Bingo! RaceFail, LGBTQFail & Misogyny all in one small act of fannish cluelessness

[rm]

A few clueless slashers fetishize real queer people while throwing in fun sides of racism and misogyny:

http://community.livejournal.com/newtrekslash/268981.html
http://www.seetreklove.com
http://www.seetreklove.com/forums/showpost.php?s=e39b6284f12358bc55546e23865c5597&p=2608&postcount=15

THIS IS WHAT FAIL LOOKS LIKE.

Thanks to telesilla and darkrosetiger for the heads-up.

Comments

[starstealingirl.livejournal.com]

"I'm not homophobic. Some of my favorite fictitious characters are gay!"

(Or "straight but in love with just this one person of the same sex." Because that's more romantic than being gay. Or something.)

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<i.straight>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

<i.straight but in love with just this one person of the same sex.</i>

I would suggest that you not watch "Torchwood" this year. For there is some MIGHTY epic fail on that score.

[rm.livejournal.com]

It depends on how you look at it, as the character who makes that assertion is known to be a lying liar who lies, who's just been blindsided that his family know about the boyfriend he's not particularly been out about. Additionally, Ianto is such a fixator and not rational in his relationships (Lisa, OMG); this just struck me as more of his particular brand of crazy, especially since it contradicts other things he's said about his sexuality in tie-in materials.

But yeah, source of fandom controversy.

[winterknight.livejournal.com]

(I get the WTF, but to me, Ianto just doesn't count on that score. He's not so much queer/straight as obsessosexual.)

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yes! OMG, new favorite word obsessosexual!

[winterknight.livejournal.com]

Let no one accuse me of pandering to the tender requirements of the English Language. Carry on. :)

(Edit: also, why can't we have a queer character (he is) who isn't perfectly, 100%, pure queer?)

[elynne.livejournal.com]

OMG. I've actually been pondering writing a "what's going on in my head" from Ianto's perspective ficlet, and this - this pretty much hits it right on the head. Good to know I'm not the only one who picked up on that vibe. XD

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

The tie-ins aren't actually canon, tho--and I don't know if RTD has even read the Torchwood novels (tho one would hope he read Goss' novels cos OMG THE LULZ!!!!). I sadly think that line was written in earnest. Cos I hate that one of the few popular bisexuel characters only telly became a fannish cliche at the end.

[starstealingirl.livejournal.com]

I know the scene you're talking about. It initially bothered me, until I remembered that I said similar things during the early stages of my coming out process, the first time I fell in love with another woman. At the time, it made sense to me to make statements like, "I'm not sure if I like women; I just know that I love her," because I was trying to reconcile this new, unexpected fact of being in love with a woman with my past (in which I wasn't sure whether there was any pattern to the gender[s] of the people who attracted me) and my future (because I couldn't be sure who I'd love throughout my life. I was also wary of identity politics-- I knew who I loved, but I wasn't sure about all the political and cultural baggage that went with taking on a sexual identity label.

So when Ianto says, "It's not men. It's just him," I interpret it as, "This whole being in love with a man thing is new to me, and I don't know how it fits in with my personal history, or my sense of self, and I'm really freaked out about the baggage that comes with taking on (or being assigned) a label like 'gay' or 'bisexual' or 'queer.' I'm still getting used to this, and taking it slow when it comes to sorting out my own identity." I agree that the scene can be read in a lot of non-helpful, problematic ways, but the scene still reads as emotionally true to me.

[rm.livejournal.com]

And the performance absolutely sells it, IMHO.

[(Anonymous)]

Exactly. I understand the point the writers were trying to make for Ianto's POV and I felt that GDL just totally nailed it and made it something human and messy and real.