Snowflake Challenge: Day Two

[kiki_eng]

In your own space, create a list of at least three fannish things you'd love to receive, something you've wanted but were afraid to ask for - a fannish wish-list of sorts. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your wish-list if you feel comfortable doing so. Maybe someone will grant a wish. Check out other people's posts. Maybe you will grant a wish. If any wishes are granted, we'd love it if you link them to this post.

These are always weird to make. Here goes:

1) Suggest a topic you'd like to see me discuss for the Second Half of January Meme that I'm doing.

2) Rec something for fancake's Old Fandoms round or rec a fanwork for bestthingever that's less than three months old and the best thing ever.

3) Make something for fan_flashworks. Any type of fanwork. Any fandom. Check the comm out and make a fanmix or a diorama or a podfic or a rec set or a vid or a fic or whatever riffing off of the comm's prompt. Right now it's "Fortune". (So make something old-timey style about seeking fortune, OR figure out what fortune-telling at a slumber party would look like in your fandom, OR make a fannish cootie-catcher, OR do something about what gambling is like in your fandom, OR be angsty and focus on terrible things happening because that's part of fortune, too - do whatever.)

4) Tell me about a femslashy thing you love.

Comments

[flo_nelja]

Femslashy thing, you mean fictions, fanworks, tropes, ideas, some other things? *likes to talk about femslash*

[kiki_eng]

Yes. :D All of the things. Any of the things.

[flo_nelja]

OK...

* Recently, I read the Arabian Nights tale Princess Badoura in which the main female character ends up in an OT3 between her, her husband, and her husband's second wife. She is actually the one who decides to marry her when she's disguised as her husband (it's a complicated story). It was awesome.

* Do you watch anime? My favorite anime of all times is Revolutionary Girl Utena. It has a dueling club with a mystery girl as the price, old fairy tales characters living as humans, creepy (het) incest, surfing elephants, tragedy, surrealism and symbolism, weird songs, and a femslash pairing as center (and a lesbian characters among the supporting cast). I love it.

* One of my favorite webcomics is Gunnerkrigg Court. The two main girls, who live in a weird science institute, are not involved together, just friends, but one of them is still bisexual and has a girlfriend right now. It's not central, but I was all the happier to see it when I was reading this webcomics for very different reasons (opposition between the supernatural and science ; also, the plot)

[kiki_eng]

:D That is awesome!

Arabian Nights somehow hasn't been a thing that I've read yet, despite that fact that I should totally read it, and no one told me about Princess Badoura. That sounds awesome. Poly, and queer ladies, and ladies loving ladies, and cross-dressing. That sounds amazing.

Revolutionary Girl Utena is on the list. I think one of the reasons I haven't watched it yet was that I wasn't really quite sure how the queer themes played out, because sometimes with that there can be fail by TPTB or gay tragedy. Weirdly I think supporting lesbian means that it'll be okay for me. (...because so often the gay tragedy thing is about isolation, but where there are more queer people represented there's less a chance of that, I think?)

...and Gunnerkrigg Court I hadn't read anything specific about, so that is good to know.

Thanks for the recs/info!

[flo_nelja]

TBH in Utena the main characters take a very long time before even identifying as queer. It's not really rooted in modern world awareness.

What would be your recs in femslash things? If it diesn"t bother you?

[kiki_eng]

So, what you're saying for Utena is that I had best also be invested in the surfing elephants and weird songs. :)

Femslash recs:

I like romcoms, actually? So, Imagine Me & You and Saving Face and I watched a sort of maybe not that great objectively, but so satisfying one recently - Fishnet. Fishnet is about a couple of burlesque dancers hiding out from goons in small town America. Those three are all films with moments of comedy and happy endings for queer women.

I've been following sapphostication on tumblr for a while now, and they tend to be a really good resource for films and television about queer ladies, of all genres.

There's a parallels vid of Imagine Me & You and Saving Face that's set to Sixpence None the Richer; it's ladies romancing ladies and it's pretty great. (Saving Me & You by purplefringe) It reminds me of charmax's vid right now, though: I'm your Man, which is a celebration of media clichés and it makes me have think thoughts a little about what femslash is. Because there are the f/f media narratives - professional productions, and then there are the things that tend to appeal to women attracted to women, and the things where something just makes someone ship it.

So, I like The Bletchley Circle, but I haven't seen season two yet - season one is amazing. It's about a group of women who worked as code-breakers during the second world war reuniting to solve a murder in post-war Britain. This I would describe as femslashy and I think the second season bears that out - that's not really the focus, though.

Merlin fandom is another femslash rec. If you're looking for femslash fanworks there are some really lovely ones in that fandom and a good variety. I also like Teen Wolf's femslash; that fandom tends to do satisfying tropey things.

Lumberjanes is a comic about five young girls having adventures at summer camp and it's feminist and has f/f romance and a trans character in that group. There are dinosaurs. It may be my favourite thing from like the last two years.

[calvinahobbes]

I don't know what to ask you and it is WEIRD to me! Still thinking :(((

A femslashy thing I love is Steven Universe except it's canon so maybe it doesn't count? I can't believe I completely neglected to mention it my year round-up! It is incredibly delightful.

I also posted that Spy ficrec, and I just really love that Melissa McCarthy's characters in both The Heat and Spy are not pleasant or deferrent but just confident and hot and happy with themselves, and I don't usually enjoy hate pairings a lot, but Spy makes it really work!

[kiki_eng]

I think whether or not it counts as femslash is this whole meta discussions. I am just interested in things that have ladies into ladies, so I think it counts. I see Steven Universe on tumblr and it makes me feel old! Like, the colours are too bright and it looks loud and I want a cup of tea and quiet. What is it actually like?

I will have to check out that rec. With Spy I think I would ship basically anything with Melissa McCarthy's character? I feel like she is the little black dress of that fandom. ...I mean, it's also a film wherein Miranda Hart's character has a thing with Fifty Cent, so, I feel most things are within the realms of that canon; it is full of possibility.

[ardyforshort]

Yay for pimping fan_flashworks; love that comm :)

[kiki_eng]

Yeah, that promo was maybe not stealthy. It is such a great comm! I love their Ira Glass quote; it makes me so happy. :)

[sevilemar]

*drifting in on a random snowflake*

Hi. Because of you, I just made rec posts for Arcadia and Of Roses Unfurling at fancake. Just thought you might like to know^^ Great community, gotta check it out more. Thanks for pointing it out!

*drifts off again*

[kiki_eng]

Ah! That's awesome! :D

Thanks for letting me know. :)

[glitteryv]

I'm gonna begin by saying that this is a really unhealthy and uneven 'ship, but I can't help loving it: Bonnie/Annalise from How to Get Away with Murder.

Don't know if you've watched the show so I'll give you the bare-bones: Annalise is a middle-aged, African-American woman who is sharp, deeply flawed, and so morally ambiguous that she even scares herself. She's a powerful defense attorney who manipulates EVERYONE and to whom her people are deeply loyal.

Meanwhile, Bonnie is her icy, Caucasian second-in-command. She will back Annalise 250% of the time without question (for reasons that are v., v. disturbing and don't get revealed until S2).

I didn't begin shipping them until one particular scene towards the end of S1 in which Bonnie confesses to something and is crying on her knees. The scene is a powerful one and I couldn't help but feel like Bonnie was/is head-over-heels in love with her boss.

It's a pretty dark 'ship for other reasons, but I find it really fulfilling (even though it's not canon nor I can imagine it ever becoming so).

On a lighter note, I also ship Peggy/Angie from Agent Carter. They are both competent women who become fast friends and are willing to risk their necks for each other.

In head!canon, I also ship Knives Chau/Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. For no other reason that Knives would lighten up Ramona's general -__- demeanor and Ramona would totally cheer on Knives's personal growth. They'd be a tremendously cute pair.

[kiki_eng]

How to Get Away with Murder isn't a fandom I've mine and I haven't watched it, so thanks for the background. Sometimes and unhealthy and uneven ship can be really satisfying. There's this kind of sharpness to it that's really great. Bonnie/Annalise sounds so good for that. Thanks for telling me about them.

Peggy/Angie is great. Competent lady friends forever.

Ooh, I do not ship Knives/Ramona, but that's interesting. I think maybe the reason I don't like that ship is that it feels like it has too much to do with Scott to me, like, I love both of those characters best when they're not defined in relation to him, and shipping them feels to close to that for me somehow. *ponders*

I tend to be interested in Ramona/Roxy pre-canon stuff and Ramona/Stacey, who I guess just seem kinda similar? Like, I could see that playing out well. Also: Knives/Kim, possibly because they seem like dorks and they could do that together and that would be good for me. IDK.

[glitteryv]

Annalise/Bonnie is v. subtext-y and, because of the dark tone, borderline emotional abusive. They are two v., v. damaged characters in a show filled with damaged characters and terribleness. However, I have to say that even people who aren't in Fandom have told me (unprompted) "wow, Bonnie's motivation for anything she does is because of her feelings for Annalise." CASE CLOSED!

(Spoiler for S2) Though Bonnie has (so far) been portrayed as a straight woman, at the beginning of S2 it was revealed that Annalise had a super!intense romantic and sexual relationship with Eve Ansler (played by Famke Jensen). Back in the day, she broke up with Eve to marry Sam, her now-dead husband. Annalise and Eve rekindle their relationship for a couple of episodes. They part in good terms. Last year's mid-season finale ended on a flashback of when they were together.

What I like about Annalise's queer sexuality is that she doesn't apologize for it and the show doesn't brush it off nor makes a big deal. And, just like with the M/F and the M/M pairings, Annalise and Eve are shown making out and having foreplay (again, in the first eps). Just like the show did when Annalise was with a male character.

Anyhoo, what I like about Knives/Ramona is the whole opposites attract thing. Also, there's the precedent that Ramona self-identifies herself as queer and/or bisexual. I just had a really hard time buying Scott/Ramona because of Scott. I kinda wanted him to hook up with the Chris Evans' character. LOL!

Oooh, Knives/Kim sounds awesome too! I might have to mull on that for a bit. ;)

[kiki_eng]

Oh wow, that is awesome that there's a canon queer lead (...and I wish I was less excited about that.) and that the show is treating that well. That's really cool, and, yeah, that ship sounds like it might be sort of deliciously fucked-up, a bit?

Scott and Chris Evans' character would have been good - they were both kinda bro like. I think I kind of wanted him with Wallace? They were already cohabiting and I feel like they could have handled each other? ...but, like, I am really not sure what that relationship would have looked like. (Also: Scott.)

[glitteryv]

Well, it's a WOC as a queer canon lead (which IS totes a reason to get excited about). Even better is that, when the expected backlash happened, Shonda Rhimes (the head TPTB for that show) basically said something along the lines of "well, beyond the over-the-topness of HTGAWM, there's a lot about it that reflects real life. In real life, people of different races and sexual orientations live and work together. If someone has a problem with that, well, too bad."

See, I couldn't ship Scott/Wallace because their relationship was too much like a siblings one to me. I do ship Wallace/CEvans' character (Lucas! His name was Lucas Lee, I just remembered). So, maybe it'd be a V-triad with Lucas as the dude dating both Scott and Wallace (with no Scott/Wallace happening?) Or perhaps Scott had a one-night stand with Lucas because he had a moment of lust. But it ended up being nothing more than that and so the opportunity was there for Wallace and Lucas to get together and fall in love.

I dunno. I just never warmed up to Scott/Ramona, truth be told. /o\.

[kiki_eng]

Shonda Rhimes' seems a solid philosophy.

Or perhaps Scott had a one-night stand with Lucas because he had a moment of lust.
Oh man, you know how that morning after would go, probably - Scott would be freaking out about him being there and Wallace would be like, "You don't want him? Awesome."

On Scott/Ramona: Okay, so, it's structured around video games and Ramona is like, the princess in the castle and I don't know, I feel like Scott thinks he's found his Manic Pixie Dream Girl or something? Like, even though the castle thing is subverted a bit there is all of that framing, which is uncomfortable, I think?