Vera (2011)
I’ve recently watched (most of) two seasons of the UK cop series Vera (2011). It was a pleasant surprise. Most cop series deal with the same old type of case – young women murdered by men. In Vera, you usually have a female killer and as often as not, she kills other women (or children). Depressing as it sounds, it seems to make sense. Women have conflicts with each other, just like men do.
Also, I must say I’ve had more than enough of all those old men who are made out to be irresistible to women thirty or forty years younger. DCI Vera Stanhope, as an older woman is, at least to me, quite new.
Vera is a bit brusque and can seem rude. She’s not that great at social niceties and has spent most of her life alone, but despite her apparent absent-mindedness, she’s very sharp and hardly misses anything, even what is completely baffling to others. She also has her trusted sergeant Joe Ashworth, who seems to regard Vera almost like a mother, rather than a boss. He has a busy personal life, but always manages to find the time to back Vera up.
This, like many other favorite tv series lately, will never inspire any fan fiction. It’s just a very good series to relax with, that can help you forget your own life for a while.
Wtf? Insane fantasies
I recently read this article and it made me furious. It says one of the most common sex fantasies of women is being raped. Wtf?
I really don’t get this. If someone had asked me a couple of years ago, if I believed women had fantasies about being raped I would have said no. But clearly it’s true. That’s completely alien to me and the women I know best.
This is insane. Their misguided fantasies can make life more difficult for other women (or even ruin their lives forever). That’s something they should consider before they admit to having these fantasies.
In fact, it makes me wonder if I’m really a woman and if not, what I am.
Porn for feminists? -again.
I just read another article about ‘feminist’ porn. What all these people are missing is that after all these years, the female is still an object. As far as they’re concerned it’s like the past thirty years or more never happened. For them porn still equals naked women. I don’t mean lesbians. I think it’s perfectly cool that lesbians make lesbian porn for lesbians. What I’m referring to are the so called straight feminists who claim that their movies with naked women are good porn.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. For me, it means naked guys. That kind of gay porn means hot guys having fun together, not ugly old men having sex with and degrading women. The naked (young) male body is attractive. Females are just soft and saggy. How can that be sexy?
Well, to each their own, but I really think that if you want to call yourself a feminist, why not leave the female body alone? Hands off our bodies.
Women Who Love Gay Men
I just read an article about a Swedish book called (in translation) Women who love gay men, by a Swedish woman by the name of Linda Leopold. It was very interesting reading.
The article mentions all kinds of ‘fag hags’. From the ‘traditional’ fag hag who goes to gay clubs, dressed and made up like a drag queen, to young women who love gay porn and even, women who are married to gay men.
One reason women like gay porn seems to be that women are tired of being submissive objects, like in many other aspects of our culture. I believe in that explanation. Of course there can be others too. In any case, I don’t think women who like gay porn need to make up excuses for their preference. Men like lesbian porn. If that’s ok, the equivalent should be ok too.
Slash, including the Japanese yaoi, is also mentioned in the article.
All this seems to be a trend gaining in popularity. I can’t help but think that it’s a slight improvement on our generally negative society.
I recognize quite a bit of all this. Not dressing up and wearing makeup like a drag queen, but much of the rest of it.
Besides, personally, I’m not exclusively a fag hag. I also love, to the same extent, sweet, kind, submissive straight guys. You could say that quite simply I love most guys, except for the pushy, bossy dominant ones.
Women’s views on men (in literature and elsewhere)
Returning to yaoi – I recently read an interesting article about it – it turns out that Japanese women today – in the home of yaoi – would rather marry a homosexual man than a heterosexual one, if they marry at all or have a relationship. The men expect to be waited on hand and foot, like their fathers or grandfathers earlier.
They say that today’s Japanese men would like to marry the Japanese women of yesterday, and the women want to marry tomorrow’s men. I wish them luck with that, that’s all I can say. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s quite as easy as they think, being married to a gay man, if he even wants to get married, and if so, with a woman.
Apart from marriage and other longterm relationships, I think we’re getting to something new. Women want to consume young, beautiful, submissive males, in the form of actors, singers and characters in books, tv series and movies. At last we might have freed ourselves from the ancient custom of marrying as a sort of career. Today we want more out of life, than merely being supported financially. So far, we’re not dependent on male physical strength to protect us from other men, like we were for so many centuries in the past. Let’s hope that the situation in the world will stabilise so that we won’t need to again.
What is Slash Fan Fiction?
To put it simply, slash means a m/m pairing. Some people say it goes back to K/S which means Kirk/Spock, from Star Trek, The Original Series. Others say it goes all the way back to Sherlock Holmes and Watson. What do I know? It might even go back to Homer’s stories about Achilles and Patroclus. The stories can be about affectionate glances exchanged between young boys or hardcore porn between two consenting adult males. And also rape and other non-consensual sex and S/M.
Guys, before you throw up, there’s also femslash or femmeslash, which of course means a f/f pairing. There’s no historic background really, because frankly, it’s a less popular type of fan fiction.
Oddly enough, slash, meaning m/m sex, is very popular with lesbian writers/readers. Huh? Yes, it’s true. Don’t ask me why. I mean, as a straight woman, I can’t find much interest for femslash, and I would have thought it would be the same thing, only the other way around, for lesbians. But obviously not.
Of course, you also have straight males devouring femslash and naturally, straight females who love slash. But that’s hardly the same thing, is it? It would kind of be like gay men loving femslash, and believe me, that’s probably never been heard of in fan ficion.
I’ve read all kinds of explanations of why women write and read slash. A popular one is that there simply aren’t that many good female characters in any fandom. Why that is, I really don’t know. Others say that female readers tend to identify with their favorite male characters, and obviously it would be hard for them to feel very worked up about a female love interest. There are also some who simply enjoy reading stories about two hot males together. I mean, if one hot male is cool, then two must be even better.
I’m not exactly sure why I love it so much myself. All I know is that I’ve been getting ideas about slash fan fiction or original fiction for ages. Ever since I was a teenager. It’s probably a combination of the three above explanations. On the other hand, I also love writing about a pairing that includes one hot male and a female who is at least a little like me. I’m only human. 😉 This, of course, falls under the heading het adult, or even gen, if it’s totally lacking in sex.
