Happy Monday

I wanted to meme before the big day.

Not yet, Brutus.. not yet..

I’m gonna do a thesis on fanfiction comparison (English fics v.s simplified Chinese fics) this semester, and my title is something like “Love like warmth in winter v.s I want to kill and and eat your heart: a comparison on the depiction of BL relationship in fanfiction”

(I do know that fics in English have a fair share of non-con/gore/and stuff, but the focus is that 95% fics in Chinese are very icky.)

Thoughts on why a good portion of fics are overwhelmingly icky to the general populace?

I'm not Chinese so I cannot speak with any authority on why Chinese fic tends to lean more willingly into dark/consumptive/violent depictions of love, but I absolutely have theories concerning why lots of fic in English/American fic is so neutered and coffeeshoppy.

There are a few likely factors, but imo the biggest is capitalism and its intersection with western individualism. The west is VERY concerned to making money and being palatable. Even non profitable creative ventures like fanfiction are subject to the pressures of an anonymous audience, and creators are terrified of isolating potential readers so they try to cast the widest net possible in order to offend as few people as they can.

This ties into Western Individualism where people's identities are inextricably linked to what they create, because the west laminates the Artist onto the Art, implying anyone who enjoys dark content MUST be advocating for that content irl, or else is just an immoral person. This belief casts a cultural macarthyism on fandoms, where engaging with this sort of content (let alone creating it) results in real world consequences: social ostracization , harassment, doxxing, etc.

So, as a result creators in the west kowtow to the angry mobs by writing the most widely appealing, broadly inoffensive content they can, to avoid being attacked.

In my experience in Eastern fandoms (and also Russian fandoms, interestingly enough) there is very little social implication within those spaces that enjoying or writing dark content means anything at all about the artists morality, and so artists feel more freedom to write whatever. I assume this creates a fandom cultural norm that creates fandom conventions: in the west people are afraid of writing anything but happy ending tropey coffee shop AUs so happy ending tropey coffee shop AUs become a staple in fanon and therefore a fandom convention so everyone is expected to write one, thus saturating the fandom. The same thing is likely happening with noncon/gore as a staple in other fandoms--the freedom to write it creates more of it which creates a pressure, or at least the norm of writing it.

Lastly, I think its important to note that also China and Russia are countries where homosexuality, in practice, is criminalized. People from these countries have a different relationship to slashfic/BL/gay love stories than in the West, where LGBTQ people are protected by the law, but also are pandered to as a marketing group through the lens of capitalism. Gay love stories in countries where gay love is dangerous and fraught and unspeakable are just going to inevitably look different for cultural reasons, than gay love stories told in countries that can profit off of them.

Lastly--not sure if you're aware, but "icky" is not a very fair or accurate word to describe Chinese textual themes that seem to make you uncomfortable.

someone: what inspires you?

me: lesbians. woman. wet pussy noises. having sex with a woman. yearning. being horny. masturbating. horny thoughts

the writers looked into her baby blue eyes and said 'we're going to give this woman so much trauma'

"FN-2187. So good to have you back."

"use chatgpt" that's the devil talking. buy four caffeinated drinks and pull an all nighter. this is the way.

OH WOW

No to be a slut but i need a middle aged woman to tell me they’re proud of me and that I’m doing good and kiss my forehead

Tim Burton: Weems had a crush on Gomez

meanwhile: