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chasingtides Sep. 18th, 2009 03:33 pm)
chasingtides Sep. 18th, 2009 03:33 pm)So, I'm writing a story and I'm unsure of how to label it. Because I came up with this idea in church, I'm going to call it divinely inspired, but I'm mostly exploring boundaries in fiction that I am curious about in real life. And the purpose of exploring these boundaries, is, in part, exploring them as a dialogue, so I will be doing it through fanfiction and, of course, this post.
I've been intrigued by the character of Jack Harkness for a while. I'm also interested in what he could represent and how he defines himself by lack of definition, rather than by definition itself. (While most characters and people would, for example, say, "I am straight," or, "I am gay," or, "I am bisexual," Jack says, "Those are nice categories.")
Ever since the end of the second season of Torchwood, I have wanted to write a threesome fic (Jack/Ianto/Gwen), exploring the codependency/independency issues presented in the show as well as relationship dynamics. After watching Children of Earth, I wanted to look at preconceptions of Torchwood running up against preconceptions of the rest of the world.
I took a prompt off of a community, "Jack/Ianto/Gwen, family, heatwave, night in." It was the family that got me - I've never done it before, but writing a pregnancy fic would be really cool. And Jack said, in the first episode of the series, that he had been pregnant before. Wouldn't it be cool to do a pregnant Jack story? What would it be like for his girlfriend to have a pregnant male lover? How is Ianto going to deal with the fact that it's his male lover who is pregnant, not his female lover? That'd be awesome!
It also gives me a chance to write out an idea I've been toying with for ages now. My friends and I have tossed around the idea of Jack's pregnancy a lot. I've gotten strange looks in the supermarket because, when I'm picking out the milk and on the phone, I might dive into a lengthy discussion about Jack and his gender identity and his biology and, really, it's possibly not the most normal phone conversation.
But the theory boils down to - Jack presents as male, but has, in the past been pregnant. Additionally, the Doctor pointed out that by Jack's time, humans had interbred with aliens. And who says that alien sexes remotely resemble human ones? So Jack's somewhere in between male and female - or entirely outside it, depending on your perspective. But if he's a time traveler who is traveling, judging by his habits and Captain John's clothes, pre-women's lib eras, it's probably in his best interest to present as male, whatever his actual gender status (particularly if his gender is outside male-female dichotomy).
It's okay if this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I plan to be playing it out in my fic.
But I don't know how to label it, particularly as I start to look for betas.
Jack uses a male pronoun in English and presents as male in appearance, so it could be mpreg. But, to me at least, that conjures up images of assbabies and feats of science and magic I'd rather not think about and general unnatural processes. As Jack doesn't plan his pregnancy and does have a functional uterus and ovaries, it could, by some definitions, be just preg-fic. But Jack most certainly isn't female.
I'm struck, suddenly, by a sharp gender dichotomy - even in a world fans have created, where men can become pregnant and sex pollen exists, there appear to simply be two genders - male and female. I, and I try to be aware of this sort of thing, have no idea how to label this or explain it without a bit of fumbling and back story.
How do I label it? Do I not label it? I'm pretty sure that as soon as they read the, "Jack gets pregnant," bit, most people will label it mpreg themselves. I feel like, "A non-binary gendered Jack gets pregnant," is really clumsy. Thoughts? Ideas? Raging insults about how Jack Harkness is so totally a man-man-man-man-man?
ETA: I'm not suggesting that Jack be transgender here (though, admittedly, that is a very interesting line of thought). I am suggesting that Jack could be a non-binary sex and gender, a third or fourth sex and gender, outside of what we typically think of. (Okay, we being me - Irish-Catholic raised in Massachusetts.)
I've been intrigued by the character of Jack Harkness for a while. I'm also interested in what he could represent and how he defines himself by lack of definition, rather than by definition itself. (While most characters and people would, for example, say, "I am straight," or, "I am gay," or, "I am bisexual," Jack says, "Those are nice categories.")
Ever since the end of the second season of Torchwood, I have wanted to write a threesome fic (Jack/Ianto/Gwen), exploring the codependency/independency issues presented in the show as well as relationship dynamics. After watching Children of Earth, I wanted to look at preconceptions of Torchwood running up against preconceptions of the rest of the world.
I took a prompt off of a community, "Jack/Ianto/Gwen, family, heatwave, night in." It was the family that got me - I've never done it before, but writing a pregnancy fic would be really cool. And Jack said, in the first episode of the series, that he had been pregnant before. Wouldn't it be cool to do a pregnant Jack story? What would it be like for his girlfriend to have a pregnant male lover? How is Ianto going to deal with the fact that it's his male lover who is pregnant, not his female lover? That'd be awesome!
It also gives me a chance to write out an idea I've been toying with for ages now. My friends and I have tossed around the idea of Jack's pregnancy a lot. I've gotten strange looks in the supermarket because, when I'm picking out the milk and on the phone, I might dive into a lengthy discussion about Jack and his gender identity and his biology and, really, it's possibly not the most normal phone conversation.
But the theory boils down to - Jack presents as male, but has, in the past been pregnant. Additionally, the Doctor pointed out that by Jack's time, humans had interbred with aliens. And who says that alien sexes remotely resemble human ones? So Jack's somewhere in between male and female - or entirely outside it, depending on your perspective. But if he's a time traveler who is traveling, judging by his habits and Captain John's clothes, pre-women's lib eras, it's probably in his best interest to present as male, whatever his actual gender status (particularly if his gender is outside male-female dichotomy).
It's okay if this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I plan to be playing it out in my fic.
But I don't know how to label it, particularly as I start to look for betas.
Jack uses a male pronoun in English and presents as male in appearance, so it could be mpreg. But, to me at least, that conjures up images of assbabies and feats of science and magic I'd rather not think about and general unnatural processes. As Jack doesn't plan his pregnancy and does have a functional uterus and ovaries, it could, by some definitions, be just preg-fic. But Jack most certainly isn't female.
I'm struck, suddenly, by a sharp gender dichotomy - even in a world fans have created, where men can become pregnant and sex pollen exists, there appear to simply be two genders - male and female. I, and I try to be aware of this sort of thing, have no idea how to label this or explain it without a bit of fumbling and back story.
How do I label it? Do I not label it? I'm pretty sure that as soon as they read the, "Jack gets pregnant," bit, most people will label it mpreg themselves. I feel like, "A non-binary gendered Jack gets pregnant," is really clumsy. Thoughts? Ideas? Raging insults about how Jack Harkness is so totally a man-man-man-man-man?
ETA: I'm not suggesting that Jack be transgender here (though, admittedly, that is a very interesting line of thought). I am suggesting that Jack could be a non-binary sex and gender, a third or fourth sex and gender, outside of what we typically think of. (Okay, we being me - Irish-Catholic raised in Massachusetts.)
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I've been thinking over some of my own thoughts and some of
I might just go with that. I just wish there was a cleverer way of saying it. Can't wait for your meta.
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I really, really like the idea of presenting as male as part of a sort of... survival tactic, thing. I mean, since Jack can pass for male in the early 21st century, it only makes sense to stay male. But at the same time, as not-exactly-male but passing for it, it should give him insight into modern gender dynamics that folks within 21st century humanity wouldn't exactly have.
It's also interesting to think about in terms of historical examples of a similar phenomenon. For instance, one of the Emperor Nero's eunuch courtiers, called Sporus, bore such a strong resemblance to Nero's late wife that he was dressed as her and called Sabina. Even after Nero's death, he went on living as "Sabina"--you get the sense it's because he has more power as the ghost of an imperial woman than he has as a castrated dude, if that makes sense. Or you have stories of women who dress as men to join the army/avoid marriage/whatever. I think you could definitely play off Jack as presenting as male in a similar light, if not exactly the same.
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Maybe? Damn it. I need to open boxes or something.
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That's actually what gave me the idea. Don't ask about my brain. I can only say I was in church and genderbending Son of God who breastfeeds is way more interesting than whatever the homily was about.
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...I now have an image of this painting in my head while heavy metal plays in the background. WTF, brain?
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I kinda love your brain.
That's all. :D
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I like this plan. Excuse me while I go track down an appropriate outfit.