Re: The wildest takes

(Anonymous) 2018-08-13 12:07 am (UTC)(link)
Lol here it is:

"By starting with a relationship, m/m slash, that’s so far outside the boundaries of normalcy, you give yourself permission to stray further off the range towards a broader range of gender and sexual expression than you would if you were writing, for example, two women—because two women together is a dynamic that has long been prescribed to us by the patriarchy. It’s already been appropriated by men; it’s harder to write dangerously, because our ingrained cultural images of women together were images given to us by men, not by lesbians and bisexual women self-defining their own relationships.

By contrast, no one has ever prescribed to us how to write two men together, because it just isn’t done. It’s off the map; here there be (sexy) monsters.

That’s not erasure—it’s kind of the opposite: a totally blank page where we can write ourselves with an unprecedented absence of cultural interference."

Re: The wildest takes

(Anonymous) 2018-08-13 12:55 am (UTC)(link)
...Wow. I have heard this viewpoint parroted to the letter on multiple occasions and I did not realize it had a Source.

"so far outside the boundaries of normalcy" jesus christ.

Re: The wildest takes

(Anonymous) 2018-08-13 05:32 am (UTC)(link)
That’s not erasure—it’s kind of the opposite: a totally blank page where we can write ourselves with an unprecedented absence of cultural interference."

You know, I'm generally opposed to the "slash is women fetishizing gay men" idea, but treating gay men as a BLANK SLATE is also some kind of not good. Yuck.

Re: The wildest takes

(Anonymous) 2018-08-13 06:13 am (UTC)(link)
I don’t get how whenever Aja opens her mouth about writing, she talks about lofty ideas and like, bullshit psychological issues? She’s always been weak with characterisation, her strength lies in setting and narration, and she should just stick to that instead of creating characters nobody can like because they’re boring

Re: The wildest takes

(Anonymous) 2018-08-13 09:05 am (UTC)(link)
I just full-body shuddered.

And:
By contrast, no one has ever prescribed to us how to write two men together, because it just isn’t done. It’s off the map; here there be (sexy) monsters.
...Okay. Yeah. This is really really weird. Queer lit is a subfield within itself, and yeah, M/M and F/F are less common than M/F, but if she thinks that men have never ever written stories about men fucking other men and only women find M/M sexy, she's deluded. I mean, yeah, there are differences between female- and male-centric traditions of M/M fic, but...that's also true of M/F and F/F?

And nice job with the monsters imagery, Aja. That's not building on a long history of language associated with a certain type of homophobia at all.

Re: The wildest takes

(Anonymous) 2018-08-13 12:56 pm (UTC)(link)
two women together is a dynamic that has long been prescribed to us by the patriarchy. It’s already been appropriated by men; it’s harder to write dangerously, because our ingrained cultural images of women together were images given to us by men, not by lesbians and bisexual women self-defining their own relationships.

OH MY GOD LESBIAN LIT HAS BEEN AROUND SINCE SAPPHO SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP

Re: The wildest takes

(Anonymous) 2018-08-13 05:09 pm (UTC)(link)
That doesn't mean that it's been as prevalent as male-written literature about lesbians, or as accessible to everyone.

Re: The wildest takes

(Anonymous) 2018-08-14 12:49 am (UTC)(link)
Hardly unheard of, though. Not discussing the literary worth of any of these, but The Well of Loneliness, Orlando, The Children's Hour, The Price of Salt, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit... that's mainstream stuff.

Re: The wildest takes

(Anonymous) 2018-08-13 12:59 pm (UTC)(link)
It’s off the map; here there be (sexy) monsters.
That’s not erasure—it’s kind of the opposite: a totally blank page where we can write ourselves


That seriously goes beyond "painfully clueless" and into downright offensive WTF territory. WTF, Aja, WTF.

Re: The wildest takes

(Anonymous) 2018-08-14 03:46 am (UTC)(link)
I was flatmeming through the thread and I thought this was candyumbrella. Finding out it is Aja has just damaged my opinion of her past what I knew possible. Wow. D: