quite fascinating in regards to the lack of femslash as well. I mean, the whole 'intimate' atmosphere of fandom being a place to read/write about one's sexual fantasies for the characters in the first place, and how I've always felt there was a sexual component to sharing porn with people, I mean, people you -know-.... This just puts a whole extra spin on it.

Also, there's this quote:
    A third purpose of same-sex love between male characters is to help girls try to make of sense of the mysterious male animal by casting him in terms that she can understand, by feminizing him and making him more interested in relationships than in, say, soccer.
    And now you might say that slash is 'better' at this than the almost caricaturish nature of yaoi, with its 'seme' and 'uke' and ultra-defined roles, but at the same time I would say that that dynamic is merely subtler in Western-produced slash, rather than non-existent. The twin processes of Othering and appropriating seem intrinsic somehow to the majority of girls writing about boys in love....

I think regular old shoujo does this too-- this 'feminizing' of men, turning them away from (exclusively) sports and beer and crossword puzzles (whatever) and towards understanding/feeling/showing love. And by 'feminizing' I don't mean 'turning into girls', even, so much as 'making understandable to girls' or 'translating for girls'. It's like now they're playing by our rules-- now they care about what -we- do, now they see what -we- do, and they can be as different as they want, right, as long as they are eventually made to understand. And there's not a slash-fic or shoujo that I've ever seen where a guy isn't somehow made to understand (aside from some bits of porn).
    It's just that with slash & yaoi, there's more freedom of invention & experimentation, even more room for fantasy. So as much as I've always been fixated on realism, I must admit it's a particular sort of realism I -want-, now isn't it.... Though I agree with the op that there isn't any one answer to 'explain' either slash or yaoi-- or shoujo for that matter, so I'm not trying to explain so much as entertain ideas. ^^;

Comments

[verstehen.livejournal.com]

I sometimes wonder how much of the lack of femslash -- and it's marginalization in general (I mean femSLASH, people!) -- has a lot to do with the idea of familiarity breeding contempt.

As for slash being better than yaoi, I'm not even sure you could still call it even more subtle, you know? 99% of the time is that there's very specifically defined terminology for yaoi that slash doesn't have and that's really the only difference from reading, say, Bronze/Zetsu Ai and, well, most H/D fics.

Pay no attention to me if I make no sense. I essayed myself out last night and I'm struggling to get two term papers and two 8-10 page essays done. *g*

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

I think most people assume it's either the familiarity thing or the not-my-orientation thing or maybe somewhat the not-enough-material thing. Heh. I thought it was rather interesting to suppose it's because we have our same-sex exploration needs already being met, so to speak. :>

Though I'm inclined to agree regarding the level of subtlety of a lot of slash overall, still... usually it doesn't -quite- reach the absurdity level of some of the more extreme yaoi I've read... though I guess you could say they have a large enough common middle or something. ^^;;

[verstehen.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I mean, I have this Kenshin/Sano dj called 'I rub (then a picture of a heart) you Butt Banger' that I keep mostly for shits and giggles because it's just that bad. And honestly, especially in the HP fandom, I've read fanfiction that's worse.

By worse: read more hardcore/strict/etc. Also, worse aesthetically. And if you're worse than something based on such bad Engrish as 'I rub you Butt Banger,' well, you know it's bad.

I guess it seems like a ridiculous claim to make to me simply because people in both cultures use equally asinine reasoning for casting a character as a top and another as a bottom. Sure the height-hair color thing in Japan is occasionally very stupid, especially when it's contrary to canon but I've also seen people claim the reason Draco bottoms is because he wears leather pants.

I guess I'm all about whatever floats your boat, so long as you're not trying to sink my boat at the same time. :)

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

I guess I didn't mean specifically who tops/bottoms so much as the nature of the characters' actual dynamic-- meaning, in slash, the bottom doesn't do that whole crying and taking abuse and needing to be rescued and overall 'feminization' thing -quite- as much-- that's what I meant. Even when Draco is top, he doesn't really reach the heights of semedom most of the time, what with abusing Harry and being dressed while Harry's naked and whimpering and so on.... But I would agree it's all probably dependent on one's actual reading experience. :>

Here via metafandom

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Er...I feel like I'm missing something completely, but made to understand what?

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Oh man, it's only looking at it from the outside that I realize how oblique and... er, meta I was being -.- Well... made to understand in a meta-textual sense, implying a sort of communication going on between the slash writer/s and the general run of 'normal' boys out there as well as the more 'enlightened' (of sorts) specimens in slash-- enlightened meaning, um... more emotionally intelligent and/or focused than is 'normal', how's that :>

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. Gotcha.

I do think there is slash out there where the guys aren't in touch with their feelings, etc. It's in the minority, definitely (woe), but it does exist.