So far, I guess due to size, POI just seems to have a main community or two where all fans are welcome
Yeah... not a bad thing per se, but still, it is more relaxing for slashers to have their own corner. Most het fans are perfectly reasonable, but there are always those crazies who feel like implying a characters might be interested in someone of the same gender is somehow besmirching and ruining the character OMG!! *headdesk* Reading that kind of thing all the time can totally stress you out...
Also, weird how the canon-thumpers never thump canon when it strangely doesn't explicitly include their het ship of choice, either.
I think for me it harks back to the the early reason for slash, where having two men meant you didn't need the role playing associated with het romance stories
You too? Yes! Sadly enough, in some ways m/m relationships are the only ones that allow you to get away from the inherent hierarchical structures built into m/f relationships by the world we live in. In fandoms where the usual m/f power imbalance is reversed and there is a truly strong and interesting female character, I do sometimes ship het - like Buffy and Spike, or Cameron and John Connor in The Sarah Connor Chronicles. But usually, it's only m/m that starts out the characters on even ground, without the automatic assumptions that still go along with the social roles of men and women in modern society.
I have a theory that this is part of the attractiveness of slash for many fans. It's just so relaxing to be able to focus on two people without all the baggage of gender stereotypes and expected roles and social hierarchies - just two people, with their relationship determined solely by who they are, not their gender.
I'd like to see them more as equal partners
Generally speaking, I do too. But even when they're not equals, in slash it's not because of gender.
In POI, I do think there are some dependancies that land heavily in the court of one character. But I like it a lot because the dynamic between the characters fascinates me, and in the case of these two, it really works for me. If one of them were a woman - then, the entire situation would shift, and I think I could not put up with the dependancy issues I see in the show; it would be too much of an echo of expected, clishéd gender roles that always put my hackles up.
Are you saying you think that Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson aren't as hot as say... IDK, the men on Teen Wolf or H50? Or that they are "older"
My own judgement on attractiveness can be a bit off the beaten track. ;-) I wasn't talking about my personal opinion, but rather what I think of as "conventional attractiveness". Reese is cast to be conventionally attractive, IMO, even though he might be a bit older than the usual action-type protagonist; Finch, OTOH, is not. If Finch were played by, say, George Clooney or Hugh Jackman or someone of the kind, I think the situation might be very different. (And also, the character would not work at all. *g* But I hope you know what I mean despite my bad examples! I merely think that Finch is not cast to be conventionally attractive.)
Fans can be depressingly predictable in some ways. Take Harry Potter fandom... as soon as I saw they actor they'd cast for young Voldemort was gorgeous, I just knew apologists were going to come stampeding out of the woodworks. And lo and behold, so it was. I will bet you anything that had he been ugly, not many fans would have felt such sudden sympathy and the urge to excuse his actions and slash him with all and sundry.
Of course there are also cases where a canon has a huge slash following despite not having two conventionally attractive leads. It's just one factor, but it can definitely make a huge difference, I think.
meme_of_interest is wonderful! I am loving it to bits. And it seems the POI slash fans are gaining momentum apace! We have hope yet. :-)
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Date: 2013-04-21 12:53 am (UTC)Yeah... not a bad thing per se, but still, it is more relaxing for slashers to have their own corner. Most het fans are perfectly reasonable, but there are always those crazies who feel like implying a characters might be interested in someone of the same gender is somehow besmirching and ruining the character OMG!! *headdesk* Reading that kind of thing all the time can totally stress you out...
Also, weird how the canon-thumpers never thump canon when it strangely doesn't explicitly include their het ship of choice, either.
I think for me it harks back to the the early reason for slash, where having two men meant you didn't need the role playing associated with het romance stories
You too? Yes! Sadly enough, in some ways m/m relationships are the only ones that allow you to get away from the inherent hierarchical structures built into m/f relationships by the world we live in. In fandoms where the usual m/f power imbalance is reversed and there is a truly strong and interesting female character, I do sometimes ship het - like Buffy and Spike, or Cameron and John Connor in The Sarah Connor Chronicles. But usually, it's only m/m that starts out the characters on even ground, without the automatic assumptions that still go along with the social roles of men and women in modern society.
I have a theory that this is part of the attractiveness of slash for many fans. It's just so relaxing to be able to focus on two people without all the baggage of gender stereotypes and expected roles and social hierarchies - just two people, with their relationship determined solely by who they are, not their gender.
I'd like to see them more as equal partners
Generally speaking, I do too. But even when they're not equals, in slash it's not because of gender.
In POI, I do think there are some dependancies that land heavily in the court of one character. But I like it a lot because the dynamic between the characters fascinates me, and in the case of these two, it really works for me. If one of them were a woman - then, the entire situation would shift, and I think I could not put up with the dependancy issues I see in the show; it would be too much of an echo of expected, clishéd gender roles that always put my hackles up.
Are you saying you think that Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson aren't as hot as say... IDK, the men on Teen Wolf or H50? Or that they are "older"
My own judgement on attractiveness can be a bit off the beaten track. ;-) I wasn't talking about my personal opinion, but rather what I think of as "conventional attractiveness". Reese is cast to be conventionally attractive, IMO, even though he might be a bit older than the usual action-type protagonist; Finch, OTOH, is not. If Finch were played by, say, George Clooney or Hugh Jackman or someone of the kind, I think the situation might be very different. (And also, the character would not work at all. *g* But I hope you know what I mean despite my bad examples! I merely think that Finch is not cast to be conventionally attractive.)
Fans can be depressingly predictable in some ways. Take Harry Potter fandom... as soon as I saw they actor they'd cast for young Voldemort was gorgeous, I just knew apologists were going to come stampeding out of the woodworks. And lo and behold, so it was. I will bet you anything that had he been ugly, not many fans would have felt such sudden sympathy and the urge to excuse his actions and slash him with all and sundry.
Of course there are also cases where a canon has a huge slash following despite not having two conventionally attractive leads. It's just one factor, but it can definitely make a huge difference, I think.
meme_of_interest is wonderful! I am loving it to bits. And it seems the POI slash fans are gaining momentum apace! We have hope yet. :-)