silverthunder | Het fanfics for official yaoi series

I was reading an old rant that I had saved a link to some time ago, on an issue I have some agreement with. Then I went into some of the comments - and found an interesting point in someone's reply.

The point being: if fans can take a canon het pairing and break it up to form a yaoi pairing... why can't het fans take a canon yaoi pairing and break it up to form a het pairing?

I'll admit that I've wondered about this before. I mean, it seems logical, right? What applies for one applies for all - this is our standard of fairness, is it not?

In theory, yes. In reality... there are a couple of problems with this.

One problem is that said fanfiction tends often to take the form of rigid intolerance. People watch the show (don't ask WHY, if they think this way), they take a liking to the characters, and they immediately feel said characters should be 'saved'. So they write the fanfiction where the character "sees the light" and gives up their evil, immoral gay relationship and parades into the good, pure het relationship like an obedient ~~conformist~~ member of society.

Hence the reason we get a reaction of 'wtf?' from the yaoi fandom. Hell, who wouldn't react like this? I remember on ff.net some troll who actually took people's *fanfiction* and re-wrote them so that the characters weren't gay in the end or some such nonsense. And it offends people! (granted, the second scenario is more offensive, but still) I wouldn't say that these people don't have the right to write this stuff if they so choose, but I will say that I raise my eyebrows when I come across it. Are they trying to write a story, or are they trying to preach in a place where they think a good number of yaoi fans will read it?

I think this leads into the second type: the self-titled "non-conformists" who probably watched the show just to write het fanfiction for it because they want to see 'how the yaoi fans like it' or generally create contention. Some of these belong to the first group as well, but in any case, most of the time they don't actually care about the characters and/or fandom and/or pairings. They're just trying to "get back" at yaoi fans for breaking up their canon het pairing.

Not a good reason to write fanfiction, in my opinion. Granted, a lot of people will write things to make a point, and it can be done really well, but churning out a short, crappy fanfic just to get revenge doesn't impress me much.

Despite these complaints, I think the argument is very valid. People who laugh and go 'wtf?' when fans try to claim that characters in canon gay relationships are really straight are often the same people who will claim that characters in canon het relationships are really gay. When you get right down to it, there's nothing essentially wrong with either claim. It IS possible that a character could be confused about his or her sexuality, either way. It happens.

The problem is that there's still so much intolerance in society these days that it's so easy to suspect the first claim of contributing to that. And the sad thing is, more often than not, the suspicions are well-founded. In an ideal world, both claims would be acceptable and no one would bother anyone else over it. But we don't live in an ideal world, period.

Thoughts?

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I didn't read the whole rant, admittedly, although I read some of it -

But to me, I could care less either way. As long as the author isn't someone who's bashing gay/het relationships or the person(s) who the character usually might be paired up with (whether het or gay-wise), it's all fine with me ...

That made no sense, does it? <<;

You need to read the whole rant. :P

Most of the time people who write these things ARE bashing yaoi fans. That's what causes the 'wtf?'. And it ruins it for the fans who write the stories seriously. It's a vicious cycle, and very difficult to stop.

Like being a fan of a pairing that everyone thinks is crap just because there's a lot of badfic out there for it. There's nothing you can do about it, and it sucks.

Most of the fics I've seen where a gay character has been turned straight paired him up with a Mary Sue, or a completely Sue-ified canon character. I think the motivation there isn't homophobia, it's "OMGHISOKACAN'THAVEHIMHE'SMINE!111!!!!11!!!!"

The ones that baffle me are the people who knew going in that a show was shonen ai/yaoi even though they don't like the genre, watched it anyway and *then* said, "This show would have been great if not for the yaoi, now I'm going to fix it!" Um, saying Gravitation would have been great without the yaoi is like saying Gundam SEED would have been great without all those pesky giant robots.

*laugh* That's a great metaphor - I'll have to remember it. Very true, too.

Yeah, I forgot about the self-insertions... I don't know why people would watch *Gravitation* if they want a character for themself, though... It's a romance! I'd think the same thing if someone watched a het romance and then wrote a self-insertion fic. It's... a little silly.

Y'know..whatever floats your boat. Some people want to see straight characters gay and some people want gay people to be stright.

As long as you have fun with it. Go for it. It may be intolerant or for revenge...whatever. Just try and label the pairing and I'm happy.

Try to have some respect for you fellow human beings (although that could prohibit intolerance, but maybe not :P)

Not saying it's a bad thing that people are writing it - I'm saying they're writing it for the wrong reasons. And it's my opinion that that just sucks.

My opinion. No one else's. Well, unless someone else agrees with me.

I'm one of the last people who's going to want to put any limits on free speech. I'm not making any exceptions here, either. I'm trying to analyze why there's such a negative reaction (my reaction included) to this kind of fanfic.

It'd be fantastic if we could live in a world where everything was accepted - really it would.

Goddamnit, I'm cynical, aren't I?

Ah, I know you don't mind what people write. There is no right or wrong reason to write something. It's completely subjective. An argument can be made that people writing straight characters as gay are doing it for the wrong reasons.

I don't like that people have negative motivations when writing a paring, but it is acceptable. I'm not going to judge them for that. And if they think het sex would be really cool with a gay character...that's the same kind of reasoning some yaoi fans use. And if they write because they think a character should be straight and they don't agree with homosexuality..that's their perogative.

It's not right or wrong. Whatever floats your boat. I hope that I am addressing your point correctly. At least, we have created a dialogue that can be used to explore our of biases and such...

Now, I have to go to work :(

Talk to you later :D

You're a better person than me. Even when I try not to judge people, I end up doing it. I know I'm judgemental. It's one of my flaws. I try not to let it get ahead of me.

The writing isn't right or wrong - hell, what *is* 'right' and 'wrong'? "In my opinion, this is right" is about all anyone can say. This is my journal, so it's kind of implied that the rants that go into it are my opinion. I mean, it's not like I'm saying people can't disagree with me.

I already knew you disagreed with me. ;) We talked about this - sort of, anyway.

When I say people write it for the "wrong" reasons, I'm saying wrong by my standards and not by theirs. Obviously not everyone's going to agree with my reasoning, and that's fine. This is my view on the issue. And I am so, SO biased. ;) We all know that.

That's one of the reasons this rant will go on my journal and nowhere else. Because it's cool to have an opinion - it's harassing people with it that creates wank.

First, you rock dude! You are a good judge. I was thinking about this while I was at work and I found my own opinion to be disturbing. We have talked about this kind of thing. I enjoy seeing you post stuff like this because I find it makes me think.

I generally agree with your opinion, anyway :P You are more considerate than most people..hell, if you can't post your opinion in your journal, then where can you?

You found your own opinion disturbing? How so?

I don't think it's *disturbing*. I think it's idealistic, because it gives humanity way too much credit, but I don't think so much disturbing.

I figure as long as I'm not forcing my opinion on people, I can be biased against whatever I want. ;)

Glad I make you think, though. :) That's always cool.

My opinion can lead down a dangerous road. I'm basically saying we can't label people's motivations as right or wrong and that to criticize others we must realize that they have valid reasons to criticize us.

It is disturbing because I started applying to my logic to other issues such is abortion, criminal laws, etc. I can't apply that logic to everything. Even to say there is no such thing as an absolute can be poked at.

What it comes down to is that I will pick and choose when an issue should be held to a different standard...which means I have to judge...

My logic keeps eating itself...so it all comes down to this: Do I consider it important? But then do others care?

So yeah, I'm more confused then ever about my own views. I am currently revising :D

Revising can be a good thing. ;)

I see what you mean. I remember considering the same thing when I thought about the issue. ^^; Still don't know if I came to the right conclusion.

Of course, what IS 'right', huh?

I'm going to stop now. ^^;

I completely agree with you. In a way, especially after reading some of the great sex psychologist Alfred Kinsey's work, almost any pairing can be *possible*....not plausible or reasonable, but *possible*....you are right. Het fans for canon yaoi shows generally do just like the idea of the bishounen but are a little homophobic to the idea of them being gay. So they like to endorse their girlhood fantasies of turning a guy around and making him go with a girl.

*headdesk*

I love the idea of equal rights for everyone, and I'd love to think that everyone's writing could be accepted. I'm certainly not going to try and tell someone how to write, but there are some things out there that make me raise my eyebrows a bit.

I'm not really sure exactly what point I'm trying to make here. The purpose of this rant was to evalutate the reaction to het fanfics for yaoi series. I'm not against the fanfics, but in my opinion, they're mostly being written for the wrong reasons.

I have no idea if this makes sense. I'm on reading break - you expect me to think coherently? ^^;

"I'm not against the fanfics, but in my opinion, they're mostly being written for the wrong reasons."

That makes perfect sense!

Het fanfics for official yaoi series

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