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My last post and related discussions have got me thinking about the ways in which fic in general, and my fic in particular, pokes at social justice issues, as well as what it is about f/f romance that pings for me in a particular way other types of stories don't.
And I've realised that what I really like reading is stories that not only highlight the inequalities in society, and show people from marginalised groups being awesome, but show them working together to overcome those inequalities.
Note: the rest of this post is self indulgent introspection. But I am curious to know if anyone else seeks out stories like this. I know people see it as a trope that SHOULD be written for sensible socially conscious reasons, but for me it's also a very strong entirely selfish personal preference, akin to my love of schmoopy m/f romance.
In a f/f romance you have two women (and two queer women at that) who are not only the focus of the story but are focussed on each other, and have found an alternative to the shackles of heteronormativity. (This is NOT the only reason one would enjoy a f/f romance! It's not even the only reason I like them. But it's part of a bigger pattern for me) And this of course leads to my favourite genre, crossdressing femslashy women with swords fighting the Patriarchy.
And it shows up in pretty much all my fiction that isn't a plotless character piece or one-off joke. Looking at my fic we have:
It gets more complicated with my webcomic A Circle of Stars since I deliberately wrote it so that pretty much everyone is both oppressor and oppressed depending on which context they're in. Also it was the first long fiction I'd pretty much ever written and the first fiction of any type I'd done in years, there's a lot I'd do differently if I wrote it now which is why I'm finding it hard to finish. Still, there were definitely "group of people with shared oppression band together" moments even in my original plot outline/backstory.
I don't know, I guess "power relationships being questioned and switched about" is the metatrope? That's certainly something I really like in romances and why I am squicked by anything with a really intense one-way power imabalance.
Watching "The Princess and the Frog" I was utterly charmed by the combination of pretty dresses and Disney princesses with a working class black girl overcoming racism, sexism and classism to pursue her dreams. But I was a bit put off by the very American Protestant message about personal responsibility, hard work and faith that didn't explicitly acknowledge that hard work only gets you so far when you start with those sorts of disadvantages (on the plus side they did acknowledge it to some extent implicitly)
EDIT: And now that I think about, my favourite m/m slash story, and the one that convinced me that maybe there was something to this whole fanfic malarky after all is A Deeper Season which is about two queer men trying to change their world so they can be together openly.
I have to wonder how much of this is a result of my very left wing upbringing. Being taught to identify with the least powerful person in a story really takes the fun out of a lot of traditional narratives. It may have also something to do with the general Australian affection for the little Aussie battler.
See also Vampire Politics which pokes at True Blood really well.
And I've realised that what I really like reading is stories that not only highlight the inequalities in society, and show people from marginalised groups being awesome, but show them working together to overcome those inequalities.
Note: the rest of this post is self indulgent introspection. But I am curious to know if anyone else seeks out stories like this. I know people see it as a trope that SHOULD be written for sensible socially conscious reasons, but for me it's also a very strong entirely selfish personal preference, akin to my love of schmoopy m/f romance.
In a f/f romance you have two women (and two queer women at that) who are not only the focus of the story but are focussed on each other, and have found an alternative to the shackles of heteronormativity. (This is NOT the only reason one would enjoy a f/f romance! It's not even the only reason I like them. But it's part of a bigger pattern for me) And this of course leads to my favourite genre, crossdressing femslashy women with swords fighting the Patriarchy.
And it shows up in pretty much all my fiction that isn't a plotless character piece or one-off joke. Looking at my fic we have:
- Avatar rewritten to be about the Na'vi fighting their own battle against the humans. Most active characters are female, too.
- A bi blind girl and an inventor in a wheelchair work together with a disabled OFC to create Braille and ramps
- Regency femslash in which the female characters are under huge pressure to marry (though interestingly I only have one disabled character whose allies are all able-bodied. Then again I started this when I'd only just started thinking of myself as disabled)
- Non-aristocrat is declared Queen of sexist monarchy, works with working class women to create democracy
- Stargate rejigged to have the Egyptian slaves through off the Gu'ald oppression by themselves (and oh look, the leader is a woman :))
It gets more complicated with my webcomic A Circle of Stars since I deliberately wrote it so that pretty much everyone is both oppressor and oppressed depending on which context they're in. Also it was the first long fiction I'd pretty much ever written and the first fiction of any type I'd done in years, there's a lot I'd do differently if I wrote it now which is why I'm finding it hard to finish. Still, there were definitely "group of people with shared oppression band together" moments even in my original plot outline/backstory.
I don't know, I guess "power relationships being questioned and switched about" is the metatrope? That's certainly something I really like in romances and why I am squicked by anything with a really intense one-way power imabalance.
Watching "The Princess and the Frog" I was utterly charmed by the combination of pretty dresses and Disney princesses with a working class black girl overcoming racism, sexism and classism to pursue her dreams. But I was a bit put off by the very American Protestant message about personal responsibility, hard work and faith that didn't explicitly acknowledge that hard work only gets you so far when you start with those sorts of disadvantages (on the plus side they did acknowledge it to some extent implicitly)
EDIT: And now that I think about, my favourite m/m slash story, and the one that convinced me that maybe there was something to this whole fanfic malarky after all is A Deeper Season which is about two queer men trying to change their world so they can be together openly.
I have to wonder how much of this is a result of my very left wing upbringing. Being taught to identify with the least powerful person in a story really takes the fun out of a lot of traditional narratives. It may have also something to do with the general Australian affection for the little Aussie battler.
See also Vampire Politics which pokes at True Blood really well.
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