(no subject)

[berlynn-wohl.livejournal.com]

Before I get to today's topic of discussion, I have a little tale to tell:

My dad likes to snoop. Ever since I moved out on my own, he's had to content himself with looking at all my webpages, which is not a big deal, because it's not like they're Secret Web Pages. My parents have known for years that I write slash. But my dad was very upset when he found my story "Heat Lightning," because he thought it was Sick And Wrong for me to write about gay Mounties. (Please, no one tell him about Due South.) My dad's very homphobic, and he seems to be under the delusion that Mounties could never be gay, because they are good, upstanding citizens. Or something, I don't know, can someone explain homophobia to me please? Jesus.

Anyway, so this made for an awkward Easter Sunday. But you know, all day long I just kept thinking to myself, "Man, I can't wait to get home and write some more slash! Just really raunchy porn!" It's not because I just want to piss my dad off. (If you knew my dad, you would know that no one wants to incur his wrath. Ever.) Even as a teenager I was not that sort of person. It was more like, for the first time I understand what Catholics tend to feel: "Sex is dirty and wrong.....but that's kinda what makes it so fun!"

So anyway, here's the question I shall pose to all of you: Has your desire to write (or read) U2 slash been affected by outside opinion? I don't necessarily mean family or friends, although that could be one way to answer. But it could also be other U2 online communities whose members say slash is "gross," or the attitudes of your community towards homosexuality, or your religious upbringing. Or maybe just that little voice in the back of your head that says "U2 aren't really gay you know. They have wives and children." Basically, has anyone or anything made you just want to write more, to spite the opposition? Or discouraged you? Has anything made you feel good/bad/rebellious/dirty about what you wrote?

Comments

[margarita-p.livejournal.com]

Interesting you brought this up because I was just thinking about it, but more in the RPS-as-a-whole sense, not one particular section of it. I don't think what I like to read or write is wrong, but I do feel bad sometimes that other people think it's creepy or wrong. Recently I wrote to a girl seeking platonic friends who said she was a little kinky and liked yaoi. We exchanged a few e-mails and I figured she knew what slash was so I "outed" myself. I also said I like Real People Slash. She never wrote back. I wrote a follow-up a while later and no reply there either. *shrug*
I know there's a lot of defense of RPS out on the web, though, and I think there was even a link to one essay on the U2slash archive . . .
People (mostly girls) have been slashing their favorite bands for years before I did it, on paper or on the web. Hello, Duran Duran!
Anyway, I'm pretty sure we all know the difference between fantasy and reality, fiction and real life. Let's hope so, anyway. I really don't care if U2 is having hot gay sex - it's just fun to imagine they are.