![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Does anyone know of where I might find any combination of Spike/Jet/Faye or Spike/Jet? Cowboy Bebop yaoi is freaking rare, and I'm wondering why that is, because the pairings just seems incredibly obvious because actions and dialogue are freaking *random* otherwise.
Is it *because* it's obvious or is it because Jet is not conventionally attractive?
It's a bit odd to me and a bit distressing that it seems that so much is hinged on the attractiveness factor. I'm pretty sure that's part of the reason why Legolas/Gimli is freaking rare compared to the other combinations (and I saw this pairing in the movie despite not having read the books, though I didn't see the Legolas/Aragorn until someone pointed it out). I'm also pretty sure that's why Londo/G'Kar is nearly non-existent which is an awful and tragic thing.
However, knowing that at least part of the whole deal with slash is the 'yay!pr0n!' aspect of it, it's understandable.
Interestingly enough, there's plenty of Snapeslash, despite how he's described as rather ...less than charming... in the books. It's facinating to note the evolution of Snape's appearence, the permutations of his descriptive words, and the near sexualization of ugliness.
Of course one can't discount that appearances are all the in eye of the beholder and it's all relative and such.
But: Snape is not attractive, conventionally; he has sallow skin, a hook nose, and greasy hair and none of these are descriptors used in conveying beauty.
Nevertheless, force of will (both the reader's and Snape's) has rendered him compelling. Ugliness is tranmuted and reformed into something to be admired. Or perhaps even that admiration exists for a qualities which seem to be 'overlooked' conventionally.
Or, and here's a flip-side that'll probably give the rest of you heart attacks to hear me say, but I didn't find Sands 'attractive' for most of the film. The 'pork' scene highlighted the flat qualities of his face and his character was pretty much an ass.
And oh, what an ass he is, compellingly ugly souled, horrendously garbed, petty and over cocky as he counts on ability that he didn't seem to have.
And yet.
And yet, he survived. He still stood, and he showed some scrap of a possibility of redemption with the boy... and my eyes are drawn to him helplessly, ugliness and all.
Yet another example?
Johnny Depp has a slightly asymmetrical face; his nose tilts towards the left. Yet I find myself thinking of it as a 'quirk' and 'eccentricity', despite the fact that for all intents and purposes it's a flaw. But it's a compelling flaw, a lovable flaw perhaps *because* it's a flaw (and how's *that* for a sexualization of ugliness?) but also because it's *him*. And my adoration of Johnny Depp renders this flaw forgivable and loveable, as it is part and parcel with his face as a whole.
(And isn't this simply love? Where flaws are smoothed away, overshadowed, ignored, sexualized, or adored?)
Perhaps this is why Snapefic is so common despite the book's descriptives, we as readers have collectly fallen in love with him and there never was a *visual* aspect to deter us from the beginning. Where in movies and anime there is the appearance first and the situation second and the personality last, in books (good ones) appearance and situation and personality are inseperable and it is *that* much easier for personality and situation to negate the effects of an ugly appearance...
::tilts head and ponders some more:: dunno...your opinions?
Is it *because* it's obvious or is it because Jet is not conventionally attractive?
It's a bit odd to me and a bit distressing that it seems that so much is hinged on the attractiveness factor. I'm pretty sure that's part of the reason why Legolas/Gimli is freaking rare compared to the other combinations (and I saw this pairing in the movie despite not having read the books, though I didn't see the Legolas/Aragorn until someone pointed it out). I'm also pretty sure that's why Londo/G'Kar is nearly non-existent which is an awful and tragic thing.
However, knowing that at least part of the whole deal with slash is the 'yay!pr0n!' aspect of it, it's understandable.
Interestingly enough, there's plenty of Snapeslash, despite how he's described as rather ...less than charming... in the books. It's facinating to note the evolution of Snape's appearence, the permutations of his descriptive words, and the near sexualization of ugliness.
Of course one can't discount that appearances are all the in eye of the beholder and it's all relative and such.
But: Snape is not attractive, conventionally; he has sallow skin, a hook nose, and greasy hair and none of these are descriptors used in conveying beauty.
Nevertheless, force of will (both the reader's and Snape's) has rendered him compelling. Ugliness is tranmuted and reformed into something to be admired. Or perhaps even that admiration exists for a qualities which seem to be 'overlooked' conventionally.
Or, and here's a flip-side that'll probably give the rest of you heart attacks to hear me say, but I didn't find Sands 'attractive' for most of the film. The 'pork' scene highlighted the flat qualities of his face and his character was pretty much an ass.
And oh, what an ass he is, compellingly ugly souled, horrendously garbed, petty and over cocky as he counts on ability that he didn't seem to have.
And yet.
And yet, he survived. He still stood, and he showed some scrap of a possibility of redemption with the boy... and my eyes are drawn to him helplessly, ugliness and all.
Yet another example?
Johnny Depp has a slightly asymmetrical face; his nose tilts towards the left. Yet I find myself thinking of it as a 'quirk' and 'eccentricity', despite the fact that for all intents and purposes it's a flaw. But it's a compelling flaw, a lovable flaw perhaps *because* it's a flaw (and how's *that* for a sexualization of ugliness?) but also because it's *him*. And my adoration of Johnny Depp renders this flaw forgivable and loveable, as it is part and parcel with his face as a whole.
(And isn't this simply love? Where flaws are smoothed away, overshadowed, ignored, sexualized, or adored?)
Perhaps this is why Snapefic is so common despite the book's descriptives, we as readers have collectly fallen in love with him and there never was a *visual* aspect to deter us from the beginning. Where in movies and anime there is the appearance first and the situation second and the personality last, in books (good ones) appearance and situation and personality are inseperable and it is *that* much easier for personality and situation to negate the effects of an ugly appearance...
::tilts head and ponders some more:: dunno...your opinions?
no subject
And hey, Sands before the eye thing was, well, standard psycho, somewhat endearing in how inept he was at the business at times. It's after that matters ^_^ And props to JD for making that transformation.
As for Johnny's face, I've read somewhere that absolute symmetric perfection in a person tends to weird people out. Some little kind of assymetry is actually preferred to set off the face - that's why beauty marks used to be en vogue. You see someone perfect and the automatic reaction is "too good to be true". If there's something that offsets the beauty, the overall effect is much stronger. One of the girls considered the prettiest in my highschool had a small scar next to her mouth - small but noticeable, something which set off the fragility of her features. Same principle.
no subject
I've read this and I've also read the opposite - that facial symmetry draws the human eye. Just based on personal experience and watching the way other people react to the physical beauty of actors/celebrities, I tend to think the *former* statement is the more true: Physical perfection, of which absolute symmetry would be one example, tends to freak people out. If I had a nickel for every time I've heard people say some variation of "So and so doesn't really do it for me because s/he is too perfect in their prettiness" I'd have a *lot* of nickels *g*.