[LMB] OT: privileging philos and eros

[Azalais Aranxta]

It just occurred to me that part of the reason I was so very,
very offended by the posts about slash was the commenting to the
effect that prior to the 1960s (note: slash really began in the
1970s, with Kirk/Spock), nobody felt the need to eroticise
friendship.  (Or enemyship.  Or brotherhood.  Or anything else
that slashers eroticise.)

I don't actually think that's true.  I think that what was
actually happening was that prior to the 1970s, straight
monogamous sexuality was so privileged that no other sexuality
could be depicted (at least not with a happy ending--books about
The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name were allowed, so long as it
ended badly).  So there were lots of male-female romances, and
lots of same-sex buddy films.  Because that was all that was
ALLOWED.  Not because nobody felt differently.

Incidentally, I was one of the people who was very angry when
Mulder and Scully became a couple on the X-Files.  I happen to
believe very strongly in nonsexual friendship--and in
professional working relationships--but I happen to think they're
possible across genders, too.  I was similarly annoyed with the
way it became apparent that inevitably, Hermione Granger would
end up with either Harry Potter or Ron Weasley (and the way she
ended up with Ron Weasley was so offensive it's part of what
killed my interest in the series.)

The posters who expressed a wish to see things go back to the way
they were in the 1950s and 1960s really did offend me, because
you know, in the 1950s and 1960s, not only would Scully have
inevitably ended up dating Mulder, she would have also been his
secretary or something.

It kills me that people are "offended" by the simple existence of
slash, because slash is easy to avoid.  If you don't like
straight pornography (I personally don't mind it) you can't even
go to 7-11 without running into it.  So if you're offended by
slash, to the point where you have to post about it just because
somebody mentioned slash in passing, you're essentially saying
that you can't even stand to be reminded that this other world
*exists*--it's not like you're having it rubbed under your nose.

There's a lot of this in the world today, people complaining just
because they have to acknowledge that other people exist--that
other views of the world are out there and not hiding locked up
in a closet somewhere.  People in my office used to complain
because I celebrate Hanukkah, not Christmas, and I won't allow
them to hang Christmas decorations *on my desk*.  I don't mind
looking at them, I just don't wish to be put into the position of
looking as though I put them up.  Similarly, I am perfectly fine
with the fact that some people prefer opposite-sex romance and
same-sex buddy fiction, up to the point where they complain that
*I'm* writing, reading or watching something else.

I'm really glad that same-sex romance stories exist outside of
the slashers' ghetto nowadays.  I also cherish the few depictions
of male-female friendship and working relations that there are
out there.  I agree platonic friendship has its place.

But what I will not and cannot agree on is that romance should
always be a plot that occurs between unattached people of the
opposite sex and that everyone else has to be platonic friends,
but that unattached people of the opposite sex can NEVER be
platonic friends, even if they are working together
professionally.

THAT was a notion that needed to die, and I'm glad if I've helped
do it in.

Okay, that's all, I've said my piece.

~malfoy.

****************************************************************
Azalais Aranxta (~malfoy)
ataniell93 on LiveJournal and Vox
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/malfoymadness

"I know the true world, and you know I do. But we needn't let it
think we all bow down." --Christopher Morley