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So last year my brain decided that what I really wanted to do was rewrite 50 Shades of Grey as "a story about a mostly-asexual girl discovering she has a thing for kink, except done with common sense and less skeevy rapiness". NaNo that year got derailed in part because of kitty health issues, and I don't know that I am ever really going to *write* this; but I keep coming back to it as a playground. Especially when I encounter (or seek out) recaps or commentaries or whatever of 50SOG.
I realized today, a sort of revelation while I was walking to chorus rehearsal, that a lot of what it comes back to is basically a theme of Girl Versus Cultural Narratives.
The heroine, whom I have temporarily dubbed Zoe, is not particularly interested in sex, but when the hero, temporarily dubbed Aaron, asks her out on a date -- in reaction to which, I might add, Zoe's roommate reacts with "oh holy hell yes she is going on a date with you", and yet Aaron actually waits for Zoe's response because personal agency etc -- she goes partly to have fun and partly because the cultural narrative, hereafter CN, is that Men And Women Go On Dates.
And when there is first sex, of the PIV sort, she -- well, she could give a flying fuck, pun intended, about sex, but isn't really put off by it, and the CN says that Maybe She Just Hasn't Tried It Right, and she wants to shush that niggling doubt, and it's just as non-fireworksy as she thought, and it's kind of underwhelming for both of them because Aaron is bowing to the CN pressure of Normal People Only Like Plain Vanilla Sex.
And then he says or does something that lets slip his kinkier-or-possibly-mildly-sadistic side, and some part of Zoe perks up with "holy crap that was awesome do it again", and she's a little naive sometimes but not stupid, and they end up introducing her to BDSMy stuff, and the whole way is kind of ... dodging or resisting or fighting against all sorts of CN stuff, like that Real Adults All Want Sex, or like Asexual People Hate Any Bedroom Shenanigans (Probably Because They Are Total Prudes), or like BDSM Is Abuse (with a side dish of Only People Who Were Abused As Kids Like BDSM), ...
... and sometimes there is part of me that wants to also bring in the Disabled People Have No Sex Lives CN by having her be disabled, but then there is a kneejerk "that is too self-insert-y" backlash from my inner editor, followed by "shut up I'm probably not even *writing* this much less trying to publish it, who cares if it's self-insert-y, and p.s. fantasy" retort from my muse.
But. Yeah.
Something.
Man, this all sounded more profound when I was revelating...
I realized today, a sort of revelation while I was walking to chorus rehearsal, that a lot of what it comes back to is basically a theme of Girl Versus Cultural Narratives.
The heroine, whom I have temporarily dubbed Zoe, is not particularly interested in sex, but when the hero, temporarily dubbed Aaron, asks her out on a date -- in reaction to which, I might add, Zoe's roommate reacts with "oh holy hell yes she is going on a date with you", and yet Aaron actually waits for Zoe's response because personal agency etc -- she goes partly to have fun and partly because the cultural narrative, hereafter CN, is that Men And Women Go On Dates.
And when there is first sex, of the PIV sort, she -- well, she could give a flying fuck, pun intended, about sex, but isn't really put off by it, and the CN says that Maybe She Just Hasn't Tried It Right, and she wants to shush that niggling doubt, and it's just as non-fireworksy as she thought, and it's kind of underwhelming for both of them because Aaron is bowing to the CN pressure of Normal People Only Like Plain Vanilla Sex.
And then he says or does something that lets slip his kinkier-or-possibly-mildly-sadistic side, and some part of Zoe perks up with "holy crap that was awesome do it again", and she's a little naive sometimes but not stupid, and they end up introducing her to BDSMy stuff, and the whole way is kind of ... dodging or resisting or fighting against all sorts of CN stuff, like that Real Adults All Want Sex, or like Asexual People Hate Any Bedroom Shenanigans (Probably Because They Are Total Prudes), or like BDSM Is Abuse (with a side dish of Only People Who Were Abused As Kids Like BDSM), ...
... and sometimes there is part of me that wants to also bring in the Disabled People Have No Sex Lives CN by having her be disabled, but then there is a kneejerk "that is too self-insert-y" backlash from my inner editor, followed by "shut up I'm probably not even *writing* this much less trying to publish it, who cares if it's self-insert-y, and p.s. fantasy" retort from my muse.
But. Yeah.
Something.
Man, this all sounded more profound when I was revelating...