(no subject)

[bubosquared]

In case any of you missed it, I'm going to Escapade this year. (I leave in twenty days, in fact, OMG!) And in my infinite wisdom (read: infinitely small impulse control) I signed up to moderate two panels. *facepalm*

The first is Beyond the Envelope: When does pushing the boundaries go too far?, which is the one I suggested. The idea was to discuss that sometimes fine line between taboo and common sense. For example, RPS was taboo for a long time, but (to me, at least), the showing of said RPS to the actual celebrities involved goes against any shred of common sense at all. So where and why do we draw the line? Thoughts/comments appreciated, as I've only just realised they'll probably be expecting me to be, like, coherent. Yeah, and I'd like a pony.

The other panel is Age: Just a Number? Fandom & age of consent, which I'm co-moderating with amatia. She'll be looking at underaged characters, and I'll be doing the underaged slashers. And that just came out sounding OMGSOWRONG but I'm too lazy to change it, so live with it. Here, too, comments are more than welcome.

Other panels I'd like to attend: Help! My fandom is tiny! and The History of Fandom (because sometimes I like to play the blasé fan, ha!), and possibly RPS: RPS and Ethics, which I may well end up walking out of if I perceive so much as a hint of self-righteousness. (Can you tell I'm bitter?)

But mostly, I'm looking forward to hanging out with rsadelle, amatia, schuyler, silviakundera, dine, and anyone else I might run into, and you've all hereby been forewarned that I babble. A lot. (I also eat a lot, and once I get started I tend to drink a lot, but that's usually not quite as annoying to other people.) And I have a rogue accent, so watch your heads.

Right now, I'm all "OMG HELP TWENTY DAYS AND I'VE NOT PLANNED ANYTHING YET," which isn't strictly accurate, I've registred and booked my plane and all, and that's all paid for, and I've been composing a list of minimum carry-on luggage, because I usually lug around about a ton of stuff (seriously, ask amatia), but with the recent security measures, and considering that I'll be wearing my cloak and thus standing out a lot and with my luck I will be picked at random to have my bag searched, I don't fancy unpacking my Bag o' Doom during my layover-cum-smokebreak, so my list is currently limited to the Alphasmart that is, I think, winging its way to me from Canadia, pen and paper, a hefty book, some snacks, a bottle of water, and my cigarettes, which isn't much more than I take on my normal one-hour commute, so that ought to be all right.

(I am the queen of run-on sentences.)

I'm also bringing the Godaweful Dyke Porn Novelette, so you can all see for yourself how Godaweful this is. Seriously. But I'm not sure there's anything else I should be bringing. Requests? Can I get chocolate into the States? Cause I could fill up every free bit of space in my suitcase with belgian chocolate, and potentially buy me some minions with it. Muahahahaha!

Now, let's see, I've registered, I've transport, I've roomies, I've money ... What am I missing?

Comments

Re:

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if you're asking for the opinion of those people who are going with you, or everyone's, but… I think it may be a good idea if you offered us your ideas, and we (or those going with you) could discuss it.

Oh, everyone's, definitely, and I'm mainly trying to come up with some discussion points for the panel (it's not a presentation/talk as much as moderating a discussion on a topic, really).

It's funny, but I think that if you're talking about underage slashers, it really isn't the slash part anyone's worried about. It's the smut. The R-rated or NC-17 smut. And I'm sure there's enough het smut out there, so as such, it doesn't make much sense to be worried about underage slashers.

Ah, ma chére, you're so naive. It's cute. ;)

I like your points about slash being a positive influence, although I would point out that there's a surprising amount of homophobia in slash fandom, not to mention heterophobia and misogyny. (Since you mentioned seeing "shades of the author", so to speak, in the fic ...)

Re:

[rane-ab.livejournal.com]

and I'm mainly trying to come up with some discussion points for the panel (it's not a presentation/talk as much as moderating a discussion on a topic, really).

Ah, OK, sorry about the ramble then. *g*

Ah, ma chére, you're so naive.

*blush* Ahem, that's quite possible. Do enlighten me. I really don't get what's wrong with a girl reading m/m slash... except perhaps for religious issues.

there's a surprising amount of homophobia in slash fandom

*blink* Really? How's that?

Re:

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

Ah, OK, sorry about the ramble then. *g*

Oh, not at all! You've brought up some excellent points to bring up in the panel/discussion!

*blush* Ahem, that's quite possible. Do enlighten me. I really don't get what's wrong with a girl reading m/m slash... except perhaps for religious issues.

It's not that there's something wrong with it, but that reading m/m slash doesn't necessarily mean one won't be hopmophobic. Homophobia can be quite subtle, and even I sometimes have to have it pointed out to me.

(Disclaimer: Most of what I'm about to ramble is based on what the slash fandom (and by that I mean "old skool" mainstream fandoms like The Sentinel, Highlander, etc.) was like up to about three years ago. I don't know if it's still like this in Fandom at Large, as I tend to avoid FAL for the most part, and I don't really "read around" anymore due to personal pickiness. So keep that in mind.)

A very common pet peeve among those slashers who are vocal enough to have a peeve list is "They're not Gay, they're just In Love!" stories, in which it's made quite clear to the reader (sometimes in so many words, even) that these two men are completely straight except for the tiny fact that they happen to be in love with each other. Yeah, I never understood that, either. There's a subtext of homophobia in there, as if being gay (or bi, but bi-phobia is another rant entirely) is reserved for the effeminate blokes and obviously these two manly men can't be gay, never mind the fact that they're saying all this with their mouth full of each other's dick.

(Ahem. Sorry about the crudeness, there.)

There's other examples, but that's the one that always struck me as the most glaring one, and I'd have to think to remember the other examples and explain why they struck me as homophobic.

Then there's the utter misogyny inherent in all the (ex-)gf bashing and the recuction of any canon female character to the Bitch, the Yenta or the Sister Figure, and that's even she's even acknowledged at all.

Did any of that make sense?

Re:

[rane-ab.livejournal.com]

A very common pet peeve among those slashers who are vocal enough to have a peeve list is "They're not Gay, they're just In Love!" stories, in which it's made quite clear to the reader (sometimes in so many words, even) that these two men are completely straight except for the tiny fact that they happen to be in love with each other. Yeah, I never understood that, either.

I've yet to come across anything like this in the HP fandom. Well, no, actually, I have read stories concerning straight guys having sex (wikdsushi's fics come to mind), but they weren't meant in that way. It's not about the 'oh no, they're not really gay thing', it's about the 'they're really straight, but they love each other so much they overcome their, er, straightness and have sex with each other anyway thing'. I think it's amanuensis1 who has an icon that sums it up best. The inscription being: "not het, not slash, just you". :-)

It amuses me, though, that people might write, um, non-gay slash (?) because they think gay people are so femmy. (That's like a double prejudice. *snort*) Because what they're writing should then actually be closer to the 'real thing' than they expect it to.

Did any of that make sense?

Made perfect sense to me. ^_^

Re:

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

HP fandom is "New School", though, albeit one of the first, and probably the biggest, "New School" fandom. (Note: "Old School" and "New School" are labels of my own invention, not really in use in Fandom At Large.) And I'm not sure if I see the difference in the stories you mentioned. (Link?) I mean, I know it's romantic for some people, but to me it's not, kinda like the whole Destined To Love EAch Other thing.