Snowflake Challenge: Themes and Motifs

[author_by_night]

 Share your love for a trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme

First, I gotta ask, and this isn't a criticism at all - am I the only person in fandom who doesn't care that much about sex? It would never, ever occur to me to read a fic specifically for a kink, or have a long conversation about which characters secretly want to do it, or who I'd fuck, kill, marry. Maybe that's why I'm more of a fandom outlier these days. Now, I do not judge anyone - you (universally) love what you love, and that's cool. It's just not something I personally care about.  And I rarely read kinky stuff in fic. Or R-rated fics at all, really. (Which isn't to say the media I consume is squeaky clean. Some of it's on the tamer side, but some of it  decidedly  NOT tame. Looking at you, Fifty Shades of Furrowed Brows/Earth's Children.) Anyway, I'd love to know if there are any other non-kinky buzzkills out there. ;)

As far as motifs and tropes  in ORIGINAL works go, I definitely like worlds where at least a few characters  generally get along. There *are* exceptions - for instance, I loved 30 Rock, and none of the characters are overly sympathetic or really rooting for each other. But even then, you still at least have Liz and Jack, and Tracy and Kenneth, and Dot Com and Grizz. (I would've watched a Dot Com and Grizz spinoff.) I'm not averse to characters having conflicts here and there at all, because isn't that what makes a storyline good? Conflict? Still, it's easier to relate to the characters when they're pointing their guns at a common enemy rather than each other.

I also like to see worlds where there's more than one kickass leading lady.  I feel so many works in the past especially have really just made do with one character is kickass, and everyone else is a bland or cliche female character. It's always nice to see more women sharing the spotlight.

With respect to fanworks, I love fanworks that explore backstory, missing moments, alternative POVs, minor characters, speculation on future canon events, stuff like that. Which is probably the biggest reason I'm not so into kinks - it's just not what I'm here for, usually.

Comments

[kingstoken]

I hear you when it comes to wanting more than one kickass leading lady, I think they are getting better, like it is not like it was back in the 80s and 90s and you'd have a team of six and only one character would be a woman. However, some canons do sometimes fall into the trope of here is the hard-ass lady and and here is the soft lady, why can't they both be soft or hard, depending on the situation?

[author_by_night]

why can't they both be soft or hard, depending on the situation?

That's also a good point! After all, most people (including women, because last time I checked, women were people) have various responses to varying situations. Funny how that works, right? ;)

[lunabee34]

I am pretty disinterested in sex in fanfic now, but I think that's because my libido is being destroyed by my autoimmune disorders. I'd love for my interest to come back. LOL

I pretty much skip all the sex scenes in the fic I read now, but I love all the stuff that leads up to and comes after the sex, so I still click on porny fic for that reason.

[singedsun]

There are plenty of non-sexual kinks to be fair. But also, no, you're definitely not alone in fandom in as such as they're are plenty of people out there writing and reading fics that have to do with things like world-building and found families and fun heists and nothing to do with sex at all. Reading through other people's responses will definitely show you the variety of things people go to fic for.

[silveradept]

I think you're in good company for people who aren't going to canons and fanworks for the sexytimes. Even more so for wanting works with more than one kickass lead woman in it.

[braveheartlove]

Nope, you aren’t the only one who doesn’t care for sexual content. I probably have even less of a tolerance. Given, I totally accept the fact that it is a part of fandom, and a part of life. I’m even married! But I generally avoid it, and won’t write it either. You wanted to know if you were the only one, so there you go! :) But yes, we seem to be in the minority eh? I’m thankful I found writers and fans of gen fic in my favorite fandom: Stargate.

[paulamcg]

I suppose I must come forward to say that I don’t care for sex, not very much even in fiction. Nowadays I am able and even willing to read sex scenes and to include short, R-rated ones in some of my fics, and recently I’ve enjoyed reading even an E/NC-17-rated one, although I’m still not usually interested in stories in which the sex is the main focus and conclusion. But fifteen years ago I, too, often felt that I was the only one who wasn’t here for sex and kink, and I found it hard to explain it without giving the impression that I had something against other people writing high-rated, explicit sex scenes.

An essay I read about kink a few days ago made me realise that kink is not always about the characters having sex – although I think that there usually is a sex scene in a kinky fanfic – but anything that the reader finds erotic (even if sometimes the characters or even the writer don’t). I suppose there’s something I find erotic in a lot of the fic I write – but perhaps my kink is so unusual that it doesn’t work like that for readers.

In any case you’re certainly not alone, as the earlier comments here have shown. I hope that in this changed fandom it is easier to find what to read – if not necessarily readers for your fic – when people search stories on AO3 on the basis of tags and ratings. I don’t know how small a minority we who are not into sex and not so much into romance, either, are, and it must vary between fandoms, subfandoms and characters. (For instance, I used to feel that very few people who cared about my favourite pair of protagonists, Remus and Sirius, were interested in fics without sex, but of course even in this corner there are writers and readers of fluffy kissing fics, not so many interested in not-romance-or-sex-centred ones.)

[author_by_night]

and I found it hard to explain it without giving the impression that I had something against other people writing high-rated, explicit sex scenes.

Exactly! Not liking something doesn't mean you judge.

(For instance, I used to feel that very few people who cared about my favourite pair of protagonists, Remus and Sirius, were interested in fics without sex,

I can see why you'd think that, but I imagine a lot of R/S shippers are perfectly content with them just being together but doing other things.

[athaia]

No, you're not the only one XD. I like characters going outside and doing things instead of doing each other, but Gen is the unloved step-child of fandom these days. And I hear you about kickass female characters!

(I'm not recommending my own stuff, because I know that Planet of the Apes is... special, and most people don't want to read about sentient apes as main characters [and just for the record, I'm not writing furry fic - the apes are more like aliens], but all my female characters kick ass one way or the other, no matter if they're main or secondary characters, and they're all different from each other, too. And I didn't consciously set out to "right this wrong," I just wrote them as persons, and I really wonder why that should be so difficult...)

[author_by_night]

It shouldn't be that difficult!

Do fics count as gen if there's still romance, but not as the focus, though? That's always been my confusion, and maybe that confusion is part of why gen is less popular. Because I am absolutely cool with romance, and even not strictly romance. But I like it alongside other things, rather than it being the main point. OF the story. However, I don't necessarily need it to be absent altogether!

[athaia]

The main plot of a Gen fic is something other than romance. But relationships, both romantic and platonic, can still exist in the background, of course. In Romance, forming that romantic relationship is the plot. Two of my characters are engaged (and pretend to be married while they're on the run from the villain), and their relationship problems form subplots that impact the main plot - yet I still regard those stories as Gen.

[tsuki_no_bara]

you're not the only non-kinky buzzkill. :D (i'm not even really here for the fic, which sometimes makes me feel like the outliest of the outliers.) the sex can be good and hot, but it's not usually why i want to read something, and if i'm on the fence about a fic, the kinkiness of said fic is not the thing that will convince me.

also, man, i am right there with you on wanting more than one kickass leading lady in a particular canon. one is never enough!