Miscellaneous fannish things

[sholio]

I know I can't handle writing for it this summer, but I signed up as an artist at atlantisbigbang. :) I loved illustrating siriaeve's story last year, and I'm looking forward to what this year will bring! Signups for writers and artists/fanmixers are open 'til April 12th. From glancing at the signups, they could really use more gen writers. *pokes flist*

I was reading this interesting post on "slut-shaming" and monogamy in Star Trek fandom, and the thought occurred to me that in all my fic-reading, I can't think of a single time that I've seen an open relationship portrayed positively in fanfic. There's happy poly fic, but in every one I've read, the unspoken assumption was that the characters were faithful within the poly relationship, or else it's portrayed as a one-off in an otherwise monogamous relationship. So now I'm desperately curious: has anyone run across stories that show characters in a consensually open relationship, in SGA fandom or otherwise? Because surely they must be out there somewhere ... I guess? I just find it interesting that it'd never occurred to me how strongly fandom conforms to that particular social norm.

... dammit, I know there was something else I wanted to post here, but I don't recall. I'm way behind on comments; I haven't lost interest in the timelines discussion, I just haven't been able to find time to answer comments! But I do want to get back to it; perhaps I'll fit it in after I finish my homework and today's writing quota.

ETA: And the thought occurred to me while I was answering comments to this entry ... who's written open relationships in the Stargateverse? Me! Multiple ones in the same story, even. Which probably means there's a lot more of it out there than I'm noticing -- I'm just failing to remember it or possibly to recognize it as such when I see it.

Comments

[telesilla.livejournal.com]

I tend to use open relationships a lot in RPF because it's that or just handwaving an AU in which the spouses don't exist, because I have a hard time writing cheating. I don't write it so much in FPF because...well, it's usually not where my mind goes, for some reason even though I'm actually poly and in an open relationship myself.

[michelel72.livejournal.com]

I love reading alternate relationships, and I'd be really interested in fics with an open relationship, but I can imagine it would be hard to establish without overwriting the whole "No, really, they're not just kidding themselves!" aspect — just because that assumption is so entrenched that many readers will likely assume it. Sounds challenging. I don't tend to write much by the way of foregrounded romance/sex relationships, but that's something I should stash in the back of my head in case it can hook up with a plot back there.

From glancing at the signups, they could really use more gen writers. *pokes flist*
::fingers in ears:: LA LA LA CAN'T HEAR YOU ...

[sophia-sol.livejournal.com]

Hmm, interesting!

Actually, I'm pretty sure I've read at least one Man From UNCLE fic in which Illya and Napoleon had a positively-portrayed open relationship -- they were together, and for the long-haul, and were secure enough in how they felt for each other that they both knew that enjoying some sex with someone else didn't detract from that. Unfortunately I can't remember what fic it was, so I can't provide a link!

And now that I think about it, as I think back to all the fic I read from when I did my first MUNCLE-fic binge-reading, MUNCLE fandom in general is pretty good about being positive about having multiple sexual partners. Napoleon is generally seen as quite the ladies' man, getting together with quite a large number of the Innocents of the Week, and quite a few fics didn't denounce that -- Napoleon enjoyed himself, the girls enjoyed themselves, and that was all that mattered.

But otherwise, wow, I'd never realized just how pervasive "slut-shaming" is, because the idea wasn't previously on the filter through which I read fic. I'm going to be looking out for it a lot more now!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

...well, I don't make a big deal about it, but in pretty much all my MUNCLE slash they're in what's technically an open relationship, as I can't imagine Napoleon settling down with one man/woman/whatever for a good long time yet, and I also can't see Illya really getting jealous. And I imagine Torchwood fic has Jack in open relationships, as otherwise he'd be outrageously OOC?

I think a lot does depend on the characters, at least for me; I know making a char gay who appears as straight in canon can be considered OOC, but I find making a monogamous-in-canon char polyamorous even harder to develop in my mind - these days open relationships are more outside social norms/expectations than homosexuality, I think. Case in point, I know of very few TV shows that have positive depictions of open relationships (there was one in a recent ep of The Mentalist - a scientist couple with a daughter who both had "affairs" in which everyone was fully aware of the situations, and the couple in the end was portrayed as sincerely in love. But that's very much an exception...)

[dreamingoctober.livejournal.com]

Yay for signing up as an artist for atlantisbigbang!! I really enjoyed your art last year.

So far we've got 7 gen writers with 2 possibles; we really could use more. But I'm also counting it a win that we've got so many sign-ups. :D

I can't think of a single time that I've seen an open relationship portrayed positively in fanfic.

Now I want to write this. I've written poly relationships (not in SGA, but in my own fiction) but never a truly open relationship (by which you mean people have relationships with each other that are honest and caring but do not make definite commitments to each other, am I correct?), and it would be interesting to try it out in SGA fic, I think. After Big Bang and Gen Ficathon.

[snarkydame.livejournal.com]

*eyes bigbang info post*

40,000! O_O

*eyes post again*

Oh heck, why the hell not?

[ratcreature]

I've read some, but I think it is not common because the main fannish interest is in the pairing, so there is not much pay off for having them also sleep with random other people. It's a bit more common if the other person is used in the context of the pairing, like I've read a Kirk/McCoy fic in the reboot verse which has a D/s relationship that starts out as McCoy talking with Kirk about whom Kirk should try to pick up, and it evolves into basically McCoy picking partners for Kirk and detailing how they ought to have sex parallel to their relationship developing and later on there is voyeurism? Basically McCoy enjoys to order Kirk to have sex with lots of people and sometimes watches, sometimes not, but I'm not sure this really is an "open" relationship.

[trobadora]

I do try to write Jack Harkness that way, although so much of my DW/TW fic is tightly focused on Jack and the Doctor, it doesn't even come into play. Well, I did write Precedence ... but that's the closest I've come so far.

Actually, this has made me rethink my TARDIS Big Bang fic - I think I'm going to focus much more explicitly on that aspect of Jack's characterisation. :D *starts plotting*

[x-varda-x.livejournal.com]

To save your eyes, I posted why I won't be entering the Big Bang here (http://x-varda-x.livejournal.com/32248.html)

I'll look at the art though, so good luck. I can't draw for toffee...

*rubs hands together in anticipation* :)

[pocketmouse]

I feel like I have seen some TW fics that are set up that way for Jack and Ianto, though I don't bookmark and rarely even read J/I at all, so I couldn't point you to any specifics. Though invisible_lift's series 'It'll End In Tears' might count. Depends on how you look at it.

I know I've seen several Star Trek: AOS Kirk/McCoy fics that cover that base, and in a similar vein I tend to assume that Shawn and Gus on Psych are in an open relationship. I'm not sure if I've actually found any fic that supports that, but I've been fiddling with writing some. I was trying to write plot, and I ended up with nearly 2000 words of Gus talking to Jules about the parameters of his and Shawn's relationship, and the possible ramifications of bringing her in as another primary relationship.

[sheron]

I've read a lot of fics with various multiple pairings (simultaneously or not), but I find that the one constant for me as far as differentiating between relationships I enjoyed and did not was how much I could feel the people cared about each other. If an open relationship can be portrayed in such a way that you feel the love with all the people involved, I would be interested, otherwise I'd be disengaged as a reader. Which means that as hard as it is to pull of a monogamous relationship, and as much as it's harder to pull off a treesome, I think it would be that much harder for a writer to sell an open relationship to a reader. The factor of difficulty would go up by each person involved.

Due to that in part, I don't think I can remember any open relationships in fics.

Randomly enough a recent episode of The Mentalist featured an open relationship and it was a refreshing idea to me, because of how rare it is.

[ariadne83]

dancinbutterfly wrote a Kirk/McCoy fic (with sequel) that has them deciding to be in an open relationship.

It's still pretty rare in fandom, though, which is very disappointing.

[horridporrid.livejournal.com]

Signups for writers and artists/fanmixers are open 'til April 12th. From glancing at the signups, they could really use more gen writers. *pokes flist*

*iz poked* :D (I still can't believe I'm doing it but...)

To the meat of your post: I don't recall reading healthy/positive open relationships in fic. There were a few X-Files fics where Mulder was involved in an open relationship or two back in his college days, but it was a has-been, unhealthy thing that served to a) show the wild and crazy life style of Oxford (those British are so crazy!) and b) provide a woobie-past to underline Mulder's trust issues.

Has "Caprica" gotten a fandom going? I'm not caught up on eps yet so I haven't gone looking, but the show itself has various types of relationships so it wouldn't surprise me if the fans do so as well.

[frith_in_thorns]

I've signed up with my gen AU thing (had when you posted this)! I'm rather nervous about it, since I've never written a 40k fic before, but I've got 5000 words done so far, and that's something, right?? *g*

(I think, though, that my genficathon story will be rather short -- or perhaps I could write more than one short genficathon stories, or something.)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Gnine mentioned to me one show that actually has an open relationship, or a semi-open relationship - at least not a monogamous one! - as one of its central pairings - in the Highlander TV series, Duncan and Amanda have this steady kind of on-again/off-again relationship. Basically, if neither of them are seeing anyone else, then they sleep together; otherwise, if one of them (Duncan usually) is in a committed monogamous relationship with someone else, then they're just friends. There's pretty much no jealousy (at least on Amanda's part) and it's not presented as getting together and breaking up so much as a consistent but not constant relationship; Amanda is never really his girlfriend as she's always wandering in and out of Duncan's life. They enjoy being together without seeking commitment, but they love each other dearly. (I rather loved them as a couple, really!)

--Though Highlander wasn't an American show anyway, being a Canadian/French production, and a lot of its values were not quite in step with standard US TV anyway.