the inevitable statement. skip if bored by all this.

[phineasjones]

groovy.

now everyone and her kitty has weighed in on gay marriage and homophobic slashers and i'm all ::sigh:: do i even have to say it? i haven't been overly vocal about the marriage thing because i'm not entirely sure how i feel about marriage in general. its history is laden with sexism and religion and it feels outdated and a little pointless. however. it is an important part of how things work in this country and it affords significant rights and privileges to couples. so there's no question that it shouldn't be restricted to certain kinds of couples. there's no pretending this is not about equal rights. and so, clearly, i believe gay people should be able to marry. and if it becomes possible, i would quite possibly do it myself at some point, to protect (legally) the family i hope to have.

the homophobic slasher thing is just... weird. clearly these people, whoever they are, are seriously troubled. i don't know, i've seen these arguments that would say i'm being hypocritical in this because i read, say, incest fic while i think that incest is wrong. so how can i say that someone reading slash fic and being homophobic is worse? well. i can. simple as that. incest is bad and wrong in all sorts of ways, i hope i'm not schooling anyone with this info.* whereas homosexuality is not. at all. it's not the same thing. pretending it is for the sake of argument is more lameness. so i don't even really know how to address the homophobic slashers. figure your shit out, yo. i know of at least one person who lost her homophobia by reading slash and becoming involved in fandom. i hope that happens for more people. and of course everyone should be able to speak her mind, but she can't really expect to do that in a community of people who write slash, many of whom are queer themselves, and not get some strongly worded responses. and that's also how it should be.

*ok. i'm amending my original statement here due to thoughtful comments from dorrie6 that helped me get my thoughts on this in order. i'm going to narrow this and say that i think incest with a significant age difference (in the case that one is a minor and one is not), or parent-child incest is, in fact, wrong. i suppose i really wouldn't judge a power-balanced, consensual incestuous relationship. and perhaps for the sake of the argument i was actually trying to make, i should have used non-con as an example. but i don't read non-con. :)

Comments

[dorrie6.livejournal.com]

A note on incest. Which I can't believe I am actually going to write, but... yeah. So. Maybe I'm just tainted by spending my early teenage years reading too much of the Flowers in the Attic series, but I actually don't think it is necessarily wrong outside of the obvious issues regarding genetics and the dangers of having children... and these days they can do tests ahead of time to see if it is actually a danger for any specific couple, and the couple can make decisions accordingly. I have known first cousins who were deeply in love with each other... I have not personally known any brothers and sisters (or brothers and brothers, etc.), but I remember an older family friend telling me about a brother and sister she knew who were in love with each other and clearly would never love anyone else. And I feel like I can't judge them. It may not be legal, but I'm not certain that it is wrong. Like so many things that have been forbidden specifically by religion, I suspect that the rules regarding it were written to discourage something in an age when there was no way of determining when it might or might not have disastrous results, health-wise. As we now have ways to determine this, it doesn't seem so cut and dry anymore.

That said, incest, when it involves any unwilling party is obviously wrong, and not what I am talking about here. Just to be clear.

Oh. And. Um. Please don't unfriend me.

Re:

[dorrie6.livejournal.com]

ps: because I can't let a typo stand... please change (in your mind) my obviously incorrect "cut and dry" to the proper phrase "cut and dried".

Thank you very much.

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

i think your points are excellent. and i think i agree with you. i just couldn't get my mind there. i certainly have no cousin issue. the sibling thing is trickier. i guess in that case i don't as much think it's inherently wrong as that it's inherently problematic. i should probably clear that up. i think incest with a significant age difference (in the case that one is a minor and one is not), or parent-child incest is, in fact, wrong. i suppose i really wouldn't judge a power-balanced, consensual incestuous relationship. may i quote you if i amend my post?

Re:

[dorrie6.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with the age difference issue... and I am not sure I think that can ever be truly consensual. There is too much of a power imbalance. And you absolutely may quote me. :)

It is a tricky issue, no doubt about it.