Well, I can buy it, but it's very weird to see it again and again... But perhaps I've just happened upon it in two smutmas fics in a row and now think it's everywhere when it's actually... not :p
But I remember when I first entered fandom, there was one bottom!Snape fic. It was tiranog's Growing Pains. That was it.
I think this change (if it even is real) must have something to do with Snape becoming more human, more fucked up. He was much too cool and composed during the first few books ever to be a bottom ;)
Here via snapenews, and I think you're right. I remember when I first started lurking around fandom; there didn't seem to be any bottom!Snape fics (except, as you said, Growing Pains). It seems to be getting a lot more popular, which doesn't reeeally make sense to me in the wake of HBP. I was kinda hoping there'd be a surge in dominant, morally ambiguous top!Snape fics...*g*
I'm like son_of_darkness when it comes down to it. Bottom!Snape (especially in Snarry) just makes me go "Bzuh?!"
I remember the semi-early years of this pairing where there were nearly no fics with a bottom!Snape. I can recall the stories where, annoyingly, an innocent Harry mewled and arched his back at the merest touch while Snape had a Byronic hero complex and an impressive library more often than not. Whether the tide turned because of new developments in canon and fanon or bottom!Snape was created out of a vortex of inevitability calling for at least *some* SS/HP fics to have him doing that isn't a question I'm prepared to answer. I can say, though, that it seems like with each book his backstory has gotten richer, prompting authors to make him (as you wrote above) a much more human character and, therefore, one with just that much more potential
( ... )
(insert standard rant about dominant/penetrator/masculine/bossy/aggressive are not always the same thing, nor do people's sexual tastes predict or follow their other behaviour
( ... )
I fully agree that those terms do not instantly correspond to one another and your snippet is spot-on and delightful. Your point about Snape submitting so much to others outside of his romantic life is interesting. It reminds me of the first fic of yours that I recall reading, Both Sides Now, and how perfectly plausible both Harry and Snape's interactions were given how they were described in the story.
I'm sorry if what I wrote didn't express what I wanted to say clearly enough in the first comment. It was deleted before I could post it so I tried to rewrite everything as I remembered and perhaps lost some coherency in the process.
That wasn't a hit at you particularly--if anything, yours seemed to be some of the more intelligent comments... I was really reacting to the entire tone of the conversation drifting towards the 'too bossy to be a bottom' thing. Life isn't universally like that (or it wouldn't be a truism that there are powerful men who go to prostitutes to submit because they don't ordinarily, for example). I bet there are some people who are submissive in many different aspects of their life (work, romance, sex), but I'd also think it's not necessarily that common. Snape's attitude to power is probably quite complicated. I can see aspects of submission and dominance in canon!Snape, which leaves me mentally free to write him whichever way I want to. But I always try to offer a dissenting viewpoint whenever I see general agreement on something like this where people seem to be conflating bossy/top/masculine/penetrator/dominant as if people's personalities are always the same in all contexts, because I don't think that argument deserves to stand
( ... )
If you don't mind, could you send some of those stories my way? My OTP is Dom!Harry/anyone, and I'm sad to say that I haven't found nearly the amount of bottom!Severus you seem to have. If you're interested, I've got a site where I put top!Harry links:
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But I remember when I first entered fandom, there was one bottom!Snape fic. It was tiranog's Growing Pains. That was it.
I think this change (if it even is real) must have something to do with Snape becoming more human, more fucked up. He was much too cool and composed during the first few books ever to be a bottom ;)
Also - Hi! :) Having a good Christmas?
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I'm like son_of_darkness when it comes down to it. Bottom!Snape (especially in Snarry) just makes me go "Bzuh?!"
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I'm sorry if what I wrote didn't express what I wanted to say clearly enough in the first comment. It was deleted before I could post it so I tried to rewrite everything as I remembered and perhaps lost some coherency in the process.
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I was really reacting to the entire tone of the conversation drifting towards the 'too bossy to be a bottom' thing. Life isn't universally like that (or it wouldn't be a truism that there are powerful men who go to prostitutes to submit because they don't ordinarily, for example). I bet there are some people who are submissive in many different aspects of their life (work, romance, sex), but I'd also think it's not necessarily that common.
Snape's attitude to power is probably quite complicated. I can see aspects of submission and dominance in canon!Snape, which leaves me mentally free to write him whichever way I want to.
But I always try to offer a dissenting viewpoint whenever I see general agreement on something like this where people seem to be conflating bossy/top/masculine/penetrator/dominant as if people's personalities are always the same in all contexts, because I don't think that argument deserves to stand ( ... )
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http://web.mac.com/hazelwolf/iWeb/HazelWolf/List.html
If you've seen any I don't have, PLEASE gimme!
~Hazel
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