Things that make you go @@
So, as previously mentioned, a while ago I posted a link to what I considered a pretty innocuous Gen story on spn_gen. Neither Dean nor Castiel were in the story, there were no references to any Big Gay Sex, or indeed Big Gay Hugs, or anything PG13ish. Just Sam reading a story to Dean's son, and the implication, towards the end of the story, that said son was also Castiel's. So - teh gay was alluded to in passing, in a manner that might actually pass someone by if they weren't reading carefully.
And yet, in my folly, and conscious of the fact that it's a Gen community, I warned that there was allusion to Dean/Castiel.
And was told by Person X that I shouldn't be posting slash to this community, and that this wasn't what she was here for. I explained why I believed it was a Gen story, and she told me I was wrong, and I thought: "Ah, fuck it," and deleted it. (Although the mods had no problem with it being Gen.)
Why do I rake this up again, you ask?
Because I've just posted another story to the same community - a Good Omens/Supernatural crossover. And it's Gen, damn it, but it does, at the end, have the implication that Crowley has decidedly nefarious intentions towards Aziraphale, and is plying him with wine in a purposeful fashion. My first thought was to include Crowley/Aziraphale in the descriptor as I posted it to various coms, and then I thought - fuck it, no.
And Person X - yes, that very same person who told me that my Sam-reads-small-child-a-bedtime-story was inappropriate to a Gen community, has just complimented me on the story. Which is MUCH slashier than the 'slash' story she objected to (without reading).
bangs head on wall.
She said:
Oh. I was quite hoping it was Castiel. Love Good Omens (almost halfway thru) but despise Anna so... good work with two of my favorite characters! But uh, not good on 'That Little Strumpet Who Fell to Earth'.
And I want to stab her with knitting needles! Aaaargh! WTF? STOP HATING ON THE WOMEN, lady!
I'm not saying that the female actors are universally fabulous, but there's a difference between "I don't like that character" or indeed "I don't think that actor is very good" and "I despise that character." Especially when so far, I've only been seeing that kind of hateful (and often gendered) language used about the female characters. (Well, okay, and Castiel, but I think that's largely - although I may be wrong - from frustrated Sam/Dean 'shippers?)
Misogyny NOT FOR THE WIN, damn it!
(I was SO CLOSE to saying something snippy like "Oh, cool - glad that the slashiness between Aziraphale and Crowley didn't bother you! Especially since this story is so much slashier than the one you told me I couldn't post - guess that the moral of the story IS: 'don't advertise the presence of m/m pairings your PG story, and it magically becomes acceptable.'"