#i really like that one but its not really shippy

[fatalism-and-villainy]

This is a bigger problem in the fanfic realm as well, because I have recently frequently been running into the problem of being drawn in by shippy fanfics that involve things like captivity, enslavement, and other scenarios that inherently constitute reduced autonomy and thus dubious (at best) consent, but actively refuse to engage with those implications.

And it's frustrating, because these are scenarios that I find compelling, and that have the potential for very rich emotional work. I like the juxtaposition of physical pleasure or emotional fulfillment with feelings of fear and violation, and the shame and self-blame that those feelings bring about. And I like digging into an experience of love and desire that is frighteningly selfish in its negligence towards the personhood of its object.

But I see so many of these fics that are explicitly framed as seeking to avoid these story elements - they'll have an author's note or something at the beginning with something like "I know this is problematic, but I've tried to mitigate the dubcon elements as much as I can!" And I find this... deeply frustrating! Because it's seeking to ameliorate the very dynamics that make this sort of story interesting to me!

And by the refusal to engage with the inherently nonconsensual aspects of these premises, I'm not necessarily referring to fantasy romance plot scenarios in which the characters overcome the violence of their initial dynamic to live happily ever after in a more egalitarian relationship. I can understand that these plots are living inside a sort of non-diegetic BDSM fantasy bubble, and they are still engaging with and deriving their initial eroticism and intimacy from violence implicit in their premises, while using the fantasy aspect to mitigate the actual "realistic" consequences of that violence. (I read some danmei novels that did this in ways I found really enjoyable; I think Hannigram also arguably fits into this mold in certain ways, especially considering that it is a fantasy about the parts of abuse that can feel intensely thrilling and that can make you feel recognized and known in ways no one else can.) What I'm referring to is, well, a refusal to engage at all with that violence and violation; an implementation of these premises that feels like just another pretext for introducing the characters and getting them into a relationship, without attentiveness to the implications of the specific pretext in play.

And there's something worth probing at with these kinds of authors' notes in the sense that... there's a lot of concern in fandom nowadays about "romanticizing" rape and abuse, and the seeming necessity of portraying perfect negotiation and consent in fanfic. And yet these sorts of paratextual framings seem to me to be dangerously mistaken about what consent even is - to be conceiving of it as a magic script with no interpersonal or situational antecedents, one that intrinsically smooths over systemic power differentials or lack of personal trust.

I wonder also if that's actually related to the simplistic approach to textual criticism that I sometimes call "checklist criticism" - the idea that a text can be deemed harmful or not, problematic or not, -ist or not, simply by going through a list of "is x present? check yes or no" bullet points, rather than taking a more holistic approach to the relationship between textual production and broader systems of power, being attentive to the specific premises and genre/stylistic aims of a text, etc. Possibly that's too much of a reach for what is ultimately a complaint about the difficulty of finding really juicy darkfic, but it's worth considering.

[petricorah]

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[cometshift]

misc

[stardoopy]

Miscellaneous hajime/izurus cause im obsessed

[piratespencil]

Something something Sanji being there to rescue Nami from the wedding with Absalom, and Nami being there to rescue Sanji from the wedding with Pudding...

Whole Cake Island really giving me a whole new appreciation for the Sanji and Nami dynamic. (Nami should have gotten to bridal carry Sanji tho smh.)

[ninja-knox-ur-sox-off]

Ngl some days I'm like writing crackships and ships and rarepairs is so silly goofy and fun and then OTHER days I'm like wow I wish I'd never written or drawn a ship ever in my life how do I erase this and OTHER days I just go about forgetting ships exist entirely and I swing WILDLY between those three options with no chill whatsoever

[skitskatdacat63]

I feel weirdly compelled by this

[joshua-beeking]

Me: -Had zero intention of making Sun Wukong a trans dude- - Sees an "article" by an " expert fan" trying to grasp at straws about how Wukong couldn't possibly be trans- Me: He's a trans monke dude now.

[pinkyjulien]

Valentin & Mitch | 600/?? | We 💚 Arizona 🌵

[spearxwind]

do you guys have any fun shippy memes/posts I could use for drawovers or as inspo 👉👈 I have been wanting to draw the eels again but man im really outta inspo for art in general lately

[themyscirah]

If Red Lantern Rankorr has 1000 haters one of them is me. If he has 100 haters I'm there. If he only has 1 hater that is me. If no one hates him I am no longer on this Earth. I hate Rankorr. Fuck that bitch

LMAOO going through my drafts rn and damn I really hated this guy. I mean I still do but idk this is funny to me

[drawnfamiliarfaces]

Do you read fanfiction? If so, do you have any recommendations for rc9gn fanfiction? I probably read all the good ones out there, but I crave for more 🥲

sorry anon ;( I haven't read any rc9gn fanfiction in a loooong time, honestly you probably know more good ones than I can ever remember lol

[mootmuse]

devastated and confused that the jai lava kusa tag is near completely empty. have none of you realised how absolutely astoundingly smoking fucking hot ntr jr is in that movie

[eladoobler]

sometimes i wonder if im aroace or if its just the adhd

[hecatesbroom]

👀 Will you write more Grace and Frankie stuff?

I've got one Grace character study in the making right now (which I'm in the process of rewriting, because s7 revealed some new details about her that conflict with what I'd written up to that point 😂) and I'm hoping I'll have enough motivation to finish another little character study on top of the one I'm working on right now! :)

That being said I do most of my writing when I can't sleep, but I've been sleeping very well lately so it's a bit slow going haha

[thedevotionaltour]

i wish i could like garak more than i do when im not seeing him on my television screen because i do think he is actually an interesting and compelling character however i hate his fanbase actually no more than anything i hate gar.as.hir fanbase where then all he becomes is ship fodder and is just. the way they talk about him is so annoying and boring and stupid and shippy that i'm truly convinced i just hate garak until i see him on my screen and go fuuuuuuck he's really neat and i'm fascinated by who he is. but his fans especially those who are like mostly his fan only for shipping and refuse to separate him from julian (i also hate the julian fan side of this too and i think it definitely turned me away from loving julian as much as i did initially which is very sad because he was one of my favorites on the show and now i barely think about him ever when or feel little when i see him on screen) are just so. infuriating. anyways the reason i wrote this out was because i was going to say it is with a heavy heart i must say i think matt would be quite compelled by garak (due to his enjoyment of spy stories as has been mentioned before). and then i got sad about going why do i have to lead up to that with a heavy heart. because see im not doing it with the annoying fondness im doing it with a disappointed shame. which isnt fair bc garak is funny as fuck. anyways