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So at first I was laughing at the Ship-to-Ship War that the E!Online TV's Top Couples poll has ignited. Down to the Final Four, the battlefield is filled with the sniping of Brittana (Glee) vs. Tiva (NCIS) vs. Klaine (Glee) vs. Doccubus (Lost Girl) camps. It's quite the mess. (Also kind of amazing that it came down to two lesbian couples vs. a gay couple vs. a heterosexual couple. There's some additional commentary in there about sexuality and fandom in there somewhere.) It's terribly amusing and like a case study of the madness (and blindness and undying loyalty) of shipping. Then in my compulsive scrolling down, I hit this:
It was the "Asia" bit. And the "China" fan chiming in. And then, at the very end, the "South Korea" shout out. There are fans of "Lost Girl"/Doccubus all over the world; in other parts of the comments, Australian fans took up the reins of spam-voting. Within the fandom itself, there's an especially remarked upon fan in either France or Italy that even the show's cast and staff know about. They're everywhere, of many ages.
In interviews, Anna Silk (Bo), Zoie Palmer (Lauren), and "Lost Girl" writers like Emily Andras (showrunner)--who have all been tweeting the fans to vote! vote! vote! and have been cowed by the response of the fandom to do just that--all express their surprise at how the Bo/Lauren story line blew up and was embraced and extolled by an audience. The Bo/Lauren story line was always meant to be a considered, weighty piece of the story--when casting for Lauren, the staff emphasized the need for there to be chemistry between the two women--but I'd be willing to bet that the development of Bo/Lauren into the current canon couple it is now had a lot to do with the fervent, eager adoption of a shipping fanbase.
I was reading AfterEllen.com's contributing writer Heather Hogan's latest "Glee" recap. Whether I watch the shows or not, I find Hogan's recaps often inspired with gut-busting genius. But where Hogan consistently cuts to the heart of the matter is on the appeal and importance of lesbian narratives. That everyone, no matter their sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, age, etc., needs to see themselves in stories, to have those stories exist in the public conversation, to be inspired, to be affirmed in their identities.
So when I see fans of Doccubus--of Bo and Lauren as a couple, as a bisexual woman and a lesbian who are in love and embarking on working out if they can be in a committed relationship with each other on a show that doesn't give a damn about their sexuality but is about to tread lightly or heavily into the murky waters of how to portray how these women love each other, what it means to give and take, to compromise and bend, or break entirely--from places in the world like China and South Korea, I imagine these women or girls maybe hanging their hearts and their hopes on these two fictional adult women characters who are beyond the point of angsting about the genitalia of the people with whom they want to sleep and are concerned with working it out with this one person, with the knowledge that television narratives aren't necessarily committed to making relationships work for the sake of drama.
( '“Poor Bo. So many choices, just one vag.': The demands of narratives, unasked-for social responsibilities, bottom-line viewership appeal, and too many lesbian, f/f fans. Spoilers and TL;DR. Naturally. )
If you don't want to read all that TL;DR, then at least give Adaline a listen! "Lost Girl" used "Keep Me High" for the opening love scene in 3x04, but I've gone on to adore and loop "Rebels of Love" and "Stereo" especially. A lot of the songs off the Modern Romantics album are really fun, groovy electronic pop tracks. "Lost Girl" is just making me fall in love with many Canadian things apparently. Should I be living in Canada?! But it's cold!
Oh, Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year to those who celebrate it! For me it's basically just the time of year to eat bánh tét and bánh chưng. XD Yummy!
It was the "Asia" bit. And the "China" fan chiming in. And then, at the very end, the "South Korea" shout out. There are fans of "Lost Girl"/Doccubus all over the world; in other parts of the comments, Australian fans took up the reins of spam-voting. Within the fandom itself, there's an especially remarked upon fan in either France or Italy that even the show's cast and staff know about. They're everywhere, of many ages.
In interviews, Anna Silk (Bo), Zoie Palmer (Lauren), and "Lost Girl" writers like Emily Andras (showrunner)--who have all been tweeting the fans to vote! vote! vote! and have been cowed by the response of the fandom to do just that--all express their surprise at how the Bo/Lauren story line blew up and was embraced and extolled by an audience. The Bo/Lauren story line was always meant to be a considered, weighty piece of the story--when casting for Lauren, the staff emphasized the need for there to be chemistry between the two women--but I'd be willing to bet that the development of Bo/Lauren into the current canon couple it is now had a lot to do with the fervent, eager adoption of a shipping fanbase.
I was reading AfterEllen.com's contributing writer Heather Hogan's latest "Glee" recap. Whether I watch the shows or not, I find Hogan's recaps often inspired with gut-busting genius. But where Hogan consistently cuts to the heart of the matter is on the appeal and importance of lesbian narratives. That everyone, no matter their sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, age, etc., needs to see themselves in stories, to have those stories exist in the public conversation, to be inspired, to be affirmed in their identities.
So when I see fans of Doccubus--of Bo and Lauren as a couple, as a bisexual woman and a lesbian who are in love and embarking on working out if they can be in a committed relationship with each other on a show that doesn't give a damn about their sexuality but is about to tread lightly or heavily into the murky waters of how to portray how these women love each other, what it means to give and take, to compromise and bend, or break entirely--from places in the world like China and South Korea, I imagine these women or girls maybe hanging their hearts and their hopes on these two fictional adult women characters who are beyond the point of angsting about the genitalia of the people with whom they want to sleep and are concerned with working it out with this one person, with the knowledge that television narratives aren't necessarily committed to making relationships work for the sake of drama.
( '“Poor Bo. So many choices, just one vag.': The demands of narratives, unasked-for social responsibilities, bottom-line viewership appeal, and too many lesbian, f/f fans. Spoilers and TL;DR. Naturally. )
If you don't want to read all that TL;DR, then at least give Adaline a listen! "Lost Girl" used "Keep Me High" for the opening love scene in 3x04, but I've gone on to adore and loop "Rebels of Love" and "Stereo" especially. A lot of the songs off the Modern Romantics album are really fun, groovy electronic pop tracks. "Lost Girl" is just making me fall in love with many Canadian things apparently. Should I be living in Canada?! But it's cold!
Oh, Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year to those who celebrate it! For me it's basically just the time of year to eat bánh tét and bánh chưng. XD Yummy!
