here via metafandom *waves* hi! thank you for this essay, i am really impressed with the amount of thought and research you put into it. i wish i'd read it earlier, though, as i've recently completed two slash rent!boy fics that could have used some of your data, lol.
i agree with your archetypal rent!boy fic categories. I think that there's an interesting space in fiction, where the device of sex work can be explored in a kind of... safe way, but that the waters can get muddy, because of what we ultimately want for our characters. It's like there is a tension between realism and our goals in writing. and this tension gets resolved in the plotlines that you describe. i had actually set out to try and write a rent!boy story that defied those categories. i don't know if it worked, but it was interesting to ponder the reasons why i was so attracted to this type of fic.
what do we, as women, get out of reading about sex work and our favorite characters? it's something i still think about, because i think the answers are as varied as the readers.
Maybe women find objectifying men just as hot, and this is an outlet! I don't know. What do you think? on this quote, i wanted to say that for me, it is indeed a matter of objectification that i feel is independent of whether or not i myself am objectified. i wrote a scene just as you describe, where the sex worker pauses in getting undressed, and the client ogles him. it was completely a mary sue moment, lol, because i was conjuring up the attributes i admire most about the character i had cast as the sex worker. i could concede that perhaps i have learned the trick of indulging in my objectification from men, but i think that the natural instinct was always present. i think we all "look" but it's a matter of degree of self-articulation that leads to admitting that we do, which is not necessarily connected to our gender.
and maybe that is one of the reasons that we enjoy the rent!boy genre? there may be some particular aspect of voyeurism happening there, or invited to be there, that is particularly gratifying? i'm not sure. but um, i really enjoyed your discussion of the mechanics of real sex work, and am bookmarking this in case i ever write another story like that. thanks!
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-04-06 04:11 pm (UTC)i agree with your archetypal rent!boy fic categories. I think that there's an interesting space in fiction, where the device of sex work can be explored in a kind of... safe way, but that the waters can get muddy, because of what we ultimately want for our characters. It's like there is a tension between realism and our goals in writing. and this tension gets resolved in the plotlines that you describe. i had actually set out to try and write a rent!boy story that defied those categories. i don't know if it worked, but it was interesting to ponder the reasons why i was so attracted to this type of fic.
what do we, as women, get out of reading about sex work and our favorite characters? it's something i still think about, because i think the answers are as varied as the readers.
Maybe women find objectifying men just as hot, and this is an outlet! I don't know. What do you think? on this quote, i wanted to say that for me, it is indeed a matter of objectification that i feel is independent of whether or not i myself am objectified. i wrote a scene just as you describe, where the sex worker pauses in getting undressed, and the client ogles him. it was completely a mary sue moment, lol, because i was conjuring up the attributes i admire most about the character i had cast as the sex worker. i could concede that perhaps i have learned the trick of indulging in my objectification from men, but i think that the natural instinct was always present. i think we all "look" but it's a matter of degree of self-articulation that leads to admitting that we do, which is not necessarily connected to our gender.
and maybe that is one of the reasons that we enjoy the rent!boy genre? there may be some particular aspect of voyeurism happening there, or invited to be there, that is particularly gratifying? i'm not sure. but um, i really enjoyed your discussion of the mechanics of real sex work, and am bookmarking this in case i ever write another story like that. thanks!