[because dammit, I bite, I'M ANNOYED OKAY.]

[reenka]

I'm so with imadra_blue & Kassie on this one, even if there were more meta-y and in-depth comments-- but my reason for posting this is just to reiterate that YES, I think going 'I don't mind gay people but OMG I CAN'T READ ABOUT STRAIGHT PEOPLE STRETCHING PAST THEIR EXISTING OR IMPLIED SEXUALITY, IT'S JUST WRONG!!1'-- that's definitely homophobic in a really passive sense that's more... being undereducated, maybe?

I mean, it's fine if you don't find two guys hot and it's also fine to snark on badfic where there's character-rape-- however, if you're a normal, totally non-prejudiced person, you wouldn't care if a fic involved two guys, two girls or two gorillas together, given it was a good story. You may not seek it out-- I myself don't seek out plenty of genre/types of stories-- but you wouldn't actively feel the need to rant about how omg-wrong it was unless there was something rotten in the state of Denmark, etc. More specifically, thinking you know something about a subject when you admit you don't like it & thus haven't looked into it in depth-- that's the VERY DEFINITION of prejudice, man.

My big case-study back-up for this is my last ex-boyfriend. He's a big geek, sort of a fanboy type without ever being in fandom, you know, the usual-- and he's also just about the straightest (yet still nice & not macho/assholish, sensitive, etc) boy I know, and he's totally interested in girls more in an intellectual/social-hanging-out way too. Anyway, he's got noooo interest in reading about hot boysex or even the wondrous non-slashy dynamics of adolescent boys-- but he was totally able to read all the Harry/Draco slash fics of mine I sent him and discuss the nature of their relationship with me and how the sex would be most IC(!!)-- anything at all.

You know why? I'll tell you why. He's what I like to call an intellectually free individual. I mean, he's got issues and he's a dork and a loser, fine; my point is that he's an example of what someone's like when they don't have heteronormativity & notable-level egocentrism issues. He's capable of seeing people as, you know, WOW, human beings without needing to put them in boxes all the time. GOD.

...Or perhaps this has nothing -necessarily- to do with homosexuality one way or another (though I think it's a facet!) and it's all just general-use judgmental assholery. I'm down with that; the OP definitely seemed to be into judging things rashly & acting like it's what other people must be doing too ('oh noes, they think I'm like X because they probably think X about my feelings on not reading slash!'). ><;; (...this is really make me think you need a higher threshold level of intelligence not to seem like an asshole if you're a J in Myers-Briggs than if you're a P. But then, most Js I know like being assholes, so what do I know, hahaha...ha. DON'T HURT ME, I'M SMALL & FLUFFY & ALSO I LIKE ASSHOLES ANYWAY!!1 *runs away*)

    PS: the next person who says 'one should snark responsibly' better not come within up-close snarking range with me, that's all I'm sayin'.
    PPS: I really like these quotes from 'On Writing' by Stephen King... especially 'cause currently I -am- usually just 'shoveling shit from a sitting position' -.-

Comments

[black-dog.livejournal.com]

Wait. Is there a leak in the space-time continuum? There's been a lot of 2002 going around lately. Are we hearing from homophobes again? *grabs flyswatter*

[blacksatinrose.livejournal.com]

I think you just called me prejudiced for not digging the monkey-on-monkey sex, Reena, that's just rude.

...

Anyway, it's the active ranting that makes me wonder. I can understand viewing sexuality as an unchangeable trait - I won't read James Potter slash, for example, because he just doesn't strike me as even vaguely bicurious. Totally pings my unslashable meter. But like, I don't feel the need to post about how people who slash him are ruining his character or anything, 'cause you know, I recognize the concept of subjective interpretation and also even if I did think they were ruining him, I wouldn't care 'cause it's none of my business anyway.

That said, I do have a question about something that's bugging me, and that is... how is viewing a character's sexuality as a crucial part of their characterization (and thus being unwilling to see it changed in fic, or complaining about it being changed in fic) any different than seeing... I don't know, Hermione's intelligence as a crucial part of HER characterization and thus being unwilling to see it changed in fic? I just wonder because I'm really curious about how "I don't like slash because I see these characters as straight and therefore don't want to see them in gay relationships" became code for "I am a homophobic prat" even while other people are openly mocked for changing other parts of characterization?

Is this related to the "straight until proven not" thing? Because, I actually do think that's silly (assuming everyone is straight until proven otherwise - I tend to start a character at "unknown" and build a case from there based on what they do), but what if the creators, or the character themselves, says they're straight? Which is to say, what if they're explicitly, canonically straight?

If that's not it, is it related to the "sexuality is fluid" concept? Because if so, that's going to be a major, I mean canyon-sized, rift between the people who get slash and those who don't because not everyone subscribes to that theory and I'd hesitate to say that not getting slash based on that is "stupid." Plus, in that case why are people so twitchy about straight-slashing canonically gay characters? (Well, I think that's a majority-minority thing, but in principle it's not any different, really.)

Or is it something else I'm missing?

...aaand now is when everyone decides I'm homophobic. :/