(no subject)

[graculus]

Don't you just hate it when you're happily reading a slash story and it's interesting, with well-written supporting original characters and a clever premise and then suddenly the protagonists are exchanging rings and getting married/bonded? Or is it just me that objects to grown men (or at least mostly-grown) losing all their semblance of a backbone and turning into blushing wannabe brides?

[Poll #750600]

Comments

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

I'd call it very out of character rather than blushing bride behaviour - I'm particularly sensitive to negative comparisons to women at the moment for some reason. It's not that there is an exchange of rings that tends to bother me, but instead it's the way it's done. These things can be done in character and it can work very well (not a single example is springing to mind, of course). But I'm not fond of OOC behaviour of any kind, not just the romantic kind.

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I'd put all the writers up against the wall, but I do automatically hit the delete button. What fandom were you reading this in? Supernatural? *eg*

[nausica2.livejournal.com]

I'm new to reading slash and only do it in one fandom, but when I stumble upon fics where they get married/bonded and then have children or adopt them it makes me want to shake some sense into them.

I also hate the hypocrisy, because you have slashers mocking shippers' babies!fic when they are doing exactly the same thing!

[xochiquetzl]

While in theory I like the idea of fics showing committed relationships (which is probably why I like Established Relationship fics so much), in practice many are poorly done. Especially those with strongly heterosexualized tropes. Gay men do hold commitment ceremonies. They generally do not fight to the death over who gets to wear the dress and veil unless they are being tongue-in-cheek. ;)

The ones that bother me most are the ones that are very heterosexist--the ones that imply that only by imitating a male/female couple can a gay couple achieve happiness and fulfillment. Insert character A weeping because he can't give birth to character B's child here. :P

The thing about being queer to me (pulls out bi cred) is that there's a sense of having to make it all up as you go along. Character A may kind of want that white picket fence, but even if he gets it he's going to be aware that it's not intended for him. A wedding in the US or any other country that doesn't allow gay marriage is also going to have a kind of "Oh, yeah?" to it, rather than be an occasion for unalloyed conformist bliss. Even in countries that allow gay marriage, it's new enough that most of the participants will remember it not being allowed.

I know that many readers dislike including that kind of political reality in fic, but the truth is that most earth-based locations are not a queer utopia. Personally, I'm annoyed by stories that pretend that we DO live in some kind of queer utopia.

[seanchaidh.livejournal.com]

For me, it depends on how it's portrayed. I mean, it all depends on the guys in question, right? Even in RL, my uncles won't do that, but their best friends have been "married" for 20 years and I'm not sure if they're going to take advantage of the gay marriage law (while it's still here). And I know another couple who've been married for a year, and I have the sense their marriage was mushy like a bad slash fanfic. ;-)

[khek.livejournal.com]

I only see them when they're so horrible that one of my friends needs to share.

But I feel your pain. Really! :)

[manna]

Depends on the characters, really. In popslash, we have canon footage of Joey Fatone's deliciously OTT million-dollar wedding during which the groom cried while making his hand-written vows. So, yeah. Not such a huge stretch over here. :-)

[katyabaturinsky.livejournal.com]

That is my bulletproof squick, guaranteed to make me insta!delete the fic in question. Just -- no. (The best is when the characters in question are cops or members of the military, and yet somehow this is just fine and hunky-dory with all their colleagues and TPTB. Shyeah, that's gonna happen.)

Of course, I think weddings are a flaming waste of time and money for everyone -- you're no more committed to the relationship with the official piece of paper than you were without it, and honestly, you could put that money to much better use by investing it to help you pay for the inevitable divorce lawyer -- so really, I'm not the target audience for this type of fic. Obviously.

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

I voted "maybe so." *g* I don't object to weddings and I love a good wedding fic now and again--especially if it's my favorite slash couple because I do see them as two people who would want a long-term commitment of some kind or another. But...the blushing bride thing...no. *g* I hate it when any slash story turns one of the characters into a wimp just for the sake of having one feminine character.