[ SECRET POST #2693 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2693 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 058 secrets from Secret Submission Post #385.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ], [ 1 - blank image ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

I have made mention before that I dislike fics that genderswap both Bilbo and Thorin, because I am just not interested in femmeslash, but the truth is, while I do occasionally read fem!Bilbo stories (where Thorin is still male), it's still a second-best opinion to straight-up slash stories, because I came to the pairing with the concept of both of them being male already set in my head.

There's also the issue that I wonder just how much like canon!Bilbo a fem!Bilbo would really be. I cannot believe Hobbit society would be easy-going about fem!Bilbo becoming a spinster, and would surely have already started to treat her ill for being 50 and single (and also occupying a house best suited for a family). Fics that do make use of that issue? I do like, but I often feel the issue become irrelevant once fem!Bilbo is on the road with the Company.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, interestingly, once fem!Bilbo explains why she never married, the Company is always very understanding of her spinsterhood, while among her own people she was basically shunned or at least thought of as very odd and "un-Hobbitish". It's perfect material for the whole "tragic past" trope so many Sue authors use in their fics to make readers feel sorry for the Sue!

Seriously, in Middle-earth a woman of 50 still unwed and not protected by a husband (by her own choice) would have appeared extreme and outrageous. People would be baffled by it, thinking her too free-spirited and unlike a "proper" lady. Rigid gender roles were serious business, man.

But, somehow, dwarves see it differently? Why? While some authors use headcanon to explain, most fic just brushes it off, like you've said. It becomes a non-issue because dwarves are awesome like that or something. They're idolized in this fandom anyway but I've read Thorin/OFC fic that was pretty much racist and viscious against all races except dwarves (who were downright fetishized), even when the OC herself was half Man/half dwarf (of course she was). O_o

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

There is an official statement from Tolkien that a lot of people use, about how only a third of Dwarves are female, and not all of those marry, either preferring to dedicate themselves to their craft, or because they cannot have the one they really want. JRRT on a whole has a real One True Love thing in his writing.

That little piece of info is very often used as a reasoning that Dwarves will not force a marriage on women, and generally treat them very highly, more-so than the other races might.

Often fics about fem!Bilbo, if they even bring up the matter of a single women of middle age, either a huge point of the fic is that Bilbo is hiding it from them, and/or their standards are different and they react according to those, instead of how Bilbo would expect (Hobbit standards).

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

Indeed, there's a lot of talk about dwarves having "Ones" aka a single soulmate who's meant just for them and if that person doesn't love them back, they won't marry anyone else. I'm surprised when it doesn't appear in fic. Same thing with dwarf women having a higher status in society than daughters of Men in theirs, and how some dwarves dedicate their lives to craft instead of a partner (really, how many fics have used the same copy-paste sentence from Wikipedia? LOLOL).

The thing is, with there being so few dwarf women, you could just as easily argue their society would pressure the "non-craft oriented" ones even *more* into marriage and popping out babies, to keep their race going. Maybe not pressure as such but it would be part of their custom and pretty much expected. After all, they're the only ones left among the dwarrowdams who are interested in marrying.

And while they're thought of very highly, the downside (to me anyway) is they're still "guarded jealously" inside their Mountains and don't go out much. I wonder if that was the male population's decision? ;)

In one fem!Bilbo fic I've read dwarrowdams take several husbands at once, to raise the chances of getting pregnant. While other dwarf women go after their craft, the ones who don't now pop out even more babies. Heck, that's an interesting and refreshing concept! :)