you kinky dino, you sundries

[rm]

Long post on Quartett later, which will include references to Hypnotoad.

Cats with diplomas. via jackolatern.

starstealingirl alerted me to the existence of kinkfreezone. Now, I think it's perfectly reasonable for there to be fanfic communities that focus on whatever people are into or not into, and a comm devoted to vanilla fanfic makes perfect sense to me. Assuming you can figure out how to define that. Well kinkfreezone provides its users with a list of kinks that aren't welcome on the community, which, again, you know, FINE, except, you know, maybe kink isn't the best thing to use for some of these things.

Specifically, the community says "Gender themes (gender confusion; sex changes; genderfucks; hermaphrodites; cross-dressing or other forms of genderbending; drag queens and transvestites; androgyny; forced feminization; butch/femme; tomboys)."

Department of newsflash:

1. I am not a kink;
2. I am not a "genderfuck," but thank you for playing, and, by the way...
3. What about characters who canonically are or do any of those things (i.e., Desire from Sandman, Pie'oh'Pah from Imajica, etc.) Also the enforcement of gender norms can very much be a kink too.

Anyway, while I totally get the point of the community, they really may want to take a look at the degree to which their verbiage is a pretty vicious, heteronormative fuck you. Also, there's a ton of other really problematic shit lurking on there as well (all virgins are kinks; apparently so is all rape recovery).

One of the front page stories on About.com today? Everything you ever wanted to know about dino sex .
(Image created by About.com is of two cartoon dino silhouettes kissing; it makes me happy.)

Giant bird snags car. Actually not really, but you have to look at this image chickenfried_jo posted.

Best headline you're going to see on the Berlin Wall over the next week? The Berlin Wall: A Division Through Time. This article is pretty great, too. I know I will be reading too much nostalgia news next week.

Dog run portraits.

NaNo is officially getting hard. I remain under quota, but I have been writing every day. I'm currently in the middle of a huge scene that I think actually needs to get even huger and be broken down into a couple of chapters. I realize first drafts are always terrible, and I am trying to convince myself just not to worry, that structure, more richness in B-plot and flow will come in the second draft. I just have to get this done. But it's antithetical to how I work, and I'm hitting the "actually, I think this kinda blows" point, although I think it will be great When and If I Ever Finish It.

(I had an excerpt up a moment ago but then took it away, because I'm feeling vulnerable and weird about the whole thing).

Comments

[elynne.livejournal.com]

Bhah, I am at pretty much exactly that point with NNWM today. :P I'm 4k words behind my personal quota, and instead of writing them I keep staring at the page, then going off and playing Solitaire instead. If this keeps up I might have to go plug into Write or Die for 15 minutes, just get some damn words on the page.

[newsbean.livejournal.com]

*TOMBOYS*

Seriously? Females who wear pants and have short hair. Really. Sigh.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Beyond their verbiage being heteronormative (and possibly heterosexist)... it's just feels downright exclusionary.
I mean, just e.g.,nipple play? What includes "play" and what doesn't? How the hell do you police that sort of writing?
How do you decide why a character does anything without destroying the entire narrative?
Maybe I'm being picky and diverting my potential simmering rage at the way this community presents kink and I'm just trying to think how vanilla can be written down, when vanilla, like kink, is a whole slew of behaviours.

*Cheers* Go NaNo Go */Cheers*
In case that wasn't clear, that was me being all cheerleader-y. I'm not very good at that sort of thing, alas.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah is vanilla sex really PiV (despite the community allowing slash) with no foreplay whatsoever? oral sex allowed as long as it's not with enthusiasm?

ETA: also just posted another little excerpt.

[pocketmouse]

*lols at excerpt* hrm, that sound suspiciously familiar.

Did you see thingswithwings' post about it? It's here. The comments are particularly hilarious. As co-mod of kink_bingo, she's got a pretty good POV on it all.

And I am now currently thinking about inserting animals getting diplomas into my current fic, thanks.

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

So Jack/Ianto would be a nonstarter, even though it's....uhhhmmm...CANON???

If you are that squicked by two adult males (or two adult females, to be fair), engaging in consentual sexual activity? Maybe Torchwood fandom just not the place for you.

Unless it's "Jack puts up with Ianto going down on him while he fantasizes about Gwen doing so."

Except not so much, yanno?

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

I just read the list of disallowed kinks at kinkfreezone, and . . . wow. I think everything I have ever written would fall into one of those categories, and I've never thought of myself as someone who writes kink. The list disallows whole fandoms (e.g. anything age of sail, anything set in prison)! It disallows stories about villains! And apparently anything where the partners aren't exactly equal in age, social status, or beauty is a kink. Who knew? And so are stories where people have more than one partner (including, apparently, serial monogamy), where people have religious faith (or doubts), and where people flirt by making eye contact.

Generally speaking, I rather hate the term "vanilla" for non-kink, because it suggests that anything not kinky is boring. But . . . I'm hard pressed to imagine a story that could omit every single thing on that list and still be interesting. Still be about people with actual flaws and problems, not iconic figures of True Love.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's one of those based on RL moments, which is probably why I don't hate it. All that shit I have to write all by my lonesome is epically HORRIBLE. Actually, it's not, but I'm in the self-hating stage of Nano.

Have not seen thingswithwings's commentary. Will check it out.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I was going to edit my comment when I saw you added the category that made me go: DUDEWTF!GRAARGHNTBLAHHHHH!!!!

ETA: Yes, what you quoted! That's fucked up!

If vanilla sex is PiV my sex life with my Ex was one whole big kink because neither one of us had a P!
But seriously, leaving a hicky?! Are they nuts!
Okay, I'm now feeling the rage from the whole identities =/= kink thing!

ARRGH, once again.

Re:Nano Excerpt - Ha! Merlin! Not my fandom at all (I've seen nary an ep - though when I read "cheekbones" I flashed to James Marsters... how is that for association!).

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Same here.

Brothers in arms? Check. One night stands? Trouser bulges? Exposing a woman's breasts? Check, check, check.

opulence, decadence, and sensuality in general

I really need to buy some cheaper sheets. Mine aren't vanilla enough.

It seems the owners of this community might do better to state what they are about than what they're not.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Good lord!
Voice fetishization (cracking or broken; husky, low, throaty; purring; accents; whispering close to someone's ear)
Some of these are not voluntary responses IRL! What. The. Hell!?! I have never seen such a sex-negative fic comm in my more than a decade of on-line life!

[rm.livejournal.com]

I had no idea anyone could consider half these things kinks. Like, during sex, I should make sure to stand a foot away from my partner and speak to them at a normal discussion volume and tone lest I do something kinky! OMGWTF?

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I can't not blog about this.
Stay tuned.

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

Exoticism (fetishization of Far Eastern culture and aesthetics, which may be adapted and generalized for fictional worlds

Well, there goes all of Firefly fanfic...

[firinel.livejournal.com]

I don't have enough information to say one way or another, but in an abstract sense, I think I do see a very distinct difference between someone who is in any way not heteronormative (for instance, someone who identifies as genderqueer) being in a story and it not being used as a kink, and a story about that same person that specifically turns that identification into a kink.

I certainly experienced that sort of thing irl - it's one thing to love someone who happens to be genderqueer, and another thing to actively fetishise that.

Of course, like I said, I've no idea at all if that's the sort of distinction that they're making or not, but it's what immediately occurred to me.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I agree there can be a distinction on that (and many of other other eye-brow raising things they listed (i.e., one character being a virgin as opposed to that virginity being fetishized in the story)). However, I firmly believe in mean what you say and say what you mean, and as it's currently phrased, the list is unclear and offensive on a number of topics.

[5251962.livejournal.com]

Genderfucking?
Um. What is that?
(I am not stupid, I honestly am not understanding what its useage is- but wouldn't the opposition be...well, I mean, the term doesn't make any sense to me.)

[firinel.livejournal.com]

yeah, I was just going to edit my comment and say something along the lines of "oh, nevermind. I've just read more of the comments, and more of their stuff, and...hhm, yeah. fail."

[5251962.livejournal.com]

I am also not trying to be insensitive, I am asking because I don't know.

[rm.livejournal.com]

"Genderfuck" is commonly used to refer to a pretty broad range of mixing elements from both male and female gender presentation (i.e., I wear a men's suit with my breasts bound and lipstick; or an evening gown with a packing cock under it or any other random combination).

[rm.livejournal.com]

Hehehe. Yeah at first was like "okay, I don't get it, but.... " and then I was all "OMGWTFBBQ." I'm also pretty sure their community, despite allowing slash pairings, disallows any of the activities through which lesbians have sex.

[5251962.livejournal.com]

Aaah ok, THAT makes sense.

Have to agree though- that comm is rather, wow. Is it bad that I can't help thinking, "GOD how DULL"?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Seriously. You know, vanilla sex can be awesome. Yet they made it sound like "the last option when you hate everything and everyone including yourself."

[fruitsgrow.livejournal.com]

Good grief. They might as well edit "where vanilla isn't a bad word" to "all sex is bad if it isn't missionary."

[5251962.livejournal.com]

I also just found out what the kink I've really dug all along was. *snicker*
Ah, educational day for me. :P