[ SECRET POST #6953 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #6953 ⌋

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


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 32 secrets from Secret Submission Post #993.
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.

Comments

[fscom]

01. https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/9c8e72929edf.png

Transcript by OP

[fscom]

I love m/m shipping in fandom but then when we get a tv show or movie that has a canon gay couple in it, they're often too weird looking or ugly for me to care about them. I'm so sorry ;___;

[(Anonymous)]

So... I'm gonna guess it's not entirely you.

Actors with A-list looks - even if they're gay IRL - tend to be closeted and not go for gay roles for fear of future typecasting. Gay ships being the main feature also tends to not happen in big budget shows or movies so there's even less $$ draw. The pool of talent to pick from is orders of magnitude smaller than even like a C-list Hallmark movie. It's not a big surprise when the people they find often fail to be Hollywood hot and/or are worse at acting compellingly romantic or sexy overall.

I mean think about it, it's not like those A-list actors with A-list looks are incapable of acting out a gay ship. They just don't because the money, opportunity, and audience / career favorability isn't there. Exceptions exist ofc, like Brokeback Mountain being an obvious one starring two guys widely considered conventionally hot - but they stand out as exceptions. Gay stuff is just not mainstream yet, so you're not gonna get the mainstream level hotness.

Besides, I look at het ships in shows with C-tier actors and go 'yeah, nah, these actors aren't that attractive' all the time, and I bet you do too

[(Anonymous)]

The idea that you think gay stuff is not mainstream is wild to me. Some of the biggest shows currently running have gay characters! Hell, you may have noticed that Netflix's flagship, the major water cooler show of the past decade, the one that everyone from my boss to my cousin to my neighbor to my kid's 60-something teacher watched, had two canonically gay main characters. That's about as mainstream as it gets.

[(Anonymous)]

... you only ship characters you personally think are hot?

Damn, how boring. I wouldn't be into probably half of my favorite ships if I felt like that.

[(Anonymous)]

I would guess 95% of people find the people they ship hot. I am kind of chuckling at the idea of this being news to someone.

[(Anonymous)]

Not the anon you asked, but mostly, yes.

Both of the slash ship actors have to be at least somewhat hot to me or I don't get into the ship.

I can enjoy the gay canon story, but I'm probably not going to be fandom-shipping the characters, y'know?

[(Anonymous)]

It took me an embarrassing amount of time to realize that “interesting” ranks lower for many other people than it does for me. If it’s interesting (i.e. unusual and thought-provoking), I am likely to be invested.

Attractive, pretty, sexy, fun, and comforting all seem to be stronger pulls for most other fans. Which is fine! It just helps to know that when having conversations.

[(Anonymous)]

not sure how you got there from "canon"

[(Anonymous)]

Sometimes I wonder if the fact that I'm demisexual affects how I ship things because looks very rarely factor in. If I think they have good chemistry, I'll ship characters so easily.

[(Anonymous)]

Attractiveness is only a factor if it's a ship I'm seeking out smut for. I have to at least like what I'm seeing to want to see them doing the do.

[(Anonymous)]

Same thought.
Considering I am an ace this is absolutely bewildering to me. I need my ship to be fun, not to get hots about them.

Also I find it quite easy to find people attractive. Yes, this person have a weird nose or something. But they have lovely eye colour and gorgeous hands. Boldness? Rock this baby. Body hair? Perfect, I'll take it, I hope fanfiction will absolutely mention it. Etc etc. Perfect people have much less character and are boring. Bleh

[(Anonymous)]

I feel like I have the opposite experience. A lot of the canon gay or queer romance I see features characters who seem “attractive by consensus” but not appealing to me specifically.

[(Anonymous)]

I can't really think of any canon m/m shows where I thought the actors were like legit ugly, not to my tastes in a few cases sure, but most actors have a look to them that is usually conventually appealing. Especially if we're talking US shows because man do those cast pretty over talent what feels like 90% of the time.

[(Anonymous)]

This is one of the things I love about being ace. No one is attractive on the (hah) face of it for me. It's their personality and connection to others that interests me, so it never matters what they actually look like.

[(Anonymous)]

Ace people can find people attractive.

[(Anonymous)]

Heck, I'm NOT ace and I don't understand why personal attraction factors into shipping because I'm not a part of the ship. I don't need to be attracted to the characters, what I need is to believe that they're attracted to EACH OTHER. That's what makes a ship interesting to me. You could put the two hottest people in the world together and if they had zero chemistry, I'd just yawn.

[(Anonymous)]

fellow ace. For me it's a combination of looks and personality, though personality will often be the deciding factor in how /hot/ I find a character.

Win for lack of a visual imagination I guess

[(Anonymous)]

It took me a long time to realize people literally "saw" in their mind characters when they read. I take in info but I'm not visualizing anything so generally speaking it doesn't really matter if they're attractive or not. It's all about the fanon characterizations for me!

Though I do admit if I find someone really really ugly then that will creep into my feelings about the ship and I am likely to lose interest. But it has to be something that bugs me, not just generally finding them "unattractive."

[(Anonymous)]

I've never liked canon relationships. I've come to the realization that I'm probably not even into half the ships I actually ship. I have interest in pre-slash, and pre-slash alone apparently. I'm into it for the potential of the characters dynamic, as soon as that changes, romantic or otherwise my interest just plummets. Not sure why.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, me too!

I feel that way about het canon, also.

The will they/won't they is part of the excitement of shipping, for me. When they get together in canon they usually don't do it how I imagined it would go.

I feel this way about established relationship fic for non-canon (or canon) couples, too. I want the excitement of someone falling for another person and not domestic contentment. I'm married; I already have that at home.

[(Anonymous)]

NPH looks like Beavis

[(Anonymous)]

I wouldn't mind finding them unattractive I just wish the kind of characters/couples I find interesting on a personality and connection level were the ones to be canon m/m couples. Every time two men have a dynamic that makes me feral they are at BEST a couple actors having a lot of fun with the chemistry while some producer insists their characters get girlfriends. Every time there's a canon gay couple on my screen it seems like they're dull as dishwater with the same non-chemistry as half the straight people on television.

Like, you couldn't pay me to care about the gays in Modern Family, you know? And it's not because I don't think they're attractive enough. And nothing I've seen about Heated Rivalry makes me think I'd enjoy that, at the opposite end of the 'how sexual are these men' spectrum. Meanwhile you give me two guys who are boy best friends that are doctors or spies or amateur detectives together and there will be heavy investment. (or, you know, a doctor and a spy... up to every individual whether or not they find them both attractive)

[philstar22]

For me, I have the same issue with M/M canon ships that I do with M/F ones. Often I don't end up shipping them because the romance doesn't work for me. I tend to ship friends and/or long-term bonds. I want a strong connection that slowly develops intro friendship. So much of the time I find other relationships more believable than the ones canon wants to say are romantic.

[(Anonymous)]

I really like this picture for this secret, it's funny. And I get where you're coming from, sometimes I feel the same way, but just like the candy, sometimes once you try it it's actually good.