Caved…
I finally caved and got Twitter. It remains to be seen if I’ll have any use for it. Everyone else seems so worked up about it. I have to confess I still don’t see the point, but well, I might warm to it, once I get the hang of it.
Gremlins on the web…
I don’t know what’s going on. My site, that’s actually been updated and had a makeover, like I told you about in an earlier blog post, has suddenly changed, seemingly completely by itself. The CSS isn’t working, pages aren’t visible anymore and tables are no longer centered.
It’s so weird. I have no idea how it happened. We weren’t hacked, at least I don’t think so. The web hotel hasn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary.
Another thing – I’ve made up an entirely new system for ratings. It would be fun to get it online ‘live’ on the site, but so far my sister – the webmaster – and I haven’t been able to fix these problems.
Oh, well. I’m sure we’ll work it out somehow and then the world will get to see my invention. 🙂
I only just found out why some sites have switched to the FictionRatings system, instead of the movie ratings. The MPAA has threatened to take legal action against anyone using their ratings system.
So that’s the next step in the evolution of the site. New ratings, or rather a new system for the ratings.
There will also be some more useful links, to site with facts about fan fiction. I feel that the knowledge about fan fiction has deteriorated in the years I’ve been active in the fan fiction world. Hopefully, I’ll be able to contribute to restoring that knowledge.
The day I almost became a criminal
I have always been a very calm, quiet and well-behaved girl. Too well-behaved at times, you might say.
One day I found out that the principal of the school where my mother was working had brought a school bag covered in vomit and shown it to my mom. He was convinced that it had been one of the children with learning disabilities who was responsible for the soiled bag. He made my mom clean it up. The day after, everyone found out that it had been one of the so called ‘normal’ students who had vomited on the bag.
That made me come extremely close to committing a crime. I was seized by an almost irreisstible urge to slash the tires of the principal’s car. But unfortunately, my upbringing and my natural shyness prevented me from doing it. Unfortunately, yeah.
If I’d been able to release that anger back then, I might not have felt so impotent now. It sucks big time being this nice and timid. But I guess it’s just something I have to accept.
Oh, and by the way, if my dear, sorely missed dad had taken the call from the police, I’m pretty sure he would have replied: Slashed some tires? Not my daughter. She was watching tv with me all evening.
Dad was good at that kind of thing. He saved me once, when I’d neglected to go to one of those pointless sports days in high school. I hadn’t even asked him or prepared him for the possibility that my teacher might call. Nice one. Thanks, dad!
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.
Modern sex habits
I keep reading about the modern woman’s sex habits, and that, believe it or not, isn’t why I read the papers. But it’s everywhere.
They like to be forced to have sex by a whole gang of guys. They like it rough, ie the guy treating them roughly. And naturally, the all time favorite – lesbian sex. Not lesbian women. Straight ones. What I can’t understand is how straight women can like that. Isn’t it part of the concept ‘heterosexual’ that you prefer the opposite sex?
Am I the only one who likes the other type of rough? By me, against the guy? Or… now that we’re on that topic – the guys… 😉 Am I alone in being turned on by watching two or three hot guys being together or at least kissing?
I guess I’m hopelessly geeky and “out of things”. Except… if I’m the only entirely straight girl left (not quite true, I know at least one girl who is like me), shouldn’t there be more guys left for me (us)? 🙂
You can always hope. And the rest of you. Good luck! I hope you’ll have a lot of fun in life. As long as no one innocent gets hurt, I hope everyone gets what they want. Just one thing – let me have a couple of those guys you don’t want anyway, ok? 🙂
How a slash story is born
Many times there are male characters in various fandoms, which I find enormously sexy and fascinating, but I’d never want them myself, if they existed, and if I had a chance with them. They would, however, suit some other male character. That’s one of my reasons for writing slash. For instance, I can ask myself a few questions.
Is he hot? Is he nice? Is he interesting in other ways?
Fine. If he is, would he make a good boyfriend for the female character I can identify with the most?
Even if there isn’t someone like that in the fandom, you might be able to find one in another fandom, which goes well with the guy’s fandom. It’s called a crossover. Otherwise, you might be able to make up an original character. Well, it’s possible, but the readers tend to ignore the original character or avoid a story with one. I can understand that. Despite that, I sometimes use one in my stories. I might feel the need for an original character for some reason.
Even if that isn’t possible, there might be another male character in the same fandom, who might be a good match for the first guy. I won’t go into the fanfics which don’t require any pairing at all. Pairing means – well, the two people who become a couple, in the fic. Some types of fanfics aren’t suitable for het adult or slash.
Still, say that it is one that’s suitable for some type of pairing, the guy might still not be compatible with me (or in this case, my alter ego). He might still be a good match or one of the other male characters.
It’s hard to say exactly why. One reason might be that I can’t imagine being submissive in any relationship. That means I wouldn’t like to write about a relationship in which the female is submissive. Even if the man isn’t exactly dominant, he might still be too tough and outgoing. I still wouldn’t match him with a female character.
Of course the man might be typically gay, in which case the pairing with come naturally. He just has to have a male partner.
Kids’ Culture – in Books and Elsewhere
Strangely enough, books for kids seem to be a little better att equality than books for grownups (at least here, in my country). Maybe that’s because the writer or the publishers are actively working on writing – or publishing – politically correct books. You very rarely find a book advocating a relationship where the female hero is submissive. Fortunately. That would be hard to take. Unfortunately, there are a multitude of vile books about princesses and fairies. Little girls are encouraged to identify with pink, sweet little ladies, if they’re not playing with the dreadful Bratz dolls.
If I had a daughter, and I sincerely wish I did, she’d never get to read a magazine about princesses or a book about a similar theme. That’s horrid and disgusting. They say the children of the 1970’s felt inhibited by the unisex fashion prevalent when they were growing up. That’s odd. I can’t understand that. When I’m able to find clothes I like, I always manage to find something that feels like female clothing, but with none of the lace, frills and blouses that you tie. I abhor all that.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a little girl. If I did, I’d have had to go looking for clothes for her, among pink, low cut, ultra short rags. It would drive me crazy. On the other hand, lucky me, I have a mom and a sister who can sew. My kids, if I have any, won’t have to wear any of that crap.
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.
Unexpected Kindness
Yesterday I was on a little (read: long) trip. It was quite a tiresome and intense outing. Finally, the day ended and I could get some rest.
My mom went with me. On one of the trains, we sat opposite a man who didn’t look particularly nice. Then a mobile phone rang and mom said: Is that mine? Suddenly, the man who sat facing us smiled and said, in a quite a friendly tone: “No, that’s mine”. And he turned it off. What do you know? People might look unfriendly and be nice anyway.
On the way back, there was this guy who didn’t look at all unfriendly, but he turned out to be even nicer than we’d expected. He happened to overhear mom saying she had a headache and was waiting for the serving cart to come onboard the train. The guy said: “I think there’s a coffee machine somewhere on the train”. A little later I was beginning to wonder what had happened to a rather big banknote that I had earlier. It wasn’t in any of my pockets. Then the guy asked us if we needed some change.
It’s always pleasant to get a positive surprise.
Outrageously expensive computer stuff
For quite a while now, I’ve had some trouble with the adapter for my iBook. I’ve been getting really fed up with all that mess. It takes maybe ten minutes every time I start up the computer to get the green (or orange) light to come on.
Then finally I thought I’d get a new one. I looked at some websites and once I finally found the right one, I realized to my horror that it costs over 80 US dollars!
Ok, don’t say it. You probably think I can blame myself for getting a Mac. But I really think it’s worth the higher price, except when the adapter is acting up. For instance, I’m going to buy extra RAM. That’s expensive too, but I think that with all the extra capacity you get out of the computer, it’s worth it.
I really don’t know what Steve Jobs is thinking. Didn’t it ever occur to him that it’s the volume that generates the profit, not the high prices?
Now I’ll be getting some duct tape and each time it takes me ten minutes or more to fiddle with the computer, I’ll be thinking of the eighty bucks I’m saving.
