Slash and parenting was Re: Responses to

[pippin_999 <foxmoth@qnet.com>]

Diana> The truth is that some parents will not want their children 
to be exposed to gay pairings, regardless if actual intercourse is 
or is not described, between characters the children and the 
adults have grown to love in a image that doesn't fit that 
scenario. That doesn't make the parents homophobes.<<

John:

>>Honestly, what other motivations could the parents have than 
homophobia? Sofar, nobody has been able to quote a *rational* 
explanation for this theoretical parental dislike. Again, if it is
not a 
rational dislike, it isan irrational dislike. A phobia. 
Homophobia.<<

Me:
I think this is overstating the case. An irrational dislike is *not* 
the same as a phobia. A phobia is pathological. Furthermore I 
don't think that one can extrapolate from reading material to real 
life.

For example, I dislike the  Harry/Hermione pairing. I avoid it in 
fics because a) it doesn't turn me on, and it annoys me to "read 
diagonally" (what a wonderful phrase!) paragraphs of "pumpkin 
pie"  obviously intended for that purpose, and b) it reads OOC to 
me. Plenty of people have told me this is irrational <g>. 

I don't deny it, but I don't think it means I'm diseased. It doesn't 
carry over to real life, AFAIK. Many delightful people have real-life 
relationships very similar to the imagined H/H pairing and I don't 
avoid or fear them in any way. They just don't remind me of Harry 
and Hermione at all.

As for the parents' concern, if Diana  only knows what 
she could learn from the media, I'd bet that when she thinks of 
"gay pairings" in HP she means stories written by heterosexual 
women for the purpose of titillation, and face it, she wouldn't lose 
that impression by scanning the blurbs on FA. You don't need 
R-rated language to be suggestive.

 I know there are as many reasons to write slash as het and as 
many reasons to include a gay character as a straight one. Still, 
I have read many a fic which, though not at all explicit, has as its 
theme the progress of an irresistible physical attraction that 
sweeps everything out of its path.

Such fics, however valuable in themselves, might be a poor 
introduction to the topic of gay relationships, or any relationships, 
especially if you think they *should* be about more than sex, sex, 
sex. I can see where a parent might consider that unwholesome, 
especially when it involves characters which the parent has 
already encouraged the child to see as role models. If, as Diana 
might, you think that's what's out there, it's reasonable to be 
concerned. 

While gay characters are now an unremarkable  feature of 
mainstream fiction, I don't think that's true of mainstream 
children's fiction as yet (correct me if I am wrong.) Which means, 
sadly, that kids don't get a lot of countervailing imagery out there 
about wholesome gay relationships, and that could make HP 
slash,*as it is popularly conceived*, a  concern. I would like this 
very much to be a needless concern, but  insisting SLASH IS 
NOT SEX, while true, is not going to change anyone's mind.

Pippin