sundries

[rm]

- Got my hair cut for the movie (hey SAG people, do I get any $ for having had the wardrobe people take about 6 inches off my hair? I can't remember). It looks really good, but it's very cute and femme and allows me to "pass" in the world in a way I'm not entirely comfortable with. It's very starlette.

- I am sorry (in an abstract way) if I've contributed to any misery you are feeling in the wake of the OSBP. I think it's got everyone wound up: often more than we've expected and everyone, including me, feels a little miserable.

- Got glutened yesterday.

- Meanwhile:

Dear Torchwood Fandom,

Please to be learning the difference between empathic, empathetic and telepathic.

Also, can we stop with the Gwen bashing? Not liking her is cool. Letting your story reflect that is fine, but "let's be mean to Gwen because she's an icky girl and have lots of sex" is not actually a premise for a Jack/Ianto fic I can get behind.

What did I tell you about MPREG warnings?

Merci!

Comments

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

I think the OSBP has made a lot of women more aware of how vulnerable we are, in ways that we often manage to push to the side while dealing with people. I do think it's well worth thinking about and discussing, rather than pushing it aside again, though I wish some of my acquaintances weren't feeling as hurt and angry (or as triggered) as they are right now.

[melebeth]

I think you do get money for them cutting your hair, but I wouldn't put money on it. :)

(That's why I haven't submitted to that film, while in some ways I'd love a 50's haircut, more than a foot off my hair is a lot for background work)

[rm.livejournal.com]

There may be another principle dancer upgrade in this for me, which is why I was happy to do it.

[melebeth]

Hell yes!

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

Do we get to see your hair?

[glamtasm.livejournal.com]

Torchwood fandom dislikes Gwen? Thank goodness not the fans I've talked with!

[rm.livejournal.com]

The Jack/Ianto corner of Torchwood fandom can be irrationally hateful towards her in a totally uncomfortable way. I mean, I think the character is underwritten and if she were real and I were to meet her she'd probably annoy me, but she serves a narrative purpose and at least attempts to be a decent person.

[glamtasm.livejournal.com]

Absolutely Gwen has been underwritten, at least until very recently. So were the other characters. But the *essence* of who they are is there. This is often true of nascent series.

That aside, it seems to me that these rabid Jack/Ianto fans are missing the point, which is that one need not exclude the other. Are their objections some kind of limited misogyny/monogamy thing? Which is so NOT what Jack's character is about, if they were paying attention.

[rm.livejournal.com]

A lot of it is that, for whatever reason, a lot of the Jack/Ianto corner of the fandom seems very young and very invested in emotional and physical monogamy -- which also is so not what Jack's character is about. So they 'ship Jack/Ianto and hate characters that they feel could break up Jack/Ianto.

Meanwhile I'm interested in the Jack/Ianto dynamic and read and write poly-relationships almost exclusively in my fan- and original fiction, so I'm pretty much like 'WTF?' with all that.

I'm interested in unraveling and understanding a dynamic between these two characters (the ratios of weak/strong and masculine/feminine in both of these characters are the most interesting I've seen in male characters on TV in ages, and perhaps ever). But a lot of the fandom seems interested in fixing it. And too many of those people see the solution as hating on Gwen.

[glamtasm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that "either/or" thing is pretty typical in fandom, especially for those with the investment in the monogamy paradigm. Root for one team, hate the other. get all polarized, yada yada.

Guess it's the folks I know, but we're all about the pan sexual poly!

[rm.livejournal.com]

What's funny to me is that I see more openness to the pansexual poly thing from the HP fandom - which comes out of a series with hardly any cannon relationships, a murky cannon on the subject of queerness and is, you know, a children's book - than I do in the Torchwood fandom, which comes out of a show that's entirely about the pansexual poly thing.

Maybe fandoms just like to be contrary?

[chaos-by-design.livejournal.com]

a lot of the Jack/Ianto corner of the fandom seems very young and very invested in emotional and physical monogamy -- which also is so not what Jack's character is about.

Yeah, I find that rather annoying. They act as if Jack flirts with Gwen or were to hook up with her then his relationship with Ianto would be ruined. It's like they don't understand Jack's character at all.

One of the things I did like about the episode 'Adrift' was that there were a few scenes in there that very much confirmed that Gwen and Ianto in no way see each other as rivals, since he covertly supports her in something she's trying to do in that episode (covertly because Jack is against it).