More Fandom Thoughts
14 May 2011 23:28![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
muccamukkWhich 1) are again brought on by Hawaii Five-0 fandom, and 2) which I realise no one reads. However, I enjoy writing such things, scroll past as you like.
Mostly this is me rambling about shows I don't slash and why. Partly brought on by the NHE Moments thing that's been going around, and partly by me trying to figure out why I'm attracted to so little fic for my shiny new show.
I don't ship Steve/Danny in Hawaii Five-0. It's not that I don't see that they're slashy, I totally do. The problem is that they're too slashy. For the same reason, I never especially shipped the leads in the two other two buddy cop shows I was in the fandom for, which were both, incidentally, way, way slashier than this. When I was in The Sentinel and Starsky & Hutch fandoms, I read almost exclusively gen, with a reasonable bit a het and very, very occasionally slash.
I think the reason for this is very similar to the ones behind this week's rise in Rachel hate, or Rachel resentment at least.
In episode 1.23, all our h/c dreams are realised, but for all that Steve gets to be Very Concerned, and get called Uncle Steve by Danny's daughter, and no one blinks an eye at him taking Grace in until Danny gets better, and then Danny says they've gotten very close and they hug (slightly awkwardly with a lot of back patting), it's Rachel that gets the relationship stuff. She gets to rush home from another island, and tell Danny she cares about him, and fall asleep curled up next to him, and kiss him on the cheek, and get about three hugs. She leaves Danny grinning and in love, and that's not sub text, that's text. She has the potential to get in canon something that everyone, save for the tinhat contingent, knows that Steve is never going to get: a romantic relationship with Danny.
So while I'm not behind the resentment directed at Rachel right now, I can see where it's coming from.
I feel a similar way about slash for shows where guys are totally living in each other's pockets (which I don't think Steve and Danny really do, but whatever). I see that and fandom all squeefull that they must be gay, omg, and read fic about how everyone knew they were gay because it was so obvious, omg, and I find myself resenting it.
Canon does not present Steve or Danny as gay or bi. All we see, all we'll ever see, is them in opposite-sex relationships. The same goes for the rest of the cast (I had been holding out some hope for Chin, but that was blown half way through the season). This is made very clear by the writers, and I'm pretty sure it's what they intend. I guess it's possible one or more of the could turn out to be bisexual, but I'm not holding my breath.
Maybe I'm just old and cranky, but I'm tired of having to subvert things, and I'm tired of smug squee about how characters are totally gay when, no, actually, they aren't.
All of which is to say that I'm not anti-slash, obviously. I read and write slash, though perhaps less than I used to. I just stick to less "obvious" fandoms because they make me less bitter, and stick to gen and het for my buddy cops.
Mostly this is me rambling about shows I don't slash and why. Partly brought on by the NHE Moments thing that's been going around, and partly by me trying to figure out why I'm attracted to so little fic for my shiny new show.
I don't ship Steve/Danny in Hawaii Five-0. It's not that I don't see that they're slashy, I totally do. The problem is that they're too slashy. For the same reason, I never especially shipped the leads in the two other two buddy cop shows I was in the fandom for, which were both, incidentally, way, way slashier than this. When I was in The Sentinel and Starsky & Hutch fandoms, I read almost exclusively gen, with a reasonable bit a het and very, very occasionally slash.
I think the reason for this is very similar to the ones behind this week's rise in Rachel hate, or Rachel resentment at least.
In episode 1.23, all our h/c dreams are realised, but for all that Steve gets to be Very Concerned, and get called Uncle Steve by Danny's daughter, and no one blinks an eye at him taking Grace in until Danny gets better, and then Danny says they've gotten very close and they hug (slightly awkwardly with a lot of back patting), it's Rachel that gets the relationship stuff. She gets to rush home from another island, and tell Danny she cares about him, and fall asleep curled up next to him, and kiss him on the cheek, and get about three hugs. She leaves Danny grinning and in love, and that's not sub text, that's text. She has the potential to get in canon something that everyone, save for the tinhat contingent, knows that Steve is never going to get: a romantic relationship with Danny.
So while I'm not behind the resentment directed at Rachel right now, I can see where it's coming from.
I feel a similar way about slash for shows where guys are totally living in each other's pockets (which I don't think Steve and Danny really do, but whatever). I see that and fandom all squeefull that they must be gay, omg, and read fic about how everyone knew they were gay because it was so obvious, omg, and I find myself resenting it.
Canon does not present Steve or Danny as gay or bi. All we see, all we'll ever see, is them in opposite-sex relationships. The same goes for the rest of the cast (I had been holding out some hope for Chin, but that was blown half way through the season). This is made very clear by the writers, and I'm pretty sure it's what they intend. I guess it's possible one or more of the could turn out to be bisexual, but I'm not holding my breath.
Maybe I'm just old and cranky, but I'm tired of having to subvert things, and I'm tired of smug squee about how characters are totally gay when, no, actually, they aren't.
All of which is to say that I'm not anti-slash, obviously. I read and write slash, though perhaps less than I used to. I just stick to less "obvious" fandoms because they make me less bitter, and stick to gen and het for my buddy cops.
