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

[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.