The *other* reason we don't see as many condoms in fanfic as we should ...

You know, sometimes the characters are (in the past/in the future/on the astral plane/having interspecies tentacle sex/evil giant robots/omnipotent) and condoms just don't seem relevant to the situation. And other times, the characters are idiots.

I mean I care deeply about whether the characters in the story I'm writing practice safe sex, but I'm not entirely sure that they do. It's the mid-eighties, so they definitely should use protection. But given that they walk around with nuclear accelerators strapped to their backs, unsafe sex is probably not high on the list of stupid things that are likely to get them killed.

Probably I will solve this dilemma by putting this argument into the story, but it occurred to me that this has cross-fandom applications. Maybe one of the reasons condom use isn't universal in fanfiction is that many of the characters we write about take ludicrous risks of other kinds.

Now, I think it's entirely in character for Buffy Summers to endanger her life fighting vampires every night but demand that her lovers (well, the human ones) use condoms. Taking risks in one area of life doesn't necessarily mean that you'll take them in another. But if you're stuck on a desert island with invisible monsters, is not catching an STD really that much of a priority? If you're with the brain-eating serial killer who murdered your father, are you actually going to try to discuss safer sex?

Spoils Of War

My parents were in town this weekend to go shopping, and I had a very successful time at the winter sales. This is just as well, since both my best coat and a much-beloved jumper of mine (that's a sweater for those of you on the other side of the Pacific ...) had developed holes in the last week. I got a fabulous coat at 50% off and also a wrap-around cardigan thing I'd had my eye on for a while. Only 20% off the cardigan, but still a display of canny shopping on my part.

The real bargains, though, were the two Fayreform bras for $20 each. As a 12E, I have never in my life been able to buy a bra for $20!!! Incidentally, I urge any woman who's a C-cup or above to check out Fayreform bras. They make attractive, comfortable, supportive bras for women with larger cup sizes.

After taking care of the girly clothes shopping, I headed for K-Mart where I heard the 'exclusive' Walmart Robot Heroes Decepticon Sneak Attack set had been sighted. Sure enough, I managed to come away the proud owner of Skywarp and Cliffjumper as well as 'Supermetal' Optimus Prime and Megatron and 'Hologram' Mirage.