the usual randomosity

1. A very happy (and belated) birthday to msscribe!

2. Am signing puppy up for obedience school. Fortuitously, a new session is going to begin this Thursday. However, who ends up training who remains to be seen. He is the most willful little thing I've ever seen.

3. It's odd, but I haven't thought about OotP all that much. I mean ... I'm sure I'll devour it in no time flat, but as for thinking about it and anticipating ... not so much. Which is a strange thing for an anticipater like me. But I'll just be thankful for it, because otherwise I think I'd go batty.

4. The thing I lost from the whole Crashing Upside Down Into a Ditch incident that I miss most (other than, like, my car and five years of my life) is my Hem CD. Must replace soon.

5. Many thanks to blazefury for the icon! Mmmmmmmdraco.

6. An appraiser is coming to the house tomorrow and of course the place is a STY. Will have to clean madly and do laundry tonight. I sure hope refinancing is worth all this, because you know, I normally derive a lot of enjoyment from procrastination. Oh, the other evil of refinancing: Being near all the animal cookies by the fax machine as I'm faxing things to the mortgage company. It's been carnage over there.

7.
Slytherin! You're classy to the core, favoring the
traditionally finest things the world has to
offer. While you may or may not be evil *wink*
you certainly have the power and attitude to
get what you want. You're clever as all heck,
and tend to be a couple steps ahead of even the
most astute Ravenclaw.

A More Unique Hogwarts Sorting Quiz
brought to you by Quizilla

explain slash exclusivity to me ... I beg of thee

I posted this in a non-fandom journal of mine, but after awhile it became clear that I'd need to take this to the source. Please keep in mind that I am genuinely interested in discussion about this topic, and if I seem ignorant, that's because this is a cry for enlightenment! So ... anything you can share would be appreciated.

I'm going to touch on a potentially hot-button topic. I wasn't going to write about it at all, but it's been on my mind so much that I can't not.

I have had this conversation with both vatrixsta and corianderstem, but I have yet to gain full understanding. Perhaps gnrationfo can offer some insight, because he is infinitely wise and likes to scare people. That second part really has nothing to do with anything, it's simply true. <g>

The HP fandom ... maybe all fandoms ... 95 percent of m/m slash fans are women. Many (most?) of these women are heterosexual. (Or even if they weren't, it still doesn't help me understand.) Now -- I can plainly see why picturing two hot guys (in this case, Harry and Draco) getting it on would be a turn on. I mean -- hello. Yum. BUT. To the exclusion of all else? To the exclusion of any het sex? Now, it's my personal feeling (being on the fringes of the fandom) that the slash subculture in HPdom is deemed "superior" to het. Harry/Draco is waaaaay more "respectable" (for lack of a better word) than nearly any other pairing, it seems to me. (Draco/Ginny, I get points for being UC; lose points for being boring het.)

So is it just that slashers find het fic boring, particularly in the fandom, which tends, much (not all) of the time, toward romantic banality? i.e., Your typical schmoopy romance? But if that's the case, I'd have to take issue with it, because -- hello, TONS of H/D fic is schmoopy and angsty and reads like a boring romance, just like het fic -- but w/ the key fact that it's H/D. So is it the fact that it's Harry and Draco that is supposed to make the schmoop avant garde, risque, titillating, unique? But that might be another question entirely.

Here is my actual question, which I had meant to ask before going off all rantingly. <g> What is the attraction for a heterosexual (or even gay, I suppose) female who ONLY enjoys m/m slash? As I've said before, enjoying m/m slash as part of your overall sexual repertoire, I totally get. But to the exclusion of all else -- that I don't get. at. all. It would be just as weird to hear about a gay man who only enjoyed reading het sex. To break it down:

Gay man + likes reading het sex + likes reading m/m slash = fine
Het woman + likes reading het sex + likes reading m/m slash = fine
Gay man + likes reading m/m slash + doesn't like reading het sex = fine
Het woman + likes reading het sex + doesn't like reading m/m slash = fine
Gay man + likes reading het sex + doesn't like reading m/m slash = ???
Het woman + likes reading m/m slash + doesn't like reading het sex = ???

(There are also the gay woman and the het man to consider, but for the purposes of simplicity, I'll stop there.) And in these cases, when I say "like," I mean "turned on by." I have heard it bantered around that "if you say that you don't like slash, it means you're homophobic." Before I started thinking about all this, I totally agreed -- at least w/ the spirit of that statement. Now I think there's a difference between "like" and "turned on by." I don't think someone has to be turned on by het or slash in order to be declared fully non-phobic. Do they???

I mean, like I said, I find H/D hot sometimes, but I need my het sex too. I can't imagine being a heterosexual woman and only want the boysex. What? Huh? So if I see a cute boy on the street, am I not thinking, "Man, I want that cute boy" but instead am thinking, "Man, I want to see that cute boy with that other boy over there"??? And if I were, say, watching the two boys having sex, and one of them suggested that I join in the festivities, would I be like, "No thanks, that would turn me right off"??? At least, w/ het men and their thing about f/f sex, they also like het sex. And many slashers do have a rounded profile. It's the heterosexual females who shun all het sex in favor of m/m slash that make me so confused.

I DON'T GET IT. I want to understand. This is like when I grilled leiliaxf about the whole "food cannot touch each other on a plate or I won't eat it" thing. It's completely boggling and fascinating to me. Anyone have any theories or views about this??? Actually, I know you do. Care to share with the clueless? <g>