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[beckyh2112]

Ganked from artoni

Ask me one fandom-related question in the comments. This can be fandom specific, general, or about fandom/lj stuff/fic writing/etc. in general.

Just one question, please, but it can (and perhaps should) have sub-parts.

Question can be as wacky as you want. Ask me about tv shows, characters, fanfic in general, fandom issues/meta, anything about any of my stories specifically. Whatever you want.

It is helpful to ask about fandoms I know about. If you don't, I will be forced to make things up. Which may be entertaining. And involve tentacle-sex.

Comments

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

See, the thing is, while I can use it lightly in stories, I don't feel I know enough about real-world homophobia to analyze the roots of it in the Earth Kingdom. However, I can point at a few different threads.

- It's necessary, in that time and place, to have children to inherit things. Not having children is either bad misfortune if it happens as an accident or it's a deliberate avoidance of one's duty.

- The Fire Nation is quite open about homosexuality. The Fire Nation is also conquering the Earth Kingdom. So even if it was something that was simply frowned upon before the War, the fact that the enemies are doing it likely leads to all sorts of unpleasantness.

I don't think there's any codified laws. Though that could be my ignorance showing. (When I get my to-be-read hoard down to something more manageable, there are some books on the traditional Japanese and Chinese homosexual experiences that I want to pick up so bad.)

Attitudes... There's the overlying assumption that this is Not Done. Male homosexuality is a wrong thing in the Earth Kingdom; someone who does that is perverse at best, downright insane at worst. Or maybe they have Fire-blood. Firefolk, of course, are naturally perverse and horrible; they'll fuck anything. Male homosexuality isn't wrong to them, so incest likely isn't. And everyone knows about soldiers and where war-children come from.

Even the fantasy of male homosexuality, such as the Ba Sing Se doujinshi, is alternately baffling, embarrassing, sick and wrong, or funny. To men. Women, by contrast, may feel what men do about it, but they also can and do find it arousing and enthralling.

Certain things are womanly arts, so a man who shows skill or interest in them must be womanly in some way. The most obvious way is, of course, being the 'woman' in a sexual encounter. I tend not to do any type of earthbending as womanly, though some places may be a bit wary of male gembenders. If anything, though, it's more likely for people to view women earthbenders as very butch and masculine.

The Earth Kingdom homophobia as I write it is much more hung up on male homosexuality than female homosexuality. I'm not even sure female homosexuality registers with most people except in the same way lesbian pornos do with men in the real world. I think there would definitely be the attitude that a lesbian simply hasn't had the right cock, and once she does, she'll get over her silliness.

I've alluded to this in "The Long Game", but even rumors of male homosexuality have damaged the careers of Earth Kingdom soldiers. The Dai Li traditionally have the blessing of Avatar Kyoshi and their training techniques, so that people assume they would never choose a male homosexual for their ranks. However, in recent years with all the shit going down, there are a lot of rumors about their proclivities - it's intended as nastiness rather than a real assessment of the men involved.

Of course, the Earth Kingdom is also very big. I tend to write the Ba Sing Se attitudes towards homosexuality because most of my original Earth Kingdom characters are Dai Li. What's true of Ba Sing Se may not be true elsewhere and certainly isn't true everywhere. I tend to assume the entire Earth Kingdom is not pleased with the idea of male homosexuality, but different cultures will handle the matter differently.

Make no mistake, there are a lot of different cultures in the Earth Kingdom.

[flowerflute.livejournal.com]

Gnee! Thank you for this.