seperis | 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.

The rent-boy thing is a variation of the power kink, and a close cousin of both slave fic and the cinderella story. It's fantasy powerlessness, where the RB doesn't have to make choices or decisions, except for the one where they chose to sell themselves, which is of course a bad, bad choice and they end up pawns for anyone who wants to abuse them. Enter the Significant Other, who sweeps in and STILL keeps all of the power, rescuing them from the one choice --which was a bad, bad choice--that they actually made.

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.

The rent-boy thing is a variation of the power kink, and a close cousin of both slave fic and the cinderella story. It's fantasy powerlessness, where the RB doesn't have to make choices or decisions, except for the one where they chose to sell themselves, which is of course a bad, bad choice and they end up pawns for anyone who wants to abuse them. Enter the Significant Other, who sweeps in and STILL keeps all of the power, rescuing them from the one choice --which was a bad, bad choice--that they actually made.

That's pretty much the reason I dislike most fic in this category. I've rarely seen it done in a way that wasn't supposed to be humiliating to the rentboy character: personal humiliation, where their entire worth seems to be wrapped up in how well they spread their legs, except for The Significant Other Who Sees Their True Nature But Not Until They've Banged Them a Few Times. Beyond that, it's (almost) invariably done not to the character himself, but on the basis of the physical attractiveness of the character in question. To me, it's--I don't know. I guess another form of character-bashing.

YMMV.

For me, a bashing story for me is one where I can see the author hammering on the character and using the story to do it--you know, the post-trinity fic phenomenon (http://iibnf.livejournal.com/1328223.html). And I have a hard time seeing that in a true RentBoy powerlessness kink story, yet at the same time, I can see exactly what you mean. As we're dealing with fantasy powerlessness here, there's a very fine line on all of this stuff, and if the story's meta attitude is 'this is a true statment about what the character is like', then yeah, it's going to be bashing because there is no way these characters are like that. But if the meta attitude is 'powerlessness! whee!', and no attempt is made to say something 'true' about the character, then I can roll with it at that level. I much, much, much prefer it to not try to justify the kink, to not make it realistic and tied to reality; that usually just gives me the creeps. If for you, this RB stuff and reality and 'saying something true about the characters' -- then yeah! Ick. No way would I go for that.

I am happiest when there's a lot of fantasy mixed with my kink.

Some people actually like realism for itself and are not just doing it to try and "justify a kink".

Realism is a kink in and of itself, yes. It's not one of my kinks, but it works for those that are into it.

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.)

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.

Right. Just, that's not what you said before. You made it out as if any attempt as realism is only justification for the things you described above.

Hmm. Take whatever I say about realism to be garbled and in need of clairification, as it's a big kink for you, and a serious anti-kink for me. Yet there's so much other stuff that we have in common, that it just seems like we should be on the same page about it.

I totally agree that a lot, maybe even most rentboy fic is about the powerlessness, etc. that you described. But I don't think realistic stuff necessarily has anything to do with that. For example, most of the heavily realistic stuff I can think of doesn't have one character "rescuing" the other in that Pretty Woman/Cinderella scenario (though there is one fic by

chaosmanor which is extremely realistic (she did loads of research) and unflinching in its portrayal of the sex industry, but also ends with the prostitute getting out of that life thanks to the other half of the pairing (though he's not a customer, but a driver for the brothel, so partially in the business himself) - and I really didn't like that ending). It's like, in terms of non-fanfic, there's Pretty Woman and there John Rechy's City of Night (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Night), and both are about prostitution, but not for the same reasons. So while an attempt at realism may be a way of "legitimising" specific kinks of the author's, it might also come from a desire to write a story about sex workers. I don't think all rentboy fic comes from the same place.

Oh, man, just reading your comment totally squicks me. Full body cringe and shudder. Instance it, and I'd probably be able to read it--and in fact I may even enjoy it--but the mental story I'm constucting, about a realistic potrayal of sex workers using my guys, gives me the creeps.

I think there is a difference betwee a 'rent!boy' story, which is the generic pretty woman story with a few twists and turns along the way, and a realistic portrait of sex workers. I don't think you can label them in the same way without there being a kerfuffle over it.

I use rentboy as a catch-all for any sort of prostitute fic when I'm talking about it, but I don't label fic by genre in that regard when I'm posting fic.

But yeah, the stories I'm thinking about are definitely not happy!fic, but rather bleak and just sort of "hanging on in quiet desperation" sort of thing. Which is something I really, really like, whether it's about sex workers or not.

See, if you took that 'hanging on in quiet desperation' fiction and set it as a post-appocolypse story (for some value of appocolypse), then I'd probably eat it up with a spoon--whether they were sex workers or not. It turns out that the labels we give these stories are important to me, as they set the context for how I'm supposed to interpret what I am reading, and the appocofic label gives me enough distance that I'm okay with it. (Or more than okay, see Your Cowboy Days are Over for a story about 'hanging on in quiet desperation' that I quite enjoyed. It's not about sex workers, but there is an element of that in the story as John sells his memories...)

I love post-apocalyptic stories, too.

I'm not big on labels, but I try to write a good summary, whose tone hopefully gives some idea of what sort of story it will be (title, too).

Well. *thinks*

Okay, how many people turn their favorite pet character into a prostitute? There's no way to get a good sampling on this one, but from reading it, it tends to be the love interest of the favorite character. It acts then in a lot of ways as a way to also show the Awesome of the Character Who Redeems The Rentboy From His Life of Darkness and Despair.

Again, exceptions of course. But I do think that's another facet of it.

Interesting! To me, in my experience, it's usually the Beloved Slash Object that's the prostitute/powerless one, which is also the POV we get, so we can revel in the helplessness of their situation and then the astonishment at being picked out as this incredibly special indiviual. I'm not sure that it would work the other way, to have the non-BSO as the powerless character, as too many people write from the 'I don't know what makes him tick, but my guy likes him, so I guess he's okay' position. And to me, that leads to some really uncomfortable writing, as the author doesn't try to understand the character and wear their skin, but takes an external position on the whole thing--and that's never good for me as that brief emotional distance lets me read too many uncomfortable things into a story.

I've written John Crichton in a position where all he has to offer is his body, a sign of co-operation in a very precarious and dangerous situation. It's a horrible choice, but it's a price he's willing to pay to get what he needs.

*grins* This isn't a blanket indictment of the genre.

And I've written rentboy, and it hits every one of my own squicks.

Mmm, I was more answering your rhetorical question with the closest I've come to the topic rather than offering up any substantive contribution to your post. 'Cause I'm tangential that way.

;D

ooo... where can I find it? It sounds interesting. I don't read nearly enough Farscape fic.

It's the third (very long) story in a series, an A/U branching off during the third season and in place of the fourth season.
Very. Very. Dark.

Stepford Life
http://www.shriftweb.org/leviathan/archive/7/stepfordlife.html
An unconventional couple challenge, meant to be a one-off (4 KB)

Stepford Lies
http://www.shriftweb.org/leviathan/archive/7/stepford.html
A semi-sequel expansion, meant to be standalone (36 KB)

Stepford Leman
http://www.shriftweb.org/leviathan/archive/7/stepford2.html
Sequel to Stepford Lies (260 KB)

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in which i randomly attack a well-loved trope

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