I can't decide if this is meta or a rant...

[lyssie]

I've been seeing this... I don't know if I'd call it a trend, but perhaps it is one? But, basically, there's been comments in fandom_secrets and other places that generally boil down to:

No one writes the femslash I want to read.

Which is all well and good, but--look. What does that even mean?

Comments

[havocthecat]

I guess I am just as good at telepatically broadcasting my secret fandoms as Troi was at being an empath.

Do we really have to start the comments out by denigrating a female character?

[havocthecat]

I don't think it's good form to go around slamming on female characters in general, but it's especially bad in a discussion of femslash, which is basically the only place in fandom that is all about women.

I mean, yes, I agree with you on other points, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let something I am very much against go uncommented on because of that.

[havocthecat]

No one writes the femslash I want to read.

Which is all well and good, but--look. What does that even mean?

Is it your fandom? Your pairing? The type of fic? Are you looking for curtains and fpreg and gun battles and existentialist arguments about the meaning of life when you have multiple bodies?

I don't know, because rarely do the people making the complaints bother to explain.

Honestly? My 100% honest, not nice at all opinion is that people think saying that is a nice way to make it LOOK like you'd be interested in fic about women, if only those darn femslashers would just read your mind and write what the commenter wanted.

Because it's a lot easier to say "no one writes the femslash I like" than to go out there, find the femslashers, engage with them, and find out what kind of femslash is out there and being written

[miss_prince]

Honestly? My 100% honest, not nice at all opinion is that people think saying that is a nice way to make it LOOK like you'd be interested in fic about women, if only those darn femslashers would just read your mind and write what the commenter wanted.

Not necessarily true. I read and write femslash almost exclusively. It's what I'm interested in; it's what I care about. But I have made comments to this effect before -- not that there's no one writing the kind of femslash I want to read, because that's really not true, but that there's a certain style of writing typical to a lot of (particularly Western media-based, although it does spill over into other types) femslash that I find... incredibly boring.

And it's sort of hard to define. I guess it's the sort that doesn't really have a plot, and the language is lyrical but the characters don't feel particularly strong, either. It ends up being very bland. And weirdly enough, the two places I'd point for examples of this are the femslash_today links (although I have found good stuff there on occasion

[havocthecat]

not that there's no one writing the kind of femslash I want to read, because that's really not true, but that there's a certain style of writing typical to a lot of (particularly Western media-based, although it does spill over into other types) femslash that I find... incredibly boring.

Hrm. I see your point! But I would also like to point out that you do find what you're looking for, if not as frequently as you'd prefer. Which is a shame, because it sounds like you're interested in some very-- I don't know, maybe intense-sounding? Is that the right word for the fics you're interested in? Plot-heavy? Would you mind giving examples of what you like? Because I'm curious now

[lyssie]

YES. Like, I do sometimes sit and whine (aloud, or to, like, Blue or Grey or someone) about how no one is writing me Kara/Kendra. BUT. I can find some if I look, and I can write it myself, or I can go dig up old BSG femslash links and get distracted by other pairings.

[jlh]

Well, first, people are always complaining on f!s that no one writes what they want to read. It's a whole thing

[leavethesky]

Actually, I think that the thing they're criticizing is the strength of femslash at the moment. Rather than one type of fic in one particular fandom (although there are definitely more popular fandoms at any given moment, subject to change), there's a variety of styles, pairings, fandoms, etc. Would I like to see even more variety? Of course, but just like in mainstream publishing, there are trends as far as style too. One writer writes a knockout fic with TONS of feedback and suddenly everyone is mimicking their style and writing for that fandom. I think that's a good thing

[ariestess]

Femslash today is awesome, but it's just a list of what's out there. I'm much more willing to take chances on writers and fandoms I'm not familiar with based on a rec from someone I trust.

And I think you've hit a big nail on the head here for me. I'll take recs from someone I trust for fandoms I'd otherwise not know or never touch. And while I may bitch internally about it occasionally, I'm grateful to thenewhope for setting up femslash_today as an "inclusive" list rather than a recs-type list. It forces me to list all the femslash that is on the watchlist, rather than making judgment calls on some of the things that IMO try to pass as femslash.