Nora Charles

kamikazeremix is open for sign-ups! I look forward to reading the results :-D

Anyway, zvi has an awesome idea: What if there was a remix built on the same premise as kamikazeremix, that is, you get to submit one story you've chosen yourself to be remixed, and you're given a specific assignment, but it were multi-fandom!? How awesome would that be.

Go here to express your support and to discuss the idea.

Dear slash fans who consider yourselves allies:

Queer people are distinguished from straight and cis people by our sexuality and/or gender vs. sex. Queer people are not defined by our sexuality and/or gender vs. sex.

As a shipper, I would not enjoy having a pairing I ship, be it het or slash, made canon, because I feel it takes the fun out of looking for subtext, and makes writing canon-compliant fic more difficult, since fic is written in the holes canon doesn't cover. That doesn't mean I don't very much enjoy canon pairings as well, both heterosexual and gay. I was happy when Willow/Tara and Veronica/Logan became canon, and was very entertained by their love stories as a viewer. I don't begrudge you your Jack/Ianto ship, just because I personally am not interested in reading or writing fic about canon pairings.

As a queer, I am hurt and upset that fellow fans who call themselves allies do not understand that it's not about our sex lives or genitals, and representation of us does not equal storylines about love or sex! I am not saying I prefer de-sexed characters like Will from "Will & Grace", I'm saying I prefer queer characters to be written like actual people with actual people motivations and interests, just like straight and cis characters ideally are!

I am cis gendered myself, and don't tend to look very hard for representation of gender queers. My interest in differently gendered or sexed characters is mostly from the exploitative, porn reading side of the fence, so I don't have any recs for you of shows doing it right.

But I can recommend a show which does butch woman right: Glee. I am butch myself (I am exactly as masculine as the completely average man according to the BBC sex id), and I love how Sue is written and acted. I don't know if she's a cis woman who's had a hysterectomy, a mtf trans woman or if she's intersexed, but I do know that she is an awesome, butch woman who is not vilified or mocked for being butch, and whose butchness is not a plot device.

A movie which does gay/bi man right is Blades of Glory. Coach's sexual orientation is completely irrelevant to the plot, and not exploited in any way. He's just an awesome skating coach. And a minor character >_<

I'm trying to think of a TV show I have a fannish interest in which does gay/bi man or woman right, and I can't think of any which didn't either sexually exploit, mock/vilify or problematize homo/bisexuality (we all get VD, we're all exposed to constant gay bashing, we're all sluts who'll die alone because we don't understand true love/partnership, we'll die young, we struggle with shame and self-loathing, etc.) in a crypto-homophobic way. I'm left looking for coded gay/bi characters, who pass for straight in the eyes of the straight viewers. I'm glad the coded gay/bi characters are there (and I'm fucking tired of straight people telling me they aren't), but I'd really, really like for my people to be openly represented on the fiction shows I watch.

In the future, please continue trying to be our allies. I like having you on our side. Try to separate your interest in slash from your demand for equal civil rights and an end to queerphobia. Don't ever, ever say that you don't want a character to be canonically gay/bi/trans if they aren't sexually appealing to you. Don't pretend like gay/bi women don't exist if you're a straight female fan of M/M slash, or like gay/bi men don't exist if you're a straight male fan of F/F slash. Consider carefully if you're writing/reccing a fic with a bi character, or a fic with a straight character whose true and pure love transcends gender in one very special case, but certainly isn't one of those sinful, dirty, icky homosexuals (we're-not-gay-we-just-love-each-other fic). Don't pretend like gender queer people don't exist, or are evil/wrong if they're not gay/bi, or aren't "real" women or men.

In conclusion: real queer people are not like your fictional fap fantasies. Please stop trying to squeeze us into that mold, or punishing us for not fitting in that mold. Please stop thinking that you are in any way helping queers when you campaign for more fan-service. Stop pretending that slash fic is the same as queer fic; some slash fic is also queer fic (all of my fic is), but most isn't. Scolding a slash fic for having male characters who don't act like real life gay/bi men is a misunderstanding. You wouldn't ask for more realistic racial stereotypes, would you? A better response would be to point out when a fic is only a slashy fantasy for straight people, when it is a queer interest fic, and when it's both: a queer slash fic.

I haven't had the time/energy to read any of the fic posted in queerlygen yet, but I recommend the comm to any slash fans reading this who're confused by my saying that slash isn't about queers, and queer representation isn't about sex and genitals.

I just saw the new Star Trek movie with ximeria. It's great! I feel that this is my Trek, much more so than TNG or any of the other movies ever was. The only fly in the ointment was that there was only one female main character, but what a character she was!

I remarked to Ximeria after we had seen the movie that Uhura seemed like L. A. Graf's Uhura: smart, competent, and with an actual, sensible job description beyond switch board operator.

Then I read this article about a possible sequel, where the script writers explicitly state that they read Trek novels and fanfic for inspiration.

I miss the old Trek novels, back when they were written by fans, and were often gen-ified slash or shipper fic. There was such love, such loyalty to characterization, and such inspirational and fun dedication to Trek as science fiction, as speculative fiction. The copyright owners killed the novel franchise when they started insisting on canon-repercussion free plots and following the party line.

The new Star Trek movie brought back the good old days, and made me want to read and write some fic. I used to be a McCoy/Spock slasher, and I still am, I guess, for time line #1 obviously, but also a tiny bit for tl#2, since they kept the snarky/flirty tone between Spock and McCoy, and McCoy was so quick to stand shoulder to shoulder with Spock when it served the purpose of needling Kirk.

I've never been much of a K/S'er, and this movie hasn't turned me into one. I didn't think new Kirk and Spock had any sexual chemistry at all, but I caught a real spark between new Kirk and old Spock after the mind meld. Not necessarily a sexual spark, but a strong emotional spark - it seemed like Kirk could barely hold himself back from reestablishing physical/mind contact when Spock broke it, and Kirk could still feel his devastation. It was very fine acting from Chris Pine, I think.

Mostly I just really love the Spock/Uhura relationship, and I don't want any slash pairings to mess that up. Kirk can keep hooking up with sexually voracious Orions. (BTW, love the Orion woman being in Star Fleet! Maybe that Orion slave girl was not an actual slave, but a liberated woman who knows what she likes, having a fulfilling BDSM lifestyle? That's a retcon I can get behind.)

Oh, and Chekov! So cute. Sulu, not as handsome as George Takei, but seriously hot with his intelligent face and bad-ass fencing moves.

When I was in Smallville fandom, back in 2001-2002 I used to hang out with some fellow fangirls in an AIM chatroom. We were all slashers, and all pretty open minded about slash pairings, including incestuous slash (Lex/Lionel). However we disagreed very strongly about the character Lana, to the point where we had to stop even trying to discuss her. The general consensus was that Chloe was everything that is awesome (and if anyone disagreed, they didn't dare say so), but Lana was continuously bashed.

( I think there were several reasons for this )

I wanted to look beyond the poor writing and uninspiring acting, suspend my disbelief and just go with who Lana supposedly was, taking it as a challenge to flesh her out, since she was a key figure in Clark's life, and I needed to make her worthy of his love in order to respect Clark, rather than out of any feminist desire to have a realistic girl on TV, but I gave up when my attempts were met with indifference or even rabid fury by other fans. I left Smallville fandom shortly after, and since then I haven't bothered rolling that particular boulder up the hill.

A lot of the women others have mentioned in their celebration of female characters are more or less of the same type as Lana. Their onscreen lives revolve around male characters, they're there to comment on male characters; to be sexual opportunities or challenges for male characters; to show that male characters are so wonderful that they can hang out with women, often two-fers; to be damsels in distress; to be mother-figures; to be the loving child figures without the tension of the expected power-struggle between sons and fathers (because girls never grow into women, at least not until they reach menopause or if they're ugly); they're there to unsettle male characters, lead them into temptation and attack them with their foul sexuality, etc. etc.

Often someone will say to me, isn't so-and-so a kick-ass heroine? I'll probably politely and not very convincingly agree, all the while going "meh" on the inside and feeling disgruntled. I don't want to have to do the leg work on fleshing out those characters! I'm done with that, and I'm done with being satisfied with substandard writing like that. I will not be silenced by a sop like an idealized, beautiful, smart, courageous, bantering kick-ass lust-object for fanboys like the hateful Lady Christina de Souza in Doctor Who. "But, but... she kicks ass?!" All the more to be a good trophy for the Doctor when she begs to accompany him, my friend.

The female characters I'm going to celebrate use their powers of awesomeness for their own good, rather than for the good of a male characters. They are the heroes of their own lives, not the supporting characters in some dude's life. I don't care how smoking hot Zoë Washburne is (very in case you're wondering), she is not the kind of character I want more of. I say that as a bitterly disappointed fangirl who was thrilled about Zoë after watching one episode of Firefly, only to realize the evil bait and switch Joss was playing on female Buffy fans.

Mehitabel Parr
One of three main characters in Sarah Monette's books Melusine, The Virtu and The Mirador. I came for the delicious slashiness, I stayed for the humor, suspense, and vivid characters and settings. The books are narrated from each of the main characters' POV, with very strong and individual voices. They overlap often, leading to interestingly contrasting views of the same events, but each character has their own life and subplot. Mehitabel grew up in a traveling circus, but ran away from home to become a classical actress in a respectable theater. She's good at her job, interested in other people, and in many ways just an ordinary single woman struggling to make ends meet in a stressful world and maybe find some happiness along the way. Because she's one of the main characters in a fantasy novel, of course she has to deal with a lot of challenges along the way, and she proves to be vulnerable, but with an unbendable spirit; unfair and kind of distant to her friends sometimes, but loyal and good when it comes down to it; funny, but kind of mean... she's totally awesome. She has believable flaws, and is no superhero, and when she triumphs or gets in a good zinger, it's impossible not to cheer for her.

Cordelia Naismith
The main character in Lois McMaster Bujold's books Shards of Honor and Barrayar, and an important supporting character in the rest of the Vorkosigan saga. Shards of Honor reads like slash. Cordelia is the captain of a survey ship who crashes on a planet where the only other person is a fearsome warrior from a paternalistic, very traditional culture that has recently been at war with Cordelia's people. In Cordelia's culture, sex and gender are a matter of personal preference, and many different sexual and gender orientations are recognized and celebrated. She happens to be female and a woman, but mainly identifies as a scientist and the leader of her crew in this context, but she is aware that gender roles are rigidly defined by society, not individual preference in Aral Vorkosigan's culture. Now the bookish geek must win the respect of and form an alliance with the aggressive and very physical warrior in order for both of them to survive. It's the perfect union of action adventure and a respect -> like -> love story free of icky gender roles.

To be continued

I keep going back to the TWoP boards for all the witty and interesting entries, and keep leaving in disgust because of all the annoying, offensive and just plain dumb entries, which sadly in the topics that interest me most tend to outweigh the intelligent ones.

Then Estepheia, the wonderful, talented author of "Things Present - Things Past" and other great stories recommended the "no cookie for you: bad Buffy fic!" thread, and if there's one thing I like, it's snarky badfic bashing ^_^

The posters don't always have smart, insightful things to say, but boy are they funny. And even if they weren't, the snippets they quote from the horrible stories they find can make you laugh 'til you cry. I love this thread! I can't get enough of it, and I heartily recommend it to all of you.

That doesn't mean I'm not annoyed by it of course. There is no such thing as a public posting board that does not occasionally irk Nora Charles. The idiots will always find a way in I tell you, always! A text area with a submit button is to idiots what leftovers are to roaches. That's just the way it is.

Most people who post to the "no cookie for you" thread make fun of bad (or completely absent) plot, characterization and grammar, and amusing/confusing malapropisms.

Some just like to showcase their own ignorance, when they accuse authors of using a word incorrectly when it was just a less common usage, or a Briticism, or of writing dialogue out-of-character when the author is in fact quoting an episode word for word, but I can forgive that. Honest mistakes, and while they should check their facts before complaining, sometimes you can be wrong about something and still be so sure you're right it never occurs to you to look it up. That happens to everyone.

No, what really annoys me is when they seem unable to distinguish between "this was such a badly written fic it was all but incoherent, and therefore I dislike it" and "I dislike this fic because the author has kinks that squick me, and therefore it was a bad fic".

Mpreg, genderbender, incest, non-con, death, underage sex, Mary Sues, real persons, there are a lot of some people's kinks or preferences that are not merely uninteresting but actually disgusting and squicksome to other people. Fair enough. I don't like everything, and I don't expect other people to like everything. And if they dislike something which I like, I don't expect them to be quiet about it either, I think they have the right to bitch and moan just as much about it as I do about my dislikes. In fact a good snark amuses me even when I disagree with it.
But I do get tired of having my kinks slammed again and again, by people who never bother to explain why something is so very, very bad, evil and gross that it automatically converts any fic that features it into badfic no matter how tastefully, sensitively and artistically written.

Take mpreg. I enjoy stories about mpreg. I freely admit that most mpreg stories suck ass. I've wondered why that is, and my theory is that it is a relatively rare kink, fewer people write it, and thus fewer talented authors write it. Furthermore, people who crave mpreg in a story enough to want to write about that specifically get so focused on that particular aspect they don't pay enough attention to plot and character development. This is true of all marginal kinks, and once they become more mainstream the quality of the stories improve dramatically. Take RPS, F/F and BDSM.

I understand why most people wouldn't be interested in mpreg. I understand why people might even find it repulsive. But when these people complain about it, they don't say "mpreg grosses me out, so I don't want to read about it". They say "mpreg is unrealistic, and therefore badfic".
Vampires aren't unrealistic? Sentinels aren't unrealistic? Witches and wizards who practice real magic and fly broomsticks aren't unrealistic? I think an author has to make an effort to make the mpreg fit the mythos of the universe she's writing in, but she has absolutely no obligation to make the mechanics of it realistic in relation to RL. Obviously mpreg just won't work in all universes, and if you really, really want Dan and Casey to have a baby together, well, too bad for you. But if Minerva McGonagal can turn herself into a cat, I see no reason why Severus Snape can't turn himself into a woman.

The anti-mpreggers say "mpreg always has bad characterization, and employs every offensive stereotype about pregnant women ever". What, most people who have written mpreg so far have done so badly, so all writers of mpreg past, present and future are bad writers?
You can show a statistical correlation, but you can't prove a negative. You can't prove that noone will ever write a good mpreg fic. It is not logical. You can say that noone can write an mpreg fic that you would like to read, since the very thought of it makes you nauseous.

Only a certain percentage of writers write well, and only a certain number of people are into mpreg. And the portion of mpreggers who are also good writers is depressingly small. Furthermore, the few good writers who enjoy mpreg, being good writers, don't often write fics for the sole purpose of indulging a kink. There has to be more to a story in a good writer's mind. Sure, they may say "oh, this is nothing but a PWP, it's meaningless fluff really, I just wrote it on a whim" but it is not true.
When you read their fic it turns out to have engaging, realistic and subtle characterization, beautiful language, wit, erotic and sensual sex, etc.
And if it doesn't, they are not good writers. Or they are at least inconsistently good.

(Disclaimer: In the above rant, please keep in mind that I am speaking specifically about people whose poor discussion skills get on my nerves, not on anyone and everyone who disagrees with me, or who happens to identify with any of the labels I put on the people I am complaining about, even if my choice of words makes it sound like I am making sweeping statements about all anti-mpreggers. Most of my fannish friends, whose good taste and high intelligence I have the utmost respect for, are anti-mpreggers, and they have never exhibited the behavior or prejudices I complain so much about here.
I hope that was clear from the context, but I would hate to hurt anyone's feelings.)

Mpreg recommendation:
Nine months by Scorpio
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike/Xander. Humor.
Very amusing fic, good characterization. Rather silly, and lots of stereotypes about pregnancy and hormones, of the "men are weaker than women, and so much more prone to hysterical and/or wimpy behavior" school of thought.

Sadly I can't think of any other mpreg stories that are actually good. I know there have been more that I have enjoyed, but mostly in the "I know this is awful, but it's still fun" way. I have a vague memory of reading an okay Sentinel mpreg fic, but I no longer remember the plot, and there was a Harry Potter fic that wasn't too shabby. None of those were good enough that they'd be worth the trouble of looking up the link.

If you know of any enjoyable mpreg fics, please let me know. They don't have to be good, they just have to be entertaining ^_~