The farther I get into the assumptions underneath the pattern, the less I find myself thinking [profic GFY] is necessarily homophobic.
As I think I mentioned at the top, I don't actually read any fanfic these days, and back when I was reading it, I was in fandom(s) with a strong pro-gay contingent (including plenty of noisy queers of all genders/sexes), yet despite that I could still feel (and read!) the fandom's insistence that one at least acknowledge the character had a heterosexual canon -- and those fandoms were among the most liberal. I am aware of other canons/fandoms where the merest hint of homosexuality brings the ravening hordes out of the woodwork. Would that make the slash-fen using WNG as a self-defense mechanism to head off the phobic fen? Or is that internalised homophobia?
...which, actually, I don't know and don't care to read enough of some fandom's extreme homophobic (regardless of cause) WNG stories, so I'd have to say that any discussion about it, from me, is a step removed due to time since, and disinclination. So while I get the WNGWJLEO move enough on a trope level to be able to see where GFY has developed as a profic version... that's about as much as I feel any need/interest in deconstructing the whole WNG thing.
As for the romance genre and its tropes, well, they're some insidious little fuckers. They get into everything.
no subject
Date: 7 Mar 2010 10:22 pm (UTC)As I think I mentioned at the top, I don't actually read any fanfic these days, and back when I was reading it, I was in fandom(s) with a strong pro-gay contingent (including plenty of noisy queers of all genders/sexes), yet despite that I could still feel (and read!) the fandom's insistence that one at least acknowledge the character had a heterosexual canon -- and those fandoms were among the most liberal. I am aware of other canons/fandoms where the merest hint of homosexuality brings the ravening hordes out of the woodwork. Would that make the slash-fen using WNG as a self-defense mechanism to head off the phobic fen? Or is that internalised homophobia?
...which, actually, I don't know and don't care to read enough of some fandom's extreme homophobic (regardless of cause) WNG stories, so I'd have to say that any discussion about it, from me, is a step removed due to time since, and disinclination. So while I get the WNGWJLEO move enough on a trope level to be able to see where GFY has developed as a profic version... that's about as much as I feel any need/interest in deconstructing the whole WNG thing.
As for the romance genre and its tropes, well, they're some insidious little fuckers. They get into everything.