sundries

[rm]

It's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Good news. Dogboy & Justine was one of the top vote-getters in Act Five: One Acts and so will be performed along with the other top plays from Jan 20 - Jan 23 at 8pm (and with an additional 3:30pm show on Jan 23). I get to see it. You can do, by visiting The Queens' Players.

So I'm working on this Jack/Alonso fic and I know exactly what every moment of it looks like in my head. EXACTLY. And I tried to write it last night, and it sucked and I know why. For some idiotic reason I tried to write it from Alonso's perspective. Why the fuck would I, of all people, who is deeply interested in Jack's dilemma and can write his voice without even thinking about it do that? Oh, because I'm avoiding pain. I'm an idiot. I'm going to take another stab at it tonight. The rest of the problem, of course, is that there are fics I can do (like that Jack/Ianto/Andy PWP I did) and be fine with their imperfections and fics where I really, really can't. I've gotta do this one well. I have no idea why I felt the need to put that behind a cut tag, but there you go. I'm having issues. Talk to me.

Torchwood fandom and fandomsecrets actually being awesome for a change. via eumelia.

Merlin 2.09 sucked. First of all, his love for this girl comes out of where? And then she's a cat-bat-weredragon THING? I might have LOVED this if it had been a b-story arc over like four episodes. As it was, I did not care. At all. And it was just further proof to me that about the only thing Merlin has going for it as a show is the chemistry between the actors which often serves to make the scripts make even less sense than they already do.

On the other hand, I enjoyed Merlin 2.10 rather a lot. I felt for Gwen, Arthur was hilarious, Merlin was oddly inscrutable (again with actor chemistry muddying the scripts) and hey it's Georgia Moffett! DESTINY AND CHICKEN.

Then, Patty and I watched the first two episodes of Buffy. I never watched Buffy beyond an odd episode for background noise here or there. I dig it, although I find the high school setting hard to take (I tense up every time Cordelia comes on screen, it's awful) and, as Patty notes "awful '90s fashions." Somehow, I also managed to be all "Giles/Willow 4evah" in like five seconds; this can't end well.

Once we're done with Merlin it's time to finally check out Being Human which I admit is probably all about my "OMG Russell Tovey, please be on TW, S4" thing. Just to circle back to the beginning of this post and all that.

I think I've sort of gotten over this thing about my hair for Gally. My hair is lighter than I think (I just usually put product in it when it's wet to keep it looking darker) especially with how grey I feel it got on the cruise. So yeah. I'll probably manage not to do something terrible to it for LA. You all were incredibly good and funny sports about that poll though.

Last night, Patty and I ordered Chocri.

Tonight we're going to Macy's with the gift card from my bank to get one of those featherbed mattress topper things that are so awesome.

Briefly on the whole women/slash/real gay people/fetishization/etc. thing: I realize that to me the issue isn't about who is writing what how AT ALL. It's about what people think said writing means, and I am someone who thinks writing can be profoundly meaningful. However, being a slasher is not gay activism by default (just like being gay doesn't make you a hero by default -- we've discussed this before, fandom), and if you say that, I will holler. I will similarly holler -- and very, very loudly -- if you think it's appropriate as a non-queer person to "explain" the practical realities of homophobia to a queer person. And that's not about queer cred, that's about common sense. I don't care how well you can imagine my shoes; I'm still the person wearing them.

Wyclef Jean responds to allegations about his charity, Yele.

The Plaza as New York's Gilded Age continues to fade.

Comments

[moljn.livejournal.com]

Absolutely, I agree. And I do think there's a certain "fetishising" of homosexuality going on in fandom (the idealization of it, for instance, which I'd say is largely about misogyny), but the comments made me wonder if the sexual component of that appears much larger to others (non-slashers and non-women slashers) than it actually is, making them more uncomfortable than they'd otherwise be.

And I should mention that I don't mean to diminish or dismiss women's sexuality by saying that, I 'm just not sure it's a major factor in the issue of appropriation. In other words: there's objectification going on, but in most cases I don't think it's sexual objectification.

[malle-babbe.livejournal.com]

RE: you observation of the idealization of M/M relationships as a sign of misogyny.

Do you mean fans trashing female characters that they see as getting in the way of the M/M couple?

I only ask b/c lately I have been wondering if my own interest in reading M/M couples (mostly Torchwood) comes from a presumption (which I *totally* admit is a *presumption* on my part) that a man having sex with another man doesn't view the other guy with the contempt that seems to be present in my own experience wrt the way a guy would view the woman he would be having sex with. In my own experience, the men I have desire for have no interest in me, and the only interest I have experienced from guys is of the creepy cat-caller variety.

[moljn.livejournal.com]

I should probably have said that it often *comes off* as sexism/misogyny, because to be fair I'm sure a lot of it stems from the One True Love trope rather than outright sexism. But yes, kind of. I'm bothered by the trashing of specific women or women in general that is often present in slash that goes out of its way to point out how the men in a pairing have never been this close to a partner before (usually meaning women), how the sex is so much better, how nice it is to finally have someone who's their equal, who can really understand. It's not inherently sexist if it is just that particular person that's special, but a lot of the time it seems like the person's maleness is a big factor.

And I get where you're coming from with your presumption and experiences. I don't share them per se, but one reason (and an oft-cited one for others, I think) I love slash so much is that I can leave a lot of gender issues behind when I read it. They do crop up, as in the case above, but in well-written stuff, at least, it's such a relief to not have them colour the main interactions.