#he's usually depicted in the fandom as like. incapable of smiling.

[waitineedaname]

im rereading bits of the airplane extras and man i would kill for more night hunt missions with sqh + sqq + lqg in their disciple days, theyre so ridiculous

[flamintango]

(True) Love in the Making: Erotic Writing in Fanfictions

[Translated from Liao Pei-Wen’s Chinese original from Pop Culture Academy. I don’t own the article.]

For a long time, discussions about fanfictions have most frequently centered on the lavish erotic writing in the genre. Fanfictions are often regarded as "female porn," as a result of the vastly female-dominant demographic in its creation and consumption. Undeniably, the fact maintains that sex scenes are a frequent appearance in fanfictions. Pay a visit to Archive of Our Own (AO3) and browse for a series, a certain character or a fictional pair, and one will be greeted by many results labeled as adult content. [1]

The inception of English-language erotic writing approximately dates back to late 1970s. Slash fictions gradually developed among fan communities of sci-fi films and televisions, in line with the popularity of Star Trek at the time, and the changes effected by the Second Wave feminist movements in the 1960s and 1970s. Henry Jenkins believes that the significance of slash fiction partially lies in the ways in which these fanfiction writers interpret and challenge the portrayal of masculine qualities and the positioning of the main male characters in the originals. Academic communities often interpret fan creations from erotic writing's perspective in their research on the subject. They believe that fanfictions are classifiable under erotic literature; moreover, they are erotic writing created "by the women for the women," as if fanfiftions are a medium through which to unveil feminine sexuality.

Jenkins also references Joanna Russ' views on slash fiction. She holds that slash fiction is the expression of female sexuality. These female writers project their own desires on the characters and write about the prospect of enjoying sex and emotional bond while preserving freedom, the prospect insatiable by the traditional pornography industry with predominantly male audience.

In the Star Trek fandom, the explicit sex scenes among slash fictions initially faced strong criticism within the circle. Some even described them as "rape" against the characters and offense toward the spirit of "canon." However, slash fiction writing in English was gradually prospering in the same fan community. The tropes that cannot be more familiar among the English-speaking fanfiction writers and readers nowadays began to take shape around that period, and evolved into the form that fanfiction readers recognize over time in discourses. Needless to say, erotic writing in fanfictions has also shifted with time; the one known to Jenkins was usually the type caught in romantic entanglements. Today, a casual roam on AO3 readily brings you a myriad of fanfictions tagged as "PWP" (porn without plot), and those featuring pornographic writing have greatly ballooned in ratio.

The Emotional Bond in the Creation of Fan Erotica

However, the continuous occurrences of PWP in large numbers does not indicate that erotic writing can paint the full picture of the fanfictional scene. Comparison between pornographic films and fanfictions suggest that the former focuses on corporeal stimulus, and the latter emphasizes emotional bonding. This indicates the stark contrast between the respective appeals to fanfiction writing/ reading and pornography viewing. For fanfiction writing, emotional tie plays an important role. No matter how intense the sexual portrayal, the emphasis remains on the ways in which the relationship between the two characters are reaffirmed through bed scenes. This tendency has its roots in the approaches through which fanfictions inherit the creative methods of the romance genre. Jenkins also believes that despite the blow-by-blow depictions of sex scenes, emotions are the mainstay of fan-generated creation, and corporeal pleasure ultimately stems from the emotional dynamics between characters.

Take the following extract from an Inception fanfiction for example. The whole story takes a turn under the tension-filled atmosphere to a unexpected display of oral sex:

“Arthur,” Eames says, “what are you,” and Arthur shakes his head and undoes Eames’ flies, reaches out a gloved hand to pull out his cock. “Shut up,” he says, “I don’t know how else to do it so shut up, okay, Eames, I can’t–”

“Jesus, you’ll catch your death, you don’t have to–”

“Yes,” Arthur says, helpless, “yes I do, you don’t get it, I really do,” and he pulls the whole thing into his mouth. Eames is barely even hard yet but he moans brokenly, twists his hands in Arthur’s hair and arches against him, and Arthur swallows and swallows and swallows, taking him in deeper than he even knew was possible. “Fuck,” Eames says, hardening in Arthur’s mouth, “oh, bloody fuck,” and Arthur grips Eames’ thighs and hums, dragging himself up and along the length of his dick, tonguing him mercilessly. He’s bitterly cold and Eames’ nails are digging into his scalp and Arthur has never been more wrong about someone in his life, not ever.

(“I get that you can just, fucking, fucking play at it all the time, but I’m not like that, I’m not like you, I’m not good at people like you are,” Arthur had said, and Eames’ eyes had been wide and honest and he’d said “Who says I’m playing at it?” and Arthur hadn’t known, he hadn’t know, how could he not have known–)

“Arthur,” Eames keens, jerking, pulling at Arthur’s hair, “Arthur, Arthur.” [2]

The author intervenes this (out-of-context and confused) oral sex scene materially with a lens to inner psyche, which is a common technique in fanfiction writing. Typically in fan creation of greater length, the continuous occurrence of sex scenes may contributes nothing to plot advancement. That said, it proves pivotal to reinforcing the connection between characters. Sex serves as a device to break through restrictions when verbal communications are rendered incapable. In fanfiction writing, sex and love do not stand in opposition, but build upon each other, and occur in a mutually dependent fashion. If sex fails to take place under emotional buildup, sex in action (or after) usually also lends itself to bonding between characters as the plot develops.

Sex as reaffirmation

This observation, it should be noted, should not translate to triviality of sex in fanfiction writing. On the contrary, sex in fanfictions functions as reaffirmation of the characters' setting, as they have already had their track record of development beyond fan-generated text. Fan creation is the product of community culture. Similar to romantic fiction, it develops the plot according to genre conventions. Sex scenes could be the checkpoint of the story (like "and they live happily ever after"), a turning point ("A realizes their feelings for B"), or a climactic point (pouncing on the love interest, clueless to how to respond to their confession). For instance:

The knob rattles a little in the frame and Derek can’t figure out how this night turned into such a fucking disaster. He’s about to lock up when the door flies open again. “Okay, I don’t get you,” Stiles says, walking back in, pulling the door shut behind him. Derek hasn’t moved though, so they’re barely inches apart. “You blow hot and cold at me, I mean one minute we’re fine, I’m flirting, I think you’re flirting back, you bought me this fucking sweater! This isn’t a ‘just platonic friends’ gift, it’s not, Derek, I can’t–”

Derek has Stiles up against the door in less than a second and he’s kissing Stiles before his back even hits the door. Stiles makes this noise, like he’s so surprised that he’s still talking for a moment, but then it just melts into something that’s almost a whine- high, needy. Derek has thought about kissing Stiles for months, memorized the shape of his mouth- smiling, laughing, frowning- but none of that means that he’s ready for the way it makes him feel. Stiles has both of his hands fisted in Derek’s shirt, like he has to keep Derek close, like Derek would- could- go anywhere when he finally has Stiles here, warm and promising, holding onto Derek like he’s drowning.

“Oh my god, you asshole,” Stiles gasps when Derek has to breathe. “You asshole, do you know how long I’ve wanted you to do that, and you just–”

Derek kisses him again. [3]

As aforementioned, fanfiction readers consume in a different way from typical pornography audiences: we have already learned about the characters before entering the plot. In general, the audience's understanding of characters in pornography is limited to their performed identity at the moment (such as teacher, nurse, flight attendant, student). On the other hand, the characters have already developed a complete track of "past, present, and future" beyond the text for fanfiction readers. Even in PWP, which is almost devoid of any plot, they still have a good grasp of the characters' setting, and grounds for their mutual attraction. In addition, slash fictions typically feature heterosexual man from the original franchise as the protagonist. Therefore, the homosocial relationship left partly unexplored in the original becomes especially substantial to the genre.

In the rise of diverse sexualities and genders, fanfiction authors also begin to write about pairings that do not involve heterosexual men. As an example, Agent Carter manages to carve open a path for fan-made contents of female pairs in Marvel's male-centric fanfiction landscape as a film starring a female protagonist. The slash fiction genre pioneered erotic writing in fanfictions, and remains dominant in the fanfiction scene to this day. Despite that, English fan content creation has long surpassed the generic limitations set slash fictions, and started writing its way to more possibilities.

Notes

[T/N: I omitted the original second footnote (and number the rest accordingly) because it is simply the author explaining their word choice in their own Chinese translation of the word “canon,” which lends little to this English translation. ]

[1] Archive of Our Own, or AO3, is the largest fanfiction platform at the present. Before AO3, most fanficitons were published on Livejournals and Fanfiction.net.

[2] “pressed against the pending physics of my passed down last name” by gyzym.

[3] “DILF” by twentysomething. The excerpt does not include explicit love making scenes (that follows right after), yet is still a prime example of a climactic point.

Image Sources

Junseo

Tatarnikova

Works Cited

Jenkins, Henry. Textual Poachers Television Fans & Participatory Culture. New York: Routledge, 2012.

Russ, Joanna. Magic Mommas, Trembling Sisters, Puritans, and Perverts: Feminist Essays. Trumansburg: Crossing, 1985.