Oh, wow. I'm feeling vicious tonight.

[anenko]

I'm trying to get my mind off of things with a bit of quick and dirty porn. Unfortunately, everything I'm currently writing insists on plot. I despair.

Instead of writing smut, I went off in search of reading material.

Comments

[geekturnedvamp]

One theory is that it's a form of feminization, so a male/male first time anal sex with blood/pain/tears sequence is equated with the traditional perception of female loss of virginity & tearing the hymen. (Not that this always happens in reality, obviously, or that females having sex for the first time can't use lube, but if these guys were using lube you wouldn't get all the blood & pain... so if that's the purpose, they can't have lube.) Alternately, yeah, I would go with it's a pain kink (and/or a size kink) thing.

[anenko]

Hmm. Yes, I suppose I can see that reasoning. It's not one that I like, but it's a pattern some m/m writers do fall into.

I've read plenty of het deflowering scenes in romance novels (let us not talk about my Catherine Coulter stage), but the screams of agony in fic do seem a bit excessive.

There are all sorts of tropes and cliches that annoy me in fandom, but it's fascinating to think of what might be behind them. I hate the seme/uke dynamic in animanga fandoms, for example, but someone suggested that extreme uke-fication has similarities to Mary Sue.

Making those connections makes it easier to shrug off the things that annoy me. /tangent

[pseudo_tsuga]

For the crying bit, I've heard people say they like it because they have a thing for overwhelming, emotional experiences where the situation is so much they can't help but cry.

[anenko]

*nods* Crying itself doesn't bother me. It's the "fuck me without lube!" which then leads to tears and agony. I find it interesting to see how much stress is put on the *pain.* It's like. . . surprise pain!kink in what was a standard romantic setup.

[pseudo_tsuga]

Yeah, that is much different. :| I haven't seen stuff like that in a while, probably because I've been reading mostly recced stuff for a while.

[tucuxi]

These are the same kinds of fic (often) that have angsty/suicidal characters, modern American music references and absolutely no concern for characterization.

Aka. "I'm writing Naruto fic, I swear, not auto-biographical fic!" or "I'm going to emotionally blackmail my readers into some kind of response so they HAVE TO comment!"

Or, I don't even know.

I just. People, sex does not have to be painful. Really, it doesn't. And if you have your characters insist on fucking dry and then tell me how painful it is, I'm not going to think "OH no, poor *insert character name here*" or "Wow, look how much they love each other, isn't this proof that A loves B, to volunteer for this much pain?" No. I'm going to think "Wow, author. You're an idiot."

[anenko]

I'd really liked the fic up until the sex scene.

There are so many ways for your characters to get off. Penetration isn't the be-all and end-all of sex. And if you truly believe that it is, you're the author--give the damned characters lube!

Not only does it make the character going through all that pain an idiot, but it makes the character on top. . . kinda creepy. I don't think I'd be able to continue if my partner were screaming and crying in pain. (Disclaimer: does not apply to all kinks.)

Hell, I'd rather have a fic where the characters think that soap or blood make good lube rather than agonizingly painful dry sex.

[tucuxi]

Unfortunate when something like that happens, isn't it, and a fic goes from "I'm having fun reading!" to "WTF?" in a moment.

I think some of the obsession with penetrative sex is a holdover from heterosexual sex. A lot of people don't consider anything short of penetrative sex "real" sex, so why would you stop short of the real thing, even if your bodies aren't quite built for it? I ♥ authors who write intercrural sex, and other non-penetrative sex. Because, really, the formulaic "one finger, two fingers, three fingers, cock" sex scene gets really old after a while.

If it's a kink thing, the pain, and it's well-written, that's one thing. But this kind of thing just makes me wince.

Of course, I always wince at soap, too. Haven't you ever had your mouth washed out with soap, dear soap-as-lube authors? It's not fun!

[anenko]

I wish there was more variety in het fic. Het fic is all about penetration, and it really doesn't have to be.

This is *fandom.* We're writing about ninjas, and mutants, and wizards. These characters could be having really awesome sexual encounters without laying a single hand on their partners!

I am amazed by the things fic authors use as lube. Vodka! Peanut butter! I wouldn't be remotely surprised if some dumb character used glue. There's an entire LJ community devoted to bad lube. I'm sure they see a lot of business.

[thawrecka]

I've always assumed things like that are a bizarre holdover from horrifying assumptions about hetero sex but I can't see the appeal, either.