Andraste

I swear, half the reason I keep reading fandomsecrets is because every now and then someone bashfully confesses to 'shipping Londo and G'Kar and I get to point and laugh. (Not in a mean way, I hasten to add, just at the whole idea of fandom shame. We all know I have none.)

Anyway, this time there's a comment thread about it, complete with incipient wank, over here. Some anony-mouse makes that argument about slash I always find rather confusing: Believe it or not, no matter what our sex-obsessed culture tries to tell us, men can have extremely close and--*gasp*--even physically affectionate friendships that are COMPLETELY PLATONIC. It's beyond sad to me that people constantly feel the need to warp them into something pervertedly sexual.

First of all, I don't think Londo/G'Kar tentacle sexorz is perverted in anything but the 'hooray! perversion!' sense, although I don't expect everyone to agree with me on that. Second of all, there's a flaw in this logic that's especially obvious in this particular case. I think most people who ship Londo/G'Kar are well aware that men can have close friendships that are platonic, because Vir is standing right there. Most Londo/G'Kar 'shippers I know are also very invested in the Londo & Vir relationship, and don't see it as sexual. Many of us write fic about it! Moreover, I haven't noticed anybody slashing either Londo or G'Kar with Garibaldi, whom both of them are close friends with at different points in canon. They both have other important bonds with members of their own gender: Londo with Sinclair and Urza Jaddo, G'Kar with Ta'Lon and Marcus Cole. (I did write a story where Londo and Urza were friends-with-benefits during their youth, but it's hardly the only way to interpret things.)

Slashers do acknowledge that men can have platonic relationships with each other. Yes, even those who don't also write gen. Sometimes I want to write ampersand about platonic relationships between guys, sometimes I want to write slash. Sometimes I put both in the same story! The two are not mutually exclusive.

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?

I have no reason to fear that my journal will be suspended; it's rare for anyone under the age of thirty to get laid in one of my stories and I've not yet got around to writing any Justin/Iris. (Or Vash/Knives, for that matter.) I'll probably be safe unless someone decides that porn involving tentacles, evil robots or plain old gay sex isn't 'family friendly' enough for livejournal. I don't think that's remotely likely at this stage.

This still concerns me deeply. Artists, of whatever sort, should never end up beholden to those who apparently can't tell the difference between fiction and reality.

How is it that HBO can put a full-on smooch between brother and sister on screen in Carnivale, and Arrested Development can joke about incest for three seasons solid, but someone who lists 'incest' in their lj interests as a result should have their journal suspended?

I've written a story where someone gets raped (Chimera) and story where a teenage girl has a sexual relationship with a man old enough to be her grandfather (Near Enough). Neither of these things is portrayed positively in the stories concerned. I'm not confidant that this would be sufficient defence for people who think communities and journals should be deleted based on user interests alone, with no regard for context.

I can't fault Livejournal for wishing to provide themselves with legal protection. I can fault them for not communicating better with fandom at large about this issue, and letting panic reign. I can definitely fault arseholes who go around reporting people writing about fictional characters as paedophiles.

My other concern is that I don't know what the hell 'underage characters' means in the context of a global internet, anyway. Underage in the US? Underage in Australia? Underage in Japan, where in parts of the country the legal age of consent is thirteen? Does it matter where the characters are in in the story? What if they're in Narnia or it's the 13th century? This is why context matters!

If your children are wandering around unsupervised on the internet, of course they might find things that disturb them. The solution here is not to make the entire internet safe for eight-year-olds. It is to properly monitor the internet use of those who are not old enough to protect themselves from things that they don't want to see/read. Adults, and even older teens, are more than capable of hitting the back button if they find something they don't like.

My journal will remain unlocked, and since I've been on lj for going on six years, I'm in no hurry to pack up and move. I do, however, find this disturbing trend.