fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2825 ]

[ SECRET POST #2825 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2825 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 065 secrets from Secret Submission Post #404.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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Are people really serious about the "THIS SHIP IS REAL" though? Because I'll admit I do that with my slash pairings all the time, but it's mostly out of excitement and it's meant to be rather tongue in cheek because, realistically, I know that there's NO WAY the writers are ever going there or even intended for it.

It's just a way I express my giddiness over the amount of subtext present. But I don't really believe that the writers are doing it on purpose and intend for the audience to think the characters are in love.

To use an example, in the Star Trek reboot films, I KNOW that there is 100% NO WAY that the writers are in any way intending to imply Kirk/Spock. But I still ship it and post excited things like that because when I watch the films, their interactions and their relationship feel more real and genuinely loving to me than the canon pairing of Spock/Uhura. I don't think it's canon or anything -- it's just a reflection of my impression.

Oh, the TJLC part of the Sherlock fandom is deadly serious. Because apparently it's teh groundbreaking representation. Or something.

Oh…well. I mean, their enthusiasm isn't necessarily hurting anyone, but it does seem kind of…delusional for lack of a better word. I can see how it could be confusing, though. I make squeeing! posts of "Urgh, these assholes -- their love is so canon!" all the time but I don't really believe it. (I guess I probably come across as one of those people.)

I wouldn't actually mind such enthusiasm in itself. It's other things that I mind -

1) Much of this enthusiasm is weirdly gleeful "lol those people with different opinions are idiots" posts. E.g. "how can anyone think they are not in love???", "how do you even watch the show if you don't think they're a couple?? XD". Things like this.

2) Devaluation of friendship and platonic interactions. "Omg character A saved character B's life, how can it be platonic?!", "Character A is jealous, jealousy only exists in romantic relationships!"

The "they're canonically in love!" kind of squee-y enthusiasm I'm actually pretty chill with, even if it annoys me mildly because it's factually incorrect.

Both of these points X100000. I don't get why "omg they're so gay/in love!" must so frequently be coupled with sneering "lol right, this is SO platonic *eyeroll*" bullshit. IMO it just comes across as massively insecure.

And it's not just a gen vs shipping thing. A friend of mine who's a giant slash fan once went on a rant to me about how much she hates this stuff in her own OTPs, because it undermines her enthusiasm for the ship by making her go "well, no, not really" and defend the non-shipping side. And I can totally see that too. I rarely ship a couple because THEY NEED TO BE IN LOVE OR ELSE WHAT'S THE POINT. I ship them because I like their relationship so much as it is that I also ship them in addition.

Awww. I admire shippers who are like this. Unfortunately, all too often I see even the non-aggressive part of the fandom make ~funny~ posts about how "very heterosexual" some of their OTP's interactions are. One person in my fandom, a harmless, very well-meaning guy, recently wrote a fic where the main plot twist was that the protagonists suddenly realized that all their canonical interactions were actually evidence of their being a couple. Like, "we held hands, cared about each other, drank beer together, watched silly films- oh wait. We're totally dating". Made me cringe.

So I'm happy about the fact that some shippers are uncomfortable with this attitude, too. I have a couple of friends who hold the same opinion.

The thing is, that friend I mentioned is a lesbian. I don't want to put words in her mouth so I'm a little wary of trying to say exactly what she likes, but as far as my conversations with her go, she ships slash and femslash so much precisely because slash and femslash fanfic lets her see lots of gay and lesbian fictional characters whose lives don't revolve around being gay, and gay and lesbian couples whose relationships are built on friendship, rather than entirely about Sex and Being Gay and Not Being Straight like most gay and lesbian couples in mainstream media. She compared it to how Ellen Ripley in "Alien" was such a good female character because she wasn't originally written as a female character, but as a male character who was then gender-flipped.

I think straight people may be less likely to feel that way about slash and femslash couples, and more likely to ship or slash in this narrow-minded fashion because they have rigid socially-conditioned views about how human beings are allowed to love each other. I don't want to generalize about all straight people, because I'm straight too and I know other straight people who don't feel like this, but I think the motives are frequently different.

I would sort of agree with you here. Some straight fans do have this tendency precisely because they are straight.

On the other hand, AFAIA, many aggressive tjlc-ers are queer, which is... sad, really. If their treatment of fictional relationships is anything to go by, they may have some serious RL emotional issues.

I've recently seen a post on Tumblr that was pretty much 'How dare you see Sherlock as straight?' It makes me glad that I stay far the fuck away from that fandom.

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[ SECRET POST #2825 ]

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