in which i randomly attack a well-loved trope

[seperis]

This is, surprisingly, non-HP related. No, *really*. This is A Moment of Random Fanfic Bitching.



Okay.

I totally am behind the rentboy-kink thing. I do. Seriously. I'm not a huge fan of it (my only attempt at it went to the most depressing places *ever*) but I do get it. It's kink. It's hot (so I've heard. Not my thing, but I've read some I enjoyed that didn't verge on character assassination).

But God.

This is just--kind of a rule I wish I could set up. For fic that is not supposed to be kink. Because kink-fic is a different animal.

Unless your character canonically has no other possible skills up to and including the ability to use a spatula at McDonalds, maybe most of them *might* choose to not sell their asses (or other sexually-charged body parts) for money. I know, crazy thoughts.

But really--suddenly Random Character X is fired/wife dies/sister dies/mother dies/Dark Lord dies/Lionel dies/world ends/au-where-everyone-is-a-prostitute*/head-injury-so-terrible-they-lose-their-minds and boom, they are offering up asses like it's Christmas and someone gave them a hit of ecstacy to surpass all hits of ecstacy. It's *bizarre*.

*shusu has permanent exception to this rule because she's doing things with her rentboy au that I've never seen done before and also because, to me, she set up a universe where I could see John Sheppard doing this and still be John Sheppard. Also, no humiliation moments that seem so rife in other fic. Also, Jesus, hot.

But other than that--okay, admittedly, I don't get the attraction. Since it's not my kink, I can't go to that mental place very well or easily--frankly, shusu tricked me. I'm fairly certain this is one of the things I Just Don't Get because to me, I cannot imagine anyone taking it up willingly. Totally a me-thing. And it's a me-thing that is totally scraping my nerves raw when I see it, because it always seems to be paired with a fairly high level of humiliation like this is some sort of punishment for the character in question for whatever the author doesn't like about them in canon. Not always, and probably not even most of the time, but it does feel like it sometimes.

Right. Done here.



This has been A Moment of Random Fanfic Bitchery. Please return to your porn writing, plz.

Comments

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I think--and by think, I'm sure--that because the rentboy thing isn't a kink, it just breaks down for me altogether. This isn't a bash of the kink itself, just--it's hard to put in words without it sounding judgemental, because seriously, I'm not judging anyone's kink (speaking as she with a psychotic killer au thing going on)--it's just I can't get around the fact that in most rentboy fics, it *is* shown as degradation and humiliation. The category of power exchange and games makes sense to me, but like slavery, prostitution simply doesn't fall into a place I can find it anything other than horrifying and painful. If I shared it, it would probably be a lot easier for me to accept some rentboy characterizations as possible; but because I can only see it as something that's horrifying, something that most people would never want to do, almost any character put into that position simply does not ever seem in character in any way.

Again, exceptions to the above. Especially if it's in regard to canonical prostitution etc.

(Again, speaking as she with the serial killer au.)

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

I can completely see what you are talking about. If when I was reading I couldn't shake up the sutextual humiliation--which is a problem I have with other genres--I would have no pleasure in reading this stuff either. When I write or read power kink--humor, too--I have to turn off a part of my mind, the part that sees the creepy subtext, and just ignore it. Humor is the worst for me, as I can usually see right through it to the author's issues. That's where I will frequently be unintentionally squicked.