Thank you
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flo_nelja for making this challenge up, I’ve had some internal questions recently and I’m hoping these reflective moments will help me sort them out. Also, Sorry
flo_nelja I’m posting them all at once because I don’t have your discipline!
- First time you encountered canon femslash
It's hard to know. I wasn't sheltered from much as a child (not in a bad way, I was just a feral country girl whose family were hippies). There may have been something earlier but the one that made the most impact was watching 'Tipping the Velvet' when I was about 11 years old.
- First times you encountered femslash shipping
I discovered femslash shipping at about the same time as I discovered shipping! There was femslash in one of my first fandoms. Outside of my headfics (which did not centre around shipping), I think I was a latecomer to fanfics and fandom communities. I would have been in my late teens or early 20s?
- Is femslash the main part of your fandom life?
No. The overwhelming majority is het or non-romantic/non-sexual (non-slash?) stuff.
- Have you already started a canon just because you knew there would be femslash shipping opportunities?
I never start any canon expecting to ship anything. I just fall into shipping accidentally and not very often.
- Canon, subtext, or make-everything-work-by-yourself ships?
Generally I like when authors (myself included) work with the subtext, it makes it feel like something new but expected is happening
- A femslash ship you feel like you're alone in shipping
I don't have a lot of ships. Most of them I 'discover' through other people's work so I obviously can't be alone in shipping them.
- Did you see a change in femslash fandom since the time you started fandom?
Personally, from the femslash works I have read over the years from the fandoms I've been interested in (so a tiny tiny corner of the internet) I have noticed that femslash has literally gotten bigger. I used to only come across drabbles that were around 1000 words or less, and now I'm getting to read 30,000+ words where the femslash is the main component of the story!
- Some femslash poly ships? What are your opinions about f/f/m poly?
I'm okay with it. I haven't seen many, and I've generally come across the f/f/m from following the f/m pairing.
- Do you feel like shipping femslash is different from shipping slash, het or other? How?
Harder to find? The fandom I'm currently in has opportunities for femslash (and one pairing is a ship I like) but there isn't much fic, but then there is also barely any slash in this fandom either. Actually there is more femslash using original characters than the canon characters being shipped!
- Favourites tropes for femslash ships?
Late night bonding activities! (hahaha I only have one favourite trope I can think of right now)
- Fluff, humor, angst, or smut?
angst, humour and some smut
- Are there some m/m or m/f ships that you love genderswapped as f/f?
Not a fan of genderswapping - though I have appreciated it sometimes in some A/B/O works
- Did you already write original femslash? If so, what was it about? If not, what would it be about if you did? If you would never, why?
No, I haven't written femslash before. I haven't actually written much shipping stuff, I put it in the subtext! I would be open to writing femslash if inspiration takes me. I did offer several femslash pairings for the Chocolate Box challenge, but I wasn't matched on them. Once my crazy February is over I might go back and make those people femslash treats!
- Favorite femslash ship of all times
I have no idea???
- A guilty pleasure
Reunion fics. These can be romantic or non-romantic and I like them so much! The characters have been separated and now they are no longer!
- A fandom where I have so many femslash ships
Mad Max: Fury Road
- A femslash pairing I like on principle without even being in the fandom
I'm sort of blind to fandoms I'm not in, like, I don't think deeply about their canon or anything. So I can't think of one. On the other hand I can't think of a slash or het pairing I like on principle without being in the fandom. BUT I like any aromantic character on principle! (unless they betray us and end up getting into ship)
- A character I headcanon as lesbian/wlw without having big ships with her
I mostly headcanon characters to be aromantic, and the few I do headcanon as lesbian/wlw is because I have ships. Looking at my media collection though, I guess Adèle from The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (Les Aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec)
- Rec day! Canon or fics, as long as it's femslash! Or even shippable!
Amazing work was done in the Mad Max fandom but I can't rec any directly right now because I read them before I knew what bookmarks were and my saved files are a mess.
- Do you like your femslash homophobia-free?
Preferably, but I do like when bigots get their comeuppance.
- Thoughts about lesbian tragedy and bad endings?
The same as any other sort of tragedy or bad ending, I have to be in the mood for sad. Though I haven't actually seen that many, I find the authors love their characters too much to have a really tragic ending, or maybe I just avoid the really tragic ones.
- Thoughts about (purely fictional!) lesbian unhealthy relationships?
An unhealthy relationship is an unhealthy relationship. I read bad relationships mostly if they are based on pure lust, but it has to be in a narrow window of entertaining 'acceptable unhealthy' because my default mentality for any dodgy relationship is to say "Why are you bothering?!" and fly the aromantic flag high.
- Historical, fantasy or sci-fi? (or, if none of the above, what and why?)
I guess fantasy or sci-fi? Thinking over all my fandoms, I tend to favour mundane/procedural canon a lot too.
- A time where a canon really surprised you, in a good (and femslash) way
Hannibal (TV show). I was not expecting season 3 to do what it did, even though it clearly could have done more.
- A time where a canon really disappointed you (in a femslash or lack of femslash way)
Wonder Woman. So many lost opportunities.
- What do you love the most, and what do you love the least, about femslash fans?
Personally, all the femslash fans I interact with are some of the nicest people. Sure, there are plenty of nice people in slash and het, but it is like you have a filter that blocks all the annoying, highly-ungrammatical, request-but-make-no-offers, and insane SJW from your communities.
- Very last time you encountered canon femslash. Was it a surprise or were you looking for it?
The one to come to mind is The Favourite (2018) but that was sort of obvious what I was going to be seeing. Oh, and Thelma (2017) which was more of a surprise because I saw that movie without knowing anything except it was going to be Norwegian (I saw it in 2020).
- Now answer the important question about femslash I've forgotten to ask.
What is the important question? Haven't you covered everything quite well already? or am I just too aromantically oblivious to more pressing shipping questions? 😆
no subject
on 2022-02-03 06:40 am (UTC)Wow, all in a row!
Can I ask some characters you headcanon as aromantic?
Yeah, you read Adèle Blanc-Sec!
because my default mentality for any dodgy relationship is to say "Why are you bothering?!" and fly the aromantic flag high
I'm now curious about whether you would read a non-romantic unhealthy relationship. Former friends or family you can't abandon even if they turned bad.
Oh, you have seen Thelma! How did you like it?
no subject
on 2022-02-03 11:03 pm (UTC)Really, Adèle could be aromantic, but I can also see her being wildly in love.
Other aromantic headcanons would be:
Dean from Supernatural (this is a obvious one, and one much beloved by many aros), Kirk from any version of Star Trek, and Selena from 28 Days Later.
Most other aro character headcanons I have are somewhat villain-coded like Light Yagami from Death Note, or Maleficent. (Because movie studios seem to think aro/ace life is unrelatable and easy to demonify)
I do read non-romantic unhealthy relationships, and I like them as long as there is some support/healing/working through issues going on (looking at you From Dusk Til Dawn) but if it is just abusive and they use love as a tool of control I will drop the story, ...and probably think the character is stupid depending on the circumstances. My most hated trope is 'They are your father/family/oldest friend, you have to give them another chance' because nope, you really don't if they are hurting you.
Thelma was so great going into not knowing anything! It was mesmerising and fun trying to work out what was going on then the moment with the strand of hair was so powerful when I did figure it out! The lighting design was spectacular too. Thinking about it now (thanks to your questions!) I realise the bits I got distracted in, like the concert hall scene, was because my experience is basically the opposite: Thelma wanted to but couldn't, while I had to but didn't want to. So I watched it and admired the architecture!
Edit: Here is a discussion of arospec headcanons if you are interested in seeing more
no subject
on 2022-02-04 06:06 am (UTC)Thank you!