lunabee34

Last week, I posted a poll about sex in fanfic.

Here are the tentative results:

Admittedly, the sample size is pretty small (37 participants), but apparently many of those who answered my poll routinely skip over sex scenes in fic. We seem to be pretty evenly split on whether the presence of sex scenes are important to our enjoyment of fic and on whether we think our readers expect us to include sex scenes in our fic. Most participants say they have not included a sex scene in their fic because they feel it is expected. 84% think stories with sex scenes get more attention than those without them and most participants indicate that the way they feel about sex scenes (either as a reader or writer of fanfic) has changed over the course of their fannish involvement.

And some followup questions (which some of you answered in your comments to the post):

If you skip over sex scenes, why? What compels you to do so? If you're one of those who always reads them, why? Those of you who feel like your readers expect you to include sex scenes in your stories, where does that pressure come from? What's given you that idea? Any evidence (anecdotal or otherwise) for stories with sex scenes getting more attention? Anyone else want to share how your thoughts on sex scenes have changed over the years?

I'm still interested in the questions that didn't get answered in the comments to the post poll:

What should a good sex scene do? What should the purpose of sex in fanfic be? What do you do to keep sex scenes fresh and original as a writer? What would you like to see more of in sex scenes? What works best for you as a reader and/or writer of sex scenes? Got any links to sex scenes that you think work really well?

Expect spammation this weekend. I am all by my lonesome and also ill and unlikely to go anywhere. Consider yourselves thusly warned. :)

So, I've been thinking about something for a little while now and then thelastgoodname and I emailed about it and I decided to make a post because I find myself intensely curious about the way the rest of you approach this issue.

Until very recently, the fanfic I wrote fell into one of two categories. I either wrote stories that I thought other people would like to read (stories that the current trajectory of fandom is loving) or stories for which I received some bolt of lightning kind of inspiration (and these usually tend towards backstory or bits that canon has elided). By and large, the kinds of stories I usually write are not the kinds of stories I most like to read. In fact, I would often find myself thinking, "I'd really love to read X story. Why has no one written it?" while doing nothing about it.

It suddenly occurred to me that *I* could write the stories I wanted to read. Um, yes. Duh. Really, really duh. But for me not so much. It's taken me a while to get into the headspace where I can enjoy something I've written as much as something someone else has written, and even then I don't enjoy it in the same way. I still would prefer that someone else write that kickass Sheppard/Caldwell sex-slave AU because if I wrote it there would be no mystery for me there, no hanging on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen. There would be pleasure in the words and in the craft of it and in the figuring out the bones of the story, but it's not the same kind of pleasure as coming to a piece entirely from the outside (or as outside as you can be given the way that fandom has a tendecy to make us all rub off on influence each other LOL). Also for me is the issue that many of the stories I really, really want to read hit kinks (either sexual or narrative) that somehow feel strangely personal to write stories about. For example, I have no qualms telling you guys that I enjoy rape fic, but it somehow makes me feel vulnerable to contemplate writing it myself.

Even so, I've found myself writing fic in the past couple months that I wanted as a reader rather than a writer. So what about y'all? Thoughts? Examples?

Okay, so here's the thing. I have this kink, this massive massive kink, for non-con in fic. I love it when Kolya captures John and Rodney and subjects them to unspeakable sexual torture (that they both are made to enjoy to their great shame) after which they find comfort in one another's arms. Or when Angelus kidnaps Xander and ties him up and gives him orgasm bites every five minutes and by fic's end, Xander absolutely loves being his pet.

I know where this love comes from. My sexuality was shaped in large part by all the reading I did as a kid. I'd sneak my mom's romance novels and read them under the covers and so as an eight year old, I believed that some day a handsome but ruthless man would kidnap me and force me to have sex with him and while I'd initially resist, the sexing would prove to be so awesome that my "pleasure would crest" at least three times before his did and then we'd have babies and perhaps save a cattle ranch from corrupt coal miners. Now this is nothing I'd like to experience in real life or that I'd wish on anyone else, but it remains a powerfully erotic fantasy for me.

So, here's my question. Non-con seems fairly common in the slash fiction of the fandoms I've been involved in. So, I'm wondering, how frequently does it appear in het fanfic? The reason I ask is that I've just finished attacking Wraithbait; after I read the fic that interested me in the slash section I turned to the het and on a whim set the search engine to non-con. I only got about five hits for all the pairings listed combined. That made me wonder if non-con occurs with the same frequency in het fic and if it seems to be working toward the same purposes as it does in slash fic.

Granted, there's tons of fic out there I haven't read, but most of the non-con I read seems to function in a couple ways in slash fic.

1. To put together two characters that perhaps wouldn't normally get together. Ex--Jayne is overtaken by a lust drug and forces Mal to sleep with him. Or an Ancient piece of technology compels John to take advantage of Rodney. Then, the characters either get together or we are left with a big lovely angsty mess.

2. To make vulnerable a character so that a sexual relationship with someone they wouldn't have considered before is possible. Ex--Rodney and Radek get captured by the Genii and after undergoing abuse at their hands, turn to each other for hope.

3. Then there's the fic that focuses only on the non-con situation, where the goal is not to bring two characters together but to showcase one character's slow unhinging, how his character unravels under extreme duress.

So, how does it work in het fic? Also, if you've got non-con het recs, lay 'em on me.

Warning: Yes, it's that time. Lorraine!Sharing time.

I've been thinking lately about the way fanfic has altered the way I think about RL. For instance, in the matter of butt-loving--prior to my immersion in fanfic, I'd had a wretched encounter with an idiot who thought Carmex has an off-label use as lube and another situation not of my choosing or under my control. Suffice it to say that I was extremely disinterested in anal sex. But then I started reading slash, and I thought, if Xander likes it more than even chocolate, there's gotta be something to this thing. And, by god, even though I don't have a magical orgasm button prostate, there is!! So here's an instance of fanfic challenging my perceptions and allowing me to have a positive experience I probably wouldn't have had otherwise.

But then I got to thinking. Surely the converse is true. Although it's never been my extreme good fortune experience to participate in a threesome, I"m sure they don't proceed as smoothly, non-jealously, and non-awkwardly as they do in fanfic. So I'm wondering: 1. have any of you had an experience like mine where fanfic opened up anvenues for you and changed your mind about something or 2. have any of you been disillusioned by fanfic, disappointed by fanfic portrayals vs. reality?

Also in a randomness, earlier this week, when I was sad, it rained--a great wall of water that fell to the earth and shattered. I wrote a letter and stood in the parking lot and let it fall into the wet at my feet. I expected the ink to run and become indecipherable and the paper to melt. Neither of these things happened. It was utterly lacking as a symbolic gesture.

First, GIP. ponders_life said she would make me the icon of my choice for my birthday, and look at this beautiful "thanks" icon she made me!!!!! I love it. She actually made me three, bless her heart. (We say that a lot in the South. *g*)

Okay, I have been thinking about something for a little while now, and I wonder what you guys think about it. I've noticed that quite a few fics exist where Spike has sex with himself, and not in the masturbatory way. As in, he meets a version of himself from another dimension or the past or something and proceeds to knock boots with himself. Or, he somehow separates into two entities--Spike the demon and William the human. A couple examples are the inimitable jameschick's Quantum Xander 1 and its sequel. (There's also another well done one that involves Xander and the AI team as super badasses that I can't remember the title of.) I'm also including in this category William/Spike stories, where William and Spike are brothers. Although I'm not suggesting that other [insert lit crit word that I can't think of cause I'm outta school, durn it] aren't happening in these incesty stories, I think that on some superficial level, at least, they are also about Spike having sex with himself. In other words, I am not reducing these fics to being "merely" about Spike's fullbodied onanism. LOL

I think fics where Xander has sex with himself must be out there, too, because of the whole Toth incident. I haven't read any, though.

So here's the tripartite question. Does this "character has sex with self" fic occur with any other characters in BtVS/Ats fanficdom? Does this "character has sex with self" fic occur in any other fandoms that you know of? (I'm thinking it might in anime fandoms or other supernatural fandoms.)

Finally, and this is the biggie: Why do you think people write "character has sex with self" fics? I think that fanfic works on a variety of levels and to achieve a number of goals for both the reader/writer. I think ONE of those goals to is to explore, achieve, do, experience something one will never explore, achieve, do, experience in RL. So, is "the character has sex with self" fic a shoutout to human narcissism? When I started really thinking about this, the idea of having sex with myself was actually pretty apalling to me. To actually experience what another body experiences in a sexual encounter with me sounds very frightening.

I'm sure that part of the appeal of these kinds of fics is "Character A is HAWT! Character A squared is even HAWTER!!!!!" But there has to be more to it than that? Right? LOL

Feel free to pass this along to anybody you think is interested in these fics; now that I've started thinking about them, the Lorraine!brain is on overtime.

was way too slow. :(

This got me to thinking about something that I promise is related to porn in a weird way. Before I started reading fanfiction, I never found Angel or Xander physically attractive. *steels herself for the rocks and tomatoes sure to be flying her way* Spike I always found attractive; ditto Doyle; ditto, gulp, Giles (I mean, Giles singing "Free Bird?" C'mon Southern gals unite!).

As I started reading fanfiction, I developed this kinda idealized image of really all the characters, even the ones I already found attractive. So now, when I read, I'm not imagining David Boreanz or Nick Brendon really, but something I've sorta invented. I'm comparing it in my head to the difference in experience I have with reading porn and watching porn, but I'm not really sure that works either.

Does anybody else do this or am I just slap!nuts? And if you do, what do you think it means, if anything, other than that I've found a way to enjoy characters I didn't necessarily find attractive when I was watching the show?

And does anybody else have a different experience watching porn and reading it? I'm gonna have to base this part of the question on watching het porn cause computer NOT WORKING!!!!!!!!!! to allow me to expand my porn horizons. For instance, I enjoy watching oral sex smutty goodness as much as I like reading it, but not so much with the penetrative part. Does that make sense?

Lorraine says goodnight and changes search terms to gay porn *stills*