blamebrampton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
blamebrampton) wrote2008-08-08 11:14 pm
blamebrampton) wrote2008-08-08 11:14 pm
AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGH!
Two HP questions, one polite, one ranty.
To begin with the polite:
Do HP werewolves keep their clothes when they transform, as animagi do? I can't for the life of me recall and the bookshelves are all mid-shift, with PoA under a stack of YA fiction.
To move onto the ranty:
What the HELL are some writers thinking when they write sexual assault as a consequence-free piece of erotic interaction? I can't read this shit. Because I sit there wanting to slap the author.
Note that this is not the same as saying I can't read stories that contain sexual violence. I can, and have, both novels and fic, and some have been excellent. But there is a cost for sexual violence. Hell, even Margaret Mitchell has Rhett Butler consumed with guilt in Gone With the Wind after he drags Scarlett upstairs for a right good rogering while she punches him. There is always a cost.
Why do I rant thusly? Because I have been listening to Shiv and reading the odd spot of het. But, idiotically, not Shiv's own witty and urbane stories. Here's a tip, kids. Have one more Hermione being 'put in her place' with someone's penis and it's very likely you'll find me on your doorstep holding the shattered remains of your letterbox and using them to wedge the door open while I lecture you on why this is not now and never will be a valid authorial gambit.
I am trying to work out some way of addressing this with the writer that doesn't begin with: FEMINISM, it's not just a course at university! HUMAN RIGHTS, not just a T-shirt!
I'm going to stay safely here in the happy little slightly angsty but with authorial acknowledgement that there are prices to be paid gay part of fandom, thanks. Because I will probably be arrested otherwise.
ETA: I should clarify that I am not talking about BD/SM stories, which I am actually fine with. I can even kind of live with the rape fantasy stories where she wants to be dominated (while secretly whispering "It's okay to want to have sex! And it's also okay if you want to be tied up!" at the screen). I am talking about stories where characters are intentionally sexually degraded for no narrative purpose other some alleged titilation.
To begin with the polite:
Do HP werewolves keep their clothes when they transform, as animagi do? I can't for the life of me recall and the bookshelves are all mid-shift, with PoA under a stack of YA fiction.
To move onto the ranty:
What the HELL are some writers thinking when they write sexual assault as a consequence-free piece of erotic interaction? I can't read this shit. Because I sit there wanting to slap the author.
Note that this is not the same as saying I can't read stories that contain sexual violence. I can, and have, both novels and fic, and some have been excellent. But there is a cost for sexual violence. Hell, even Margaret Mitchell has Rhett Butler consumed with guilt in Gone With the Wind after he drags Scarlett upstairs for a right good rogering while she punches him. There is always a cost.
Why do I rant thusly? Because I have been listening to Shiv and reading the odd spot of het. But, idiotically, not Shiv's own witty and urbane stories. Here's a tip, kids. Have one more Hermione being 'put in her place' with someone's penis and it's very likely you'll find me on your doorstep holding the shattered remains of your letterbox and using them to wedge the door open while I lecture you on why this is not now and never will be a valid authorial gambit.
I am trying to work out some way of addressing this with the writer that doesn't begin with: FEMINISM, it's not just a course at university! HUMAN RIGHTS, not just a T-shirt!
I'm going to stay safely here in the happy little slightly angsty but with authorial acknowledgement that there are prices to be paid gay part of fandom, thanks. Because I will probably be arrested otherwise.
ETA: I should clarify that I am not talking about BD/SM stories, which I am actually fine with. I can even kind of live with the rape fantasy stories where she wants to be dominated (while secretly whispering "It's okay to want to have sex! And it's also okay if you want to be tied up!" at the screen). I am talking about stories where characters are intentionally sexually degraded for no narrative purpose other some alleged titilation.
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2. I think it is believable that an independent strong character (or real person) would have a fantasy life where she seeks to be put in her place or bossed around or even degraded. I don't know that I see Hermione that way, but I do see it as a possibility, depending on how she is written as an adult, that she would be drawn to a powerful man who dominated her IN BED. I think it is way OOC that she would be drawn to someone who dominated her in other ways, however.
And I think, more to your point, that this kind of domination-in-bed relationship has consequences and that a character as smart as Hermione wouldn't allow the relationship without addressing them.
Getting to some of the other commenters' points, (somewhat) complicit rape fantasies do have their place. And also, I agree with Raitala that perhaps an author has a fantasy where a smart, independent female character WANTS to be slapped around without consequences--as though the consequences would be dealt with privately and not interfere with the crazy sexin'. Not true to life, but that may be where it comes from in fic. I would be much more likely to belive this of Hermione if she has been abused in the past, or if she had a father figure who she could never please, etc. All the Snape/Hemione people WISH she had an authoritarian or absent father to make their stories more likely.
One person who does that pairing and other good het and slash pairings well is Arsenic. Here is one of her Snape/Hermiones. She finds a way to escape the "I love to be yelled at by my old, angry professor" cliche. (Not that I haven't found that particular cliche hot at times. It worked for me for a few stories and then I was done.)
http://tasteofpoison.inkubation.net/viewstory.php?sid=159
I personally prefer her gorgeous h/d Comfort Food, which I know I've seen on people's rec lists before. But her Hermione stuff and other pairings (even a very nice Snape/Draco/Harry, which I would have thought I'd never like) is quite good (if a little long at times).
Lastly--Didn't Calanthe have a reversal of power fic featuring Lucius and Hermione?
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To me, that dehumanising can never be erotic.
Power play in sex is a much more subtle and complex issue and has its costs and rewards, which writers like Cal address, and address well and intelligently.
I'm probably not explaining this very well, but I should probably edit this entry to make it a little clearer ...
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Couldn't they try? For the children?
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These are the ones that I adore
http://tasteofpoison.inkubation.net/viewseries.php?seriesid=1
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