Sex and Wish Fulfilment

So, you remember before when I left you hanging with the question, why do we think that people writing fanfiction are kind of pathetic?  Well, we're going to talk about it a little bit now.

In the traditional romance novel, the heroine was supposed to be kind of like Bella Swan in Twilight-- a sort of blank slate that would be easy for anyone to slot themselves into.  Their characteristics are deliberately vague for this reason.  More modern romance novels go for more of a superwoman, so that the fantasy is not only getting the 'hero', but also being the heroine.  Both of these methods have a hamartia-- as a woman reading this, you're left with the idea that your dreamy hero would never go for a loser like you, because you're not (insert thing you're insecure about here) enough.

Fanfiction generally takes the route of yaoi-- which if you're not familiar, is a genre of manga and anime that focuses on m/m pairings.  These manga are written for a very targeted audience-- women.  NOW the fantasy removes women from the equation entirely, which can remove the whole self esteem issue completely.  "It's not that I'm not good enough, no woman could be, as they are gay."  It also gives you the option of two dreamy heros.

Darcy, as our wish fulfilment vehicle, is a nice combination of both types of heroine.  We don't have enough information about her from the Thor movies to prevent us from imagining a lot of her characteristics.  But she's not a totally flat character either, and has enough sass to make her dialogue interesting.  And in any fantasy, we need a hero.

And really, if you're like me, there's only one choice.

If you didn't just sigh girlishly, I don't know if we can be friends anymore.

Now, my heart does belong to Tony/Steve, but if we have to do the hetero thing I can get down with some Darcy/Steve.  This is like the dark chocolate truffle of wish fulfilment.  Who doesn't want to imagine they're Kat Dennings as Darcy, getting it on with Chris Evens as Steve?  De-li-ci-ous.

Only, well, here we are, smack dab in what makes fanfiction 'icky'.  It is about fantasy fulfilment, which usually means sex.  Like, a lot of sex.  A lot of kinky sex.  (For some reason this hits me more when I hear it read.  Maybe it's the realization that, not only did someone write this story, but someone also took the time to record it, with cheesy sound effects like an old school radio show.  I tend to giggle like a Japanese school girl.  It's a problem.)  When women read or write about sex, it makes us uncomfortable.  Why is that?  Is it because women aren't supposed to enjoy sex?  Or do we assume that these women are writing these stories because they aren't able to have this sort of sex, so it feels like we should be embarrassed for them, exposing their desire so openly?  Or, are we embarrassed because we're having a sexual experience with these women by enjoying their work?  Some things to think about.

If you're in the mood for a little wish fulfilment of the dark chocolate truffle variety, enjoy the link below.  *The suggestion below, while containing plot, does have a lot of sex, so if this is not your bag, be aware*

Direction Series (as a podfic) and Direction (text)