So, I’d like to write something about women’s production and consumption of pornography. More specifically; incestuous, man on man-porn-fiction… In some ways a counterpart to the male interest in lesbians, in some ways not. The reason I decided to squeeze this into the “bad category” is… well, I wrote a dissertation about something like this a while back and the reaction I got from several people when I told them about it, was an open-mouthed, fish eyed gasp. Apparently, some consider this to be “bad-girl behavior” while others see it as an empowering expression of female sexuality (not in a generalized sense though, it is obviously not for everyone).
To the point: fanfiction consists of stories written by fans, published under no copyright whatsoever, usually online, about already existing characters, for example from movies, TV shows or books. Slashfiction is a subcategory in which two male characters are paired together for romance and/or sex. Kirk and Spock from Star Trek were one of the first lucky pairs. According to studies on the subject (such as Henry Jenkins Textual Poachers, for example, although the chapter about slash is a bit outdated, in my opinion) more than 90% of all fanfic writers are female – and the percentage is probably even higher when it’s slash. It’s NOT always pornographic, but I’m not using the term loosely here… there are some very graphic stories out there (not gonna link you there, sorry).
Because this is for the “bad” class… I’m going to add some Incest; the taboo of all taboos, according to the first weeks lecture. Writing about family members, brothers usually, is less common - and even amongst slash-writers it’s controversial and not always accepted - but it is not unheard of. Think of TV shows like Heroes (Nathan and Peter Petrelli), Prison Break (Michael and Lincoln) or perhaps the biggest hit – Supernatural (the Winchesters, Sam and Dean). It’s not used as something destructive. It’s a way to describe and actually enhance the epic love story or the ultimate kink… and sometimes it’s just because the guys looked hot together. This is fiction based on fiction, but however insignificant and small; this is a context in which the subject of incest has been more or less normalized.
Wrong? Disgusting? Appealing?
What do you think?
Camille Bacon-Smith - Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth
Hmmm, interesting subject... especially for your disertation (which I'd also be interested to read). For me personally incest is a whole world of 'wrongness'. The cases where the children have grown up not knowing they are brother and sister, for example, is different though especially if they're only half brother/sister. In these cases it seems tragic but understandable. I watched the Hollyoaks storyline which addressed this issue and I was actually hoping that the half brother and sister would be able to live happily ever after but (sadly?) it wasn't to be...
ReplyDeleteHowever, same sex sibling porn takes it to another level altogether. I've heard about 'twin porn' and I don't understand it; how can they do it? It seems such an obvious perversion of nature that I wonder how they can bring themselves to do it. But on the other hand it's natural for mice and rabbits to breed with each other so is it such a perversion? I've heard the Greeks - or was it Romans - were in to it? Or was it the Egyptians? Or all of them? Okay, I need to do further research but I'm digressing.
Anyway, I'm not so opinionated that I think these people should burn for their deviation; really I believe that so long as people aren't hurting anyone else then they should live the lives they see fit. Except in the case of mother-child incest because there surely can be no reasoning for that?
The following is a quote taken from Jeanette Winterson's collection of short stories 'The World and Other Places' and is called 'The Poetics of Sex'. Although it's actually about a lesbian relationship I think the reference to incest is a metaphor for the roles two women play in a romantic realtionship together:
"She mated with this creature she had borne and began to feel that maybe the Greek gods knew a thing or two. Flesh of her flesh she f**ked her."
On that note I shall finish and leave the topic open to further discussion...