hope: Art of a woman writing from tour poster (non-sequitur)
puddingsmith ([personal profile] hope) wrote2006-07-12 10:16 pm
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come on everybody!

Well, I've been back into reading lots of theory on pornography this week. As I'm doing this with a mind to writing on fandom, I'm constantly applying the things I'm reading to my fandom experience.

And well, in my fandom experience, it seems as if the iconography or tropes that crop up in NC-17 slash stories aren't straight across the board. Or rather, there are varieties of flavours for different fandoms, certain images crop up more often than others.

So, here's a poll. I've lj-cut it because of the not work-safe language used. That said, NC-17 slash afficionados, I'd appreciate it if you filled out the following poll. At this point, it's only for my own interest, to see if I'm just imagining patterns or not.

First, a little more explanation. What spurred this particular line of thinking on was reading about the money shot. Here's wikipedia's entry on what they've termed the 'Cum shot', but in essence (heh heh, essence) the money shot is that shot in hard core porn films of the ejaculating penis. The semiotics behind it are theorised to be focused on the spectacle of the male orgasm, the visible evidence of climax (because of course, you can't film a woman's orgasm, hah). It is often extremely gratuitous, filmed in close-up, slow motion, etc. Because of the need for it to be a *visible* climax, another characteristic of the money shot is that the man is ejaculating all over someone (or something) else. If it is the climax of a sex scene, the penis will withdraw from whatever orifice it is thrusting into and ejaculate onto the outside of the other person's body. It's not surprising that this particular trope is associated with male power, a very aggressive expression of the power of the phallus; the (most oft female) recipient of all that spooge is quite grateful and overwhelmed with arousal at all the bodily fluids being spurted onto them. In other words, it's extremely gratuitous and fetishised and very much characteristic of hard-core (film) pornography up until about the 80s.

So, what I'm getting at is: I've been in about... 6-odd fandoms in the past 4+ years. at least four of them have been major fandoms, some even mega-fandoms. I have read so, so much slash. My point is, I've had some variety in experience of slash in different fandoms (even if I *do* have character types that I tend to pick up on).

And the Supernatural slash? Seems to really have a thing for the money shot. Like, hard-core money shot. Not just the mutual masturbation with-come-ending-up-on-the-other-person, but really fetishised, pulling-out-at-the-last-minute-to-come-on buttocks/back/chest/belly/face, even bukkake-style scenarios. It isn't in every story I've read, but it certainly isn't rare.

And it's not like I've never read money shots in other fandoms, but I'm pretty damn sure they didn't crop up as frequently. It was several years ago now, but I'm pretty sure I don't recall reading *any* money shots in hobbitslash, and if there were any in Lotrips, it was always acknowledged as a kind of kink - a non-vanilla practice. Whereas in Supernatural, it's pretty par for the course (already-broken taboo of incest, perhaps?).

So, enough of the terminology and speculation, lets get down to what I made this post for: to mine your collective experience in slash fandoms. If you've read a lot of NC-17 slash, preferably in at least two different fandoms, please take the following poll.

For the record, I tend to consider things a 'trend' when I can recall them cropping up in more than one place, but I can't necessarily remember each individual occurence. It happens enough times that I notice it, and can't say "oh yeah, X did it, and then Y did it." (though, you might be more fandom sociable than me, in which case ignore that last bit.)

For the purposes of this poll, we'll just think about m/m slash, as opposed to slash and het (and femslash), unless you'd like to discuss the money shot in any of these 'genres' in the comments :)

If you have more than one current fandom, pick the major one. If there is a large discrepancy of answers you'd give between different current fandoms, TELL ME ALL ABOUT IT IN THE COMMENTS, PLIS!


[Poll #767548]

Please, PLEASE feel free to comment away! DISCUSS. Go.

PS. feel free to pimp this around if you're interested too.

[identity profile] cocombat.livejournal.com 2006-07-12 02:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Huh,
I hadn't really noticed moneyshots at all, so I can't really comment.

But, just reading this and the comments - I'm thinking that symbolically, it's a very ah, possesive action.
And SPN fandom, well, the relationship between Sam/Dean it's... kinda on shaky ground.
You want them to get the happy ever after thing but it's just so unlikely (even more than most slash). At the same time, there does seem to be this possesive vibe, or, just the way they work so well together, are a pair, Sam&Dean, together against the world, to the extent that even anti-incest or gen writers don't tend to put them with anyone else (kind of the emotional insularity and creepiness of incest without the benefits of the sex ;) ).
So, given that, I can see fans driving the characters to mark/claim/own each other in some way, and yet it seems a little desperate, and temporary.
:(

Um. That's my only idea. Oh yeah, and they do seem both kinda macho, macho guys. ;)
Or at least they're built like them, guns, fighting. I don't read much SPN so I can't really comment, but yeah, I can kinda see either of them doing the traditional 'dicking around' if they were having sex, doing the porn-star dominance games. Uh, they've both dated girls who look like porn star models, so I can see the temptation to do something like that if I was a guy, if only for the sake of... um. Millions of other guys fantasies?
Eh.
*shrugs*

I give up.
:)

[identity profile] executrix.livejournal.com 2006-07-12 02:57 pm (UTC)(link)
FWIW, without doing, y'know actual research, I can remember *writing* two fics with money shots (one B7, one Firefly) and both of them were specifically in the context of space!porn flicks so it's a circle. The Circle of Smut! With antelopes and everything.

In a way, though, I've found slash to be counter-money-shot because the *instant* there's a drop of semen anyplace, the characters usually rush to the bathtub or shower to wash up.

[identity profile] cocombat.livejournal.com 2006-07-13 01:43 am (UTC)(link)
*laughs*

So basically it's saying that Sam & Dean are dirty, dirrrty boys, right?

Makes sense.
;)

[identity profile] executrix.livejournal.com 2006-07-15 11:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Also, in the context of the noglove_nolove multifandom ficathon (all stories must include barrier protection), it's perfectly possible that the participants are not interested in a money shot per se, but they do want to avoid coming inside their partners.

[identity profile] cocombat.livejournal.com 2006-07-16 12:17 pm (UTC)(link)
> I don't read much SPN
Oh man, I only just noticed - that should have been, I don't read much SPN RPS/RPF.

SPN fic I read in bucketloads.