you remind me of home

This was originally going to be part of my previous post, but I realized that it was something I kind of wanted to discuss with the whole fandom (and that post was f-locked, lol).

A warning: The contents of this blog is somewhat controversial. I mean no offense to anybody; I'm just trying to foster an open discussion on the subject(s).


I'm working on an essay for my sociology course about heteronormativity - the idea that, in general, the norms of society are oriented so that there is a clear sexual binary; that each gender has natural roles within society; that gender should be defined by sex; and that heterosexuality is the only normal sexual preference.

It's sometimes difficult for me to comprehend as a straight, biologically female and female-identified woman how very oppressive these norms of society must be. Lately I've been writing a fic that really pans nearly the whole LGBT gamut and, between that and this essay, a lot of questions have been raised in my mind.

I mean, reading and writing slash requires a certain degree of open-mindedness, but I wonder how many of us actually grasp the reality being queer in America. What about the rest of the world? How many of us understand the difference between being gay in Seattle and being gay in Kabul? Or being gay today and being gay in the 1800s? People write so many AUs but so few of them actually deal with the realities of queer culture (at any point in time or space, lol).

And more importantly, how many of us slashers have legitimately erased the lines of taboo surrounding homosexuality in our own lives and how many merely enjoy the fetishism sprung from that taboo? Sometimes when I hear people talk about how much hotter they find slash compared to het, I really have to stop and wonder.

So, hey, open floor. Tell me what you think. Exactly how oppressive are the norms of today in the societies in which we live? And how much of our enjoyment of slash is about them just be attractive people getting it on and how much is derived from the maybe subconscious thrill in a perceived dirtiness of some sort of gay 'perversion'? Furthermore, do you think there's something fundamentally wrong with it if it's mostly the latter?

It's not going to help me with my soc essay, but I'm dying to know what you think.



ETA: FUCK SHOES! I must seem like some sort of royal douche bag. Somehow, I got the terms "wank" and "meta" mixed up. I'm so sorry. This wasn't never meant to be argumentative or rant-like in any way. *headdesks*