my late rant on slash and parenting, etc.

[Ebony <selah_1977@yahoo.com>]

John said, in response to Diana re: slash:

"I think that posing questions about the nature of
love, or the nature of war, or the nature of interpersonal 
relationships,
WILL cause all four of those things! That's what fanfiction ‹ and book
discussion ‹ is about! It's taking situations and characters about 
whom we
have preconceived notions and examining those preconceptions in the 
light of
differently-interpreted information. Information about characters and 
the
wizarding world from others' cultural and personal perspectives, 
whether
those perspectives are from an African-American woman (Ebony's 
narrator,
Angelina, in Trouble in Paradise), a gay man (my Oliver and Percy in
Keeper's Secrets), a Jane Austen fan (Heidi's Homage), a Buffy fan 
(Keith
Fraser's howlingly funny Ginny the Vampire Slayer).

"Reading Ebony's work and interacting with her on a fandom level HAS 
caused
me to grow as a person. It has increased my understanding of
African-American issues. It has reinforced my acceptance and 
tolerance of
people who are physically different from me. I am immensely grateful 
to
whatever fates or deities conspired to have our paths cross."


And reading John's work, becoming friends with him via the fandom, 
and watching him grow into an awesome young man over the past three 
years has helped me understand so much about gay issues and the 
struggle that they face.  He's taught me *so* much.

That is the beauty of fandom, IMO. 

I am not going to weigh in much on the whole slash debate, because 
after staying up until 3 a.m. to read almost 300 posts I don't have a 
real opinion about "why do people read slash?"  I just think some do 
and some don't.  While it's true that I read far more HP het than 
anything else, that's because my primary ship here is a het one.  I 
do follow some slashers; John and Alex are two of my favorites, and 
another, Aja, is on my soon-to-read list.  In many other fandoms 
where I am not active, but lurk, I read slash fanfic.  These fandoms 
include Hercules, Xena, Gargoyles, X-Men, and the Matrix.  

Having said that, I fully support slash HP fanfic's right to exist.  
In fact, one of the worst things that has happened to the fanfiction 
side of the fandom over the past year is that it's become more 
compartmentalized... I interact with slashers and read my slash lists 
a lot less than I did a year and a half ago, simply because of time 
and the fandom's expansion meaning that we all sometimes lose sight 
of each other.  I remember when there was hardly any slash in the 
fandom, and I welcome the upsurge.  We need the diversity, or else my 
favorite character Hermione becomes the slut of Hogwarts.  (Well, in 
femmeslash... *doesn't mention that coooool raspberry swirl site*)

But I don't understand why all the yelling about slash is going on.  
Where is all these explicit slash where kids can find it?  As a 
teacher, please let me know.  My slash writing friends would want to 
know as well.

Speaking of which, you do know that this conversation has a blatant 
double standard.  Why no outcry about explicit het fanfiction?  I 
could certainly point out lots of it, as I'm primarily a het reader 
in HP fandom and must troll far and wide to find good and non-plebey 
reads.  

Come to think of it, I first read about gay sex at age 13-14.  I 
think it was Jackie Collins, either *Lucky* or *The Boss*... 
certainly not a gay or lesbian writer.  Was I scarred?  No.  I was 
just fine... and kept on reading.  I was (and continue to be!) more 
disturbed by the murder scenes.

In fact, my own fanfiction has a strong R rating, and I wouldn't want 
my students to read.  My fanfiction also contains gay, lesbian, and 
bisexual characters.  I am trying to give more stage time to one 
lesbian couple in particular, as I'm interested in how their 
relationship will play out... both are Latina, and I am very 
interested in how gay women are focalized in Latin culture.  (Also 
have been reading a lot on Frida Kahlo lately.)  

That is why Heidi *kept mentioning* me, along with Viola, Lori, Barb, 
and other grownup het writers.  And I find it amusing that none of 
the "concerned" bring up het at all in these debates.  They almost 
never do.  I'm quite offended... why is no one saying that our work 
is antithetical to JKR's intent?

Homophobia *is* bigotry.  Plain and simple.

And as far as "parenting" is concerned... why has no one mentioned 
gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered parents?  Two of 
my "aunts", family friends and new members of the church I attend, 
are lesbians.  (London 2001 people--one of them is my braider!)  The 
choir director at my church is a gay man.  No one keeps them away 
from kids; the former raised four together.   They are good people 
and awesome parents.  And it makes me mad when people hate them and 
don't even know them.

(BTW, my church is awesome too--my pastor is one of the few straight 
black male pastors from the South that I know that is truly 
tolerant.  He's also brilliant--a Princeton Ph.D.  He's one of the 
few people who proves that one can be a Christian and not check their 
brain and soul at the door.  And that our faith SUPPOSEDLY 
says "whosoever will, let him come"... tired sigh.)

So as far as "levels of acceptable disclosure" are concerned, how 
long do they have to wait before they can be truly who they are in 
front of their kids?

In fact, as a teacher I can honestly say that all of the bad and 
sucky parents I've run into are (at least to my knowledge) 
heterosexual.  

And really, you have gay members of the fandom weighing in on this 
issue.  They're not talking fiction or something they've read; 
they're sharing their LIVES here.  People seem to be ignoring their 
pleas, even belittling their experience of coming out.  This makes me 
as annoyed as when people of the majority culture "guess at" what the 
needs, preferences, and worldview of the racialized Other is.  Very 
often you get it wrong... so why not just at least attempt to deal 
with the fact that you don't know everything?

"I suppose it's the similar problem that I face as a white person when
referring to black people: African-American? Afro-Caribbean? People of
color? Black? black? (lowercase intentional) Brown? I tend to stick 
with
African-American when referring to black Americans, Afro-Caribbean 
when
referring to black Brits, and then I keep my antennae out for 
reactions,
corrections or language used by the other person, adapting mine to 
suit."

John, babe, I don't even know what the hell they're calling us this 
week.  :-D  Have always been confused, and thus use black and African 
American interchangeably in speaking and writing.  Will let you know 
when I find out!

--Eb