Okay, based on a couple of things that have popped up on my dash, here are my random notes and/or rant for the day – again on fandom, though I’m sure it happens in RL too.

I do not get the…fascination with incest.


Personally, to me, this has always been a disturbing and disquieting thing. I don’t get why people seem to want to throw siblings together – and have it be a good thing. I’ve seen it happen before where it is the result of abuse or neglect or pure isolation, but it is handled in such a way to make it both understandable and disturbing all at the same time. The author/creator does not revel in the idea. They are quietly horrified by it.

In some fandoms (Supernatural, for example – my main pet peeve), people get so wrapped up in the fraternal relationship between Dean and Sam that they refuse to acknowledge any other bond the brothers might be able to create outside of each other. So when they start wanting a romantic/sexual thing, they can only turn to having the brothers desiring each other…the Wincest thing. And they revel in it.

Squick!

I’m sorry, but this is disquieting on so many levels for me. With the way the story is written (of what I have seen), Dean was not only big brother to Sam, but in many ways he was also Sam’s only real paternal influence. With Mary dead and John obsessed, Dean did quite a bit of the raising and taking care of his little brother. So as adults….lets have them have sex? Romance?

No. Seriously, no.

I do not care for slash/femslash, but I can understand the pairings if the character’s personalities lend themselves to the pair up. If it is light enough I can ignore it, I will even read the stories. Dittos on threesomes though I’m a bit more picky there. Incest? No, nada, nein, nyet….I’m not doing it.

This builds on my issue with everything having to be sexual and/or romantic. I enjoy romantic, sensuous stories. I write with the idea in my head a great deal of the time. However – not EVERY story has to center on romance and/or sex. You can actually have two guys who are just friends, brothers, whatever. You can push all kinds of physical and emotional boundaries between people without it needing to be about sex or romance. A guy can hold another guy for friendship/family’s sake alone…he doesn’t have to be gay (out or in the closet or in denial). Ditto with the girls.

There are layers upon layers of relationships out there that have nothing to do with romance and/or sex, and I wish we saw more of them in fanfiction. This is why I don’t rant about original characters (unless they are unrealistic). Sometimes, based on size or focus of the fandom, you need a different viewpoint. A well-handled original character can give you that. (At some point in the future I will randomize about my opinion on the overuse of the term ‘Mary Sue’, but that’s another story to be told another time.)


If I could issue a challenge to every fanfic writer in the world, it would be – test the waters of emotional/physical involvement...go beyond the sex and the romance and try to find another way to bond your characters.