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in which i randomly attack a well-loved trope
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.
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*.
*
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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,
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
Right. Done here.
This has been A Moment of Random Fanfic Bitchery. Please return to your porn writing, plz.
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It's not just a you thing. I know someone who works in the "sex industry" and no matter how many times I've asked her why she does it (she says she started it because of the money and now she loves it), I can't get into that mindset. I just can't. *shrug*
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I do agree that fics that start in the canon universe and then have the characters become prostitutes are much more likely to be badfic.
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And thanks for the reminder. I've thought long and hard about why certain kinds of light D/s can work for me -- it's that, it's just that: I do not want my characters to be humiliated, especially not sexually.
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You made me think
The product of my thinking is this:
1. [snif] I like Rent!Boy!
2. Wait. Have I ever read a realistic treatment of Rent!Boy? (Blair Sandburg drug-addicted on the streets of Cascade does not count.)
3. Given how much "Pretty Woman," "Irma LaDouce" and Inara Serra have to answer for, what are the odds I have any idea what a "realistic treatment" would entail?
4. BUT I LIKE RENT!BOY!
5. Have I ever seen a story where a John or Rodney or Jim or Blair or
Methos that I saw in canon (wait--I could actually buy Methos doing literally anything, he's had 5000 years to practice; so scratch him)was convincingly a rent boy?6. shutupShutUpSHUTUP.
In conclusion: I need more caffeine to climb out of this festering pit of resentment. Also, I still like rent!boy, I just don't believe in him quite as much as I do Dr. Sheppard or Constable McKay.
Also...
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However. I can easily see it in AUs (subcategory:college, subcategory:highschool, subcategory:runaway, category:angst) where the character is desperate, about to be turned out on the street, kicked out of house/school, homeless, addicted, whatever. There are circumstances where I can see "Okay, given these circumstances, it is not completely unrealistic to me that Character X would make this decision (or have this choice forced upon him/her)." For instance,
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I love RB fic, and one of the things about shusu's story is that she doesn't take the power away from the sex workers. They aren't forced into it, the world doesn't conspire against them to have put them in that position. Each one made the decision to be there from a position of power in their lives, and because it fit with something they wanted. It's not a bad, bad choice, and the sex workers still have some power. It twists the regular dynamic, which is what makes it so awesome.
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Just wanted to add that the above line made me really, really happy.
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I'm having trouble figuring out how you (or anyone else) is supposed to distinguish between kinkfic and not-kinkfic and thus, when it's "okay" to make a character a hooker. Oh, no, this fic has serious moments in it, is over 2000 words, doesn't turn me on, must strike hooker plot?
Also, while there may be people who get into prostitution because they sat down one day and thought about their skill set and what kind of careers were open to them, I don't think that's the typical path. It seems like an odd standard to hold fictional characters to.
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Clark during the summer he ran away to Metropolis.
Harper from Andromeda (that one was apparently canon in the creators' minds)
Ryan on The O.C. if he hadn't called Sandy
But like I said, it's one of my kinks *g*
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this comment is a lot shorter than I want it to be
I am tempted to publicly state my dirty, dark secret about Rentboy AU. But I'm not done with it yet (yes, I finally got over one of the major roadblocks and am kicking it around again), so I won't open my big fat Authorial Intent mouth until the readers have had their way with it.
(Shush,
However I will say that I do research for Rentboy AU. I look into places that disgust me, into lives I would never wish on anyone. And it goes along with my Fandom Manifesto (scattered all over my LJ like so much leaf litter). I think the last time I said it clearly was in my angst essay (http://shusu.livejournal.com/801051.html) (and probably glancingly in my 'honesty is the best porn' (http://shusu.livejournal.com/903366.html) statement.)
My personal problem with this metaphorical pain is that for some people it is not a metaphor.
FWIW + YMMV.
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In a fantasy world where skeevy johns don't exist (and prostitutes keep their earnings), it's a doable 'weekend' job for an orphaned college student with dependent younger siblings.
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Dashing off for a moment.
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*Icarus goes to haunt
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According to the estimable Dr. Drew Pinsky, who is generally very well-informed and non-judgmental about these things, women who become prostitutes *always* have a background of sexual abuse at the hands of a male authority figure at some time during their formative years. It's a job built on the terrible traumatization of a child. The inside of a prostitute's head is not a pleasant place to be, no matter how chipper, upbeat, or matter-of-fact she seems to be about her situation. They do not think well of men and they are not happy people -- frankly, it's better to flip burgers, but it doesn't sound like that's a viable choice for these broken women -- if I remember correctly, they need to punish men (by making them lose all control and behave "like pigs instead of human beings" as one ex-hooker being interviewed put it) and they need to punish themselves (by treating themselves like an object, a "thing.") No idea if this holds true for male prostitutes, Dr. Drew seemed to be talking about women only when I've heard him speak on the subject.
A lot of ex-prostitutes seem to go in for becoming born-again Christians or evangelists, giving control of their lives over to a higher being, like Linda Lovelace or Laurin Chapin, the youngest daughter on Father Knows Best who was forced into prostitute after the show was canceled.
Mrs. Warren's Profession
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metafandom made me do it
I think it's another facet of the way we seem enjoy humiliating characters before love heals them.
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It's when grown men who have done other kind of work and lose their job and jump into being a hooker that i have trouble believing it.
Then there are exceptions to this - one of the best is a PROS au -"NIGHT MOVES" by Courtney Gray- where Bodie had chosen the profession and becomes quite wealthy with it - but this might not count as RENTBOY fic because Bodie is very in control with it- choosing who and what he will do.
Just peeking out of lurkdom - back i go.
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Here from <lj user="metafandom">
And by way of contrast, there are a whole raft of women who will do *anything* - scrub toilets, gut chickens, sell the Big Issue, work three jobs at once - to keep body and soul together, but they would *never* go on the streets.
Now obviously, that's a moral/ethical/self-worth judgement on their part. But IRL the people who are desperate but *don't* turn to prostitution are making a judgement of that type. So for it to work in a fic with a developed character, the question would have to be - "would that character make that judgement - to reject prostitution as a means of earning money."
Jack Harkness, to take one of the examples above, almost certainly wouldn't make that judgement. Prostitution would not be any more odious to this character than scrubbing toilets or gutting chickens as a job to pay the rent, and the money might be the deciding factor.
Again with Dean. The character probably wouldn't see whoring as being any worse than thieving or begging. It would just be doing what he had to do.
However, I can't see the squeamish Rodney selling his body. I can't see the upright Mack Taylor selling his body (not that I've ever seen a fic with that premise). I can't see Martha Jones selling her body, but I could see situations in which a young Rose Tyler - no qualifications, not confident, dead end job - might have gone down that path.
Outside of a crack!fic world, or specific AU's (such as where the character is very young and abandoned in the world) that would be the test for me.
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