musings about the avengers and hp fandoms

[nerakrose]

i realised earlier today that part of what i really love about the avengers fandom is that it's a lot less slash based than any other fandoms i've been in. in the sense that it doesn't really matter what i write, there'll still be an audience for it. there's not this pressure to put a slash between two characters and write only that and post only that, i can write a gen epic if i want to and it won't be seen as a lesser fic for it.
there's a lot of freedom in that fandom and i'm finding that most of the ideas that pop into my head, whether i write them down or not for potential future use, are much broader on the fluffy gen-hardcore gaysex spectrum than anything i've done before. before i'd dismiss an idea out of hand if it wasn't slash-centric, but now i have no such constraints.

case in point: i've created 5 works for this fandom and out of those 5 works there is:

- one pure gen fic: burning bridges (natasha, clint and phil)
- two mainly gen (i see them as gen, however there is slash in the background): how to become a superhero (tony-centric brofic with bruce wayne, side of tony/steve and background clint/phil) and agent sitwell: bnf (sitwell-centric crackfic with background tony/steve and clint/phil)
- one human/artificial intelligence fic: love in these modern times (clint/jarvis, crackfic of sorts)
- and only one purely slash fic: the suit porn fic (tony/steve)

i've created 30+ works (fanart included) for the harry potter fandom and not a single one is gen. (in my old fandom, whose works i've pulled offline, there were some 30-40+ fics and not a single one of those was gen either.)

DISCUSSION TIME.

in HP i feel like genfics are frowned upon and not really given space to - sure, there are always gen prompts and fics in multipairing fic fests, but even in the rhethoric you see it: those are always referred to as multipairing fests even if it also allows no pairings. the genfics generally seem to get a lot less readers than slashfics, too. it seems that people are divided into pairing corners and aren't very open to new pairings/gen fics. how is your experience with the HP fandom?

i haven't taken part in any avengers fests (though i've signed up for my first one) but i get the impression that it's an everything goes fandom. people seem open towards pretty much anything, so long as the fic premise sounds interesting to them.

i'm going to wager a guess that part the reason is the places on the internet these fandoms have their "homes" in. HP hangs out a lot on LJ, which is journal and community based, so one has to join specific communities for specific things. someone who joins only remusxsirius, for example, won't be as easily "exposed" to other pairings or genfics than someone who watches potterslash. i haven't been able to find a catch-all community for HP fics, which i take to mean as a sign that people aren't interested in going beyond their own OTPs.
the avengers fandom, on the other hand, is a lot less on LJ (though there are communities) and seems to have their homebase on AO3, which structurally is very, very different. just by visiting the avengers fandom on AO3 one is subject to every single new fic in the fandom, regardless of whether it's gen, het, slash or whatever else. there aren't communities to post the fic to, there is just the archive, and only the tags specifiy what the fic is. and if your fic isn't slash, gen, het or multi, there's an 'other' tag. the whole structure of the site invites a broader variety of fic simply because it's easy to post it due to fewer constraints. one doesn't have to fret over finding a comm on LJ for the fic if it doesn't fit into the ones that one normally uses.

thoughts? agreements? disagreements? other?

Comments

[mrs-jack-turner.livejournal.com]

I'll just read anything in Avengers fandom :P Ao3 makes everything wonderful.

I agree though. There seems to be less pressure to put slash in and even if there is slash, there's less pressure to put sex in which is pretty much a must have in HP. It all just seems so relaxed.

[kitty_fic]

Good question about a general HP comm for posting fic? You've got me curious now.

I'd say your best bet for those type of fics would be in 'all HP fests', but even then you're right and they aren't terribly popular...

There was the friendship fest which wasn't pairing related also...

*ponders*

[hollys_tree]

Yes, I think HP has always been pairing based. Maybe is wasn't always like that, I could imagine that when canon was still open there might have been more fic focussing on the world than the relationhips. But I came in after canon was closed, so... basically H/D is all that interests me. I turn to H/D fic for the romance. I don't need sex in a fic (mostly) but I find gen pretty boring most of the times.
Now I feel bad for writing that but I just don't get from it what I want.

I read gen and friendship fic in Glee though and the only Hunger Games fics I read were gen too. So I guess it really depends on the fandom.

one doesn't have to fret over finding a comm on LJ for the fic if it doesn't fit into the ones that one normally uses.
One of the many reasons why AO3 is so awesome. :D But HP was and will ever be LJ based I think, it's too old to turn to AO3.

[epithalamium]

Hmm, I don't know much about the Avengers fandom because most of the activity I see is from my dashboard and I don't track tags but I agree about the HP fandom being more slash-based and more specific. I guess it has to do with the sheer number of characters in all the seven books: people need specific communities or it'll be impossible to keep track of them all. Not that I'm saying that the Avengers have less to work with, considering the wealth of canon from the comic books etc, but idk (by which I mean I really don't know, I have a sad lack of knowledge regarding superhero comic books D:).

I guess one of the nice things about the Avengers is that the characters all have a franchise of their own? Like, I could be an Iron Man fan and like the Avengers because Iron Man is there. And I'd like to read gen Tony fics because I like him. And I'd read other fics with him and other people for the same reason. HP, on the other hand... well, I like characters there and I'd read gen fic of them if there were any, but mostly what makes them more interesting is how they interact with other people. I'd read Marauder gen fics because I like the Marauders. I might not enjoy a fic that focuses on Remus if his friends aren't there with him. Actually I find it funny that while there's a community for Remus--anything Remus, gen, het, slash--there isn't one for Sirius. When I draw Sirius by himself, I have to post at blackfamily or something. >.>

Other fandoms, on the other hand... I spent some time at the BBC Sherlock fandom, and while most of the fanwork focuses on Sherlock/John, other people post fics with other pairings or even gen (we're talking about Sherlock, so I mean. Asexual!) I guess that's where LJ tags are useful. >.>

The Inception fandom is a bit more like HP in that it has specific communities for specific ships. Most of them are Eames/Arthur stuff, though. :P

I guess the most varied I've ever been is with the Havemercy fandom. XD Though most of my fanart is Rook/Thom, I've drawn some gen stuff, as well and people don't really care what you do because they like specific characters rather than ships?

eta: Whoa, this was a long comment.