something queer going on

I saw Logan today. Non-spoilery reaction: it's pretty damn good and you should see it if you have any interest in the X-Men movieverse(s). Don't (unlike some idiots I saw today) bring young kids, though, because it's also pretty damn violent--apparently the creators thought they needed to justify that R rating with lots of blood.

( Spoilers, spoilers, and more spoilers ensue )

Day 3: Something you made for someone else.

It turns out that I've written a lot of fic for other people, sometimes in ficathons but mostly by asking for prompts. It was hard to choose, but I settled on this X-Men (original trilogy movieverse) story because I'm rather fond of it and because having just seen the new movie, I've got the fandom actively on my mind again. It was originally written for dessert_first in April 2007.

Signal to Noise (1413 words) by kindkit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: X-Men (Movieverse)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Logan/Scott Summers, Jean Grey/Scott Summers
Characters: Logan, Scott Summers
Additional Tags: Missing Scene, Grief, Ficlet, Canonical Character Death
Summary: Denial is the first stage of grieving.


I like the language here, and the way I've captured an emotional state. I wish I could have made it happier, because I think Logan and Scott have the potential to be good together. But even if I'd ignored the canonical timeline constraints, I find them a difficult pairing to get together, however badly I want to.

Wearing my Magneto t-shirt when I go to see Days of Future Past: awesomely geeky or embarrassingly geeky?

I kind of want this shirt.

The wording is awkward, and it's so very fannish and shippy that I'd probably be too embarrassed to wear it out of the house. Also, I'm suspicious of the vagueness of "a portion of the proceeds will be contributed to the fight against hate." (What portion? Contributed how and to whom, exactly?)

Nevertheless, I kind of want this shirt.

I'd better preface this by saying that I love the deleted XMFC scene where Charles shows Angel an image of Erik in a dress. I especially love "you've never looked more beautiful, darling."

However. Even though Fassbender said it first, using names like "Traneto" or "Transneto" or any other variation thereof is not okay. Fassbender is a delightful and extraordinarily handsome man, but apparently he's not knowledgeable about trans* issues. Wearing drag != being trans. Being shown as wearing drag by your telepathic boyfriend best pal, against your knowledge and will? Also != being trans. [NOTE: Please see my ETA for more about the context of Fassbender's remark.]

Trans* people are real. So are people who enjoy wearing drag. The conflation of drag and trans*-ness hurts people in both categories by erasing their identities.

So, could we all use the right names? Even when we're being silly and squeeing and having fun? That way no one gets hurt and everyone gets to have fun.

Including trans* people like me.


ETA: Fassbender's comment, if I'm remembering correctly now, was made in the context of talking about the superpower to change one's sex at will. It wasn't made in relation to the Erik-in-a-dress scene. While I think the term "Traneto" is still faily and offensive (it's waaaaaaay to close to "tranny" for comfort), at least when Fassbender used it, it was in a context of sex/gender identity and not just crossdressing.

ETA2: A couple of folks have brought up the possibility that those fandom people using the words Traneto/Transneto are actually referring to "transvestite" rather than "transgendered" or "transsexual." It's certainly possible, but (a) it's still a conflation of identities (doing drag != being a transvestite != being transgendered/transsexual), and (b) is "transvestite" all that common of a term anymore? It's not one I hear often unless I'm watching Eddie Izzard, and it's definitely not the interpretation that came into my mind on hearing Traneto/Transneto.

This week's Warehouse 13 was silly fun, if a bit "let's pull a premise out of our asses!" I thought it was pretty awesome to see ( not really spoilery for anything, but cut anyway )

In other news, part of my work on my XMFC story today was inventing Erik's worst memories, ones so bad he wouldn't want to think about them even as rage-fuel. It was fun in the way that's not. (I did not, for the record, go the "he was sexually abused" route. I still think it's plausible, and I still don't want to write it.)

Do any of you happen to know whether good quality men's trousers in the early 1960s would've had zip flies or button flies?

And, yes, this is very much me wondering whether Erik could at least attempt to undo Charles's flies with his mind. (Erik's going to decide not to try it, on the grounds that too much could go wrong . . . )

The housemate and I thought of going to see the last Harry Potter movie tonight, then contemplated how crowded the theater was likely to be and saw XMFC again instead.

( on third viewing )

I saw it yesterday and mostly loved it. ( spoilers )

Here are my responses to the meme I posted yesterday. (You can still ask about other pairings if you like; the original post is here.)

I've avoided major spoilers for recent or difficult-to-obtain canon (or in a couple of cases made them highlight-to-read) but there are minor spoilers galore.

biichan asked about ( Second Doctor/Jamie )

st_aurafina asked about ( Xavier/Magneto )

hafren asked about ( Hornblower/Pellew )

flo_nelja asked about ( Tenth Doctor/Simm!Master )

vilakins asked about ( Henderson/York )

thevera asked about ( Giles/Ethan )

entropy_house asked about ( Avon/Blake )

lullabee_lj asked about ( Eighth Doctor/Fitz Kreiner )

lullabee_lj also asked about ( Harry/Snape )

queenbookwench asked about ( Fraser/Kowalski )